Tuesday Links
Surprise in Greenpoint Over New York Mag Ranking [NY Times] Bill Would Allow Layoffs of Teachers With Seniority [NY Times] Bushwick Chase Ends in Rooftop Plunge [NY Post] Marty calls DOT Chief a ‘Zealot’ Over Bike Lanes [NY Post] Bikers Battle Tourists on Brooklyn Bridge [NY Daily News] Savings in Brooklyn: Kensington Treasures [NY Daily…
Surprise in Greenpoint Over New York Mag Ranking [NY Times]
Bill Would Allow Layoffs of Teachers With Seniority [NY Times]
Bushwick Chase Ends in Rooftop Plunge [NY Post]
Marty calls DOT Chief a ‘Zealot’ Over Bike Lanes [NY Post]
Bikers Battle Tourists on Brooklyn Bridge [NY Daily News]
Savings in Brooklyn: Kensington Treasures [NY Daily News]
New Left-Turn Bans on Flatbush Start April 15 [Brooklyn Paper]
Marty Praises New Domino, But Has Conditions [Brooklyn Eagle]
The Pain of Selling at a Loss [The Real Deal]
Last AY Case Postponed Til May 12 [AYR]
Secrets of Corporate Subsidies in NYC [Gotham Gazette]
Photo by zlandr
You know what they say about when you assume. Not all Park Slopers are rich – some of us middle-classers are still hanging on. I also know that neighborhood opposition to new freight tunnels is part of what makes Manhattan and points east so truck-dependent. We’ll having to agree to disagree that adding a narrow bike lane really makes it all that much harder on cars – it’s like when I see these wide-a** SUVs honking because they can’t get past a double-parked car. Maybe they’ll have trouble, but I think most drivers can manage.
Sorry,
I would hardly say that not civil but I couldn’t resist. Yes, suggesting everyone join a gym is unrealistic but I’m betting you could afford the membership fees.
Not sure I agree that a bike lane is sharing the road as only one kind of vehicle can use the lane.
I get it. People don’t like biking next to cars and honestly, I don’t drive through Prospect Park so I am giving up. For the record I find all the carbon fiber weekend Lance Armstrongs far more annoying than any car.
As for bike lanes in Manhattan, there is something that you and Sadik-Khan just don’t get. As nice as you want your city “experience” to be, none of it happens without cars and trucks. The harder you make it for them the harder it will be to enjoy the experience.
Don’t patronize me, Someguy. I didn’t respond that way to your comment. The park was built long before cars were invented, so don’t claim they were part of the design. And yes, people from all over nyc do use the park – mostly not by driving through it. That’s a shortcut, not a use.
Commuters have plenty of other options, some of which don’t involve driving at all. Isn’t it a bit elitist to say we (or just me, I guess) all go join a gym, rather than use the park as it was intended to be used? I’m fine with sharing the streets, but no, I don’t think the majority of lanes in the park should be devoted to cars. Bikers and runners and, heaven forbid, anyone jogging with a stroller, are all giving each other the stinkeye as they crowd each other’s space. Instead of the cars getting squeezed, it’s park users.
During Robert Moses’ time, people went “Sunday driving” and sightseeing in their cars, so roads were built to accommodate the ’50s era love affair with the car – hence projects like the West Side Highway. Many aspects of that era are being rightly rethought. What are bike lanes if not a way to share the road – I don’t get why drivers put up such a stink over having to give up a small strip of “their” real estate, they still have the majority of the road. Wouldn’t it be better if the lanes became established enough so that bikers actually stayed in them and away from the cars?
Someguy, do me a favor and keep your next reply civil, ok? Because – guess what – I’ve got to get back to work!
Awww, does the car going by while you’re jogging scare you?
Maybe you should consider jogging in the Y at the armory. You’re certainly entilted to do that.
hey bfarwell,
That was funny, imagine all those cars without drivers, ha. Seriously though, while not a quadriplegic the 13 miles it takes me to ride from my house to my office would leave me drenched in sweat and I’m pretty sure my clients would not exactly love working with me all day as eventually i would start to reek. As far as the rest of Brooklyn, some of us work very physical jobs and to have to cycle 13 miles twice a day after standing on your feet for 8 to 10 hours, working construction, having gout or asthma in February is just plain unrealistic. So, no I don’t think that there’s anybody out there saying “I wish I could ride the 36 miles to and from Marine Park every day but there just aren’t any bike lanes”.
I don’t understand why people can’t get just share the road. As a driver I find myself wondering if that cyclist has to ride down the middle of the street- yes some do that. As a cyclist I wonder if the driver can see me or if I’ll get run over, especially when I see those white memorial bikes around town. So I do understand both sides of the equation. HOWEVER- the roads were built for vehicles. I think Sadik-Khan actually would like to forget that.
