After a number of delays, CB 12 convened the special forum last Thursday night, with community members, advocates and city officials all participating. Now that the groups have met and discussed topics of interest, the normal public process between the community board and the Department of Transportation for developing new bike infrastructure and street safety projects may move ahead.

With the Hudson River Greenway serving as the central artery for bike traffic in the area, greenway issues were of top concern at the forum. Participants discussed the so-called lighthouse link, which would extend the greenway at water level past the George Washington Bridge, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to avoid the steep hill they must currently climb. They also brought up the entrance to the greenway at 181st Street, which lets off at a one-way highway on-ramp and forces cyclists exiting the greenway to walk their bikes along the sidewalk. The street used to be bi-directional, but one lane was eliminated and replaced with curb parking when the highway entrance re-opened last year.

Local advocates also raised the prospect of building the Dyckman greenway connector, a proposed separated bike lane that would connect the greenways along the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. The connector has so far been left out of DOT’s plans for Inwood but could get a big boost from CB 12 support.

Jonathan Rabinowitz, a member of the local advocacy group Bike Upper Manhattan, was at the meeting and filed the following report.

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[The] bike lane forum held by Manhattan Community Board 12 was well attended by bicyclists and complete streets advocates. We heard from Hayes Lord of DOT’s Bicycle Program, John Mattera, the Parks Greenway planner, Aja Hazelhoff of Transportation Alternatives, Rich Conroy of Bike New York, Christine Berthet from the Transportation Committee of Manhattan CB 4 (Hell’s Kitchen), Tila Duhaime of the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance, and Brad Conover of Bike Upper Manhattan (my group).

Two of the board’s traffic & transportation committee members were absent, but three board members who spoke up, Gloria Vanterpool, Yosef Kalinsky, and Mitchell Glenn, were very positive about the forum. Gloria, who is the chairwoman of the Committee on the Concerns of the Aging, said that she had never learned to ride a bike but that she was impressed with the complete streets arguments and would support more bike lanes in Washington Heights and Inwood. Another T&T committee member, Edith Prentiss, an advocate for wheelchair users, pointed out that for changes in the streetscape to be successful, the changes would require local disabled residents to be retrained in the new traffic patterns.

The question of adding a bicycle facility to Riverside Drive between West 181st St and the Henry Hudson Parkway onramp was answered by the city thus: “We’re hoping to have some design resolution in the very near future.” Tila was the most eloquent of the several speakers who commented negatively on the current design, saying that she wondered why those eight people parking on Riverside Drive were so important that their spaces could block the installation of safe bicycle facilities for the thousands of cyclists who use the Hudson River Greenway.

John Mattera from Parks spoke about building a ramp from the current Greenway’s northern terminus at Riverside Drive just south of Dyckman Street down to Dyckman Street. That project, which covers a 60 foot drop in altitude, would need two hairpin turns for a safe ramp and cost $4 million to complete.

John also spoke about the new “Lighthouse Link Greenway,” which would initially extend south in Fort Washington Park from the Dyckman Marina for about a mile, not all the way to the Little Red Lighthouse at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. To connect this path to the Greenway at the lighthouse would cost about $15-16 million, the same cost as the new path between 84th and 91st Streets. This new path would have lights and stone benches as well as lookout points for river vistas.

The highlight of the evening, in my opinion, was Christine’s statement that “the bike lane that is the most friendly to your grandmother, to your children, is the protected bike lane.”

T&T Committee Chair Yosef Kalinsky said that there was a strong sentiment to making the streets safer, to connecting communities, and that this could be put into a resolution for the full board in September, at the next meeting of his committee.

One useful tidbit I learned from DOT: Sharrows require 27 foot wide streets; dedicated lanes require 30 foot wide streets, and “On-Street Bicycle Paths,” the current terminology for Grand-Street–type bike lanes, require 34 foot minimum width. Hayes didn’t use the “Class I, II, or III” terminology, which I had thought was confusing.

Efforts to replace these dismount signs in Riverside Park are stalling, but Manhattan CB 7 is keeping up the pressure on the Parks Department.

The parks committee of Manhattan Community Board 7 restated its support for shared bike/pedestrian paths through Riverside Park and Central Park last night. In Central Park, the shared paths would create new east-west routes through the park, while in Riverside, the community board is fighting against the Parks Department’s surprise imposition of dismount signs on what was once a part of the greenway system.

