Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents clash over bikes
by Katia Bachko and Elsa Butler
Brooklyn, N.Y. -- Williamsburg and Greenpoint, two of Brooklyn’s most popular neighborhoods, teem with cyclists cruising down the quiet, residential streets. But on Oct. 18, 2007, Craig Murphey, 26, died after he was struck by a truck while cycling in East Williamsburg.
His death and the rise in injuries to cyclists in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, coincides with an initiative by city officials to install new facilities, including bike lanes and parking racks, to protect and serve the neighborhood's throngs of riders. But that has brought buried resentments to the surface: Many long-time residents see the cyclists as gentrifying interlopers—and the cause of their own problems.
Some complain the cyclists are reckless, and others object to the city’s plan to remove several parking spaces in the area to make room for bike racks. The city so far is siding with the cyclists.
Ben Stewart, 37, counts himself as part of the wave of cyclists—and gentrifiers. He moved to Williamsburg in 1999 and everyday he bikes to his office at New York University where he teaches composition. He believes that because many of the young residents are avid cyclists, negative attitudes toward the new arrivals are transferred to bikes.
“I’ve read a lot about community board meetings where cycling is perceived as a marker of gentrification,” he says. “The community views it as more environmentally friendly, but also a sign of elitism. This whole thing about the incumbent community versus the encroaching community is a huge problem, and bikes are indelibly attached.”
One possible reason so many people bike in Greenpoint is because the area is served by the G train, a source of frustration to residents because of its infrequent service and its limited route—it doesn’t go into Manhattan. According to the transit advocacy group Straphangers Campaign, the G comes less often that most trains and its cars break down more often most other lines. The line also has limited service; it once ran deep into Queens, but now terminates at the Court Square station in Long Island City.
The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) is creating six designated bicycle-parking areas around the community, including an additional 11 miles of lanes in Community Board 1 that covers Greenpoint and Williamsburg.
But the racks and lanes met resistance from some in the area. The department’s DOT design for the parking areas eliminates one car spot by extending the sidewalk into the roadway, providing storage for 10 or more bicycles. But car parking is scarce in the neighborhood as the population grows, and local drivers—some of whom have lived in the area their whole lives—grumble at the initiative.
“People who live around here are just pissed that there isn’t enough parking for everyone,” said Nick Giannios, local a resident and owner of Greenpoint Florist.
Although local residents were reluctant to voice their concerns on the record, Teresa Toro, chair of the transportation committee at Community Board 1, confirms that the proposal was contested.
More bike racks will mean neater, more orderly sidewalks, but some people protested that more racks would equal more mess,” she said. “I think their protests are coming from an outdated perspective—one that says bikes are toys and not legit forms of transportation—so they have trouble understanding why we're accommodating them at all. And they simply do not like how bikes look, whether they're properly chained to a rack or chained to something else.”
At a recent community board meeting, several members of the board, including the chair Vincent Abate expressed concerns over decreasing the number of car parking spots.
Cyclists report uncomfortable encounters with local residents. Brian Simmons bikes between his apartment in Park Slope and his job and friends in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. This summer, he was chaining his bike to a street sign when a homeowner asked him to take his bicycle elsewhere.
“He told me, ‘I don’t like bikes locked in front of my property,’” Simmons said.
It’s difficult to say where these negative attitudes toward cyclists originate. New York bike messengers have a reputation for reckless riding, with a long list of cycle-pedestrian collisions. But messengers are rare in residential neighborhoods like Greenpoint and Williamsburg.
Jean Wierzbicky has lived in Greenpoint since she was 5. Several years ago she stepped off the curb on the corner of Leonard St. and Nassau Ave. and was hit by a cyclist, resulting in a torn ligament and knee surgery. She said she would have no problem with cyclists as long as they comply with the law. “A lot of them are not following the rules of the road,” she said.
Ryan Nuckel, a cycling advocate and the driving force behind the Ghost Bikes project—an arts collective that creates memorials at the sites of cycling deaths including Murphey’s on Union Ave. sees the conflict as a land grab.
“If the infrastructure changes, and there’s room for everyone to get around, then you’re not forced into confrontation,” Nuckel explained. “Being a biker in New York is like being a pedestrian in place where there’s no sidewalks.”
Nuckel believes that the tide is changing for cyclists in the city and a resolution is inevitable. “If we’re going to figure out how to make cities work, cycling is not the only answer,” he said. “But in terms of public health and environmental protection, it’s certainly part of the solution.” |
