This Streetfilm from Robin Urban Smith and Elizabeth Press brings us an update on the state of greenway development in the Bronx. Writes Robin:

The Bronx River Greenway and South Bronx Greenway plans apply community-driven design strategies to help undo years of top down, auto-centric planning and development in the Bronx. The greenways, when completed, will create a network of safe bicycle and pedestrian paths and routes, parks, and waterfront access points throughout the borough. See the Bronx River Alliance's 2009 calendar for a list of events and activities planned on or around the Bronx River. Also be sure to check out Sustainable South Bronx and The Point Community Development Corporation for more information about the projects and for ways to get involved.

The vid includes interview footage with Astrid Glynn, who has since stepped down as New York State DOT commissioner.

We've got a few more details about another local ped-bike project getting a lift from stimulus cash. The street improvements announced for Hunts Point and Port Morris in the Bronx will fund the first three sections of the South Bronx Greenway. This project has been years in the works. When complete, it will bring 11 miles of pedestrian and bicycle paths to neighborhoods where places to play and bike are scarce, and where childhood asthma and obesity rates run high.

"This is extremely helpful moving these projects forward in a time of fiscal crisis," said Miquela Craytor, director of Sustainable South Bronx, which has been instrumental in shaping the project and shepherding its progress. "It's a big win for South Bronx communities that have been underserved for so long."

The three segments include Lafayette Avenue, a connection to Randall's Island, and access to Hunts Point Landing. The Sustainable South Bronx web site has a handy map of the full project [PDF].

The west side of Park Circle viewed from Coney Island Avenue.

The community input portion of the evening focused on the DOT project, culminating with an exercise in which small teams marked up maps of Park Circle with their ideas and reported back to the whole group. Participants were working from a blank slate -- DOT hasn't put forward any plans yet.

There was widespread agreement that traffic entering and exiting the circle moves dangerously fast, and that the west side, where cars rush to and from the nearby urban speedways, is crying out for at-grade pedestrian crossings and safer cycling conditions. I hesitate to read too much into the specific ideas that surfaced, which were all over the map, but several participants supported demarcating more pedestrian space, and a few advanced the notion of a protected bike path around the perimeter of the circle. One older woman I spoke to wasn't into bike lanes so much, but she thought that DOT really nailed the new Madison Square and wanted to see a similar treatment that "works for everybody" at Park Circle. Regrettably, woonerven did not come up.

DOT and DCP plan to use the results of the workshop to inform short-term improvements and longer-term plans for the area.

E-mails circulating in advance of this evening's meeting of the Brooklyn Community Board 1 transportation committee are calling for officials to suspend installation of the Kent Avenue bike lane in lieu of further study. The partially-constructed lane is a key component of a Brooklyn bike lane network as well as the future Brooklyn Greenway, and is already getting plenty of use.

Though CB1 signed off on the lane last April, and community board recommendations are non-binding, it is imperative that board members hear from those whose interests extend beyond the perceived convenience of copious free on-street parking. Judging by one unsourced missive (see it here), it looks like the opposition is pulling out all the stops, claiming, among other things, that changes on Kent have created hardships and hazards for children -- who are presumably far more secure with the status quo.

Here are the details for tonight:

CB1 Transportation Committee Meeting
Wednesday, November 12
211 Ainslie Street, corner of Manhattan Avenue, Williamsburg
6:30 pm -- registration for public speaking ENDS at 6:15

Tonight will mark the fourth time the Dyckman Greenway Connector has come before the committee since members of Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets, who originated the proposal, made their first presentation in February. The project has the support of committee chair Mark Levine, who drafted the reso, but other committee members, while never rejecting the idea altogether, have suggested delaying any action by CB12 until next spring. A recent resolution to add parking on Dyckman, meanwhile, sailed through the committee and on to the full board, where it was approved unanimously with no discussion, all in a matter of weeks.

Whether or not you ride a bike, if you live in Northern Manhattan and are interested in a livable, traffic-calmed Dyckman Street, the connector proposal could use your support. These meetings tend to be informal affairs, with committee members often seeking input from attendees. If nothing else, members of the public are asked to vote on resolutions, and those votes are noted on record.

Tonight's meeting will be held at CB12 HQ, 711 W. 168th Street (enter from Haven Avenue), at 7:00 p.m.

Inwood recently got its first city bike shelter, by the A train station at the corner of Broadway and Dyckman/200th Street. It wasn't getting a lot of use when I snapped this shot, probably because it was Sunday morning. Still, in the couple of minutes I was there quite a few cyclists passed by, most of them on the sidewalk -- as many, it seems, don't consider Dyckman a safe place to ride.