In Central Park, progress is continuing apace, reported committee co-chair Klari Neuwelt. She said that Doug Blonsky, the head of the Central Park Conservancy, had told her that plans to allow bikes on certain east-west pedestrian paths through the park were moving forward around 102nd Street, 97th Street, and in the 80s. “You’ll have options in Central Park,” promised Neuwelt.

She added, however, that the plan to allow bikes to take the 72nd Street Cross Drive across the park is moving more slowly through the Department of Transportation than hoped.

In Riverside Park, however, a victory that seemed to be in hand remains elusive. Neuwelt said that she had been informed that the dismount signs in Riverside Park were to be replaced with signs urging bikes to ride slowly and share the space with pedestrians. Then, however, the Parks Committee received what Neuwelt called “a pretty weasely e-mail back from John Herrold,” the administrator of Riverside Park, shying away from any such commitment.

The Parks Committee promised to keep on top of Riverside Park to see that the dismount signs are removed. “We’re working on it,” said Neuwelt. “We’re not about to be taken for patsies either.”

In the long term, engineering efforts to take some pressure off the 72nd Street entrance to Riverside Park are still being pursued. CB 7 chair Mel Wymore noted that as part of the Riverside Center negotiations, funding was allocated to create a new ramp from 72nd Street to the greenway, so cyclists will go from road to greenway without passing through the park. The committee also pledged to continue pursuing the plan to create bike access from the 79th Street boat basin to the greenway.

In the short term, though, they said that getting rid of the dismount signs is the top priority. “There’s always going to be a need for bikers to enter at 72nd,” said Neuwelt.

The guidelines, a joint venture of the Parks Department and the Design Trust for Public Space, envision bike and foot paths connecting parks to each other and to surrounding neighborhoods, providing new opportunities for physical activity. At the same time, they recommend reducing (but not eliminating) the footprint of the automobile on city parks.

The Parks Department sees active transportation as a way to bind the entire park system together. “Understanding connectivity has to become part of the design mindset,” said Nette Compton, a senior project manager for design with the Parks Department.

In waterfront parks, for example, the guidelines reiterate the city’s commitment to a continuous greenway system for both cyclists and pedestrians. The city should create safe biking and walking routes to active recreation parks and playgrounds, it suggests, so that exercise doesn’t just begin when someone steps onto the basketball court. The Queens Plaza bike lane is held up as a case study in how to redesign the streetscape, as are Greenstreets plantings used to calm traffic.

At the same time, the guidelines make it a priority to reduce the amount of park space swallowed up by pavement.

“Large expanses of paved surfaces are detrimental to the overall health of landscapes,” the report states. “They disturb habitats, increase stormwater runoff, concentrate nonpoint source pollutants, instigate soil erosion, negatively impact soil health, and contribute to the urban heat island effect.”

The report offers a few suggestions to reduce and mitigate the presence of cars and traffic. The guidelines suggest that the amount of parking provided should be based on average use, not peak use, and that the size of each parking space should be reduced. Similarly, the driving lanes on park roadways should be narrowed as much as possible, and all pavement should be made permeable. The report stops short of noting the negative impact of traffic on park users or questioning the basic necessity of roads and parking lots in parks.

The guidelines also suggest that whenever possible, bikes and pedestrians should be kept separate, particularly if the bike path is used by commuters or cyclists riding at high speeds. The report does not, however, take the line that cyclists need to dismount in pedestrian areas, a position the Parks Department has enforced at times. Rather, they urge that sightlines be extended at intersections and entrances where cyclists and pedestrians mix, so that different users are visible to each other.

The guidelines, which include forewords from both Mayor Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, should serve as the foundation for city park design in the years to come. Compton said that the principles and best practices of the report would guide all new projects the Parks Department takes on, including new parks and renovations to existing ones. One change Parks Department planners will see is a renewed emphasis on interagency cooperation. “There’s a real stress toward looking beyond the bounds of your site,” said Compton.

Noting that the guidelines are context-sensitive, she added that “which best practices are selected for each park will be very different.”

Though this Riverside Park path was signed as part of the greenway system and provides a crucial link to the Hudson River Greenway, the Parks Department slapped a dismount sign on top of it. The community board is currently looking for a less drastic solution to bike/ped conflict.

The Hudson River Greenway is the busiest bike route in the city, with around 5,000 cyclists riding it during the peak 12-hour period each day. This June, the Parks Department abruptly put up dismount signs at the 72nd Street entrance to Riverside Park, interrupting a popular access route to a major corridor within Manhattan’s green transportation network.

