Williamsburg, NY – Several Elected Officials Back Hasidim in Bike Lane Fight

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    Williamsburg, NY – Some officials who fancy themselves champions of Kent Avenue’s two bike lanes — have joined a coalition of Hasidic residents and local businessowners in now demanding that one of the lanes be removed to restore parking on the east side of the busy avenue.

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    A who’s who of electeds and neighborhood leaders — including Borough President Markowitz, Councilmembers David Yassky (D–Williamsburg) and Diana Reyna (D–Williamsburg) — made their demand known in a letter to the Department of Transportation.

    Yassky — a backer of bike-friendly initiatives including a long-planned Greenway that will eventually create two bike lanes on Kent Avenue that are buffered from car traffic by a line of trees — signed on after taking heat from the Williamsburg’s Satmar community at a neighborhood forum.

    At that meeting, one of the community’s main spokesmen, Isaac Abraham, threatened that Hasidic Jews would block traffic to protest the bike lane. But Yassky’s spokesman said his boss hasn’t changed gears when it comes to cycling.

    “[Sending such a letter] seems like an anti-bike thing, but that’s not where we’re coming from at all,” said Yassky’s spokesman Jake Maguire. “We want to see a bike lane there and we expect to see a bike lane there, but we want a bike lane that the community supports and one that is implemented in a way that is collaborative,” he added.

    Community Board 1 member Evan Thies said he signed the letter to encourage the city to get started on the long-promised Greenway — a pair of walking and biking paths stretching from Greenpoint to Sunset Park, said the best way to get the Greenway done is to put “both [existing] bike lanes on the west side of the street now.” “That way we can plant our flag there and build out [the Greenway] accordingly in the next few years,” said Thies.

    But cycling advocates fear that removing even a single lane could put bicyclists in grave danger. “If you take away bike lanes, you are feeding into that driver’s sense of entitlement to the entire street,” said Teresa Toro, chair of Community Board 1’s Transportation Committee. “It could be open season for bicyclists.”

    That opinion has some support at the Department of Transportation, whose bike program coordinator Josh Benson said that the agency had no plan to remove the bike lane on the west side of the street.

    But the pols’ letter may be changing things. This week, the agency’s spokesman Seth Solomonow said DOT was now looking into the matter.


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    22 Comments
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    yoelyg
    yoelyg
    15 years ago

    isaac abraham keep fighthing u see its getting closer to the end. thanks isaac

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    About time a politician undersood they are voted in to “support” a district, not impose bloombergs will on the rest of us. Why are people so anti-satmir on this issue? They have a right to say we DON’T want this in our community. It is a basic constitutional right. Why is the city pushing the cyclist agenda on a cummunity that asks to be left alone? If the city wants to add bike lanes, which will lose parking and hurt business, they need to understand that they are damaging a community and its business. Who gave Emperor Bloomberg that right? The city should but a garbage dump in his fancy WASP neighborhood. Maybe Bloomberg the Emperor can get additional revenue from more tickets if there is less parking?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    YES!
    The cyclist lanes are not going away but at least inject some common sense into the planning and correc mistakes that have been made.
    The cyclists are not angels. The fewnon polluting cyclists do not come close to balancing the extra pollution from the extra traffic delays due to diminished traffic lanes and parking.
    The alleged health benefits are falsoe, some cyclists might be healthier but that gain is very quickly counterbalanced by injuries of cyclists. Even if you banned cars from the street totally some cyclist wouldd fall due to a pothole and, GET READY for lawsuits against NYC.

    JoeFlix
    JoeFlix
    15 years ago

    Wow! So I don’t know who’s credit this is (prob a whole bunch of people), but Willy is FINALLY getting some representation in the way BP and F’Bush always got.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Thanks Yasski, and all other officials. It makes no sense to have in Willi on every avenue a bike lane. We now have it on Marcy, Bedford, Wythe, and Kent Avenues. 99.9 of the people living in this area are not driving bikes and they won’t in the near future. Now when people talk that we need to understand the people around us. Someone should go out and count how many bikes we have on Wythe Avenue a day. For just a few the City wasted millions of dollars. I think it makes no sense.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I am a driver coming to Willi every day, i just keep on wondering who’s “brainstorm” engineered this stupid idea, it’s a total disaster, causing severe traffic congestion, parking problems, plus putting the cyclists lives as well as the pedestrian’s lives in danger.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    you all are right Mr. Bloomberg is a major disaster, Williamsburg has a major parking problem, look on Bedford ave No Standing from 7-10 Lee ave from 4-7 buses all over the place why push in more and more bike lanes

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Kent Avenue used to be a good freeway to get around the so congested Avenues, now with these stupid bike lanes its a mass before their were two lanes now their is only one lane and all the trailers and slow moving vehicles are using this avenue so when you have a slow moving trailer you are stuck there, its a disaster! whose idea was it to destroy an entire neighborhood because a few bikes? isn’t it enough the bike lanes on Bedford, Wythe, Marcy? its ridiculous how a few guys with their own agenda can destroy an entire neighborhood!

