Comments on: Council Candidate’s Congestion Solution: Rush Hour Bike Bans

By: LJ Ten

LJ Ten — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:09:24 +0000

I live in the neighborhood and discussed the bike lane with many neighors. None said it was good…largely because of the parking lane. If the parking lane were to be removed, traffic could flow again, and the bike lane would most likely be more accepted. Most people did comment that they rarely saw it in use, however. Margaret Chan was one of the people I spoke to about this, and she agreed that the car parking lane does not work.

By: al oof

al oof — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:52:15 +0000

i can’t stop being infuriated by the anti-bike lane on the basis of businesses not getting deliveries and/or people having trouble finding parking bullshit. 90% of nyc businesses cannot receive deliveries comfortably and never could. casual parking while you shop or dine is almost impossible in much of the city. it is not your god given right to cater to driving customers or receive deliveries right in front of your store just because you’re on grand street (or kent in williamsburg). suck it up.

By: ddartley

ddartley — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:07:56 +0000

Paul Liu, you might be just joking with me, but if your gibe is serious, please don’t go there with me; I knew what I was saying. The story mentions JOHN Liu, so that’s why I mentioned JOHN Liu.

By: Liam Patrick

Liam Patrick — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:23:13 +0000

Actually, that satisfies your request. You said “DOT’s Schemes” not one or the other.

You won’t be missed. Useless. (now lay on him and see if hill come back and make his statement baloney).

MM, baloney.

Speaking of DOT schemes, my friend and I had a great time at Summer Streets today.

That DOT and their freakin’ schemes!

By: Paul Liu

Paul Liu — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:55:32 +0000

“I would share the name..”
but you didn’t, did you? More empty words.

Frankly, my friend, I don’t believe you. And even if you are correct, I defied you to name someone on GRAND St who supports the bike lanes, not Chatham Square. Don’t follow instructions well, do you?

And for the vomitous Marty, also not from my ‘hood:
Duh! Carmine St. is in the Village, not in my community board.

I won’t even waste time addressing your other unsupported and broad-sweeping claims.

Now I know why I have never bothered to comment here before. I knew it would be a waste of time. It will be my last. Extremists do not easily listen to others point of view.

Anyway, I do have a life, and a family, and a weekend ahead of me. I’ll let you spend your time doing what you do best: cackling together with the same coterie of extremists obsessively, day in and day out.

Hasta la vista. I’m outta here baby. None too soon.

By: Marty Barfowitz

Marty Barfowitz — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:04:45 +0000

Paul,

Your Community Board keeps voting in favor of these DOT initiatives and pushing for new ones like the changes on Carmine Street. There’s a ton of support in Lower Manhattan for livable streets. But, yeah, Chinatown has some seriously retrograde merchants and the SoHo Alliance stopped representing the interests of the neighborhood some time around the end of the ’80s. We know that too.

By: Liam Patrick

Liam Patrick — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:28:03 +0000

Paul, I would share the name of a business owner one block from Chatam square that I know who supports DOT’s “silly” bike lanes (obviously not Chatam Square plans), but I won’t give you his business name because based on what you’ve typed here you’d probably call and harass him.

By: Paul Liu

Paul Liu — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:17:19 +0000

Paul Liu = John Liu? LMAO!!!

Hi, ddartley, I guess you think all Chinese look alike too? LOL

Anyway, No one responded to my observation that they are all full of ideas for my neighborhood, but don’t say what they do for their own, other than type away fitfully and obsessively on this blog.
Ha! As I thought, a bunch of interlopers who want to impose their views on our community.

Except Chris who says he lives in the district.
And you, Chris, do you REALLY live here? I checked the phone records and called the Board of Elections and you are unknown in both. I also emailed friends on CB1 and CB3 and no one has heard of you. You are telling the truth, aren’t you? If so, please identify where you live, the street is fine, no house number needed, in order to protect your privacy. Otherwise, I would say you are full of baloney.

And LIam, I have friends who live in Boulder, just like you have friends who live in CD1. But what does that prove? You’d like Boulder. Lots of silly bike lanes.

I defy any on this blog to get one person – one person – who lives or owns a business on Grand Street or Chatham Square who supports the DOT’s schemes. I bet you can’t!

J’accuse!

By: Liam Patrick

Liam Patrick — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0000

Paul Liu or John Liu?

By: ddartley

ddartley — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:30:22 +0000

Quickly looking for the streetsblog story where this would be most relevant–just going to pile on John Liu for a minute:

I’ve emailed Liu’s office at least once about how annoying this is:

Every time you email Liu (including if you follow an online action alert), Liu’s office puts you on his damn google group! See below.

noreply@googlegroups.com to me
show details 1:58 PM (3 hours ago)

John Liu johnliu@liunewyork.com has added you to the JohnLiuNewYork group
with this message:

Welcome to John Liu’s network of friends and community activists. This email
list was established to keep you updated on some of the latest news, issues
and activities. Let’s work together to make change for the better!