This is a shame. Now that the Hudson River Greenway is done (pending interruption notwithstanding), Dyckman, along with a segment of Riverside Drive, is the only obstacle to a river-to-river bike-ped link.

Well, maybe not the only obstacle.

According to the signage plan [PDF], cyclists and ped traffic will be rerouted to Broadway and Ft. Washington Avenue between 158th and 181st Streets, in Washington Heights. As you can see from the signs, work was scheduled to begin in September. According to a notice from Community Board 12, as of last week the PA was set to get started on November 3, but has since postponed again.

Streetsblog has a message in with the PA to see what the latest projected dates are. Looks like the work is supposed to take anywhere from six to eight weeks.

We received two reports last night that the West Harlem Piers bike path -- a critical link in the Hudson River Greenway -- is finally open after several months of puzzling delay. (NYCEDC informed Streetsblog last week that the hold up was indeed due to problems securing materials for a safety rail.) Now the construction fence is down, and, as you can see in these photos from reader Paula Froke, cyclists are enjoying the unbroken stretch of greenway.

Streetsblogger Urbanis cheers the end of a long wait:

After raising a stink about it a few weeks ago, I was amazed to discover on my ride home this evening that the West Harlem Piers bike path was open -- yes, all the fencing was removed, and I sailed free and clear along the new bike path all the way to 135th Street, where it connects with the existing bike path running around Riverbank State Park. Not having to brave ten blocks of traffic on Riverside Drive was a dream.

More piers pics from Paula after the jump.

From Streetsblogger Urbanis:

[The] West Harlem Piers bicycle path, connecting the Hudson River Greenway between 135th and 125th Streets, has not still opened (after a promised opening of May or June this year). The completion of this link will allow cyclists an entire off-street route from Dyckman Street to Battery Park; currently, cyclists must exit the Greenway at 135th Street and ride in traffic along Riverside Drive to 125th Street. Even worse, while there is a bike lane provided for southbound commuters (which is a favorite parking spot for unloading trucks), no bike lane exists for northbound commuters.

The site remains fenced off but it has looked completed for months -- why the delay?

We put in several calls and e-mail messages to DOT and Parks, but no one we've found can tell us when the fencing will come down. A September story in the Columbia Spectator says the project is on hold due to "problems constructing a railing."

To increase the number of spots, angled parking may be coming to both sides of Dyckman Street.

The Traffic and Transportation Committee of Community Board 12 last night welcomed new bike racks in Upper Manhattan, but took a pass on endorsing other livable streets initiatives, including a separated bike path on Dyckman/200th Street that would link the east- and west-side greenways. The committee also passed a resolution calling for more parking on Dyckman and, citing concerns over loss of parking, declined to vote on a proposal for a new Greenmarket in Washington Heights.

The meeting marked the second time the "Dyckman Greenway Connector" proposal has come before the CB12 Transportation Committee, but several members were appointed after the first presentation earlier this year and were unfamiliar with it. Spearheaded by the Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets group, the plan calls for a separated bike path along Dyckman, in Inwood, linking the Hudson River and Harlem River Greenways. One of the proposal architects, Maggie Clarke, told the committee that Dyckman -- which lies in close proximity to several parks and boating facilities -- could become a hub for outdoor activity seekers, noting that the East Coast Greenway route runs through Inwood as well.

Though some members seemed taken aback by the scope of the proposal, they encouraged Clarke and fellow LS group member Daniel O'Neil to drum up support from Dyckman businesses (the group has already composed an informational brochure and is working on a bilingual pro-connector petition). It was also pointed out (full disclosure: by yours truly) that DOT normally takes the lead in such projects, and that the proposal may benefit from agency assistance. Committee Chair Mark Levine asked Josh Orzeck, representing DOT at the meeting, if the city might host a design charette. Orzeck said he is not familiar with the intricacies of separated bike paths, but that he would see what resources were available.

The following recommendations were also issued by Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets:

• improved traffic enforcement on Dyckman Street;
• a new crosswalk at the 190th Street subway station on Bennett Avenue;
• a Greenstreets triangle at Isham and 211th Streets; and
  
• an Environmental Impact Statement for proposed new restaurants at the Dyckman Marina.

