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The battle over bike lanes is heating up, with members of the Hasidic community in South Williamsburg vowing to block traffic in protest against a new bike lane on Kent Avenue. You'll recall that some of the opposition has to do with the increasing number of female cyclists riding through the neighborhood wearing immodest clothing. The Hasidim are also fuming over a parking ticket blitz last October when, to make way for the bike lane, traffic cops enforced a new change in parking rules on Shabbos, when Orthodox Jews don't operate machinery.
Now, after what the Brooklyn Paper describes as a "contentious" neighborhood meeting hosted by Councilmembers David Yassky and Diana Reyna, Satmar spokesman Isaac Abraham has announced that private buses will intentionally obstruct Kent Avenue to pressure the city to remove the bike lanes and reinstate alternate-side parking:
"We will ask all the drivers: ‘When you pick-up or drop-off our children, put your bus in an angle, block the entire street, wait ’til the parent gets to the door of the bus, [and] slowly — very slowly — take your child off or put it on the bus, [and] don’t rush to get back on the sidewalk. One day the traffic will be backed up all the way to Long Island City to [the] Department of Transportation Headquarters, traffic will come to a halt."Satmar community members say the no-stopping, no-standing signage on Kent is hurting their businesses, and they're not the only ones objecting. Even goyem business owners like Justine Franko, owner of the furniture and home furnishings shop Om Sweet Home, say the bike lanes are discouraging customers who can't find parking. Franko tells Brooklyn Paper that during a typically strong week in mid-November—when she could usually count on between $1,500 and $2,000 in revenue—she earned only $200. She says she's "mortified. If things don’t change, I won’t last six months."
At the Monday night meeting, DOT Bicycle Program Coordinator Joshua Benson told community members that "change is hard, and when we change the way the streets work, there is always an adjustment period." And DOT spokesman Scott Gastel said his agency may consider altering some of the new parking restrictions. (Streetsblog has a report from the meeting.)
Abraham promises the protests will occur every morning from 8–10 a.m. and 4–7 p.m. and will be accompanied by rallies. Local resident Leo Moskowitz tells Brooklyn Paper, "I don’t like it, but if that is what needs to be done to get their attention, people are going to do it." Little Italy business owners opposed to the new Grand Street bike lane will surely be watching to see if this tactic works.
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Franko tells Brooklyn Paper that during a typically strong week in mid-November—when she could usually count on between $1,500 and $2,000 in revenue—she earned only $200.
Maybe someone should tell her about the economy being in the crapper.
This anti-fahrrad nacht seems like a great idea. My grandchildren will read about the Williamsburg ghetto uprising and ask did grandpa live through this?
Talk about a one approach solution to a very complicated problem. The dumb fucks at DOT can't come up with any other solutions more than expanding bike lanes. The idiots have assigned designated bike lanes to streets up in the Bronx that probably get maybe three cars a day. GIVE IT UP BIKERS!
I DON"T BRAKE FOR BIKERS!
Yeah, I'm certain the guineas in little italy are looking to the hasids for how to resolve conflict.
>>ask all the drivers: ‘When you pick-up or drop-off our children, put your bus in an angle, block the entire street, wait ’til the parent gets to the door of the bus, [and] slowly — very slowly — take your child off or put it on the bus, [and] don’t rush to get back on the sidewalk>>
They ALREADY DO THIS! This is how it is exactly!
He must be joking!
It's time for the people who don't pay taxes and live on welfare while holding $100's in their wallets to be HEARD!
Sure, block traffic in your own neighborhood. Let the bikes weave right through traffic. Dumb du du dumb.
last time i checked when you give the heads up to the city that you are gonna intentionally block traffic you will get ticketed a la critical mass.
Of course, it's all MEN making the decisions for an ENTIRE community.
Amazing that the culture that they maintain has been met with tolerance, but yet they think that this entitles them to enforce a dress code on women of every other culture around them.
Of course no one would be so bold as to protest the Hasidic community with say, hundreds of women in bikinis (guys in speedos, too?) flooding the neighborhood.
Ask former sheriff Phil Crimaldi what happens when you screw with the hasids on their turf.
