The family of a 15-year-old honor student is suing the city after she was tackled by plainclothes police officers after matching the profile of a shoplifter. Last Friday afternoon, police in the 78th Precinct received a description of shoplifters as "two female black teens, dark hair," one with a ponytail. Brittany Rowley was walking down Prospect Park West with a friend; the two were on the way to the library. Suddenly an unmarked police car appeared. “I thought we were being abducted,” Rowley tells the Daily News. The girls ran, but two officers tackled them. "Why did you fucking run? I should punch you," Rowley says one officer told her. more ›

As you may have heard, the rich Park Slope crybabies who hate the popular Prospect Park West bike lane so much that they sued the city are suing the city yet again. They claim the DOT faked data to make the bike lane seem better than it is, and they've got a high-power attorney representing them pro bono, because those are the kind of perks you get when you're married to Senator Chuck Schumer. Their first lawsuit was thrown out because they filed their lawsuit after the statute of limitations had passed. The city had to spend $140,000 in legal fees to get that publicity stunt laughed out of court, and the meter's still running. more ›

Bike lane haters are still smarting after being forced to chug a gallon of Haterade after a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Prospect Park West bike lane. But as they appeal the decision, the DOT has handed them a small victory by omitting the construction of a two-way bike lane on East and West Plaza Streets at Grand Army Plaza. "If we had not done what we've been doing with the bike lanes, they probably would have moved ahead," Louise Hainline of Neighbors That Don't Use Bike Lanes Neighbors For Better Bike Lanes tells the Daily News. more ›

Last month the dismissal of the lawsuit against the Prospect Park West bike lane led to a cleansing, "Tahrir Square" moment for cyclists who felt the community-approved bike lanes were under siege by a few rich NIMBYs. Hopefully that feeling was savored, because Streetsblog reports that Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes and Seniors for Safety have appealed the ruling. more ›

Relations have been strained (to put it mildly) between DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at least as far back as April 2010, when Marty called her a "zealot" on WNYC. And it doesn't look like those two will be taking a romantic paddle boat ride together in Prospect Park anytime soon, judging by sworn affidavits filed as part of the great Prospect Park West bike lane lawsuit. Markowitz recently swore under oath that a month before he called her a zealot, Sadik-Khan told him the contentious bike lane was just a trial. Now Sadik-Khan has filed her own affidavit essentially calling the Borough President a liar, liar pants on fire. more ›

Tomorrow the opposing sides in the lawsuit over the incendiary Prospect Park West bike lane will be back in court. The affluent and well-connected group suing the city insists that the DOT fudged data to justify the bike lane, which was supposed to be installed on a trial basis. The DOT, however, wants the suit tossed because the because the statute of limitations ran out a few months before the lawsuit was filed. This is where the question of whether it was really a "trial" becomes important—if it was a trial, the plaintiffs met the deadline for their lawsuit, and if it was not a trial, they filed too late. So was it a trial or wasn't it? And when can we stop talking about this? more ›

It would be a mighty understatement to say that the Prospect Park West bike lane has garnered a hearty amount of criticism and controversy in its young life. When anything can cause as many lawsuits, bile-filled community board meetings, and Marty Markowitz conspiracy theories as the PPW bike lane has, then the word controversy doesn't really do it justice. However, if you're the kind of person who wants to support the PPW bike lane and maybe isn't so into all the vitriol surrounding it, there is a decidedly non-controversial PPW family ride in support of the bike lane scheduled for Sunday. more ›

Can't get enough of Prospect Park West Bike Lane fever (or plague, as some opponents might call it)? Then join Time's Up! on its Annual Ides (Pies) of March Bike Ride—meet at Grand Army Plaza at 2 p.m. The bike advocacy group says, "Feeling betrayed by the politicians who push to remove the City’s protected bike lanes and delay the construction of safe new bike lanes that save lives? Feeling betrayed by NYPD Commissioner Kelly who allocates scarce city resources toward discouraging cycling? Then get on your bike and join us!" more ›

After months of bike lane backlash stories in the media, a new Quinnipiac University poll suggests that New Yorkers may be less opposed to the DOT's bike lane boom than the press would have you believe. 54 percent of New Yorkers actually said the bike lane expansion "is a good thing because it's greener and healthier for people to ride their bicycle, while 39 percent said it's "a bad thing because it leaves less room for cars which increases traffic." And when the survey is looked at by party affiliation, the Republicans lived up to the stereotype of the hardcore gas-guzzling, Fox News cyclist foe. more ›

