Park Slope

Courtesy of reader Joanna Oltman Smith, this was the scene in Park Slope this morning, hours after a collision between a speeding driver and NYPD officers on Fifth Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets. Details from the Brooklyn Paper:

The Park Slope Patch (an AOL publication, for what it's worth) did a few word-on-the-street interviews on Prospect Park West, asking passersby what they think about the bike lane. Not everyone they talked to thinks the lane is needed -- it's about 50-50, giving critics a disproportionate say relative to their numbers. But note that even the guy who calls the lane "stupid" thinks the NBBL-conjured safety criticism is hogwash.

As a referendum on the Prospect Park West redesign, last night's Community Board 6 hearing was another clear signal that the two-way, protected bike path enjoys broad support within the community. On the community board's sign-in sheet, 86 people put their names down to testify in favor of the project while 11 signed up to speak against it. Transportation Alternatives handed out stickers to 330 supporters before their supply ran out.

I'll have a longer post later today, but for now, here is the numerical recap from last night's public hearing on the Prospect Park West redesign. The overall headcount was somewhere around 400 people. Transportation Alternatives handed out pro-bike lane stickers to 330 people before they exhausted their supply. Among the 100+ people who signed up to testify, support outweighed opposition by nearly an eight-to-one margin.

If the goal of the Prospect Park West bike lane lawsuit is to smear the Department of Transportation and sow doubt about the city's street safety initiatives, it's already doing a bang-up job. The Post and the Daily News both ran pieces yesterday basically lifting arguments straight out of the plaintiffs' complaint [PDF] without a shred of analysis. Both papers repeat the same basic distortion: Bike lane opponents are fighting DOT's agenda. But that's not really what's going on here.

If you just landed in the city or you've been off the grid for the past eight months, you might be wondering what the heck is going on on Prospect Park West. To catch yourself up, dive into this exquisite piece from the Guardian's Matt Seaton.

City Council Member Brad Lander and supporters of the Prospect Park West bike lane rallied on the steps of City Hall this afternoon in response to yesterday's lawsuit, filed by a group of well-connected Park Slope residents who want to rip the lane out.

Opponents of the Prospect Park West bike lane have filed a lawsuit against the city in relation to the project, according to the New York City Law Department. The suit, which has been threatened for a month, was filed at the end of the day today in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Download it here.