Here were a few of our favorite things, spotted while out on the Lower East Side: the problem of vehicles blocking bike lanes, the notorious Grand Avenue bike lane, in particular, and the recurring gripe about diplomats parking willy nilly and otherwise acting as scofflaws. Read More
This time last year, The Observer looked at the bicycle mania seizing the city, which seemed to be the last great culture war of a transformed, civilized, infantilized New York. Even Woody Allen hates them.
Perhaps we gave the cyclists too much credit, as none other than Bicycling magazine is pointing the finger squarely at the two-wheeled set for many of the on-street whoas engulfing the city. Read More
So the Battery Conservancy wants to move The Sphere, Fritz Koenig’s sculpture that survived the attacks and has called the park home for a decade. The conservancy defends the decision because it is holding up long-planned renovations to the park, which have taken place everywhere but on the site of The Sphere, the installation of which was always meant to be permanent.
The hope was the sculpture would be reinstalled at the World Trade Center site, but as that project has dragged on, and uncertainty continues, its fate is now uncertain. The sculpture moves to JFK this week, and will hopefully find a home at the site, possibly on a park planned for the space where the old Deutsche Bank Building used to stand.
Whose to blame here, though? Read More
It may not be the best weather for cycling, but the Prospect Park West bikelash is heating up again.
On Friday, Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes, the cleverly named community group opposing the lane alongside Prospect Park, appealed an August decision in Brooklyn Supreme Court not to hear its legal challenge against the city. The group still contends that the bike lane was an experiment, a trial never completed with community consultation, one that persists without community support—despite widespread polling and surveys to the contrary. Read More
One of the curious things about the ongoing fight over the Prospect Park West bike lane is how one of its biggest opponents is a former city transportation commissioner whose husband is one of the most visible, even conspicuous, cyclists in the city. Yes, we are talking about Iris Weinshall and Chuck Schumer. New York’s senior senator has remained publicly mum on the issue in his backyard, even while he purportedly lobbied behind the scenes to have something done about the bike lane.
Now Streetsblog has email proof of Senator Schumer’s opposition to the lane—or at least that’s what his neighbor claims. Read More
Hasn’t the Department of Transportation had enough headaches on Prospect Park West? Read More
The hubbub from the Prospect Park West bike lane lawsuit seems to have died down, but passing through Park Circle the other day, The Observer discovered a plan even more nefarious: the city’s Department of Transportation is putting animals—no, we don’t mean bicyclists—before humans! Read More
Maybe this is common sense, but maybe people who take their lives in their hands every time they ride a bike in New York are short on that—this reporter included.
Still, with the M.T.A. suspending service across the entire transit system, a first in the agency’s 38-year history, The Observer couldn’t help but wonder: Might biking be a viable option to get around town for the majority of New Yorkers who do not own cars? It took less than a minute to disabuse us of this crazy notion. Read More
Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes and Seniors for Safety keep spinning their wheels on the bike lane lawsuit. Read More
A pack of new bike racks was just installed on uber-chic Smith Street in Carroll Gardens. And that can only mean one thing: Terror on the streets! More bike maniacs running amock. Cars fleeing in fear. Death and destruction on the streets of Brooklandia. Read More
