With Citi Bike breaking daily ridership records every other day as it expands into more and more neighborhoods, it's starting to seem like the days of NIMBY outrage over station placements might have finally come to an end. The city has finally turned a corner, and everyone is able to have calm rational discussions about what's best for any given neighborhood without resorting to hysterics.
<<<record scratch noise>>>
Or not.
The video above was taken Wednesday night at the Brooklyn Community Board 6 meeting, covering Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus and Red Hook. Even though the Citi Bikes were not on the agenda for the meeting, a few dozen locals showed up because of their displeasure with the rollout of the Citi Bike program in the area. And at least one of them expressed himself by unleashing a tirade of anger in the board members.
"Next time you shout at me—" one member says before the man interrupts him and shrieks: "YOU'RE GONNA WHAT? YOU'RE GONNA WHAT? YOU'RE GONNA WHAT? GO ON. YOU'RE GONNA WHAT? YOU'RE GONNA WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO? YOU'RE GONNA HIT ME? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?"
Your average @CitiBikeNYC opponent is about 75 years old, white, and really angry. This CB meeting is a dead ringer for a Trump rally.
— Eric McClure (@EricMcClureBK) September 14, 2016
And this entire incident occurred
There is total chaos at the @BrooklynCB6 meeting. Anti-@CitiBikeNYC crowd yelling, threatening board members. "Destroying the city!"
— Park Slope Neighbors (@psneighbors) September 14, 2016
Hammerman, who called the outburst "public bullying," said board members weren't prepared to discuss Citi Bikes at the time, or else "it likely would have been a much more diverse point of view represented at the meeting." As for why this group was so angry, he reasoned, "People do have a very passionate attachment to parking spaces. And anything that threatens them, frankly we have seen these kind of emotional outbursts before about the loss of parking."
You have a right not to like @CitiBikeNYC. You have no right to threaten @BrooklynCB6 members at a public meeting. https://t.co/wCK1T0wvDD
— Park Slope Neighbors (@psneighbors) September 15, 2016
Eric McClure, co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors group and co-chair of the CB6 Transportation Committee, was also at the meeting, and tweeted the video out (see above): "This was a particularly extreme reaction, and totally out of line," he told us. "There were probably a couple dozen people there last night to speak (or yell) about their opposition to Citi Bike, or in most cases, their opposition to the placement of Citi Bike docks on their blocks and in 'their' parking spaces."
"Many people have apparently called the CB6 office to voice similar complaints," he continued. "The huge number of people who are thrilled to have Citi Bike in the neighborhood, and who are using the bikes to get around—at least one board member got to the meeting by Citi Bike—of course don't show up or call the board office to say how happy they are."
Poor @DanielSquadron trying to listen politely to hysterical seniors who HATE bikes...@BrooklynCB6. Why must we do this Every Time?
— Joanna Oltman Smith (@jooltman) September 14, 2016
.@pwbnyc I just couldn't. NIMBYzilla threatened me with his cane. @DanielSquadron, you left just in time. @BrooklynCB6
— Joanna Oltman Smith (@jooltman) September 15, 2016
Hammerman identified the man shouting in the video as Joseph Igneri, who is a former board member of CB6 (and, according to meeting minutes from 2010, was almost kicked off the board for failing to attend meetings, ironically enough). Igneri pops up in various local news stories over the last 20 years complaining about bike lanes and trucks in the neighborhood, among other things. Hammerman added that Igneri left shortly after the video was taken, "because I called the cops."
Despite the verbal lashing, Hammerman insisted that the board is taking the complaints of locals seriously: "We do want to hear from the public about how they feel about the rollout of the Citi Bike program," he said. "I think there are some very fraught-full comments that we have received and of course there are some very emotional comments we’ve received. Some of these things we may be able to act upon. I think in the end if we can take the Citi Bike program and right size it for our district, making sure the stations are in the best places that they could be, making sure that the station sizes are the best sizes they could be, the extent to which we can efficiently use the public space to satisfy everyone’s needs, I think it would behoove us to do that."
As for Igneri, Transportation Alternatives executive director Paul White had his own advice: "That guy seems like he really needs a relaxing hobby. Might I suggest biking?"
Igneri could not be reached for comment, but we'll update if we are able to contact him.