A Park Slope Bike Lane Meeting Descended Into Chaos

Things got physical in a church basement last night. [View this email in your browser]( Last Night's Meeting About a Park Slope Bike Lane Descended Into Chaos Plus: Maybe the MTA shouldn't be responsible for the issue of homelessness on the trains. Some city buses are getting hood-mounted cameras for catching people who block bus lanes. And it may be time we allow pedestrians and cyclists to use fast food drive-thru windows. By [James Ramsay](mailto:james@wnyc.org?subject=We%20the%20Commuters) Dave Klasko for Gothamist New York City has over 3 million on-street parking spots. That's the equivalent square footage of [12 Central Parks](. And with issues like cyclist fatalities and the climate crisis coming into the fore, a growing number of New Yorkers want to use some of that space for things other than cars. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is one of the people leading this charge to "reclaim" the streets, calling for things like 50 new miles of protected bike lanes construction and 30 new miles of bus lanes each year. [On The Brian Lehrer Show]( last Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he agreed with the broad idea of breaking the car culture, but wouldn't throw his support behind Johnson's specific numbers. "What we hear a lot of times from communities — and not unfairly," the mayor said, "is that they want these changes put in place in a way that is respectful of the needs of the community, that actually listens to what people experience on the ground ... they don't want us to just do things without listening to communities first and trying to accommodate valid needs." Last night, [Gothamist's Jake Offenhartz attended a forum]( where members of a community (and, as it turned out, some distant communities) shared their concerns about a bike lane. It did not go well. Some backstory: [On March 5, 2018]( a driver ran a red light at the intersection of 4th Avenue and 5th Street in Park Slope and hit two mothers walking their kids. The children died. The mothers were injured. And one of those mothers, who was seven months pregnant at the time, lost her baby two months later. As a result, curbside bike lanes on both sides of 9th Street, along with pedestrian islands and other traffic-calming measures, were installed last summer. And now, some people in Park Slope are furious about it. Last night, a group called Citizens United for Safety convened its second public meeting about the bike lanes, with a filmmaker/meditation instructor/Inwood resident named John DeLiva Halpern invited as a featured speaker. And he gave some speech. As Jake reports: Reading from prepared remarks, Halpern warned of the "paid activists" in attendance with Transportation Alternatives. Funding for the nonprofit advocacy group, he alleged, "comes from the likes of billionaire Steve Ross, a crony of Jeff Epstein, and an elite group of backers." When audience members snickered at the claim, Halpern stood up on a chair, jabbing his finger at the group and shouting: "You wanna clown around with me? You wanna clown around with me?" Halpern eventually pushed a guy. A man in an FDNY shirt threatened to beat up a cyclist. A blogger accused cycling advocates of "praying to a false climate god." And to counter claims in the event's flyer that bike lanes slow down emergency first responder vehicles, one community board member had to stand up and explain why [that's not true](. Before it was over, one woman who lives on 9th Street did say the redesign made her children feel safer, even if she wasn’t happy about the elimination of parking spaces. But in all, you wouldn't say the meeting was informative or useful. Which is a possibility the city is aware of. "After that [public input] process, I've often made the decision that even though there’s been complaints and concerns, the public safety element was most important," Mayor de Blasio told Brian Lehrer last week. "And we've made the decision to move ahead with a lot of bike lanes for that reason." Who Should Be Responsible for 'Fixing' the Problem of Homelessness in the Subways? The Greene Space During this week's We The Commuters event in The Greene Space (if you were there, thanks for coming out! If not, you can [watch the entire program here!]( a solid debate broke out over who's ultimately responsible for addressing the issue of homelessness on the trains. Larry Schwartz, an MTA board member (above, far left), defended the agency's efforts, from [adding police]( for enforcing "quality of life" offenses to trying to help people in train stations find housing or drug treatment programs. Democratic State Senator Liz Krueger (above, second from the left) was not on board. "I'm perfectly happy to complain about the MTA," she said, "but I think the MTA should get the MTA problems solved. I'm not sure that they are the magic answer for homelessness ... yes, sometimes homeless people are in [the transit] system, as sometimes they're on our street corners and in our neighborhoods, in our parks. But it's not really an MTA job description, I would argue." "It is an MTA responsibility," Schwartz countered. "These are our stations, and the riding public holds the MTA accountable. When they go down there, whether the tracks are dirty, the stations are dirty, whether there are homeless people there, whether there's crime there, it's the MTA's fault. You can't say, our job is only to run the trains." What do you think? I'd encourage you to watch [the whole exchange]( and then let us know if anything in this conversation changed your mind. You can reply directly to this email, or let us know [on Twitter]( using the hashtag #WeTheCommuters. And thanks to everyone who already [shared your thoughts and responses]( to our homelessness coverage last week. Best of the Week From Gothamist and WNYC [fare evasion] Andrew S/Flickr The MTA board yesterday unanimously approved the 2020-2024 $51.5 billion capital plan. But a fundamental question remains: