Williamsburg, NY – Leaders of South Williamsburg’s Hasidic community said yesterday that bike lanes that bring scantily clad cyclists – especially women – peddling through their neighborhood are definitely not kosher.
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The red-faced religious sect is calling on city officials to eliminate the car-free lanes on Wythe and Bedford avenues, and to delay construction of a new one planned for Kent Avenue.
“I have to admit, it’s a major issue, women passing through here in that dress code,” Simon Weisser, a member of Community Board 1 in Williamsburg-Greenpoint, told The Post.
“It bothers me, and it bothers a lot of people.”
The existing, one-way lanes are popular with North Williamsburg hipsters – many who ride in shorts or skirts.
The temporary lane planned for Kent Avenue would be a precursor to a 14-mile greenway stretching from Newtown Creek in Greenpoint to Sunset Park.
Hasids are forbidden from looking at members of the opposite sex who aren’t fully dressed, said local activist Isaac Abraham.
Weisser and other Hasids said during a Sept. 8 community-board meeting that the lanes on Bedford and Wythe avenues should be eliminated if the neighborhood has to accept being part of the greenway.
The issue of dress – or lack of it – wasn’t brought up at the meeting. Weisser and the other Hasids instead complained publicly about bike lanes allegedly causing parking problems and traffic congestion.
Abraham later said another major concern is the safety of children, noting that cyclists “aren’t obeying traffic laws. Green lights and red lights are the same.”
Hasids last month complained about a billboard promoting the teen drama “90210” that could be seen from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and that featured swimwear-clad characters.
A few years back, some residents complained about billboards for “Sex and the City.”
Unfortunately there are other people around in this world. Perhaps the people that don’t want to see the cyclists, should take an alternate route. Sometimes the cyclists don’t have alternatr routes.
It was so stupid to bring up the Modesty issue, which the bikers (and other non-Jews) will take with cynicism and a feeling of “Oh so I’m not good enough for you, huh?”. This will backfire strongly.
It also says that we were dishonest when we spoke about safety and traffic, etc. etc.
The safety issue was simple and politically correct: Willy has (HARD FACT) 10 times the ammount of children other neighborhooods have and the city must care for their safety.
Do our spokespeople have heads??
Waaaahhhh.
This is New York City, not your private neighborhood.
If you don’t like it, don’t look.
This is ridiculous – we’re in golus – deal with it. This outcry is a chilul Hashem.
If you don’t like it, go on the next Neturei Karta field trip to Iran and stick around.
This isn’t meah shearim, what will happen if they bike ride through, will they be stoned?
Modesty is an issue. While we live in a big city, our neighborhoods where we live we should have control over. These lanes are not for people who live in the area but for people from others. We have all types of laws about moral issues. Why is someone else’s moral ruler being applied to us? We are not calling for an end to bike lanes, but not in our neighborhood.
Next time some neighborhood protests a shul, you support them, but we can’t oppose lanes in our neighborhood?
What Bloomberg has done is taken away all power in this city, and centralized it with himself, so he controls all, without regard to what those affected feel.
He has done that with congestion pricing, pedestrian promenades, bike lanes, ground zero, and zoning. This is part of an ongoing trend. He has taken from us what doesn’t belong to him. He needs to be stopped now!
JUST A FEW POINTS:
1) The bike lane is a thorn in the side of every ehrlicha Yid in Williamsburg. Pedestrians can close their eyes or look away not to see this “pritzus”, but unfortunately we the drivers have an obligation to see the road; someone who closes his eyes while driving is a “rotzeiach”, so we are forced to see the pritzus of the hipsters, which is the lowest of the low. “Atzas Bilom” in full swing.
2) Drive on Bedofrd Ave and see what irs really going on.
The street lost a traffic lane to allow for a safer bike lane. Traffic is drastically affected. The cyclists anyway go on other streets when they want to, they also go through lights. more fuel is wasted in the ensuing traffic. These sweet kids are really smart alecks, they often take revenge against double parkers or drivers by flinging their heavy chain against a car or around someone’s car mirror.
If you have not seen the problem Please go look before you comment.
3) Not every Willi person is overweight or lazy. Riding bikes is more dangerous than walking or driving. Willi kids need their father too, please do not ask them to ride bikes unless you do the same.
I drive a School Bus, and I can tell u this: “Cyclists are a big danger for School Children!”
They allmost never stop for flashing red lights!
And its unpossible to block them like u do to cars.
And they share the same laws as cars when it come ro stopping.
Do u know how many near misses I saw?!
And BTW, FYI, they are not alowed to ride the wrong way, they have to ride the same direction as traffic. And u tell me how many of them obey this law!!