At a public hearing earlier yesterday, it was revealed that new development plans for the now-shuttered Dyckman Marina, on the Hudson at the street's west end, could bring seating for 300 diners. But there has been no study on the resulting traffic impact on Dyckman or to Inwood in general. Still, the committee approved a resolution calling for new angled parking to relieve expected "parking pressure" near the marina. The original reso included a request that DOT remove existing bike lanes and tear up Dyckman's wide sidewalks to make room for parking, but that language was removed.

If Dyckman's sidewalks were narrowed, where would the auto shops store customer cars?

The committee decided not to vote on a resolution supporting a new Greenmarket on W. 185th Street in Washington Heights. Nearly 1,000 neighborhood residents signed a petition favoring the market, and the block's only tenant, a synagogue, has issued its blessing. But some on the committee said that the petition was circulated when the market was intended to operate from Bennett Park, which is adjacent to 185th, rather than the street itself, and that residents should have been fully informed regarding the loss of parking on market days.

Said committee member Jim Berlin: "There are thousands of people in the area who own cars, any of whom might park there at some point. We want to hear from the community and whether they want to give up their parking."

There are roughly 19 parking spots on the block in question.

In other business, the committee asked that Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets submit a list of requested bike rack locations to be forwarded to DOT (Levine said last night marked the first time the need for bike racks had been brought before the committee), and Orzeck announced that Inwood would be getting its first sheltered rack, to be installed on Dyckman Street near Broadway.

Photos: Brad Aaron

Transportation Alternatives held its 3rd Annual Greenway Summit on Tuesday, where keynote speaker Jon Orcutt, Director of Policy for NYC DOT, outlined the city's plans for expanding cycling infrastructure over the coming year. Here are the highlights, via the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's Mobilizing the Region:

• Adding bike lanes and pedestrian islands to Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City this summer.

• Installing new bike lanes on Kent Ave in Williamsburg along the East River.

• Improving the crossways over the FDR from the East River Greenway by keeping them cleaner and introducing traffic calming measures at the intersections.

• Extending the 9th Avenue protected bike lane in Manhattan to 33rd St. (The lane currently ends at 23rd St.)

• As part of a push to build 15 miles of protected bike lanes by 2010, installing a protected lane on 8th Ave. between Canal St. and 23rd St. in Manhattan.

• Begin design on the Navy Yard portion of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.

• Adding a bike lane connecting Van Cortlandt Park and the Broadway Bridge in spring 2009.

• Constructing bike access to the Shore Parkway Greenway at 157th Ave near JFK Airport.

As DOT forges ahead with substantive bike-ped improvements, Orcutt pointed out that the department doesn't operate in a vacuum. 

"In thanking the advocacy community for its support," MTR reports, "Orcutt added that interagency cooperation was key to the continued advancement of cycling infrastructure in New York."

Editor's note: Items concerning the Navy Yard and Broadway Bridge have been corrected. 

Photo: bicyclesonly / Flickr 

Last time we checked in on the Columbia Street section of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, construction was in full swing. Now, along much of the path in Carroll Gardens and Red Hook, the orange barrels are gone and new plantings are taking root. Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson snapped these shots last week, noting that about 40 new trees have been planted on Columbia between Atlantic Avenue and Degraw Street. The paths and plantings have completely changed the feel of the street, he tells us.

This section of the greenway is a "temporary" path that may be widened in the future. The current right-of-way varies between 13 and 20 feet and may expand to 30 feet, pending negotiations with the Port Authority, says Milton Puryear of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. We have a request in to DOT to find out when this phase of construction is slated to wrap up officially. For now, enjoy more of Clarence's pics.

The view south from Atlantic Avenue. The white stripe demarcates a parking lane.

New street trees have been planted on the other side of Columbia, too.

From Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee Chair Mike Heffron:

At the Queens Community Board 2 general meeting on Thursday, May 1, with no vote by board members, Chair Joe Conley delayed the board's input on the Department of Transportation's planned pedestrian and cyclist improvements to Vernon Boulevard, an important link in the proposed Queens East River Greenway. DOT can move forward with the Greenway plan with or without CB 2's approval.

The DOT plan [PDF] calls for removal of the majority of parking along the East River side of Vernon from 45th Ave to its termination at Main St. In place of parking the DOT plans to put down a painted bike lane in both directions, with painted buffers between the lanes and auto traffic. Also proposed are additional traffic calming improvements along Vernon and a pedestrian relief Green Street to be installed at Queensbridge Park. Two weeks prior the proposal was unveiled to CB 2's Land Use Committee, which voted unanimously in favor.