Cyclists, pedestrians, and dog walkers all use the 72nd Street entrance heavily, and while no resolution has yet been reached, many now see adding bike lanes at other greenway access points as the best way to reduce conflict. But even if those plans are pursued, cyclists won’t be able to ride this critical link without fear of getting fined unless the Parks Department changes the dismount policy.

At a meeting of the Manhattan Community Board 7 Parks Committee last night, CB members, the city, and local activists seemed to coalesce around a plan to improve bike access to the greenway at 79th Street, taking some pressure off 72nd and thereby mitigating the rationale for dismount signs. Both committee co-chairs saw the 79th Street plan as a partial solution worth pursuing and steered the conversation toward the more controversial question of what to do on the 72nd Street path.

Parks Department Greenway Coordinator John Mattera explained the 79th Street idea using an electricity analogy. “Bicycles follow the path of least resistance,” he said. If you want to reduce conflict on the 72nd Street path, he added, “the way to do that is to make a lightning rod out of 79th Street.” With fewer cyclists at 72nd, he said, the dismount policy could be swapped for something a little less heavy-handed. Mattera said that he’d spoken with the NYC DOT and that “as sure as anything can be at City DOT,” striping a new bike lane along 79th and leading into the park was part of their plan for 2011.

The plan got a generally positive response as a way of reducing conflicts between park users, though not everyone agreed with Mattera’s proposal. “Another way you guide electricity is by adding resistance, and there should be resistance at 72nd Street,” said committee member Tom Vitullo-Martin.

Though the lightning rod idea was popular in theory, implementing a safe access route from 79th Street could prove difficult in practice. “It’s a great idea, but it’s going to take a whole lot more than paint to make it safe for cyclists,” said Upper East Side resident Steve Vaccaro, who noted that cyclists would be riding by a highway off-ramp.

While everyone agreed that siphoning off some bike traffic from 72nd Street would help, waiting until those changes are in place would leave the dismount policy intact at least until next year.

Momentum on the community board seemed to be in the direction of walking back or replacing the dismount policy. “A 24/7 dismount is way overkill for the degree of congestion at that path,” said committee co-chair Klari Neuwelt, suggesting that it could be in effect only at the hours of peak use. “It has led to a lot of potentially unnecessary antagonism between user groups.”

The city's bike map, co-published by the Parks Department, clearly shows the 72nd Street path as part of the bike system.

Similarly, co-chair Elizabeth Starkey wanted to see a solution that enabled all park users to coexist, rather than putting the entire burden on cyclists. Ideas proposed over the course of the evening ranged from more creative signage urging slow speeds, to placing volunteer cyclists at the path to send the slow-down message, to building some sort of speed bump that only affects fast-moving bikes.

In the background of the whole discussion was the question of whether bikes are even allowed on the 72nd Street path in the first place. Riverside Park Administrator John Herrold claimed they are not. “Cycling is in fact illegal on any park path,” he explained, adding that until recently, the department had chosen not to enforce that rule in Riverside Park.

However, as many in the audience pointed out, the 72nd Street path to the Greenway is clearly marked on the city’s official bike map, which bears the Parks Department seal and Commissioner Adrian Benepe’s name. The inclusion of the 72nd Street path on that map for many years, said Herrold, has been “a mistake.”

Of course, it’s not just the maps. Directly above the “cyclists dismount” signs, markers on the path indicate that it’s part of the Hudson River Greenway.

Cyclists and pedestrians feel the squeeze where the East River Greenway narrows at this Con Ed facility near 13th Street, with zooming FDR traffic a few feet away. Photo: Kim Martineau

Above 34th Street, the East Side of Manhattan is unforgiving for cyclists, without any real provision to ride safely and quickly. The one dedicated path for bicycling, the East River Greenway, is barely usable for practical trips — the gap between 38th Street and 63rd Street being the most prominent of several flaws. On a ride organized by Transportation Alternatives this Sunday, Michael Auerbach of neighborhood group Upper Green Side led a group of about 20 cyclists, including City Council Member Dan Garodnick, on a tour of the greenway path to take in its pinch points, shoddy surfaces, and other shortcomings. Here’s a short photo tour of the trip from 6th Street to 63rd Street, with an assist from TA’s Kim Martineau.

The city has begun exploring a plan that would plug the greenway gap using funds secured through a land swap with the United Nations. If, after looking at these pictures, you’re wondering about what you can do to support a better greenway, it may helpful to keep in mind Garodnick’s parting message from the Sunday tour: “Communicate to your elected officials.”