I'm torn.
On one hand, I'm all for local people having a say in local affairs -- and parking in your own neighborhood is a very local issue. To the extent this is about not being able to find a damned parking spot, I'm definitely against a bike lane. If the locals would rather have parking, let 'em have parking.
On the other hand, religious tolerance is not a local issue, and you can't create a "morality zone" in the middle of NYC. To the extent that this is about keeping out the nasty bicycling women who force good Orthodox men to think dirty, dirty thoughts...well, sorry, but girls can bicycle whereever they like, whether your religion approves of it or not. So if that's the issue, I'm for a bike lane.
Since I don't know which this is really about, I'm torn.
isnt there a middle-eastern hell-hole they'd feel more comfortable in?
As a NYC native who learned to ride a bike on the streets of NYC, I find it alarming to see the suburbanization of our streets, perpetrated primarily by newbies to our city who are too pussy to ride in the street like real cyclists and real NYers.
Bike lanes do nothing to decrease the use of autos. There have been bike lanes on Fifth and Sixth Avenues and on Lafayette Street for decades, yet still auto use increases.
The newer bike lanes on Kent in Williamsburg and Grand & Prince Streets downtown, and the "traffic-calming" lanes in the Meat Market, haven't reduced auto congestion one bit: in fact, they only makes it worse, and now businesses and residents suffer.
Only a small, small fraction of NYC cycles. Smaller than who own a car or take taxis.
What we are now witnessing is a groundswell of opposition to these bike lanes built as a PR stunt by that hippy head of DOT as a sop to please a small, vocal minority of newcomers who still have to get used to Gotham.
Watch the opposition when DOT tries to place these on Park Avenue or where Bloomberg lives. Or, maybe that is why there are none built on the UWS or UES.
DOT and the elitists at TransAlt puts them in poorer neighborhoods as part of their sense of noblisse oblige or as a social experiment.
When Bloomberg and the current hippy DOT regime are finished, these silly experiments at the Amsterdaming of NYC will be relegated to the dustbin of history. The sooner the better.
Thanks, Thespis- amazingly thoughtful perspective on things.
I side with the bike lanes on this one, but I did want to say a big f^ck you to many people posting on this board....I'll give a special shoutout to: "And then they wondered why the holocaust happened." Idiotic f^ck.
ur hardc0re thefacts
Bikers and Jews. Ouch. Two intractable groups. Wish everyone the best.
This is the reason Israelis call these people "cockroaches"
Thank god for Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Sadik-Kahn for starting to reverse the "Americanization" which started with Moses and continued through Giuliani.
By opening up more public space to New Yorkers, they have started to make real improvements to the quality of life for those of us who actually live here.
If you want to live in America, there are several bridges and tunnels that will bring you there. Use them.
‘When you pick-up or drop-off our children, put your bus in an angle, block the entire street, wait ’til the parent gets to the door of the bus, [and] slowly — very slowly — take your child off or put it on the bus, [and] don’t rush to get back on the sidewalk
I agree...They've been doing this already. Was that for another protest I was unaware of.
These assholes like Mr. Isaac Abraham need to be heavily ticketed for illegally blocking traffic as it is. Ever try driving through that neighborhood in general? They block the streets with their buses and illegally park all over the place. Any other hood in the city and those buses would be impounded. Suck it up and feel free to join our century whenever you have a moment.
Hasidim in the road.
Welcome to Bloombergtopia. If you are a small business owner you're screwed. All in the name of smug politics.
Fuck them. The only reason they can prosper here is due to every other individuals inherent American tolerance.
Go to the middle east and set up your ghettos and see how well you're accepted.
Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.
Amsterdam is a cute little town steeped in history and thinking art stopped when Rembrandt died. They sell their little historic town much like a Dutch version of Williamsburg. NEW YORK CITY AIN"T AMSTERDAM! Get over it. The Amsterdam that all these bikers love so much could fit in Williamsburg with room to spare.
Why do you think Starbucks had such a great following? Because all those that went over to the old country came back thinking that Maxwell House sucked and needed to pay $7 for a "good" cup of coffee. Idiots!
