Ratner Arena Will Include 400 Satanic Bike Parking Spots

Well, this doesn’t make up for the eminent domain abuse, inexcusable subsidies-slash-dealmaking, crappy urban design and extensive surface parking acreage, but the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay reminds us that the Brooklyn basketball arena financed by Bruce Ratner, Mikhail Prokhorov, and the taxpayers of New York State will include 400 bike parking spaces.

Four hundred bike parking spots will help, but oceans of surface parking could still make the new Nets arena a traffic magnet. Image: Jonathan Barkey and the Municipal Art Society.

Gay’s report on yesterday’s media event announcing the arena’s opening date of September 28, 2012 has some sharp commentary on NYC’s media-fueled bike bashing:

On Monday I rode my bike in Brooklyn, because I live there, and because that’s what terrible people do in Brooklyn — load up their hemp backpacks with baguettes and copies of “Das Kapital” and ride their bikes everywhere, ruining civic life in New York City.

But lo, the outlaw behavior gets crazier. I rode my Satan bike in a Satanic bike lane to see the Nets.

P.J. O’Rourke take note: This is great satire.

With the opening of the 18,000-seat arena less than 18 months away and the Nets saying that it will host 200 events a year, 400 bike parking spaces will come in handy. But what about those oceans of surface parking? There must be a better way to plan for people to get to the arena than to invite thousands of car trips to one of the most transit- and bike-accessible sites in the entire city. Streetsblog will be taking a closer look at the Atlantic Yards transportation equation in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.

  • Larry Littlefield

    That’s how I’ll be getting there — assuming the Prospect Park West bike lane stays in place.

    I live on just about the only subway line in Brooklyn that doesn’t stop within a few blocks of Atlantic and Flatbush (the F), and wouldn’t want to try to find a parking space for my car in Windsor Terrace after a night game.

    PPW bike lane, Vanderbilt Ave with bike lanes, Bergen and Dean with bike lanes. Nice and safe even at night.

  • Throcky111

    And how much would he charge us to park? Hopefully more like the Botanic Garden in the Bronx (fee free) than the Met Museum ($15 per bicycle).

  • Anonymous

    I seem to remember something about free indoor bike parking for event ticket holders.

  • Danny G

    Ratner would be savvy to keep a chunk of it free of vehicles on non-game days, let a dozen or so food trucks park there and sell their goods, and call it neighborhood concession. If it is a success, get the food trucks there on game days, too.

  • Mike

    $15? As of a few years ago, there was free bike parking in the Met’s garage, right by the entrance to the museum.

  • Hilda

    It looks like it would be the perfect size for a velodrome, or even an ice skating rink.

  • M to the I

    Or a Walmart!

  • M to the I

    Or a Walmart!

  • The Met (and the American Museum of Natural History) have free indoor garage bike parking, last I checked.

  • Larry Littlefield

    People are looking at this situation as a worst case scenario. But think about it for a moment.

    1) The legitimate public use is the arena. I said right away it would be cheaper for the government to just pay for it rather than have this crazy scheme to have it paid for by an upzoning. And that is where we basically are now — with an arena in a transit oriented location.

    2) Most of those who were unwilling to sell, and thus has their property taken by eminent domain, were in the footprint of the arena.

    3) The high density development right near the transit hub, where it should be, could still occur.

    4) The area to be occupied by parking can be re-envisoned over time. Particularly when the lots are underutilized a la Yankee Stadium.

    5) The affordable housing? Crack down on the development abandoned sites, make the owners and financiers take their losses, and have Ratner finish the projects as part of his Atlantic Yards committment. Much cheaper for him, for us, for everyone.

  • Gib Veconi

    A rendering of the parking lot that accounts for changes in project design and schedule is available at http://www.phndc.org/content/phndc-hosts-forum-atlantic-yards-traffic-concerns.

  • Gib Veconi

    A rendering of the parking lot that accounts for changes in project design and schedule is available at http://www.phndc.org/content/phndc-hosts-forum-atlantic-yards-traffic-concerns.

  • Gib Veconi

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