Nearly Every NY-12 Candidate Supports the 72nd St. Bike Lane
The city’s plan to install a two-way bike lane and safety infrastructure on 72nd Street enjoys nearly universal support among candidates hoping to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District.
NY-12 covers a wide swath stretching from West Chelsea to Yorkville. 72nd Street bisects both of the district’s most influential neighborhoods: The Upper East and Upper West Sides.
The race appears to be a genuine toss-up, with its three frontrunners — Assembly Member Alex Bores, Assembly Member Micah Lasher and Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg — trading the top spot in recent polls. Roughly one-third of the district’s registered voters are undecided.
Streetsblog previously asked all of the NY-12 candidates about what they plan to do for the streets of New York City and the larger livable streets movement. And the ones who responded said they generally endorsed bike lanes.
But supporting bike lanes in theory is not the same thing as supporting them in practice. So we were curious: what would the candidates say about a specific bike lane project in the dead center of their congressional district?
Here’s the scorecard (minus candidate George Conway, who did not respond):
SUPPORTS the bike lane: Alex Bores, Chris Diep, Micah Lasher, Jack Schlossberg, Nina Schwalbe, Patrick Timmins
OPPOSES the bike lane: Laura Dunn
The candidates’ near-unanimous endorsement of the 72nd Street project is especially noteworthy given the escalating and increasingly alarming tactics of the project’s opponents.
Last week, attendees of a Transportation Alternatives fundraiser on the Upper West Side encountered a group of bike lane opponents who screamed slurs and accused supporters of the safe streets nonprofit of “murder.” One opponent stalked a Streetsblog reporter as he headed to the subway after the event.
Days later, the same opponent singled out and shouted profanities at a different Streetsblog reporter during a community board meeting about the project — an incident that the board initially censored from its online video of the meeting. (After a complaint from Streetsblog that the board’s censorship had improperly cleansed the public record, the board published “edited” and “unedited” videos of the same gathering.)
These and other confrontations raise the fear that opponents of bike lanes will resort to real violence. Earlier this month, one of them chanted “death to transplants” and “death to hipsters” at a protest against bike lanes on 31st Street in Astoria.
But the tide is turning in favor of street safety. Mayor Mamdani’s DOT is (almost) fully committed to painting new protected bike lanes, and he thankfully lacks a conniving consigliere who would secretly sabotage his own street safety projects.
NY-12 embodies this sea change. Nadler, who is retiring rather than running for re-election, told the West Side Rag that he fully supports the 72nd Street bike lane, calling it “welcome news for cyclists and pedestrians alike on the Upper West Side.” The majority of the candidates to replace him, including all three frontrunners, support the bike lane, too.
Without further delay, here are the candidates’ statements about the 72nd Street bike lane project, listed in alphabetical order:
Assembly Member Alex Bores: “I support separated bike lanes. As this process continues, I want to ensure that 72nd St bus service and ambulance service is not disrupted and will work with DOT as they refine their plans.”
Chris Diep (software engineer): “I support the 72nd Street bike lane because reducing dependence on gas-powered cars will lower the costs of transporting everyday items (i.e. make life more affordable) and creating more opportunities for New Yorkers to travel by bicycle will help protect the environment.”
Laura Dunn (attorney): “I am concerned about this project. It would be one thing if this were normal bikes, but we know from living in this city that the lane will become a superhighway of sorts for dangerous e-bikes often ridden by unsafe drivers causing massive injury and harm to residents, pets, and other cyclists.
“I think the city needs to rethink what place, if any, e-bikes should have here. Furthermore, as federal lawmakers, we need to better regulate e-bike design. They are too heavy, fast, and quiet, setting up riders and pedestrians for catastrophic injuries. I stand with NYC-EVSA in calling for Priscilla’s Law and rethinking lane expansion if e-bikes remain legally driven in such spaces. They need their own spaces, if they remain legalized at all.”
Assembly Member Micah Lasher: “I welcome this proposal and I’m taking a close look at the details to make sure it works for everyone on 72nd Street — cyclists, pedestrians, and the businesses that keep our neighborhood running. I look forward to working with DOT and our community to get this right.”
Jack Schlossberg (writer): “Jack will always defer to the local community, and like Community Board 7, he supports the 72nd Street bike lane,” his campaign said.
Nina Schwalbe (public health researcher): “Nina supports the 72nd Street bike lane,” her campaign said. “The data supports it. Protected bike lanes consistently reduce the number of injuries and deaths for both cyclists and pedestrians. Communities on both sides of Central Park support the lane, and when the East and West Sides actually manage to agree on something, it’s usually worth paying attention to. Simple measures like this that promote emission-free transportation are a small but necessary part of a much larger effort to protect clean air and, by extension, public health.”
Patrick Timmins (attorney): “Patrick supports the bike lane on 72nd,” his campaign said.
George Conway (attorney): Refused to respond to multiple emails.
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