And I will still ask why did the Holocaust happen? Why? Because two groups of people in their ignorance could not agree what was right and what was wrong with the world. I blame neither side.
#15 - Why the assumption that streets should be the sole domain of motor vehicles? Because motor vehicles are larger and more intimidating? Why not a lane for motorcycles? And a lane for bicycles? And a lane for roller bladers?
Or are we to assume that the streets should be shaped by business interests, since, currently, much business is done via motor vehicles?
Business was done in New York long before motor vehicles, and streets existed long before motor vehicles. There's better ways to move people and goods over the streets of this city than we've seen so far. Bike lanes are a step in that direction.
'The Facts' pretty much nails it. For all you people from Nebraska, or Illinois, or wherever in flyover country you came from, dont know anything about NY. Bike lanes indeed have been around since the 70's and do nothing. Personally, I will start to treat cyclist as equal on the roads when they start obeying traffic laws. At lights, I have never seen one stop. Not one. Ever. They go right through. If I could get away with it, I would hit one if I came through on the green side. Perhaps a few dead cyclists would wake them up, that ya know, maybe instead of bitching all the time about cars, we might, oh, just maybe, obey the laws on the roads which they ride.
pierre, did we hurt your feelings? if the jews don't like the brazen american women they should 1) put up with it and shut up, or 2) go to the promised land or whatever.
these people... making new york a target for arab terrorism and now this??? GO HOME.
Bring your cameraphone, digital camera or camcorder. I want to see YouTube video when a Hasid decides to Pogan a cyclist.
@rolltide23
from your post i would assume it is safe to say you have never (as a pedestrian) crossed the street when the red hand said no. this is what bikers do when they run a light. it sounds more like you are jealous of their ability to run reds and get places faster than you. tough shit.
The city should have roller blade and skate board lanes, as well as wheel chair lanes and double parking lanes. I think its unfair that the highwheelers get all the benefits and not pay extra taxes for those benefits.
The trucks that double park and deliver goods are doing a hell of a lot more good to the city than some asshole pedaling down the street to work or school.
if it weren't so cold, i'd suggest ladies up the ante and exercise their right to go topless on their commute...
Cyclists need to adhere to the law when they ride. If they run a red light or drive the wrong way down a one-way street, they should be subjected to the same penalties a motorist would be if they did that.
Bicycle lanes are a good idea, but they have to be put between the places where cars park and the sidewalks. There need to be real physical barriers between bike paths and pedestrian and car areas. Good fences make good neighbors.
Should the Hasidim block traffic, something tells me they will not be subjected to the same treatment that anti-war protesters get when they block traffic or the same treatment that lawful cyclists receive on the last Friday of every month in Manhattan.
Yeah, business is slowing down because of bike lanes. That's whats got the whole economy screwed. Bike lanes.
And, why are they complaining about this in the middle of winter? Don't see many scantly clad girls riding this time of the year.
My theory, they don't want anyone but themselves hanging out in their 'hood. Plus they rather have parking for their minivans.
i hate people who are 'from' new york. i cant wait till the markets better and we can work on pricing these natives out again
This is so stupid.
There's better ways to move people and goods over the streets of this city than we've seen so far.
Like using donkeys and mules? I want to see a donkey deliver 20 refrigerators to the store. Or do you mean we should go back in time when people used slaves to move heavy equipment.
My theory, they don't want anyone but themselves hanging out in their 'hood.
100% true. My friend parked in their neighborhood and was told she wasn't allowed to park there. She continued to park there and then her car gets totally egged on. If you aren't one of them, then you are dirt though they won't say that to you in person.
Once again this site is a sounding board for hate mongers. If the Jews in that neighborhood want to protest a fucking bike lane they should be allowed to. The anti semitic posts here are revolting. To the neo Nazis in the group go fuck yourselves. You "native" New Yorkers talk tons of shit-you are an embarrassment to this city, state, and country. Why don't you fucking leave?
If you aren't one of them, then you are dirt though they won't say that to you in person.