Good. The more laws like this the better! It will in most definitely keep out those goyim.
Also, I would like to address the fact that when frum girls are on bikes in public, it draws a lot of unwanted attention, and causes many men to commit aveiros. It is highly inappropriate and not tznius for girls to be frolicking in such a way.
Girls should stick to their shopping. It’s what they are good at, and it keeps them out of the street where they bring attention to themselves by choshuva men.
To the first 3 posters:
you probably dont live on Bedford or Wythe Ave, do you??? Besides for the modesty issue (which is a very big problem) the traffic is terrible. These 2 avenues were so congested without the bike lanes and its utterly absurd that Bloomberg had the bike lanes installed there. We MUST stop them from doing another on Kent Ave. Thank you Abraham and Thank you Weiser!! You have the full support from the Williamsburg community!
Williamsburgh is not Mea Shearim or Kiryat Yoel.
2 questions:
1) What is a “red-faced religious sect”?
2) “Hasids are forbidden from looking at members of the opposite sex who aren’t fully dressed” – non-Hasids are permitted?
Would you rather be breathing in car fumes?
dumdum, you sure live up to your name.
Rabbi Weisser keep on the good work
While I fully sympathize with the frum Williamsburg community it must be pointed out that the primary issue has to be one of safety.
Before we start ask to have total control over how “other” people dress in places we live we should think about how we would react if our neigbors were allowed to dectate how we dress in their communities. “Sorry in order to walk in this area you must were short shorts and no head covers, your kippas and long coats offend our values!”
The streets of New York belong to all its people and its not our place to tell goyim how to dress in public. End of story.
If the bike lanes are unsafe we can fight them on those grounds nothing else will work. Have a good Shabbis every one.
i think these should live in a bio sphere, far away from the rest of us. They’ll be happy, we’ll be happy, it’ll be good for everyone.
Bunch of Fat Frummies in minivans just afraid of pedaling
Biking would be great for everyone…
Maybe all the Overwieght Men and Woman can lose some LB…..
I see in Boro Park there is a new trend… Biking….
Friends bike together, and even Husband and Wife biking together… This might be good for Shulam Beyis
Lock & Load
A community like New Square can be closed to outsiders, not downtown Williamsburg where this bike lane is running.
Typical chutzpah. Guess what: it’s not your country! That should be the worst thing you have to put up with in golus.
What if these cyclists don’t want to see chasidim walking through the areas where they live. Or maybe they don’t want chasidim to be visible to them from any angle of there view. Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing to hear? My advice to anyone & I mean anyone that doesn’t want to see something that is legal, is Just don’t look” or park yourself where you are sheilded seeing what you don’t want to see, because your logic can end up working against you.
to the idiot ujm:
I got one word for: Golus…
FREEDOM FOR ALL!!!!! WHO EVER DONT LIKE THOSE HASHPA’AS FOR THE “KIDS” THEN GO MOVE TO THE NEW SHTETEL… GO TO THE MOUNTAINS IN SWAN LAKE… THERE IS NO BIKE LANES THERE, AND NO BILLBORDES…. YOU WILL BE CUT OUT OF THE WORLD… THEN YOU WILL SAY: “WE NEED”
UJM, I don’t think your comments are worth being responded to so don’t ask me why I’m responding but I’m just hoping you’re being sarcastic.
DumDum, I have the same question.
What’s red faced supposed to mean??
And what’s up with that statement of not seeing the opposite sex fully dressed.
With all the emphasis on tznius why is there an explosion in sexual abuse cases. It almost seems like there is a correlation, almost like a priest who l’havdil can’t have a wife, so goes after the altar boys.
oh my lord, no wonder they hate us. We are guests here, not the other way around, stop trying to bring your extremist views to others. How would we feel if the muslims were offended by jewish women showing their faces and public and demanded that we leave their community?
no we don’t live in mea shearim or kj we live in the usa nyc and PROUD 2b its citizens and we have a right to demand from gvt to respect us as equal rights (btw all you self hated jews say the same when frummies say it jerusalem)its time for Bloomberg 2leave he has no respect whatsoever
oh come on thier are other people in the world!!!!!!
Yoshua got it right. Once you start complaining about how people chose to dress, you are open to complaints by people who are distressed to see men in long black coats and hats in the summer heat. We have to face it that biking is here to stay and will be growing. We must take all reasonable steps to find and use alternate energy and reduce our dependence on ever more expensive foreign oil. There indeed are safety problems due to cyclists that don’t follow the rules of the road. Put your advocacy efforts toward increased enforcement of traffic laws against those cyclists who don’t obey. Also, remember that our grandparents and greatgrandparents who came to NY in the first half of the 20th century managed without minivans. They walked and took public transportation. It’s a price for choosing to live in a huge city.
all criticising the pain of ehrliche yidden not willing to look at “naked women” (or “only” half naked..) passing thru their houses and shuls all day, has no feeling to yiddishkeit whatsoever, and your opinion is worthless, it’s rotten minde, to say the least!
