Bike Sharing

Speak Up If You Think Bike-Share Belongs in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill

Remember the Fort Greene residents who complained last year that bike-share stations don't belong in their historic, landmarked neighborhood -- even though you can find cobalt-blue Volvos and banana-yellow, late-model Beemers taking up the curb on those same blocks?

By Ben Fried

3:04 PM EDT on April 22, 2013

Remember the Fort Greene residents who complained last year that bike-share stations don’t belong in their historic, landmarked neighborhood — even though you can find cobalt-blue Volvos and banana-yellow, late-model Beemers taking up the curb on those same blocks?

Well, they apparently haven’t been convinced that public bikes belong on the street as much as private cars. Someone even felt entitled enough to deface Citi Bike stations with bike-share-hating flyers. Another small fraction of curb space could become useful to the car-free majority of residents — perish the thought!

The anti-bike-share crowd has been lobbying Council Member Tish James to remove stations in the neighborhood, and James is holding a public forum about bike-share on Wednesday evening. Whether you plan to use bike-share yourself or you just want to see the system succeed, if you live in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill this is an important one to turn out for. Otherwise, this is the message that’s going to come through the loudest:

The bike-share forum is happening Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Benjamin Banneker Academy, 71-77 Clinton Avenue.

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.