Community Boards

Two Manhattan community boards are meeting Tuesday evening to discuss new bike routes planned by DOT. If you'd like to support the proposals, and perhaps nudge DOT to beef up some of the provisions for cyclists, here are the details.

Earlier this week Suffolk County prosecutors charged Donald MacPherson, proprietor of a Manhattan S&M dungeon, with orchestrating a $50 million mortgage fraud out in Southampton. If, like me, you have only a fleeting familiarity with the subterranean torture fetish community, you're probably wondering, "Who is Don MacPherson?"

In November 2006, Manhattan Community Board 3 voiced support for "a comprehensive, community-inclusive initiative to study, identify and build consensus around strategies to improve the safety and connectivity of walking, bicycling and public transportation."

Apologies for the last-minute heads up, but livable streets supporters in Chinatown and the Lower East Side won't want to miss this action at Community Board 3 tonight. A DOT project to expand pedestrian space and add center median protected bike paths to the Allen and Pike Street malls will be on the table at a meeting of the transportation committee. The plan also calls for new pedestrian plazas connecting the malls at six intersections, per DOT:

As we reported last week, Maria Baez and a handful of other City Council members want to issue free parking permits to every public school teacher in New York City. As the system presently employs some 95,000 full-time teachers, in addition to 18,000 part-time teachers and paraprofessionals, Intro 894 would encourage hundreds of thousands of car trips per year just as the city is making efforts to reduce driving by government employees by reining in parking placard issues.

Supporters of the besieged Kent Avenue bike lane made a strong showing at last night's meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 1. About 150 people showed up, says Transportation Alternatives' Elena Santogade, and of the 60 or so speakers, only three opposed the current configuration.

If you want to join a Manhattan community board and haven't yet filed an application, you have until tomorrow. Manhattan has the earliest (and by far the most well-publicized) deadline of the five boroughs, so no need to panic if you intend to apply elsewhere.

There's a lot on the table today for New Yorkers looking to make streets safer and more welcoming for pedestrians and cyclists. Turnout will be needed at three events, including two meetings where recent improvements are expected to come under fire.

A tipster sends word that opponents of the Kent Avenue bike lane are making appeals to Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, a long-time supporter of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. A large group representing the Williamsburg Hasidic community showed up at Velazquez's office last week, our source tells us, to register their opposition to the bike lane, which is a precursor to the full build-out of the greenway.