This is exactly right. As far as the charedim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) are concerned, if you're not one of them then you're one of the shkotzim (abominations, vermin, sources of ritual uncleanliness. Also used to describe anyone who isn't Jewish). They mooch off the government to the tune of millions a year and yet still find the time to attack it for being "secular" and "un-G-dly." They are concerned with the welfare of their community first and foremost--and by "first and foremost" I mean "to the exclusion of anyone else."
If the Jews in that neighborhood want to protest a fucking bike lane they should be allowed to.
This is not about Jews. This is about Satmars. Go read the article again and come back when you know what the fuck you're talking about.
A gang of guys in funny outfits and hairdos try to take over part of the city....
Wasn't that basically the plot of that '70's movie "The Warriors"???
Maybe if they don't like it here, they can "Escape From New York".
Maybe if they don't like it here, they can "Escape From New York".
There is nowhere on Earth that is holy enough for this lunatic cult of wife-beating, woman-hating, racist gangsters. They even hate the state of Israel for daring to contradict the nonsensical ravings of a pre-literate, nomadic Semitic tribe. Unfortunately, until "Moshiach" comes, we're stuck with them.
Anybody can protest what they want, but it is funny that these Hasids are protesting "female cyclists riding through the neighborhood wearing immodest clothing" when they are the ones that used to pick up the hookers on Kent in their little Minivans back when hookers were on Kent. At the end of the day, these people feel that they deserve anything and everything...guess what, this is a society people. Try and get along with your neighbors.
Say what you want about the Satmars, but anyone with the balls to stand up to the elitist zealots at Transportation Alternatives and their goons at DOT gets my support.
If civil disobedience is what it takes to stop this suburbanization of our city by the streetsblog crew, go for it!
@ thefacts that's like picking sides when cobra commander and skeltor are fighting.
They could always move back to Hungary. I think its safe now.
#46
I never disagree with Bold Fenian Men, Bastards or otherwise.
my stock portfolio went from $1,500 or $2,000 to $200 after the bike lane was installed.
thanks a lot, bike lane!
i'm offended when these wacko-fundamentalist drive their mini-vans filled with their inbred mongoloid children through my neighborhood to get to target, but you don't see me blocking traffic with my run down school buses in protest.
if you can't handle seeing a girl ride a bike, move to fucking iran.
Immodest Woman who the hell started that concept?.
This is a very big city and we all can go where
we want ,even in Brooklyn ,we can all dress as
we please, even in Brooklyn.
All organized religion should make an effort
to attempt to come into the modern world.
These assholes ruin the religion for the rest of us. They can suck my kosher cock.
where do I go protest their body odor?
hasidim: please adapt to modern society and fucking deal with it, you might be the majority in that neighborhood but you don't own the streets that run through it
bikers: you do not need a bike lane going through every fucking street in this city--learn to ride responsibly and properly through nyc traffic or don't ride at all
now everyone shake hands and make nice
@apikores, oh my mistake. I guess it is better to call them cockroaches. Let them protest.
No, you didn't hurt my feelings, "blkiznewprez"-- I was expressing disdain for your ignorance. I don't agree with the Hasidic Jews who believe they can create "morality zones" in New York. Still, all of this doesn't justify you or anyone else anonymously spouting hate about things that I'm quite sure you don't fully understand and haven't bothered to think through. Ignorant fuck!
I don't see any hate-mongering here. This has zero to do with Jews, which our fair city is chock-full of and hooray for that. This has to do with some outmoded sect that feels they can move into an area, live on gov't handouts and build (in the burbs anyway) huge houses with no zoning laws, drive however they want and now they demand that billboards not have swimsuits on them and ladies riding bikes wearing shorts cannot go through their neighborhoods. You don't see the Amish acting like this. If you want to have a sect and live by your own rules, great! But do not impose ANY of your beliefs on anyone else and don't take gov't money when you work and make plenty of cash anyway.
don't forget their annual chicken killing event.
I'll get back to my original question. And these people think the holocaust came on by itself? From Poland to Russia, back to Poland and they wondered why they couldn't share a bagel with their enemies.
Give it up you assholes that believe in that mumbo jumbo bullshit religion built on a God that shit on you two thousand years ago when the Romans took you out.