Photo: Ben Fried

The pathway narrows and cyclists must dismount in front of the Crow’s Nest, sandwiched between the FDR Drive and the East River, before riding through the restaurant’s parking lot.

Photo: Kim Martineau

At 37th Street, greenway users head back toward the wide open streets of the East Side…

Photo: Kim Martineau

…where cyclists on First Avenue make do without bike lanes and navigate around double-parked cars.

Photo: Ben Fried

This father and son are heading across 62nd Street to the greenway entrance on the north side of 63rd. Heading to the greenway here takes you across the path of traffic heading to and from ramps for the FDR Drive, in a part of the city with zero on-street bike infrastructure.

Photo: Kim Martineau

Council Member Dan Garodnick urged the tour group to contact their elected officials in support of the plan to close the greenway gap.

Photo: BicyclesOnly/Flickr

Above 63rd Street, the greenway is pocked with depressions and sinkholes that have been fenced off, like this one near 118th Street, creating pinch points on the route. A recent cave-in on the greenway at 72nd was caused by a breach in the bulkhead, which caused material supporting the pavement to leak into the East River, according to Joshua Laird, assistant commissioner for planning at the Parks Department. Work on plugging this hole in the bulkhead and another one in the 120s is underway, he said. These breaches are relatively easy to fix compared to other depressions in the greenway, where marine organisms have eaten away at the wooden pilings underneath the greenway surface.

“We’re doing some creative budgeting to fix what we can,” Laird said, but it’s going to take a significant investment to complete a comprehensive rehab of the greenway structure. “Until we can figure out a big allocation of funding, it’s going to be one by one.”

Central Park Conservancy Administrator Douglas Blonsky, former PlaNYC head Rohit Aggarwala, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Dasha Rettew of the Climate Group announce greener lights in Central Park. Benepe, Sadik-Khan, and Blonsky could make the park car-free today. Photo: NYC DOT via City Room.

Central Park Conservancy head Douglas Blonsky wants his park to get a lot more bike-friendly, he revealed at a meeting of Manhattan’s Community Board 7′s parks committee last night. Not only is he working to create shared use paths that would allow cyclists to cross the park east-west safely and legally, he repeatedly announced his support for removing vehicular traffic from Central Park entirely.

The context for both positions is what Blonsky called “the skyrocketing use” of Central Park. Estimating that the park is visited 35 million times annually, there are ever more conflicts between cars, cyclists, joggers, strollers, dog-walkers, and other park users each year.

The result is a stream of complaints. Cyclists say park rules force them to choose between violating the law by riding on pedestrian paths, looping miles out of their way, or navigating the treacherous transverses, where a cyclist was killed in 2006. Pedestrians say they feel threatened by the cyclists illegally riding on pedestrian-only paths. “A lot more of the complaints are from the side of people who don’t like bikes on the paths and are afraid of them,” said Blonsky.

With cyclists riding east-west whether it’s allowed or not, Blonsky hopes that re-orienting some existing paths as legal routes for cycling will help everyone get along. He suggested four routes. (It might help to follow along on a Central Park map, available here). The easiest to implement would travel roughly along 102nd Street, a route which he said is already used by as many bicyclists as pedestrians. Another path would travel either on the north or south side of the 97th Street Transverse. Another route would likely pass near the Great Lawn, in the low 80s, but heavy pedestrian volumes might force that path to include a segment where cyclists have to dismount.

Each of these routes would be a relatively narrow shared-use path, perhaps similar in look and feel to the Hudson River Greenway above 103rd Street, and intended for slow speeds. While potholes on the paths might get filled, they wouldn’t be widened or rerouted.

The fourth path would travel along the 72nd Street Cross Drive, making it a slightly different challenge. While the first set of paths are currently walkways under Parks Department jurisdiction, the Cross Drive is a road with car traffic, operated by DOT. “If we didn’t have vehicles in the park, that would be easy to do,” said Blonsky. In the meantime, he suggested that DOT could perhaps reduce the Cross Drive to only one lane for cars.

In the long term, Blonsky also suggested paving pieces of the bridle paths through the park and opening those to bikers as well. That would be expensive, however, while opening the four routes he suggested could happen almost immediately with sign-off from Parks and DOT.

As for when these east-west routes could be open, the ball is in the Bloomberg administration’s court. “Right now, DOT’s looking at it and we have to wait until we hear back from them,” said Blonsky. He explained that DOT needs not only to make a decision about the 72nd Street path but to think about integrating these routes with the on-street bike network.