Here is the group’s description:

* * * JOHN LIU 2009 * * *
==========================================
Providing the Latest News and Updates from John Liu
==========================================
LEADERSHIP * COMMITMENT * EXPERIENCE * RESULTS

———————– Google Groups Information ———————-

The owner of the group has set your subscription type as “No Email”, meaning
that you’ll need to visit the group’s home page to view new messages.

Visit this group on the web by using this URL:

By: Liam Patrick

Liam Patrick — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:24:57 +0000

Paul Liu :

I have three friends who were born and raised in District 1, two of them use the Grand Street bike lane almost daily.

And for the record, PJ Kim has the most balanced and reasonable stance on the Grand Street bike lane situation.

By: Chris O'Leary

Chris O'Leary — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:21:45 +0000

Paul: I am, in fact, a resident of the district and fully employed. I attend community board meetings regularly. And I’m sorry, I didn’t know that the fact that I moved here from somewhere else seven years ago gave me no right to complain about my elected officials and a few vocal members of the community trying to trump our right to safer streets.

None of my neighbors own cars. Not one. The fact that several projects that directly benefit pedestrians have faced such absurd opposition in a district where so many people walk (and where dozens of pedestrians have been killed this decade) is puzzling, until I read comments like yours.

By: Paul Liu

Paul Liu — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:20:53 +0000

I bet not one of the above 15 commenters lives in the district you are opining on! Do you?

No, likely you are mostly a bunch of underemployed scolds from some other nabe or transplants to the city.

Well, we who live and vote here could care less about your views. Get active in YOUR communities, if you want change. I bet you have never been to any, any community meeting in your neighborhood. What block or neighborhood association do you belong to?
None!

The fact that you would red-bait Chin is so ’50s. Did you learn that from your McCarthyite parents in the suburbs?

You thought you were getting your way with Chatham Square. Chinatown taught you a lesson.

We live here, we love our neighborhood and we vote here. Our activism does not consist of sitting in front of a computer screen talking back and forth to the same two dozen people day in and day out.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:13:59 +0000

Capn, I admire your four-point take posted yesterday evening. I think that there are probably local business-owner or landlord groups who are congruent with points a, b, and d. Those groups and their bought-and-paid-for representatives, like to confuse themselves with “the community” a lot.

By: Cap'n Transit

Cap'n Transit — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:02:15 +0000

But V2 and Glenn, as Ben pointed out, the Commuity Board endorsed the Grand Street bike lane. The definition of “community input” espoused by these candidates seems to involve consulting any sufficiently powerful resident or business owner who might possibly feel left out of the process, no matter how little they were involved before.

I’ve now read the interviews with Kim and Gleason. They seem marginally more intelligent and responsible than any of the other candidates. Although they both defer to “the community,” it is true that the DOT’s community consultation process could be better. Kim’s take seems to be the most balanced:

I’m a cyclist myself and I take the Grand Street path… but I understand that for people who live here, who have businesses here it is a tremendous burden. And that’s not to say that the bike lanes should or should not be there but the process by which that decision was made seemed to be heavy handed and it did not involve enough people in the community.

Gleason had this interesting quote about the ridiculously knee-jerk anti-pedestrian-Chatham-Square press conference:

I stood off to the side since it was Margaret’s press conference… Alan Gerson showed up and bellied his way up to the forefront and took over the microphone.

By: JEFF

JEFF — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:25:32 +0000

Cap’n, I think you’re right about Margaret’s past. I can’t find it now but I’m pretty sure she was part of an extremist party at some point in time. Which makes sense since it doesn’t matter to her if you get to work earlier than anyone else. Work is work.

By: glenn

glenn — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:48:35 +0000

Anyone who takes a cab to work on a regular basis could easily be described as the elite…and yet they are protrayed as salt of the earth types. What gives?

And all of the above comments on Community Board are largely correct. “Community” sentiment is often directly at odds with the parochial members of local community board.

By: V2

V2 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:59:53 +0000

In New York City newspeak “community” means community board. It doesn’t mean the people living within a neighborhood, or a specific religious or ethnic group. In community board world, it doesn’t matter what actual neighborhood sentiment is. What matters is the opinion of the, usually reactionary, core group. This group is made up of people who have sat through decades of interminable night time meetings. There are people like Chin in every board. They fervently represent a silent majority of car owners — even in districts where most people don’t have a car.

By: Cap'n Transit

Cap'n Transit — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:46:18 +0000

What about Kim and Gleason, anyway?

By: Cap'n Transit

Cap'n Transit — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:45:30 +0000

I agree with Nathan’s interpretation. Chin may have avoided taking a position one way or another on the bike lane, but she clearly thinks that “the community”:

a) is a coherent entity
b) is adequately represented
c) deserves absolute control over what goes on within its territory
d) is united against the Grand Street bike lane

On each of those issues, she is not only completely wrong, but completely out of touch with reality. Sadly, Gerson seems to be the same way.

It’s interesting that I’ve read some information that connects her to some wing of the Communist Party. She seems to have changed her political stripes, but is apparently no less committed to the kind of one-party political-insider way of doing things that is typical of both the People’s Republic of China and the New York community boards.