Community board members had a lot of questions, and there was a lot of confusion about where parking would be removed. There also seemed to be confusion about the actual widths of streets, as well as thoughts that the bike lane be placed on 11th St., farther from the river. One member wondered if there was a need to provide anything for cyclists at all. There was also concern that the crossing along Jackson Ave. is "too dangerous" and that cyclists should instead be routed down to the river and back up Borden Ave. to access the Pulaski Bridge. Conley had issues with double parking in the Hunters Point commercial area -- an area where parking will not be removed and no bike lane is proposed. Because of the parking issue and "congestion" in the area Conley felt that it would be too dangerous to suggest cyclists ride with traffic there.

DOT's Ryan Russo pointed out that removing parking now, before zoning changes bring in new residential buildings, will encourage new residents to move to the area without their cars. He also noted that cyclists, like most commuters, will take the path that best serves them, that DOT can't dictate that riders take an out of the way route because it may or may not be safer, and that DOT can best serve everyone by improving safety on presently favored routes. He also repeated several times that parking will not be removed in the Hunters Point commercial district. But Russo had no one from the community to back him up, as the public input period was held at the beginning of the meeting, over an hour before his presentation.

With the hands of several community board members still in the air, Conley decided to table the proposal because "parking is an issue still in Hunters Point." And with no vote, he unilaterally ended discussion and requested that DOT come back with a revised plan. This despite the earlier unanimous vote by the Land Use Committee supporting the proposal and the fact that Community Boards only have "advisory" power over decisions such as these.

The first half of this project, which runs through CB 2's jurisdiction, was slated to begin in June. TA's Queens Committee will continue to fight to make sure it starts as close to June as possible. This is a speed bump, not a dead end, but it is another important lesson on the power community boards hold over livable streets initiatives.

I was riding North on the Greenway tonight at about 9:15, and after clearing 60th street and entering the stretch under the elevated Miller Highway a southbound cyclists yelled at me, "Watch out! There's a pile of rocks across the bike path ahead."

I slowed down and carefully rode to 67th Street where what I saw was quite a shock.

A pile of ornamental rock had been taken from the the Riverside Park South border of the greenway and piled across the bike path. The pile was about 1 foot high in some places, and went across the entire bike path, and had already been scattered by what looked like an earlier collision. It was clearly intended to cause a serious  accident. The bike path is largely unlit in this stretch, and even with a bike light, the pile was hard to see.

Together with 4 other cyclists who stopped to help we cleared the obstruction.

I also called 311 on the scene who connected me to 911 who promised to dispatch a patrol car that never came after about 15 minutes. I have a card from one of the volunteers and one of the others also promised to email me with his contact info.

In addition to you, I was going to follow up w the Riverside Parks Commissioner, the Riverside Parks Fund, and see if I can get my case number from 311. Who else should i/we contact?

On a positive note I can report that even on this 32-degree evening the bike path was well traveled, and we had plenty of volunteers who quickly cleared the obstruction. I took this as a recreational ride to decompress from a meeting that ended at about 8p from Lincoln Center, riding down the Greenway (which was free of obstruction at the time) and then headed back up from the Battery. I would estimate that I encountered about 50 cyclists, a healthy increase over what it usually is on a relatively cold winter night. And the other bit of good news is that there was not a single one without lights -- which is real progress.

The bad news is that there is a seriously dangerous vandal out there out to cause harm to cyclists. And how this happened unobserved given all the use of the path that I saw is also very disconcerting.

The first NYPD harassment story comes from the Bronx where the police officers summonsed at least two cyclists for using the well-lit Mosholu-Pelham Greenway after dark. The Greenway runs through Van Cortlandt Park which, technically, is closed after dusk. The Riverdale Press has the story and one of the ticketed cyclists, he only wants to be identified as Rich, adds the following:

There are no signs on the Greenway that say the park closes at dusk. The Parks Department says that the Greenway is exempt from the curfew, but the NYPD is making up its own rules. Now I don’t use the Greenway after dark, because I don’t want to get hassled by NYPD simply for biking home. Even though the lights along the path are lit all night, the NYPD has made the Greenway unusable for evening commutes.

The second report was actually found in the used bike section of Craigslist on Tuesday morning. Listed for sale at $1 on the Lower East Side was the following:

Cops are ticketing bikers at Delancey
Reply to: sale-595068813@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-03-04, 9:50AM EST

Cops were flagging down people coming off of the Williamsburg bridge and ticketing them for running red lights this morning. I just thought I'd put the word out.

