Manhattan Community Board 4's transportation committee unanimously approved DOT's plan to install a physically-separated bike path on Eighth Avenue in Lower Manhattan. The committee enthusiastically recommended the plan to the full board on Wednesday. The board then voted to ignore their own committee and block the plan. Apparently, some members feel that complete streets and safe bike infrastructure are somehow incompatible with the neighborhood's gay-friendly environment. Chelsea Now has the play-by-play:
Boardmember Allen Roskoff was more specific. “I refer to Eighth Ave. between14th and 23rd Streets as ‘Gay Boulevard,’ he said. “Large numbers ofgay people go there… It’s where we feel at home. … The atmospherethere—the restaurants, the activity, the people walking— it’s a home tomany of us that no other avenue is. I don’t think these changes are forthe positive in any way, shape or form.”
Which reminds me... Have you looked in to joining your local Community Board lately? This kind of thing is going to keep happening until either the Community Board system is overhauled or we get more Ian Dutton's, Christine Berthet's and Teresa Toro's serving on local boards.
The DOT's plan for a pilot project on Eighth Avenue, which can be downloaded here, mirrors the complete street redesign of Ninth Avenue one block to the west. The Eighth Avenue bike lane also runs through part of CB2, which unanimously approved the project last month.
It's also worth noting that outcry against the bike lane at CB4 was not at all universal and that Community Boards only have advisory power. DOT can go ahead with the project with or without the board's support. Again, from Chelsea Now:
Boardmember David Hanzel observed that “walking down Ninth Ave., I thinkit’s an improved experience.” He said there’s less traffic, fewer carsmaking sharp turns, and it’s “more of a leisurely stroll now.”
Hanzel was seconded by longtime member Bob Trentlyon, who observed thatthe discussion was the “most retro conversation I’ve heard at a boardmeeting in a long time. … There must be two Ninth Aves., because theNinth Ave. I see, the traffic is moving very smoothly along… There areno businesses that have gone out of business since this has happened;there are more people starting to use the bike lanes.”
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.