Bike-Share NIMBYs Suing to Prevent a Rise in Their Property Values?

Setting aside the sheer entitlement it must take to sue the city over a public amenity installed on the public right of way, let’s just appreciate the irony of the complaints coming from anti-bike-share litigants.

Apartment owners at 99 Bank Street and a few other tony buildings are under the impression that locating a public bike station in front of their residence is going to depress their property values:

“The placement of such a massive futuristic structure … (and) dropping … a slab in front of (their) 100 year old landmark building located on an historic street in a landmarks protected district is offensive to the public and residents,” the owners’ lawyer, Jeffrey Barr, says in court papers.

Barr said the residents decided to sue the corporate sponsor, Citibank, and the vendors running the program, Alta Bicycle Share and NYC Bike Share, because they are in charge of the program and in position to make a change.

He said they also are responsible when the building’s value drops because the bike racks attract garbage and animal waste and impede pedestrian and vehicular traffic, forcing bikers to ride on the narrow sidewalks to escape the narrow bumpy street.

Meanwhile, Matt Chaban at Crain’s writes that people who deal with apartment sales for a living are expecting the opposite effect:

Residential brokers are also buying into the program. “I deal mostly with clients in their late 20s to mid-30s who are very physically active,” Douglas Elliman agent Zakery Risinger said. “Being close to one of the stations will be a huge selling point for apartments.”

So the bike-share litigants are fighting something that’s not only going to enrich transportation options for themselves and their neighbors, it’s also probably going to enrich them, period.