One enterprising Craiglister responded to the ad and here's what he was told by the "seller:"

The cop informed me that this summer they may be looking to 'crack down' on bikers more. Just to make a point, I'm going to court to protest the ticket I received. The whole thing is just really silly; they want people to bike more, they do not provide "safe" bike lanes, and they punish people who bike. In order to bike safely in the city, you must break regular traffic laws. How they expect any biker to get across Delancey in morning rush hour from the far left lane (where there is no bike lane or shoulder) to the right without running a red light when the rest of traffic has stopped is beyond me. None of this is helping in the "us vs. them" divide between those driving cars and cyclists. About 3 other bikers and I were standing with the cop, and I have to say, it was refreshing that no one had a terrible attitude. Biking puts people in a better mood.

Related:

• 11/27/07: NYPD Emerges as New Focus for NYC's Livable Streets Movement. 
• 10/10/07: Is Transportation Reform Possible When the Cops Don't Care?
  
• 6/5/07: NYPD Bike Raid Nets Bikes and Bystanders.
  

As Transportation Alternatives recently noted in an essay for Streetsblog, more than a year after the death of Eric Ng, the alphabet soup of government agencies responsible for the Hudson River Greenway, have done almost nothing to fix glaring safety  problems along New York City's most important bike route.

Photographer and bike commuter Lars Klove encountered one of the worst of these problems Tuesday evening when a Lexus sedan accelerated past him just yards away from where Carl Nacht, a 56-year-old doctor was killed by an NYPD tow truck in 2006.

Klove sends along the following note describing the incident and photos showing how little is being done to warn motorists not to hang a right on to the Greenway as they exit the Tow Pound.

Yesterday evening, around 5 pm, I was riding northbound on the Hudson River Greenway when I encountered a white Lexus driving southbound. I started waving and yelling at the guy to stop and the driver accelerated and continued southbound. The car then pulled into the lot at 34th Street and exited onto the Westside Highway.

The car had made a right turn out of the NYPD Tow Yard on a red light.

This morning I stopped by the yard to see what kind of signs there were to identify the Greenway to motorists coming out of the Tow Yard. There are none. There is only a cold little orange cone, where the pedestrian lane has a large iron mooring hitch.

Photographer Lars Klove writes, "I've always wondered how many people are riding their bicycles to work. This morning the pavement had a thin layer of moisture that counted the bicycles."

This piece was written by Transportation Alternatives:

On December 1, 2006, Eric Ng was riding his bike up the Hudson River Greenway. He was on his way to meet friends. He never made it, because a drunk driver named Eugenio Cidron took his life. After leaving a party at Chelsea Piers, Cidron got behind the wheel of his car and drove it on to the Greenway. Eugenio Cidron sped down the Greenway, a car-free path, for a mile at 60 miles per hour, before crashing into Eric Ng and killing him.

A little over a year ago, the government agencies that have something to say or do with the Hudson River Greenway, along with Transportation Alternatives, convened a task force to develop improvements that will reduce conflicts between drivers and Greenway users, but today little has changed on the ground. The Hudson River Greenway was never designed to have high volumes of cars and trucks crossing it. Regardless of whether or not government knew this when the biking and walking path was built, it knows it now and is often guilty of aiding and abetting the increase on driving across the path.

There are over a dozen City, State and Federal government agencies that have some say in what goes on along the Hudson River between Battery Park and 59^th Street, but no one has taken charge. On the Greenway itself, it's a jurisdictional nightmare. The State DOT designed and built the Greenway and continues to be responsible for path redesigns. The City DOT maintains and times the traffic signals along the Greenway. The Hudson River Park Trust maintains the Greenway path. The NYC Parks Department tries to ensure design consistency between this Greenway and the ones it builds and maintains around the boroughs. There are myriad groups, including the City Economic Development Corp, the MTA, the Passenger Ship Terminal, Chelsea Piers and private ferry operators (who often drive buses across the path), that weigh in on the need for driveways across the Greenway.

Each day, thousands of people in New York City head to the Hudson River Greenway on bicycle and foot. It's one of few car-free places where people can commute, exercise and feel comfortable away from the risk of traffic and motorists on our streets. The Hudson River Greenway is supposed to be a safe and protected place, yet it is not. And despite fatal crashes like Eric's, little has been done to change this.

