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Emotions were high last night at Brooklyn's first CB1 meeting of the year. The ongoing controversy over the Kent Avenue bike lanes and the recent, sudden dismissal of Teresa Toro, who had chaired the Transportation Committee, inspired members of the local community to crowd the small room at the Swinging 60's Senior Citizens Center, waiting for their chance to speak to the board.
"It's an outrage," cried someone in support of Toro. "For Teresa, it's always been about what's best for this community." Any opposition to the Kent Avenue bike lanes was drowned out by dozens of cycling residents who came to praise the safety that the lanes have brought to their commutes. "If pressure is high on this subject, it's because of the fear of getting killed," said the father of a six year old cyclist.
The latest spark in the Kent Avenue debate was a letter sent out by city officials and one executive member of CB1, asking the DOT to temporarily remove the northbound lane until a solution could be agreed upon with the community. This letter, and the proposed removal of the bike lane, had never been approved by full the board, and Toro made that point clear when she was subsequently approached by the press for comment. Two weeks later, Toro received a phone call saying she had been removed from the board.
The Kent Avenue bike lane was not officially on last night's agenda, and the few people who had come to speak about other subjects felt so out of place at the meeting that even they decided to get involved. A spokesperson for a mental health outreach program decided to give his two cents: "As far as this Teresa Toro thing, it sounds like a sketchy dismissal. It makes us look kind of bad if we just dismiss someone like that."
The fun really began when board members made a motion to reinstate Toro. When this was refused, they challenged the executive board to explain Toro's dismissal, and the letter that had been sent out without board approval. Vincent Abate ("Vinny"), Chair of the Executive Committee, initially tried to dismiss the whole thing, declaring, "I have the authority to make executive decisions and to dismiss people. That's it."
As concerns over communication, how to proceed, and how the board was being viewed in the press rose to an emotional peak, Teresa Toro, who had been watching the proceedings the entire time, was finally given the chance to speak. After going through the series of events leading up to her dismissal, she closed with the statement, "My first obligation is to the community and the truth. I haven't done anything wrong."
Vinny, who will be leaving the board this year, had the final word. "I've got four months to go; I don't want to leave a fractured board. I'm not telling you right now what I'm doing, but I never leave an organization with unfinished business, and this is unfinished business... Don't worry about it." With the Kent Avenue bike lane and Teresa Toro's future with the board still up in the air, that might be difficult advice to follow.
At top, a local resident voices opposition to the Kent Avenue bike lane, at bottom, Teresa Toro addresses the board.
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Zionist conspiracy oh snap!
Just to make things clear before the Hasid-bashing starts; the pictured speaker is opposed to the current bike lane because he can't park on his block or take deliveries anymore. If my memory serves me he didn't say anything specific about completely eliminating the lane.
Why can't he take deliveries from across the street? He doesn't have to have trucks in the bike lane to do it.
That is a valid complaint. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of New Yorkers who also do not have free curbside parking or delivery access at their front door and, somehow, they manage to survive.
Not to mention the majority of us who don't have cars. Why can't I have a subway stop in front of my house?
The fight over the bike lane is a smoke screen! The real problem the residents have is not with the bike LANE, it's with the bikERs themselves, in their "immodest" attire crusing through their neighborhood, as reported in this publication and others last summer. (I don't have time to find links.)
The locals are trying want to legislate who travels on the public streets. Well, bike lane or no, I will continue to use Kent Ave as my route to Astoria, come hell or high water!
I can't wait until summertime so I can start cruising that bike lane in my bathing suit. Much nicer ride to Willamsburg/Greenpoint than the bike lane on Bedford.
I really hate this bike lane, I only wish they waited in till the construction of The Edge was done, I’m working on that project and its very tuff to find parking in that neighborhood. The only answer I received is because there will be parking garages for the tenants bike lanes will be added... well what about the bike lanes that are on Wythe Ave? As well these buildings won’t be done for quite some time.
Good Morning to all;
last night at the public hearing I was not allowed to speak for someone who signed in to speak after he lost his voice, I respect the chairman on following protocol and rules of the community board, but it now gives me the great opportunity to say what I intended and with out applause or interruptions.
many speakers who support the green way and the bike lane spoke and basically stated and presented fiction and not a single fact to back-up their statistics and figures.
so lets start here with speakers statements and response, "I have over 400 e-mails that I received and I have more here that support the bike lane" Lady, let me inform you that while I'm sure that most if not all your mail came from people who don't live or have business in the affected area, there are over 5,000 residents in the area who want their parking spaces back and one side of the bike lane removed, there are over "400" children going to school every day from Broadway to Clymer from Kent to Bedford Ave. the numbers are closer to 4,000.
I hope that I can voice my opinion on issues that come up in your neighborhood if you inform me or the board where you bike from.
"DOT is working closely with the community, changed signs from "No Stopping" to "No standing" which in return gave back more then 80 parking spaces" not only is this one of the greatest lies and horse radish, here are the facts, 92 summonses were issued when DOT changed the signs "No Stopping any Time" back in November because of the bike lane, these 92 are still out and not a single one was reinstated, so let speaker who supports the green way come down and show us and back-up his statement, all other facts that he states at public hearings are just as much as bull crap. he continues, "DOT by changing the signs will allow people to drop off the children and packages in front on the building" what a blunt stupid and irresponsible statement coming from some who never read the DOT bike lane laws signed by Mayor Bloomberg, NYC Police department and DOT, and it states the following "stopping, standing, or parking in a designated bicycle lane is prohibited" "obstructing a bicycle lane is illegal" where in the world does he come off to make such statement thinking that we are all dumb fools and he can sell us the Brooklyn Bridge.
"no parking and no cars make the bikers more safe because we have our own lane and can avoid cars that drive crazy" fact: it was a Hunter collage report released last month reported by the NY Times that "80% of the bikers violate every traffic law, ignore flashing and traffic lights" if you had 80% of car drivers do that, hell would have broken loose.
now, if the Kent Ave. bike lane became such a great run for the bikers, then lets remove the bike lane from Bedford Ave. Berry St. and Wyhte Ave. no one mentioned that we in this community have 3 bike lane streets already, but DOT did not remove parking, so its the parking spaces that's the stumbling block.
now lets put the shoe on the bikers foot, it was not so long ago that bikers chained their bikes to city assigned poles on North 7 and Bedford, such as no parking poles, street light poles etc;the city and PD came and cut the chains and removed all the bikes, it was an outpouring of anger and demonstrations, until the city came and installed bike racks all over the area for bikers to chain the bikes.
now lets go forward, in a month or two, the city will remove all bike racks from the area, WOW, WOW, WOW the bikers will be in front of City Hall and DOT to get some bike racks back-we the residents and business people from Kent Ave. have the same right once all parking spaces were removed form the area, think about it, if you want your rights to be heard and responded too, so do we.
Kent Ave. is the only street in the City of New York were all parking was removed, not on Bedford, not on Berry and not on Wyhte Ave. DOT "statistics" stated at the public hearing last month "over 900 bikers use the bike lane on Kent Ave. every day" ABCTV, NY1, Newscable12 and the NY Post spent 4-5 hours on a warm Sunday in December and observed only about 22 bikers and most violated every traffic law and never stopped for buses with flashing lights.
conclusion: facts and figures given by DOT and other speakers last night, never backed it up with facts, what I write here is FACT, the entire greenway should be looked at as someone's fiction rather then facts, you can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.
thanks Mr. Chairman for the great work you have done in all these years and stay healthy, Piece.
Isaac Abraham
City Council Candidate for the 33rd District
the idiot speaks.