What's the point of the MTA board if everything had already been finalized by the time it reached the board for approval? Either way, [the plan must now be approved]( by the Capital Program Review Board, an obscure 4-person panel appointed by the governor, with one member recommended by the mayor. A New York State Supreme Court judge has ordered the NYPD to release fare evasion data for every subway station in the city. Civil rights advocates say these stats will detail how [minority neighborhoods have been disproportionately policed](. Public data already shows that between January and June of this year, 89 percent of those arrested for fare evasion were either Asian, black or Hispanic. It remains a misdemeanor in New York for drivers not to yield to pedestrians and cyclists. An appelate court just upheld the constitutionality of a portion of the Right of Way Law, after [a dump truck driver who killed a Manhattan pedestrian in 2016]( appealed a decision to fine him $750, suspend his license for six months, and make him take a driving class. His argument: Not exercising "due care" should've been a civil, rather than criminal, offense. Two men who climbed down onto the subway tracks to save a little girl were honored as heroes in the Bronx yesterday. The incident occurred Monday morning at the Kingsbridge Road station, where a 45-year-old man jumped in front of a train with his 5-year-old daughter. The man died; [the daughter was found by the two good Samaritans under a train car]( and brought out to safety. What Else We're Reading An apparently unpopular city-subsidized bus operator on the South Shore of Staten Island just got a contract extension. Academy Bus, a private company that runs two express routes in and out of Manhattan, doesn't provide GPS info on when the next bus will arrive, which frustrates many commuters. But as of now, the MTA hasn't announced any plans to run their own express buses out of that section of the borough. ([The City]( Meanwhile, MTA buses are moving slower. Despite promises from both New York City Transit and the mayor to improve service (the MTA runs buses, but the city controls the streets), average bus speeds are slightly down from where they were last summer. At the same time, the NYPD has issued fewer summonses for blocking bus lanes, though the MTA says that next month, it'll start piloting a program that uses bus-mounted cameras to enforce lane rules. ([AM New York]( When is NJ Transit going to get better? The agency's executive director, Kevin Corbett, was asked a few different versions of that question in this 18 minute (!) interview. His answer: "It's incremental, it's like turning around a battleship." If, for example, you're stuck on NJ Transit, you could pass the time by watching this whole thing. ([NJTV News]( This old motorcycle repair shop in Alphabet City seems cool. Sixth Street Specials is one of the few garages left in Manhattan, so the Times sent a photographer to capture it for nostalgia's sake. ([The New York Times]( Should Cyclists and Pedestrians Have Access to the Fast Food Drive-Thru Window? Cory Taratuta/Flickr A hangry cyclist from the Bronx clearly thought so, because he smashed up a Burger King drive-thru window last month after being denied service. An employee at the Mott Haven Burger King, where the incident occurred, [told Gothamist]( that it's company policy not to serve people on bikes. "We're not allowed to sell to them, because the cars and motorcycles are coming in," explained the employee, who declined to give their name. "Sometimes the customers drive up quickly, so we don't want them getting hurt." But will New York City ever break the car culture if we can't get a Whopper from a window without pulling up in a 3,000 pound carbon-emitting machine? Some food for thought. It may not feel like autumn outside, but it's probably cold on your air-conditioned train, so sink into this autumn-themed commuter playlist from our friends at WQXR. [It's streaming now on Spotify](. Weekend Service Changes: Night of September 27th – Early Morning on September 30th This is a partial list of major service disruptions scheduled for the weekend. For a complete list of the MTA's Weekender updates, [check here](. Downtown trains will skip 86 St, 79 St, 66 St, 59 St and 50 St in Manhattan. On Saturday and Sunday, train service between 241 St and Gun Hill Rd in the Bronx will be replaced by free shuttle buses, and downtown trains will skip 86 St, 79 St, 66 St, 59 St and 50 St in Manhattan. train service between Euclid Av, Brooklyn and Lefferts Blvd, Queens will be replaced by free shuttle buses. trains will run via the line in both directions between 21 St-Queensbridge, Queens and 2 Av, Manhattan. train service between Broadway Junction and Lorimer St in Brooklyn will be replaced by free shuttle buses. On Saturday and Sunday, uptown-bound trains will skip Prince St, 8 St, 23 St, 28 St and 49 St in Manhattan. [Check here]( for complete details about the Long Island Rail Road. For NJ Transit, [check here]( for the latest service advisories. Upcoming Meetings and Events Thursday, October 10th Transportation Alternatives' 5th Annual Vision Zero Cities Conference Alfred Lerner Hall, Columbia University — 7:00 a.m. [RSVP, and more info]( Monday, October 21st Joint Metro-North & LIRR Committee Meeting — 8:30 a.m. NYC Transit / MTA Bus Committee Meeting — 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, October 23rd MTA Board Meeting — 10:00 a.m. Registration for two-minute public speaking slots opens 15 minutes before the start time for official MTA committee meetings. To speak before an MTA board meeting, you must register 30 minutes early. All meetings are held in the MTA's Board Room at 2 Broadway, on the 20th Floor. James Ramsay can attest: It's hard to find a mechanic these days to work on your motorcycle (Vespa). (Photo by Amy Pearl) Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential transportation coverage and more. 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