Blonsky suggested that supporters of his plan contact Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and let her know how they feel. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe has been “supportive of coming up with a plan,” continued Blonsky, but nothing’s official.

“The Parks Department and the Department of Transportation are working together with the Central Park Conservancy to try to develop some shared east-west paths that would allow cyclists traveling at a low rate of speed to traverse the park legally in several locations,” said a Parks Department spokesperson, noting that details are still being worked out.

Every committee member but one, and every community member who showed up to speak, supported the plan to provide east-west access for cyclists. “Although none of these paths is as wide as you want them to be to accommodate every use,” said committee co-chair Klari Neuwelt, “that’s New York.” In cramped quarters, she said, Blonsky’s plan has “the best shot at meeting all those needs.” The committee decided not to pass a formal resolution, however, because Blonsky wasn’t sure whether one would be helpful.

One striking feature of Blonsky’s comments was his repeated support for making Central Park car-free. When one committee member mentioned the danger of allowing dogs to go off-leash in the park, Blonsky replied, “Another reason to get cars out of Central Park.” He brought up a car-free park again as the solution to complaints about cyclists on the park loop ignoring red lights and the inability to bike around the park clockwise. “It’s way too much recreation use blending in with the vehicles,” he explained, “or too many vehicles.”

He implied, however, that such a move wasn’t happening in the very short-term: “I think DOT wants to look at the numbers right now and evaluate them in light of our last reduction [in car-free hours],” he said.

A Staten Island catering hall erected this jury-rigged greenway-blocking fence and laid down a makeshift paintjob that "erases" markings on the path. They added the courteous touch of caution tape after cyclist Gregory DeRespino slammed into the fence. Photo: SI Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel

Parks has allowed a catering hall called the Vanderbilt ("Staten Islands only oceanfront ballroom") to fence off a portion of the greenway running alongside the boardwalk in South Beach, according to a report in the Staten Island Advance. The fence forces greenway users to turn around and detour to Father Capodanno Boulevard, and it's already claimed a victim: Local resident Gregory DeRespino landed in the hospital with injuries to his shoulder, neck and calf, after unsuspectingly biking into the fence the morning it went up.

Vanderbilt manager Joe Tranchina received permission from Parks to put up the fence after pitching it as a safety precaution to reduce conflicts between greenway users and the restaurant's delivery vehicles and valet service. Apparently, someone at Parks gave the green light "on a trial basis," according to a department spokesperson quoted by the Advance.

You've got to wonder how the city allowed such an idea to reach this point. A private business just convinced Parks to let it block off the public right-of-way and "erase" street markings with what looks to be a hasty paintjob. Did they even have to fill out any paperwork, or does it just take a few phone calls? Neither the Parks Department nor Tranchina have returned our requests for information so far.

Hat tip to Meredith Sladek for alerting us to this story.

Closing the greenway gap would provide an uninterrupted bike path from Ward's Island to the South Street Seaport. Image: The East River Greenway Initiative

The city would sell the western part of Robert Moses Playground, a rectangle of asphalt at the corner of 41st and First Avenue. An area that attracts occasional recreational use would be annexed. Space used for a dog run, handball and basketball courts would not be touched. In turn, the U.N. would pay the city $150 million, mainly for the right to construct a new building the same height as the current U.N. tower. The funding would be used to complete the East River waterfront esplanade and plug the greenway gap.

A succession of local electeds spoke in favor of the deal, including State Senator Liz Krueger, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, City Council Member Daniel Garodnick, and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who told the crowd, “I want to ride my bike there.”

The details of the plan were fleshed out by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Madelyn Wils of the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

Benepe said the new greenway segment would be a no-frills affair, like the recently completed connector on the Hudson River near Riverside Park. He also emphasized that without funding from the U.N. land deal, the project could not move forward. In addition to closing the greenway gap, he identified a package of public space enhancements the city can provide to offset the loss of part of Robert Moses park:

1. As part of the deal to close the greenway gap, the city could improve pedestrian access to the waterfront at several points.
   
   Expanding Asser Levy Park into the roadbed of Asser Levy Place, between 23rd and 25th Street, which adds roughly the same amount of parkland as would be lost;
2. Converting the former Con Ed site at the 38th Street pier into a park, which could be paved over and devoted to the same uses as the annexed segment of Robert Moses Playground;
3. Improving pedestrian access to the waterfront, including, potentially, an overpass at 51st street;
4. Greening certain areas of the Queens Midtown Tunnel plaza, which might make those areas suitable for some form of recreation.