Sorry I was a bit hard in my last comment, but here is George Carlin's take on same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8evsSNdXcs&NR=1
>> hese people... making new york a target for arab terrorism and now this??? GO HOME. >>
To be fair, this seems a bit extreme. I don't think Hasidic Jews are making NYC a target for terrorism... has any terrorist group actually mentioned this? Or do you mean being friendly with Israel in general? Because these are 2 different things.
To the residents complaining about this, I'll say it so you understand: you're schmucks. You share this city with the rest of us. Act like grown-ups.
To blkiznewprez, terrorists target us for many reasons, not just because Jews live in NYC. You, too, are a schmuck.
A schmuck?
Not a schlemiel or a schemozzle? Not even perhaps a schmendrick?
Where's Detective RatherBe? Shouldn't he be hot on the trails of whoever's behind this caper?
There's always the classic putz.
ha, sure i'm an ignorant fuck. you know so much about me! go crawl back under the rock from which you came. i'm allowed to express how i feel -- this is a democracy. it doesn't make me a putz, a schmuck, or any other made-up jew word. i'm sorry you can't handle it. shame on you for being ignorant fucks and not accepting of the truth in which we live in.
if members of the african-american communities in brooklyn or puerto ricans in the bronx had been doing this, everybody would be spewing racism.
These people should go shove their mini-vans up their ass. Riding to the beach once a week this summer i was almost hit at least 4 times by these reckless "morons in minivans". They don't look where the fuck they are going and jaywalk all over "their neighborhood" against the light. I've biked in the city since 1995, long before all the new bike lanes, bike lanes make no difference. They don't reduce congestion, they don't protect cyclists and the Hasidim in their neighborhoods pay no mind to them and park in them anyway. I will gladly plow my bike at top speed into their barricade, Take a hike...
also, i'm sure most people know (but don't want to realize) that our country's support of Israel and its barbaric war crimes against Palestinians and other Arab people was one of the motivators of 9/11. the Israeli army is packed with immature children that have been brainwashed into hating the Arab nations surrounding them. there are countless news reports and videos showing Israeli soldiers beating Arab children with rocks, sticks, and weapons -- yet these videos never play on US television because then we'd all be called anti-semitic.
also, zionist jews are known for bashing christian israelis on the street, especially if the christian israelis are women in western clothing. sound familiar?
#63- And you really, REALLY think Palestinians, et. all don't teach their kids to hate the Israelis and, by way of association, Americans?
"these people... making new york a target for arab terrorism and now this???
So did the 9 Jews just kille make Mumbai a target for muslim terrorism? You're a moron and probably "understanding" of the koranimals.
"GO HOME."
Why don't YOU go back to the rock/tree worshippping hellhole your ancestors crawled out of.
Jews have been serving America for centuries.
GFY.
PS - re apikores / "cockroaches": thanks for reminding why we call leftist jinos like you "behema". Why don't you glue some pork on it and get it over with already.
"" And these people think the holocaust came on by itself""
Why does snoopy post "blame the jews for the nazis" crap?
Same reasons a dog licks it's ass - he can, and the taste reminds him of where he came from.
As a biker who travels up and down Kent regularly, I say that a bike lane really isn't necessary because:
a) Local hasids, I have found, tend to drive kind of recklessly anyway. (I've witnessed several fender-benders in the past two years.) I don't think a bike lane is going to save my life.
b) A lot of Kent is very open. Me and my roommate affectionately call most of Kent "the open road", namely the strip between Broadway and N14th. (B/w Division and Classon it's a bit dodgey, I agree.)
c) In response to the backlash against female cyclists who shockingly expose their knees while they ride: Get the hell over it. This is the U.S., 2008-- not Krakow, 1758. (I seriously hope who ever moderates this debate throws this moral crap right out the window and sticks to local economics.. i.e. things that MATTER.)
As my pal Sheky says, these Hassidim need to be Reformed.
Actually there is nothing wrong seeing
a female bike rider on a Saturday in tight shorts is there?
Anyway as i said before tradition and religion i.e.
making everyone the same in appearance,stinks.
Viva la difference.
have to agree with number 4. they been doing this for years!!! they suck.