I’m from Williamsburg and absolutely dislike it when they make a whole uproar and go to the goyishe press talking about it.
At least if you’re trying to make a statement, don’t bring up the Tznius issue. It can put such a sour taste in the mouths of the outside world and paints us all as closed-minded, odd individuals.
You can’t tell people how to dress. But you can surely tell yourself where to look.
And to ujm, there’s a house for sale in No Mans Land. Because we’re not getting off the streets anywhere in the near future and we’ll continue frolicking our way in and out of the stores as we do our shopping which we’re so good at (sarcasm).
“School Bus Driver Says:
I drive a School Bus, and I can tell u this: “Cyclists are a big danger for School Children!”
They allmost never stop for flashing red lights!”—————————————————
Niether do most of the frum drivers.
WilliMom Says:
“To the first 3 posters:
you probably dont live on Bedford or Wythe Ave, do you??? Besides for the modesty issue (which is a very big problem) the traffic is terrible. These 2 avenues were so congested without the bike lanes and its utterly absurd that Bloomberg had the bike lanes installed there.”
————————————————–
I suppose the double parking on both sides of the streets, and bad driving habits have nothing to do with any of the congestion issues – just the bicycles.
Technically, You certainly can enact laws telling people how to dress. Here in So. Florida they recently passed laws about people wearing their pants to low, so as to show their underwear. They can be fined for doing this.
We are living in the Best Country of the world. We have freedom of Religion, we can practice Yiddishkeit without any problem. Why are they looking to start Antisemitism. This is NYC the streets are public domain. This is not private property. This same area is probably the largest population in the country receving public assistance. BE QUIET & behave. Let Live!!!
the goverment is so good to us. We have Hatzolah working side by side with public officials. What kind of impression does this leave when we make a public outcry over Shtus.
It is Elul. Give a chesban Hanefesh
& SHUT UP.
it makes us just as bad as the gentiles- They always complain when too many hasids come around there hood- we tell them “this is america”- dont we? Double standard?
SIMON WEISER IS THE BIGGEST MCHALL SHAM SHMIAM BRABIM!!! ITS TIME TO FIGHT HIM!!!
I dont see why pepole are angree on weiser or some of the other pepole who are trying to do something for YIDDISHKEIT, they realy need what to do with their day, They are not worse then this friedman or this pepole who are kissing themself with iranian officials, or this guys who are running after women in willi shabes on the streets, or the pepole who doesn`t want me to read the SHTERN, they realy want to keep themselfs busy, let them do what they want, as long they have fun
To JBC: Cars I can block off by angle stopping, but bikes just push thru from all directions.
just today I had it.
first of all im MO. now on that note: stop dumping on williamsburgers for wanting to live their lives with the same values espoused by most americans outside of the big liberal over”educated” cities.
however, the reality is that we don’t own williamsburg, flatbush, bp, ch or any other places we center in. we claim they are our communities. but no, my well-meaning but silly brothers and sisters, our communities are in treif nyc. why are we here? why cant we pick ourselves up and start again in other places? move our yeshivas, shuls, kosher establikshments elsewhere. we can’t, you say? oh, we can. we just don’t want to. and so we won’t. this isn’t golus after all. we own these places and if the rest of the world has a problem with that, tooo bad. just go on believing that, people.
Very important issue. You guys may want to join forces with the Taliban and get a real movement going. By the way, if religious Jewish women/girls ride bicycles, are they expected to ride side-saddle?
wake up smell the coffee within a few years a chashidisha yid wont be able to live in NYC its a fact i guess that this is part of being in golus to be uprooted every 50 to 60 years sorry ..
Modesty is an issue. While we live in a big city, our neighborhoods where we live we should have control over.
DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE IN A COCOON?? YOU HAVE CONTROL OVER NOTHING BUT YOURSELVES!! YOU ARE SO NARROW MINDED . IF YOU ARE SO WORRIED– TAKE ANOTHER ROUTE AND YOU DO NOT CONTROL YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!!
What is the problem that all they think about is what the women are doing wrong and how they go dressed?
Right on!
I thought riding a bike was ossur for males.
If these people are such tzadeekim then they should not know what they are looking at. It should not phase them at all. And thus there is no issue here. If however they know what they are looking at then that is a BIG shandah and they should do t’shuvah before it is too late.
A cold shower is in order here.