There are a host of improvements that will reduce motorist-Greenway user conflicts, including:

• Close unnecessary driveways where motorists cross the Greenway

• Install fixed bollards where streets and driveways cross to keep drivers from driving onto the Greenway

• Narrow driveways crossing the Greenway to slow and control motorist turning movements

• Install curb extensions on streets crossing the Greenway to make pedestrian and cyclist crossing easier and safer

• Install bike lane treatment where streets and driveways cross to make drivers more aware of the Greenway and pay attention to cyclists and pedestrians

• Coordinate signal timing between the bike traffic signals on the Greenway and the motorist traffic signals on Route 9A to avoid turning conflicts

• Lower Greenway traffic signal heads to same height as pedestrian signals

• Install shades on Greenway traffic signal heads to limit motorists' view of them and reduce confusion

• Display safety messages on overhead highway signage along Route 9A warning drivers to drive safely and be aware of cyclists and pedestrians.

In a 2007 survey of bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers along the Hudson River Greenway, more than a third of Greenway users reported cars driving on the Greenway. Transportation Alternatives has identified seven crossings where motor vehicles repeatedly violate the car-free path.

• Warren Street

• Chambers Street

• West Houston Street/Pier 40 driveway

• Christopher Street

• West 17th Street/Chelsea Piers driveway exit

• West 30th Street

• West 40th Street

• West 42rd Street

With the sentence of Eric's killer handed down, the NY State Department of Transportation and NYC Department of Transportation must rededicate themselves to the immediate implementation of safety improvements to ensure this tragedy is never repeated.

Photo: Emmanuel Fuentebella for Transportation Alternatives

Yesterday was the sentencing for Eugenio Cidron, the driver who killed bicyclist Eric Ng on the Hudson River Greenway thirteen months ago and pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in November.

Leaving the courtroom after the sentencing, I was approached by Cidron's family. It wasn't quite what I would have expected. A young woman, perhaps his sister, gently touched my arm while the others looked at me with moist eyes and told me how sorry they were for my loss.

I took their hands one by one and said I wasn't actually a friend of the victim; I was there because, like him, I ride a bike in New York. They nodded and said they understood. We clasped hands again and went our separate ways down the corridor to the elevator and out of State Supreme Court.

Inside, in the presence of half-a-dozen armed court officers, a handful of reporters and twenty spectators -- half there for the victim's sake, half for the killer's -- Cidron had received an "indeterminate sentence" of 3½ to 10½ years, the range specified in his plea bargain.

Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal recited the by-now familiar facts. On the evening of Dec. 1, 2006, Cidron left an office party at Chelsea Piers, steered his silver BMW onto the Greenway, where motor vehicles are forbidden, and drove south for a mile until he smashed head-on into cyclist Eric Ng. Just 22 years old, Ng was "vibrant and kind," a recent college grad, a teacher, and his mother's "angel," according to a letter Mrs. Ng wrote to Cidron after the fatal crash.

A few facts were new: Cidron had driven alongside the Greenway on adjacent West Street "a hundred times," indicating that he should have known where he was before he encountered Eric coming from the opposite direction. And he was traveling at 60 miles an hour, according to the NYPD Accident Investigation Squad.

The defendant, short, stocky, shaved head, clad in a hoodie and a North Face jacket, spoke softly: "I'm really sorry for all the pain I have caused to his family and friends. I'm pleased [Eric's mother] has been able to forgive me. I hope someday his father and sister will too. Words can't express how truly sorry I am for this tragic accident that happened and for all the pain I have caused."

Justice Gregory Carro was unmoved. "As someone who has traveled that bike path many times [I'd say] it's almost impossible not to perceive you are on a bike path. It's hard for me to believe you only realized you hit him after you heard the thud… unless you were so intoxicated that you shouldn't have gotten behind the wheel.

"You say you think about it every day? You better think about it every day," Justice Carro added, before Cidron was handcuffed and taken from the courtroom.

"No amount of retribution will ever ease my pain and cure my broken heart," Eric's mother wrote in her letter to Cidron. She didn't want Cidron to go to prison and she believes Eric would have felt the same. But Eric, young and precious to his family as he was, did not belong to them alone. He belonged, as we all do, to the larger community.

"The wrongdoer is brought to justice because his act has disturbed and gravely endangered the community as a whole," wrote Hannah Arendt almost fifty years ago. "It is the general public order that has been thrown out of gear and must be restored." Restoration will never come to Eric's loved ones. For the rest of us, today brought some measure of repair.

The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, a citizen-driven project that began with a handful of insane visionaries picking up trash and planting flowers beside a BQE off-ramp, is taking shape on Columbia Street.

Notice the space for greenery between the sidewalk and the curb. Plans call for the park to connect Greenpoint to Red Hook.

Photos: Clarence Eckerson