According to Wils, the window of opportunity to act on this deal is brief. The U.N. is looking to decide where to build their new tower this year, and while they prefer the Robert Moses Park site, they have other options at their disposal.

When it came time for the public to weigh in, comments applauding the deal outnumbered opposition by about two to one, according to my rough tally. (Full disclosure: I testified in favor of the deal in my capacity as a member of Upper Green Side.)

Most opposition stemmed from nearby residents who claimed that Robert Moses Playground is an irreplaceable space for playing ball games -- uses that would seemingly be preserved in the deal described by Benepe. A few others lumped the new U.N. building together with towers planned by developer Sheldon Solow for a nearby site, which they argued would change the character of the neighborhood.

The next step comes tomorrow, when Community Board 6 discusses the proposal and is expected to put forth a resolution including the conditions they would place on their support for any plan. If the conditions are too onerous to be feasible, it could scuttle the deal. If they’re practical and reasonable, legislators can say they have the full support of the community for a specific plan, which they can enshrine in the legislation necessary to enable the completion of the greenway.

This photo from the Parks Department vault depicts what appears to be a pavement painting during Thomas Hoving's tenure as commissioner.

Hoving died last week at the age of 78. In his later years, he remained a supporter of car-free parks. After meeting up with Hoving in 2003, car-free Central Park advocate Ken Coughlin received this email, in which the former commissioner explained exactly who has the legal authority to make New York City parks car-free. In light of the NYPD's recent foray into traffic policy, the message is extremely timely.

The 1961 City Charter provisions stating that Traffic Commissioner is in charge of Traffic Flow but Parks Commissioner can select curb lines and park entrance gates are still in effect. Benepe needs no legislation, executive order or act of the almighty to close 24-7-365. He needs to get his courage perking.

ALL the arguments against any closing which will emerge today surfaced when I closed Central the first time, 6 a.m to 9 a.m. that Sunday

• Traffic would jam from Tampa to Maine
• NYC transport systems would collapse
• Huge economic loss, Etc., etc.

But nothing happened.

In three months -- you can even check to Parks Horti records -- the trees on the drive flourished. It was as if a cloud of poison had been lifted from them.

Car carbon dioxide is like second-hand smoking. Which suggests that if permanent closing advocates use this as an argument Bloomberg can hardly be against it.

Nighttime visibility on the Hudson River Greenway north of W. 102nd Street has not improved since Jacob-uptown took this photo a year ago.

Due to the absence of lighting, once clocks are rolled back for daylight-saving time the Greenway between W. 102 and W. 125 Streets is plunged into darkness during the evening rush. Making matters worse is the glare of headlights from the Henry Hudson Parkway. Writes Upper Manhattan commuter Brad Conover:

The combination of no lights on the path and oncoming headlights of southbound traffic makes it impossible to see the bike path. There should be three new lines painted marking north and southbound biking lanes, not just one line separating bikers from pedestrians with no indication as to N/S-bound bikers, and there should be lights on the path and/or hedges to block the lights of oncoming traffic. I am sure someone is going to get seriously hurt on that path through no fault of their own.

Jacob-uptown, who sent in photographs of the area last year, was informed in a January 2009 letter that DOT would be recommending that the Parks Department include Cherry Walk lighting in its next round of capital construction contracts (though Parks previously indicated to Streetsblog that such a project would fall under the purview of DOT). Aside from some new shrubbery that "only helps a bit," Jacob reports that no changes have been made since last fall.

Last week, DOT told Streetsblog that defective highway lights along the Cherry Walk stretch would be replaced, but said there are no plans to install lighting on the Greenway itself.

A Parks Department sanitation truck struck a 78-year-old woman using a motor-assisted wheelchair in the Eighth Avenue bike lane this morning shortly before 10 a.m., just north of Bleecker Street. The victim suffered head trauma and was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she is in serious condition, a police spokesman said. No further details on the collision are available at this time. NYPD said the investigation is ongoing.

The driver was heard repeating that he "didn't see" the victim, according to Michelle Ernst of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, who passed the scene of the crash this morning and sent in this picture.

Streetsblog has requests in with DOT and the Parks Department to determine if a policy is in place governing the use of protected bike paths by city vehicles. We'll post more information as it becomes available.

We have a few still shots for now, and some archival footage of the old Petrosino from the Streetfilms vault, featuring Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton and Project for Public Spaces' Ethan Kent. Yes, they filmed this just four years ago:

After the jump, a shot from Robin showing the square's spiffy new bike parking.

A view of the new Petrosino from Spring Street.

