Judge Dismisses Brooklyn NIMBY Bike-Share Suit

Keeping it classy at 150 Joralemon. Photo: New York Post

Bike-share NIMBYs have lost another lawsuit.

Owners of 150 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights claimed that the siting of a bike-share station on the sidewalk outside the building was “arbitrary and capricious,” according to court documents, and that DOT exceeded its authority in doing so. They dumped their garbage on the station for good measure.

Judge Leon Ruchelsman dismissed the suit last week. Ruchelsman wrote in his ruling that DOT followed its own guidelines and safety criteria when installing the station, and violated no city rules. Building residents had due notice that the station would be located there, Ruchelsman wrote, as their “complaints [date] as far back as the summer of 2012.” The station was installed in April 2013.

The lawsuit was the only one filed over the siting of a Brooklyn bike-share station. The city prevailed in suits seeking to have bike-share stations removed from Petrosino Square and from the street in front of 99 Bank Street. Only the highly entertaining Plaza Hotel lawsuit remains.

Clarence Eckerson Jr.

BIKELASH be gone!!!
BBnet3000

Dumping your building trash in the street is ticketable isnt it?
Jeff

What is it about automobiles that makes adults act like children? You lost some of your precious free parking, so you’re going to throw trash on the street? Really? I’m guessing these are the same people who throw the monopoly board across the room once their opponent puts a few houses on Boardwalk.
Shrimp

It’s a sidewalk station!
Kevin Love

I agree. The city is for people, not cars.
nycbikecommuter

So I wonder: was the building fined for dumping on the trash on the bike station?
Albert

“Cars are people, my friend!”
Maggie

Not sure where you got the idea that this had anything to do with parking… the parking spots on the street are 1) metered, and 2) still there.
just fyi.
Joe R.

My guess is they would act like children at other times when automobiles weren’t involved. One pattern I see with most of these NIMBY lawsuits is that they’re bought on by people with lots of free time on their hands and no real problems in life. If the bike share racks weren’t there they would just find something else equally irrelevant to complain about. The majority of people who are busy with school, work, or just plain living life to its fullest extent don’t have time or desire to bring lawsuits over petty nonsense like this.

It’s just a shame that people like this who really can’t think of productive uses of their time have to waste everyone else’s with frivolous lawsuits.
Larry Littlefield

“The majority of people who are busy with school, work, or just plain living life to its fullest extent don’t have time or desire to bring lawsuits over petty nonsense like this.”

Or to be involved with government in general, which is why people like this run everything. But evidently faced with the omnipotent bike lobby, they don’t win all the time.
Chester Bumerfo

It’s not nice to gloat, but these garbage dumpers are such lousy neighbors that it gives me pleasure to see that the money they spent on this frivolous suit was wasted. The finances of this building are notoriously bad; residents pay outrageous common charges. And yet they continue to throw money away on legal fees and fines for dumping. What trashy people!

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