Somewhere, maybe, Woody Allen finally regrets opposing that bike lane.
Among the millions of pages the federal government released on Friday — as part of the wide-ranging sexual abuse scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, Donald Trump and other figures — a single page involving the film auteur and alleged groomer stands out as a perfect crystallization of New York privilege, wealth, contempt for the public and flat-out NIMBYism.
And, of course, it involves Allen's well-known hatred of bike lanes.
Streetsblog readers will remember Allen's appearance at a now-notorious May 2016 meeting of the transportation committee of Upper East Side Community Board 8. Allen attended the meeting to express his opposition to a painted bike lane on E. 70th Street, where he lives with his wife, Soon-Yi Previn (who is also the adopted daughter of Allen's ex-partner, the actor Mia Farrow).
Local media took note of Allen and Previn's appearance at the May 4 meeting; Streetsblog and Gothamist posted stories about it the next day.
And the day after that? Jeffrey Epstein added his own snarky bons-mots.
"i can't beleive [sic] you went to the commminuty [sic] meeeting [sic] on bike lanes. ? nothing better to do? or were they serving food," he wrote in an email to Previn, according to the chain released by the Justice Department, which accurately included the typos, extra spaces and the failure of the wealthy Epstein to use proper punctuation or capital letters. (For the record: no refreshments were served.)
"Do you have a GPS on us? How did you know?" Previn wrote back ("Sent from Soon-Yi's iPhone," the signature showed). "Woody doesn't want the bike lane on our block on 70th St."
Epstein certainly didn't need a tracker; Allen was a well-known opponent of the bike lane and even told Gothamist that DOT's plan to paint one on E. 70th Street was "unacceptable."
"None of the streets can accommodate a bike lane in a graceful way," Allen told the outlet, adding that a bike lane is out of step with the community. "Every street has a good argument why it shouldn't have a lane."
The committee ended up voting in favor of the bike lane, and the full community board followed two weeks later with a resolution in support. The lanes were installed shortly thereafter.
Perhaps Allen and Previn should have aired their grievances to then-Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Madeline Cuomo, the sister of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Those two power brokers successfully delayed two parallel bike lanes, which DOT did not install until a truck driver killed cyclist Carling Mott on E. 85th Street in 2022.
The fuller exchange between Previn and Epstein began with the former sending the latter a now-broken link to a Forbes magazine article about an 1,111-carat diamond that had just been unearthed in Botswana.
"I think this diamond is a little too big for me," she joked to Epstein.
His retort was very much in keeping with the public understanding of the known sex trafficker: "for which part" he asked.
Previn's response? "On second thought it's not too big :-)."
Streetsblog is unsure what that means. It is apparently not about the bike lane, however.
