Streetsblog received this tip last night:
I was riding North on the Greenway tonight at about 9:15, and after clearing 60th street and entering the stretch under the elevatedMiller Highway a southbound cyclists yelled at me, "Watch out!There's a pile of rocks across the bike path ahead."
I slowed down and carefully rode to 67th Street where what I saw wasquite a shock.
A pile of ornamental rock had been taken from the the Riverside ParkSouth border of the greenway and piled across the bike path.The pile was about 1 foot high in some places, and went across the entire bike path, and had already been scattered by what looked likean earlier collision. It was clearly intended to cause a serious accident. The bike path is largely unlit in this stretch, and evenwith a bike light, the pile was hard to see.
Together with 4 other cyclists who stopped to help we cleared theobstruction.
I also called 311 on the scene who connected me to 911 who promised todispatch a patrol car that never came after about 15 minutes. Ihave a card from one of the volunteers and one of the others alsopromised to email me with his contact info.
In addition to you, I was going to follow up w the Riverside ParksCommissioner, the Riverside Parks Fund, and see if I can get my casenumber from 311. Who else should i/we contact?
On a positive note I can report that even on this 32-degree eveningthe bike path was well traveled, and we had plenty of volunteers whoquickly cleared the obstruction. I took this as a recreational rideto decompress from a meeting that ended at about 8p from LincolnCenter, riding down the Greenway (which was free of obstruction at the time) and then headed back up from the Battery. I would estimatethat I encountered about 50 cyclists, a healthy increase over what itusually is on a relatively cold winter night. And the other bit ofgood news is that there was not a single one without lights -- whichis real progress.
The bad news is that there is a seriously dangerous vandal out thereout to cause harm to cyclists. And how this happened unobserved givenall the use of the path that I saw is also very disconcerting.
