So bikes may have secret pipe bombs but the tubular barricades don't. Did they cut down any trees - wouldn't be hard to drill a hole and put in a pipe bomb? What a complete farce of a country the US has become.

Let me guess. Next, round up all pregnant women and beer-bellied men... might not be what they appear to be?

If the police suspect that one of the bikes may be a bomb then why aren't they in protective bomb gear while removing the bikes?

And then they're going to drive a bunch of potential bombs around the city in an open truck?

That's either a grossly negligent plan or their story is bullshit. Either way there needs to be a lawsuit filed against the city.

I somehow fail to see how it is faster to

1. cut the bike lock

2. load the bike into a truck

3. send it to a storage facility

4. deal with the mess of getting people their bikes back and the fall out of 100 pissed off bikers.

than to spend 5 minutes inspecting each bike.

That's not to mention everyone else's panic and lost time.

alright, semi-tangental rant, here we go:

Honestly, Obama needs to stop coming here. All he does is make everyday life miserable and inconvenient for approx. 20% of the city.

no you can't go in this subway station for the next hour, Obama's motorcade is passing at some point. no you can't cross 58th street, you have to walk five avenues east and 5 avenues back. no, your express bus to bay ridge can't go through the battery tunnel for an hour at 7pm because obama is somewhere in the vicinity. all of these have happened to me within the last 8 months, sure, they're minor in the grand scheme, but i get 60-90 years here if i'm lucky, and you just wasted 3 of my hours.

dude, I get it, you're teh hip president with swagger. Goin to shows, eating at classy joints with classy dames. It's a talking head celebrity life and new york city is the place to be!

I don't give a F about your politics, all you guys just keep being important and stuff, but don't do it in the biggest, densest urban area in the country if you're not expendable (apologies to heath ledger & co.).

for f-sakes, the whole city is an elevated sniper position and a tactical defense nightmare. pure intelligence coming here all the time to look cool and blow off some steam, Give a few interviews, you know.

and you know who else sucks goat testes a couple times a year? the UN. if everyone is so damn blasted worried about getting shot, blown up, hung in your closet by a spy dressed as a hooker while you jerk it, etc. build your headquarters in the middle of kansas where it's flat as hell and there's no where to hide, and there aren't 8-10 million daily lives to disturb. really.

Don't wistle or snap at your waitstaff, and F-ing cover your mouth when you sneeze too. It's common courtesy.

sorry. been meaning to get that of my chest.

really, got no beef with Obama other than the normal contempt for anyone trying to tell me they know better than I do that I always reserve for career politicians. Just keep the road show to a minimum in NYC will ya?

Move.

Um yeah, they were afraid a bomb was in a bike. that's why those photographed were wearing bomb squad gear, just in case one bombs goes off. Oh wait, no bomb squad gear? Well then consider the bicycle shop lobbyists looking to increase sales.

Maybe Obama doen't hates cyclists but he was just scared.

Happy Earth Day......

Why does the city hate bikes so much? I love riding my bike around "new amsterdam" and especially Amsterdam, NL.

Why can't this be more of a bike town. So mnany would partake if it were made safer.

Happy Earth Day is right. This is so messed up, but this Gothamist post is equally messed up and misleading. Why are you blaming Obama? "Obama hates cyclists?" Sounds like a city mistake to me. No signs warning cyclists in advance to move their bikes? That's a problem. Don't do readers any more favors by injecting your tired politics to rouse cyclist ire.

I've kept my dingy bike on Essex for a year or so and yesterday found it gone. I was upset for a bit but not surprised.

I just read this though and now I'm just pissed. This is no bueno and not cool.

what about the metal barricades along the street themselves...? what's to stop someone from making one of those into a pipebomb and sticking it in with the rest of them?

shucks, NYPD makes the Army of the

West African Republic of Guinea look professional.

This NYPD is like school on a Saturday, Noooooooo class!

From today's streetblog: Don't forget that just two weeks ago the City settled a lawsuit for retaliatory arrests conducted by NYPD Ltd. Corcoran in 2007, when he and his men and women from the NYPD's 9th precinct arbitrarily and summarily clipped locks and took bicycles from an entire block on E 6th St without any prior warning. Two people who observed and filmed them were arrested. Absurdly, those civilians were the ones charged with disorderly conduct. But maybe it was just a coincidence that the street where they took the bikes today forms the boundary of the same 9th precinct.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/city-settles-with-pair-arrested-after-police-confrontation/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnsBw3TiBdE

Where did the bikes go? were they donated?

Not donated, liberated.

Yes, Courtney, they were donated to little children crippled by polio.

Did they donate the bikes? what did they do with them?

This is most likely what ends up happening to the bikes...

The participating police departments get a cut of the auction price and yes NYPD is a participating entity on this site.

http://www.propertyroom.com/Catalog.aspx?Category=Bicycles&CategoryId=347

Talk about a whole new low for the NYPD :\