Citi Bike Share Prompting Ire—And Vandalism

By on April 24, 2013 11:05 am in Brooklyn Heights, Government, Landmark Preservation, News, Other Brooklyn, Transportation, War On Fun

WINS-AM (1010) reported this morning from Brooklyn Heights that the newly installed Citibank-sponsored bike-share stands in the neighborhood are not only irritating residents—who voiced on-air that they don’t fit in with the historic tenor of the Heights—but have become a target for anti-corporate brouhaha throughout the borough.

The New York Post reports that in Fort Greene, flyers were plastered along a Citibike station saying: “Residential landmark blocks are not for advertising or commercial activity.” Similar messages have popped up in Clinton Hill.

Brownstoner notes that residents are complaining that they were not consulted about specific bike-share locations—also pointing out that advertising isn’t allowed on landmarked residential blocks.

In the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, residents of 150 Joralemon Street oppose a station installed in front of their building. Kenneth Wasserman tells the newspaper: “It’s inappropriate. This is a very busy block during the day and it’s very quiet at night. To have 25 docks out there without anybody notifying us beforehand really pisses us off.”

A Landmarks Preservation Commission spokeswoman told the NY Post, “We approved the plan for the installation of bike share stations in historic districts throughout the city because they have no effect on the historic fabric of those neighborhoods.”

Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn), who supports the program, will host a town hall meeting Wednesday to address growing concerns about the new stations in Brooklyn. It will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Benjamin Banneker Academy in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, 71-77 Clinton Avenue.

In Brooklyn Heights, stands are now at the corner of Remsen & Hicks, Clinton & Joralemon and Clark & Henry (outside of the Hotel St. George), with soon-to-be locations at Clark & Montague and Borough Hall.

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  • Boerum Bill

    Can’t wait to use a Bike Share bike…to lock my bike to it.

  • David on Middagh

    Pssst… you can’t argue “the subway”… it changed the neighborhood forever and caused an exodus…

    I’m a bike person, but that color blue, with that tall & wide touristy map, not to mention the prominent corporate logo… I won’t blame anyone for objecting to this implementation of bike share.

  • Bialy Boy

    The empty bike depot, or whatever it is, looks harmless enough. Put a line of bikes extending out that totally encroach on the sidewalks ? That is just wrong. If someone happened to trip over that nonsense , who would pay for the lawsuit? Citi? doubt it … Take this carnival experience elsewhere.

  • Bialy Boy

    No one cares about your little Willy Wonka super duper experience. Move closer to mass transit if you like. BH is one of the most served areas for public transportation in the City.. At least 8-10 subway trains are within 5 mins of every block in BH. Buses are on Cadman every few minutes. Why exactly do we need this ? So the tourists can just ride and go? If you are so jazzed up on the dirty bike thing then just put out a sign in front of your residence and invite ALL bikes to park. After you spend years cleaning up the mess on your sidewalk. You can look forward to many Dept of Sanitation tickets to fight and PAY. Good luck owners.

  • Jorale-man

    As a resident at 150 Joralemon, I was dismayed when some members of our coop came out against the bike racks in such a knee-jerk fashion. Their complaints seemed to stem from some vague notions of noise, crime and loitering — as if parked cars wouldn’t have the same effect as parked bicycles. I do believe though it’s a vocal minority of longtime residents who are resistant to change and, hopefully, once these are up and running all the fuss will quickly blow over.

  • Vulnerable Dome

    It’s not illegal to ride without a helmet.

  • Full Special

    Im really excited about the bikes and hope they are successful. True, the bike racks do take up a lot of the sidewalk but maybe we can all get used to it.

  • Joe A

    Bike share programs have been in existence in major cities for a long time. Studies upon studies have been completed. You make it sound like Bloomberg woke up one morning and decided to put bikes all over the city without any research.

    Oh, and wearing a helmet is not required so your post is doubly ignorant. But that is your forté isn’t it.

  • Joe A

    A rather incoherent posting. Dept of Sanitation tickets? What on God’s earth are you talking about.

    One thing that the perennial naysayers have in common is the utter lack of cogent arguments against the bike share programs. We get complaints about how bikes are not in keeping with a historic district but bikes are?

    We get safety complaints but studies show that their fears are unfounded.

    We get complaints that their will be fewer free parking spaces but what they fail to see is that the bikes will serve MORE people per square foot than parking spaces. Are automobile drivers more important than those that will choose to ride bikes?

    It goes on and on with nonsensical complaints. Boy do some people resist change with a passion absent reason. I’ll boil it down for you, Get off my lawn!

  • Joe A

    The 5 days of the year that there might be snow on the street? Do you live your entire life being afraid Monroe?

  • Wiley E.

    Is clothing required? Or can we go commando?

    http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/naked-bike-ride/

  • Hicks St Guy

    who care’s about parking? go rent a spot!