Tomorrow Brooklyn's Community Board 6 transportation committee will vote on the DOT's proposed changes to the famous Prospect Park West bike lane in Park Slope. Among the adjustments on the table: installing rumble strips at intersections to slow cyclists down, narrowing the buffer between the bike lane and the floating parking lane in order to widen the traffic lane, and installing raised cement pedestrian refuges to give people a better view of oncoming cyclists (and keep cars from illegally parking there). But the bike lane's determined opponents have another idea: relocating half of the bike lane to Eighth Avenue, a block west. more ›

Tonight may prove to be a pivotal night in the battle over the controversial Prospect Park West bike lane. Just days after a well-connected group of local residents sued the DOT over the bike lane, the local Community Board is holding a meeting to discuss the hot topic. Citing a decrease in accidents and speeding on PPW, the DOT wants to make the bike lane permanent, but to do so they'll need the blessing of the Community Board. The anti-bike lane lobby would have you believe that the DOT rammed this bike lane down the neighborhood's throat in the dead of night, but it's worth recalling that it was this same Community Board that asked the DOT to study a two-way separated bike lane on PPW back in 2007. more ›

The well-connected Park Slope group Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes—whose members include former NYC DOT commissioner (and wife of Chuck Schumer) Iris Weinshall and former Sanitation Commissioner Norman Steisel—are calling for a moratorium on new bike lane construction throughout NYC. In a recent press release, the group, which formed to abolish the controversial bike lane on Prospect Park West, applauded City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilman James Vacca for backing a moratorium. There's just one problem: neither politician has taken that position at all. more ›

Someday this Prospect Park West bike lane war is gonna end, but today is not that day. And could it be that the tide is turning in the direction of the anti-lane forces, who are suing the city to get the controversial lane removed? The Brooklyn Paper reports that the local community board quietly dropped a scheduled discussion of new bike lanes on 14th and 15th streets between Third Avenue and Prospect Park West. The anti-bike lane crowd smells blood in the water, and they couldn't ask for better propaganda than this CBS 2 segment showing an ambulance driving in the bike lane to avoid a PPW traffic jam. more ›

It's no secret that former city DOT commissioner Iris Weinshall has been working hard behind the scenes to liberate her neighborhood from the menacing Prospect Park West bike lane, which has been terrorizing locals by calming PPW's notorious traffic and increasing bicycling. And it's also no secret that Weinshall's husband is none other than supposedly avid cyclist Chuck Schumer, the New York Senator who once told the Post, "The bike people drive [Weinshall] crazy, but they know they have an ally in me." Well, that was six years ago; it looks like Schumer's allegiance has shifted. more ›

Back in April, as the Prospect Park Bike Lane war raged in Park Slope, bike lane hating Borough President Marty Markowitz told WNYC that if the new bike lane "causes no bottlenecks, no inconvenience, and if it works, I’ll be the first to say I was wrong." A new report on the bike lane's impact proved just that, but instead of eating his shoe, Markowitz is getting conspiratorial. In an angry, unhinged interview with WCBS, Markowitz contends that cycling activists were secretly tipped off about which days the DOT contractor was counting bike riders, enabling them to flood the lane to skew the stats. Watch him expose what Streetsblog dubs a "vast biking conspiracy." more ›

Compared to the paltry turnout at last week's bike lane protest in the East Village, this morning's protest in Park Slope gathered a formidable crowd on Prospect Park West. Around 200 lane supporters of all ages gathered beside the bike lane, bearing signs and chanting "We love safe streets," all but drowning out the fifty or so lane protesters a few yards away. The age homogeneity among lane opponents was striking; they all seemed to be enjoying their Autumn years—or rather they would be if not for those meddling bike lanes. more ›

On the eve of a major anti-bike lane hate-in on Prospect Park West, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has lashed out at the changes to what was once an idyllic, three lane thoroughfare. "Prospect Park West was one of the most beautiful, scenic, majestic thoroughfares in Brooklyn and the bike lane has destroyed its beauty!" declared the incorrigible cornball in an interview with The Brooklyn Paper. "[Pedestrians] cannot see bicycles on the other side of parked cars... When you cross the street children often break from their parents and there is a danger that a cyclist won’t see the kid in time — or a senior citizen!" Or a kitten—a defenseless little kitty cat could be sitting there blinking her adorable little eyes as the wheels of some bloodthirsty cyclist bear down on it! more ›