    Williamsburg resident, not a Satmarer
    Williamsburg resident, not a Satmarer
    15 years ago

    Too little too late. The bike lanes were forced upon us without consulting the community, and against the wishes of the community. Bloomberg couldn’t care less if Williamsburg becomes paralyzed and ruined. He wants bike lanes because he relates to the hipsters and not with Williamsburg’s residents. So when its hipsters verses Hasidim, he’ll side with the hipsters regardless of the cost. I will hold to account all politicians pushing these bike lanes, and will campaign aggressively against them.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    AS A RESIDENT OF KENT AVE, AND A SUPPORTER OF BIKE LANES, I GOT INVOLVED IN THIS ISSUE.

    HERE ARE SOME REAL FACTS:
    ABOUT 2 MONTHS AGO, WHEN THIS BIKE LANE WAS PAINTED, ANYONE THAT SAW IT WAS SHOCKED..

    THEY REMOVED 1000 PARKING SPACES, THERE IS NOWAY TO PICK UP DROP OFF A PASSENGER, MAKE A DELIVERY, EVEN A CAR SERVICE THAT STOPS TO PICK UP A PASSENGER GETS TICKETED.

    THE BIGGEST SUPPORTERS OF THE BIKE LANE, INCLUDING COUNCILMAN DAVID YASSKY, BOROUGH PRESIDENT MARTY MARKOWITS CONGRESSWOMEN NYDIA VELAZQUAZ, ALL SAY THAT THIS BIKE LANE IS POORLY PLANNED, AND THEY ALL TRY TO HELP US TO ARRANGE A MEETING WITH THE DOT TO FIGURE OUT A WAY THAT SHOULD WORK FOR THE RESIDENCE AND BIKERS,

    BUT HERE IS THE PROBLEM, THE DOT IGNORES OUR CALLS AND EVEN ALL OF THE ABOVE ELECTED OFFICIALS CANT GET THEM TO SIT DOWN TO TALK ABOUT THIS ISSUE, INSTEAD THEY FIND ALL KIND OF NONSENSE REASONS WHY THEY DON’T WANT TO MEET.

    THAT’S WHY THEY SENT THIS LETTER TO THE DOT

    THANK YOU ISSAC ABRAHAM, THANK YOU DAVID YASSKY, THANK YOU DANI SQUADRON, THANK YOU MARTY MARKOWITS

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Now a resident of Kent ave tells us about his ride to hell, since the DOT posted “NO STOPPING” signs on Kent Ave.
    Things have gotten pretty terrible in the saga of the Kent Ave. bike lane, at least for the people who live or work on this block, Today I had to drive home my 5 year old daughter from hospital, after she went through surgery last week, it was 6 PM when we arrived in front our home at Kent avenue and it was freezing cold outside,
    after driving around for 15 minutes, I finally found a halfway illegal parking spot 4 blocks away from my home, I had to walk with my cranky just out of hospital daughter in my hands, all while she was complaining why I had to park so far.

    mark miller
    mark miller
    15 years ago

    No one is against more bike lanes. but the problem is the way they planned and installed it,

    in the letter David Yassky sent to the DOT he asks them to sit down with his office and come up with a creative solution that both the bikers and drivers will be happy.
    but 2 months have past and there is no answer from the DOT office

    mitch hank
    mitch hank
    15 years ago

    DOT is way out of control. This Commissioner feels that she can do whayever se feels like doing regardless of what the community wants. I am not against bike lanes in the City but the way DOT is reconfiguring streets is crazy. They are killing businesses by removing parking. It is time for the commissioner to resign or be fired.

    MARK MILLER
    MARK MILLER
    15 years ago

    THANK YOU DAVID YASSKY,
    THANK YOU MARTY MARKOWITS,
    THANK YOU DANIAL SQUADRON,
    THANK YOU DIANA REYNA,
    THANK YOU NYDIA VELAZQUEZ,
    THANK YOU JOSEPH LENTOL,
    AND THANK YOU ISSAC ABRAHAM

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    at the lasr meeting the clown who is supposed to be in charge of the bike lanes commented “there are 500 bikers a day on kent ave i challeged him to sit here for 7 days and he wont count 150 bikers
    but i was senteced to 365 days 24 hours in prison for someones stupidety
    with out a fair trail

    mr bloomberg i hope you will lose the election when you run again

    whatever
    whatever
    15 years ago

    Yeah, I can see these people backing the community, as they chow down on their burgers and fries leading their sedentary lives.

    I know, why doesn’t the community take all their effort they are putting into the bike lane arguments, and put it towards capturing child molesters in their schools, and save their own children’s lives? Oh wait, then they would look bad and making an enormous deal over the bike lanes make them look like saints…

    Aryeh
    Aryeh
    15 years ago

    Anybody who has to park on Kent understands the problem. The way the traffic flows, you have to park miles away if you can’t park on the street. You have the ramps to get onto the BQE, traffic going onto Flushing and down Bedford. A bike lane is a good idea, but the sakana nefashos that it causes when it brings isha zona with no clothes on into our neighborhood is terrible thing. There are a few bikers who go on Kent ave, but they could get to the same place via Bedford and this would be worse. If they just put a lane to go across the Navy Yard, Steiner Studios Etc, it would eliminate 99% of the problems.

    mark miller
    mark miller
    15 years ago

    mr. whatever, commet #16 , you wrote:
    “Yeah, I can see these people backing the community, as they chow down on their burgers and fries leading their sedentary lives.”
    …can u explain this comment?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
    and what does child molesting have todo with parking?
    why are writing comments on vosisneias?, rather put all your eforts and stupid comments and put it towards capturing child molesters in their schools!