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Sean Sweeney: Soho Must Be Preserved for SUVs

Sean Sweeney, the one-man show known as the Soho Alliance, has been sending this video around to the media, continuing his quest to preserve Soho streets for the convenience of motorists. What we basically have here is a careless truck driver butting grilles with a sociopath behind the wheel of an SUV. Sweeney's conclusion: Give these vehicles more street space and forget about providing cyclists with a basic safety amenity.

Sean Sweeney, the one-man show known as the Soho Alliance, has been sending this video around to the media, continuing his quest to preserve Soho streets for the convenience of motorists. What we basically have here is a careless truck driver butting grilles with a sociopath behind the wheel of an SUV. Sweeney’s conclusion: Give these vehicles more street space and forget about providing cyclists with a basic safety amenity.

The head-scratching logic continues on his website, which bemoans congestion on Soho streets while railing against bike lanes, pedestrian zones, sidewalk cafes, and, in general, any measure that would actually mitigate traffic and improve conditions for people who walk and bike. The site touts clips of media outlets eating up Sweeney’s act. Like the time Fox 5 put him on camera in a Grand Street hatchet job.

But where was Sean Sweeney and his media crusade in October, when a Con Ed worker was struck and killed by a truck on Grand Street? About that tragedy, the Soho Alliance site is silent.

Photo of Ben Fried
Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.

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