The current round of pedestrian and bike improvements for Allen and Pike Street might be just the beginning.

The changes underway right now rely mainly on paint, planters, and paving surfaces to set aside space for public plazas and bike lanes. It's a great example of what you can do on a shoestring, but without a second phase of construction, the reclamation will have a temporary feel to it. The next iteration of this project might include plazas raised to sidewalk grade, for instance, or bike lanes with more robust physical protection. A solid showing in favor of further upgrades could help secure Parks Department funding for more long-term construction.

Representatives from Parks and DOT will be on hand at tonight's CB3 meeting. To voice support for investment in this promising livable streets project, head over to the BRC Senior Services Center at 30 Delancey Street (between Chrystie and Forsyth). The meeting starts at 6:30.

Help determine what short-term safety, circulation and landscaping improvements should be implemented this fall by the Department of Transportation and Parks & Recreation. The proposals were developed in response to a lively and participatory community “brain storming” workshop and will be presented by NYCDOT.

Tonight's workshop kicks off at 6:00 p.m., at International Baptist Church (312 Coney Island Avenue, by the circle).

Streetsblogger Jacob-uptown: "You can see many of the street lamps on Henry Hudson Parkway are burned out. This makes the greenway completely unlit, except for oncoming car headlights."

Last December, Washington Heights resident Lars Klove alerted us to night-time conditions on a segment of the Hudson River Greenway known as Cherry Walk, which lies roughly between W. 102 and W. 125 Streets. Wrote Lars:

It is unlit and, if riding northbound, into the blinding headlights of southbound traffic, it is impossible to see the bicycle path even with a bike headlamp. The Greenway itself has one semi-reflective line marking the pedestrian lane from the bicycle lane. There is not a line marking the outside edges of the lane or a couple of grassy islands along the way. Its easy to find yourself suddenly off the roadway and in the grass or trees.

As illustrated by these photos from Streetsblog photo contributor Jacob-uptown, captioned with his comments, Greenway users are still in the dark nearly a year later. A press officer with Parks said the department is "aware of this issue," and told us that DOT should be in the process of addressing it. We have a message in with DOT and are awaiting word.

"This is the same view as [the photo above], except with the flash turned on. If you look closely, you can see that the path splits right ahead of you, and if you go straight, you will run into a tree."

More photos after the jump.

"If you look very very closely, you can see the faint green line painted on the ground that shows the path turning left. That is what my eyes are fixed on when I ride through this section of the path."

"This is the same view as [above], except with the flash turned on. Now you can clearly see that the path turns left."

Court personnel have again appropriated downtown Brooklyn parkland for their own private cars.

The saga of the Brooklyn judges who just can't stand to part with their parking spots inside Columbus Park turned into a case of whack-a-mole last week. First, the judges finally agreed to stop parking in a pedestrian walkway, backing down from threats to sue the city in order to preserve that privilege. Under the compromise, however, a much bigger swath of the park has been turned over to the judges' parked vehicles, a supposedly temporary giveback while a new permanent configuration is implemented.

Borough blog McBrooklyn posted photos of how the arrangement squeezes out pedestrians, and the Brooklyn Eagle picked up the story:

Many pedestrians appeared to assume that the blockaded park was just a one-day disruption, due, perhaps to a water main break or a bomb scare. When the actual purpose was explained to one man, however, he was incredulous: "No, you're joking, right?" he said.

"I'm really pissed off," said a woman who works at City Tech (New York City College of Technology) on Jay Street. "I don't think that they should take the park. I hope it's temporary -- and I hope they discontinue it."

The Parks Department approved the new arrangement despite the fact that court personnel already have access to a courthouse garage at 330 Jay Street and 150 placards for free use of on-street spots. "They have all these spots on the street, they can go to 330 Jay, and they're just taking advantage," says Irene Janner of the Brooklyn Heights Association. "We're not happy with their decision to just come in and take up half the park."

Administrative Judge Abraham Gerges says the blockade will last one or two months. But prior "temporary" measures have left pedestrians out in the cold for far longer. In fact, judges were first allowed to store cars in the Columbus Park pedestrian walkway while the city constructed the courthouse at 330 Jay Street -- including a garage for court employees -- in 1999. When the garage was completed, some court personnel refused to use it and insisted on keeping their newly acquired parking perk.

"We have very little confidence in their willingness to uphold this arrangement," says Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. "They've broken faith before with the community."

Norvell criticized the Parks Department for acceding to the judges' demands. "Their job isn't to find parking spaces," he said. "It's inconceivable that at every turn, the convenient parking of the judiciary takes precedence over public space."