Yes, the park was built for recreation for people, but it was also built with roads through it for cars AND their drivers. I don’t think it’s too much for cars to use it during rush hours. But, it seems that no one who lives near the park wants them in there. However it’s not their park. It’s for all the citizens of NYC. And just because a lot of people pay a lot of money to live steps from the park does not make their wants more important. Sometimes I think the more people spend on the bicycles the louder they get about taking cars out of the park. Seriously Mr. carbon fiber bike, wool shorts, funny helmet guy. Are you going to the olympics? Don’t you have a real job? Stop playing “Lance Armstrong” and grow up.
As far as a bike lane on PPW is concerned: Why? It’s the widest avenue in the neighborhood. Yes people speed on, but they also speed on 4th ave and all over the city as wel.
As for a lane in the opposite direction (which I can almost understand as the park and PPW both go in the same direction, there’s always 8th avenue one block away. Use that.
besides: IF YOU CANNOT RIDE IN THE STREETS WITHOUT A BIKE LANE YOU SHOULD NOT BE COMMUTING ON A BIKE. I wasn’t shouting. Just emphasizing.
As for the Brooklyn Bridge, take the path of least resistance if you can and use the Manhattan bridge instead. It has it’s own bike lane and none of the tourists. If you can’t than just deal with it and quit your blaming tourists. Just wait till you go to a foreign place and you will find yourself doing the same things they do.
Someguy – you’re darn right I feel entitled to exercise in Prospect Park without being crowded by cars racing by, often at twice the speed limit. They take up most of the road, and the bike and jogging lanes are packed with people at peak times.
And wherever did you get the idea that drivers in the park are somehow entitled to take up 2/3 of the road space because they’re on their way to work? Why are you assuming that someone biking in the park at 7am is somehow less of a hard worker? Even if they were, what on earth does that have to do with anything? There are these things called streets that work just as well for cars.
Parks have a purpose – to provide recreation for people. Olmsted and Vaux did not create Prospect Park to provide a shortcut for drivers who want to avoid a couple of traffic lights.
(but if we’re revising bike lanes on bridges, they should really really go fix the williamsburg one. It’s a freakin’ mess, officially designated by direction of travel and unofficially (and more intelligently) by mode of transportation. Two half-decisions that end up a total disaster)
“The majority of people in Brooklyn cannot ride bicycles to work. It’s either too far or physically unrealistic”
No, the majority of people DO not ride to work. If they really had to, they could. Not that they should, not that it would necessarily be easy, not that it wouldn’t require s’more infrastructure. But it’s not like they’re all quadriplegics.
Bike lanes make life safer for bike riders. Of course they’re not ‘needed,’ but they are both a good idea and desired, much like sidewalks for peds or lane divisions for cars. They make the world a lot safer. Just because you don’t want them (or seatbelts, or helmets, or whatever) doesn’t mean they’re not a good idea generally.
“Simply put roads are for cars not people.”
Right. So the cars can totally use the road, they just can’t have any drivers in them. Problem solved.
But seriously, driving through the park isn’t a _necessity_ for anyone, and parks are, generally speaking, a place designated for recreation. I don’t have a problem making them car-free. After all, there are roads all the way around the park that you can drive on as much as you like. (Also, if I’m biking to work, can I ride in the middle of your car lane?)
On the Bklyn Bridge; it’s a rough place to bike. People are pretty clueless (hey, it’s a pretty skyline and its easy to get caught up in it) and bikers can get up a nice head of steam coming down that hill.
A separate route would be great (though the view from the top deck is nice for bikers too), but if bikers would just remember that tourists are kinda clueless and you should cut them some slack, a lot of the conflicts would resolve themselves. If you want to scream at pedestrians (and I admit it’s fun), there are plenty of more justifiable places you can bike and do that.
“but I do not get this sense of entitlement that overrides thousands of joggers, walkers and bikers trying to use one of the nicest, biggest green spaces in the borough.”
Simply put roads are for cars not people. Joggers, walkers and bikers in the park are recreating- not going to work like the people in their cars. People working should have priority over the people who are jogging during rush hour. I don’t get your sense of entilement either.
Speaking as a cyclist- I don’t need a bicycle lane where ever I go. If you do- you shouldn’t be cycling.
And personally I’m glad Marty Markowitz is standing up to the people who want to have it all their own way. Do you think that Janette Sadik-Khan who runs the DOT rides her bike to work from Marine Park? No. She probably rides less than a mile. And what does she do in winter?
The majority of people in Brooklyn cannot ride bicycles to work. It’s either too far or physically unrealistic- why should the bicyclists get it all their way.