Judge Throws Out 150 Joralemon’s Citibike Lawsuit

By on March 7, 2014 6:43 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Legal, News

We reported last year that the co-op board of 150 Joralemon Street had filed a lawsuit against the City and its Department of Transportation, claiming that the installation of a Citibike rack on the Clinton Street side of the building (photo) was interfering with garbage pickup (building residents expressd displeasure by dumping garbage on the rack) and that they had not been given notice of the siting decision. Now, Streetsblog NYC reports:

Judge Leon Ruchelsman dismissed the suit last week. Ruchelsman wrote in his ruling that DOT followed its own guidelines and safety criteria when installing the station, and violated no city rules. Building residents had due notice that the station would be located there, Ruchelsman wrote, as their “complaints [date] as far back as the summer of 2012.” The station was installed in April 2013.

The Streetsblog story notes that the suit by 150 Joralemon was the only suit concerning Citibike siting to arise from Brooklyn. No word on whether an appeal is planned.

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  • Eddyde

    Justice well served. I wonder how the board of that building is going to fair after wasting money on such a frivolous lawsuit.

  • Boerum Bill

    A great precedent for any other crybabies with too much time & money on their hands thinking of pulling this kind of bull on a wonderful AND successful city program.

  • Joe A

    Excellent decision. And I hope it cost them a pretty penny to file this lawsuit. Serves them right.

  • Joe A

    It should also be noted that some unnamed commenters opined that no one would use the bike in thwpe winter because of the cold weather. Guess what? They did as this article in the NY Observer points out.

    It was not without a certain amount of incredulity that we learned Wednesday about Citi Bike’s surprisingly high ridership during the polar vortex: According to the system’s records, people took 6,669 trips on Citi Bikes on the city’s coldest day in a century.

    “The thing we’re seeing the most is that people really seem to use bike share in conjunction with other forms of transit. So on the busiest days the ones around Grand Central, Union Square, and Astor Place are busiest,” Fillin-Yeh said. That’s because people ride, say, from the East Village to the subway, or from Grand Central to work. “If you look at Tuesday, the same thing is at work. If you’ve got a twenty-minute cold walk or a five-minute cold bike ride, the five-minute ride is the best option.”

  • Joe A

    Correction: the above snippet was from an article in the New Yorker

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/how-do-people-use-citi-bike-when-its-cold.html

  • HicksOnHicks

    I’m pleased by the decision but it really is a non-event. The racks were re-located shortly after the suit was to filed to Hicks near Montague.

  • ClaudeScales

    The racks that were relocated to Hicks near Montague came from Remsen near Hicks. The racks by 150 Joralemon (on the Clinton side) are still there, as you can see from the photo I took on Friday, above.

  • HicksOnHicks

    Looks like I had a senior moment! This IS good news.

  • mucow

    Seriously. I’ve been looking at places in the neighborhood to buy, and have intentionally avoided units in this building due to this lawsuit — the fact they actually spent building money on something as stupid as this speaks volumes.

  • Andrew Porter

    New York Magazine, *not* The New Yorker!