  • http://www.cognation.net deancollins

    thye should have designed the bikes to be slanted….bet you wont be low before some cars/truck wipe out the clark street bikes.

  • http://www.cognation.net deancollins

    lol cars are always pulled up there until a truck beeps its horn to get them to move.

  • MonroeOrange

    i park in the garage down the block, i have seen numerous bike riders hit on that block, riding wrong direction…they only were not seriously hurt due to helmets…i don’t need to read up on cycling issues, i see it in practice everyday.

  • MonroeOrange

    Um Joe…calling someone ignorant is your way of communicating?

    And furthermore, i’ve lived in other countries, that have this program, they do not take up parking spaces, and the bikes are free or much cheaper. Denmark is one example…Our program is costly and going to cause a injuries..you watch.

  • MonroeOrange

    furthermore…people will dart in the street without looking..you watch, people will be injured with this program almost immediately.

  • MonroeOrange

    This Blog, while great…doesn’t speak for the majority of people in our hood…I’ve lived here my whole life, and know 100s if not 1000s of people in the heights…not one of them thinks this is a good idea, nor even knows about this blog (sorry homer, i spread the word though, to help your readership). So my point is we aren’t hearing from the majority of people in the heights. Most think this is a nussance….what 6,000 people have signed up for this program, out of 8 million….

  • Hicks St Guy

    yes, it snows all the time, c’mon!

  • Hicks St Guy

    remember,whatever it is, at least half the neighborhood is against it.

  • David on Middagh

    Are you trying to make an enemy of someone who is pro-bike?

  • MonroeOrange

    Yes…when it is a bad idea, at least half the hood should be against it…Lets see, most people were against the 3 million dollar bridge that was built for no reason in squib park (that money would have been better spent on charity), kudos, for half the hood being against it. Half the hood, is against the movie crews that take over our hood at least twice a month, thats another good example…so i would say, half the hood is against bad ideas…

    and of course, my dog says hello;)

  • Joe A

    Judging by the very unscientific up/down arrows here it would seem your estimate of at least half the neighborhoodof being against the bike share program to be as fallacious as most of your other posts.

    Complainers are noisy, nothing more. I would imagine the vast majority of BH residents either support or are agnostic on the program.

  • Joe A

    I did not call you ignorant. I said your post was ignorant. (i.e. suggesting tickets for non-helmeted riders)

    It is rather ignorant to not understand the difference.

  • Joe A

    Denmark’s bike sharing program which was “cheaper” is being replaced by a system very much like the one in NY.

    Copenhagen’s famed Bycyklen (“City Bike”) program, which has been an inspiration to many cities, finally closed at the end of 2012 after operating for 17 years with more than 1,000 bicycles. It is set to be replaced by a modern system in 2013, which could help Copenhagen meet its goal of increasing the share of commuting trips on bike from an already impressive 36 percent to 50 percent.

  • Yosimite Sam

    Where is your nose?

  • Lookwhereyouaregoingdumbass

    Accidents will increase, more cyclists will equal more accidents. BUT not for the reasons most of you are thinking. I cycle everyday in Brooklyn and manhattan and the (yes generalization I know) pedestrians are without doubt the most self absorbed, in attentive wannabe self harmers I have ever come across. Striding out into the roads, stepping into bike lanes, and walking along dedicated bike paths without looking or a care about cyclists rights.
    Visitors will not be expecting this dumbass behavior and will be blamed for the accidents, but by and large they will not be at fault.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Funny, I see many people using the “Bridge for no Reason” Including myself who has enjoyed walking it over a dozen times so far… But I guess a shut-in such as yourself wouldn’t ever know the reality of that, or any other issue you erroneously comment on.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    I partly sympathize with your comment, although I don’t ride a bike. I like to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, which has dedicated pedestrian and bike lanes, I have many times seen pedestrians dart into the bike lane without looking; sometimes causing near misses. However, there are times when, as a pedestrian, I’m forced to trespass onto the bike side, usually because there is heavy traffic on the pedestrian side going in both directions. This is especially a problem in those stretches where the lanes are narrowed because of the ongoing construction. When this happens, I look behind me as well as ahead to make sure there is no oncoming bike traffic, and try to make my intrusion as small as possible. Still, even with that precaution, I have sometimes heard from behind either the shrieking of a whistle or yells of “BIKE LANE! BIKE LANE!” as a cyclist bears down on me at a fearsome speed. I do wish cyclists would realize that, in narrow passages like those on the Brooklyn Bridge, their right to emulate Tour de France contestants isn’t absolute.

  • David on Middagh

    I don’t trust the up/down arrows in this thread, which is inundated with names I’ve never seen before, including a couple that appear to be opportunistically trolling for hits on a different blog.

    My amazement is renewed at the failure of this overengineered comment system to improve on a flat thread in organizing the issues.

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