Photo: McBrooklyn

Local residents turned out to give their opinions on the renovation of the malls early last summer.

Residents of the Lower East Side and Chinatown have been fighting for improvements to the Allen and Pike Street pedestrian malls for more than a decade. Now, with the city's Parks Department set to begin a $5.4 million renovation of the malls below East Broadway, their wait for meaningful action might be nearing an end.

The Hester Street Collaborative has just released a final report on the community's visioning process (download the full study), which was coordinated by United Neighbors to Revitalize Allen and Pike (UNRAP) and will be used to inform the upcoming work.

The malls, which run along the center of Pike and Allen Streets from the East River to Houston Street, have long been in a state of disrepair. The pavement is cracked and uneven. There's little vegetation. The roar of traffic is ever-present. "There's a tremendous need for more viable open space here," says Annie Frederick, executive director of the Hester Street Collaborative. "This neighborhood has one of the lowest rates of public space in the city."

This April, a "demonstration mall" was completed on the block between Broome and Delancey, with new planter beds, benches, and sculptures. This summer, UNRAP invited neighborhood residents and organizers to a series of "Take Back Your Park" events to provide feedback and suggest improvements to the project -- like raised planters to better buffer traffic noise, and a meandering path instead of a straight one.

The new report incorporates comments and suggestions from those events, as well as the ideas of students from the New Design High School who studied the malls as part of an intensive summer program.

Among the priorities that emerged were green space, improved buffers from street noise and traffic, connection to the East River waterfront, and events and art exhibits that highlight and preserve the cultural history of the area. Known as "Avenue of the Immigrants," Allen Street is at the heart of an area that is rapidly changing due to gentrification (the malls themselves, constructed in the wake of slum clearance, occupy space where tenements once stood).

Support also emerged for traffic-calming measures and a bike lane that would connect to Manhattan Bridge access. The city DOT has said it is looking for funds from the state DOT to implement that type of improvement.

"What we're hearing over and over again is that Allen Street is over-engineered as a road," said Frederick. "It's not safe." She added that her experience working with the current DOT makes her optimistic about changes, although budgetary constraints will be a factor. "I'm very hopeful," she said. "There has been a real sense of inter-agency collaboration and willingness to listen to the local community. There's been a shift in culture."

Photos: Hester Street Collaborative

In contrast -- or, conceivably, as a complement -- to the L.A. Times portrait of city cycling, here's a Streetfilm from Elizabeth Press, shot yesterday at Transportation Alternatives' Bike Month NYC kick-off.

At a press conference held in the new 14th Street plaza, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan talks about present and future street-level improvements, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe sums up progress on greenways, and Health & Mental Hygiene Assistant Commish Jane Beddell promotes biking as part of the solution to the city's obesity problem. TA's Paul Steely White then gives a quick run-down of some of the 200+ Bike Month events.

L-R: DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation Alternatives Director Paul Steely White and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe at this morning's Bike Month NYC event on 9th Avenue.

Benepe with White and Streetsblog Publisher Mark Gorton.

Photos: Will Sherman/Transportation Alternatives 

The Grand Army Plaza Coalition (GAPCo) and The Design Trust for Public Space have launched a website for their "Ideas Competition" called Reinventing Grand Army Plaza, which is intended to generate new visions for the plaza's design. The jury will award three cash prizes to the winners, and along with other top entries will be exhibited in an outdoor exhibition at Grand Army Plaza later this year.

Grand Army Plaza is New York City's greatest unrealized asset. Home to powerful architecture, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch, the elegant Bailey Fountain, the entrance to Frederick Law Olmsted's greatest park, and a transit hub, the sum of these parts is emphatically less than the whole. Currently an underdeveloped public amenity, the redesign of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza will invigorate surrounding communities, just as the re-conception of Manhattan's High Line set off an explosion of activity in West Chelsea.

Top submissions will be exhibited outdoors at Grand Army Plaza in the fall of 2008. Submissions will also inform the program for a new schematic plan for the Plaza, to be created in late 2008 in partnership with the New York City Departments of Parks and Recreation and Transportation.

Tell us what you think about Grand Army Plaza - join the online conversation. For questions about the competition, or to be added to the competition mailing list, send an email to: info@reinventingGAP.org.

Related

• Reinventing Grand Army Plaza: What Are Your Ideas?
• Grand Plans for Brooklyn's Iconic Public Space

Photo: Ethan Kent.