The seemingly schizoid Bloomberg Administration continues to encourage bicycling with one hand while making it incredibly difficult with the other. Two weeks ago, amidst news of new bike lanes, on-street bike parking, and an impending bike lane media blitz, we heard about a gang of Parks Dept. employees clipping locks and seizing dozens of bicyclesat the Forest Hills subway station in Queens.
Now we get news from a daily bike commuter who says that her employer -- the City of New York -- suddenly, and without warning, started cracking down on employees who park their bikes indoors. Rachel Stein is a 28-year-old project manager at the Dept. of Housing Preservation & Development at 100 Gold Street. She has worked off-and-on for three different City agencies the last six years. Here is an e-mail Stein forwarded to a friend last Thursday, published with her permission:
This morning I arrived at work as usual and was stopped by someone, I think from the Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services, or maybe our building security, saying that, as of yesterday, bikes were no longer allowed in the building. I did not have a lock, and no notice had been sent out despite the fact that there are a large number of daily or occasional cyclists in the building. He said I could not enter. I had to call my boss and have her contact Security to let me in, making me late.
Apparently it's been DCAS "policy" not to allow bikes into City buildings for some time now, but it was only enforced as of yesterday (with no notice). I was told that there may be plans for indoor bike parking in the future but no solid plans are in place. I was also told that security would be upped for the outdoor bike racks but was not told how or when that would happen. There are largely unmonitored racks to the side of the building, unprotected from the elements.
I've worked here for over two years and never had a problem. Apparently this has happened at other city buildings as well.
Anyway, I am just trying to get the word out to people that this is happening. The City is supposedly trying to encourage people to bike and bike commute. There are all these posters in the subway about bike commuters, and in fact a bike survey was conducted in my building a few months back asking about ways to encourage people to bike. Yet now they have implemented (or are enforcing) this policy that will certainly discourage people from cycling in. Seems a little backwards, doesn't it?
AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.
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Justin Sherwood and his lawyer will pocket $152,000 to settle his federal civil rights suit against the city and several officers who harassed him following his 311 calls.