So, based on the accumulated evidence, we can safely say that the man who allegedly blocked the Ninth Avenue bike lane with his 7,000 lb. Ford Excursion, exploded in a fit of rage when cyclist Ray Bengen tried to ride by without getting crushed, and sped off after knocking Ray to the ground (severely bruising his leg and damaging his bike), is this guy:

Gus Gonzalez.

Here's how Streetsblog commenters crowd-sourced his identity:

• A commenter identifying himself as a lawyer obtained registration information -- name, address, and date of birth -- for the license plate pictured in photos of the confrontation. The car is registered to "Dispirito-Gonzalez, L."
  
• The DMV records matched information available through a reverse address look-up for a Laura DiSpirito, who resides in Flushing.
• Streetsblog commenters quickly found Laura DiSpirito's Facebook page (a "fan" of celebrity chef and Queens native Rocco DiSpirito!) where they came across photos of a man who resembles the SUV driver who allegedly doored Ray Bengen. Photo captions identify him as Laura's husband "Gus," leading to speculation that the alleged perpetrator is named "Gus Gonzalez." (As of this afternoon, the Facebook page is no longer online.)
  
• Streetsblog called Laura DiSpirito's home a few times to confirm this information, but to no avail. A CBS2 news crew visited the house in Flushing and also was not able to ascertain the driver's identity.
• Finally, we called the Manhattan DA's office yesterday afternoon and the communications staff confirmed that a defendant named Gus Gonzalez has a court date scheduled for July 13, when he will face a charge of third degree assault arising from an incident on May 21. That matches information about Ray Bengen's assailant which was already public.

It's worth mentioning here that third degree assault is a Class A misdemeanor, same as the criminal mischief charge filed against Ray Bengen. The message from Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office is clear: slapping an SUV with your palm in self-defense is tantamount to violently knocking someone to the pavement, injuring him, and driving away before the authorities arrive at the scene.

Which brings us to the reason we're posting Gus Gonzalez's name and photo. If you drive away from the scene of a confrontation after inflicting bodily harm on someone, and you get to preserve your anonymity, it's a license to act like a sociopath. Unless you are somehow identified and apprehended, you can go about your business and present yourself as someone who doesn't intentionally harm other people.

Even as this investigation unfolded, police did not tell Ray Bengen the name of his scene-fleeing assailant. That information usually doesn't come out until the case goes to court. Luckily, this time, there were witnesses and photographs.

The Manhattan DA's office is filing charges of criminal mischief against a cyclist, Ray Bengen, because he allegedly caused property damage to a multi-ton SUV in the process of getting doored by the driver. Too ridiculous to be true? Sadly, no. Here's how it happened.

Bengen, 63, was riding down the Ninth Avenue bike lane on May 21 when he encountered the Ford Excursion you see in this photo (curb weight: 7,190 lbs). A long-time city cyclist, Bengen had a green light and wasn't quite sure what to make of the vehicle in front of him. The car wasn't moving and its brake lights were off.

The bike lane on this stretch of Ninth Avenue is part of the city's first on-street protected bike path. At the 20th Street intersection, where Bengen came across the car, there's a left-turn bay for vehicles and an exclusive green phase for cyclists. The Excursion, as you can see below, was in the bike lane, not the left-turn bay.

Bengen rode slowly by on the left. Then he sensed the car start to move as he was passing. Alarmed, he slapped the side of the car with his palm in an effort to alert the driver as to his presence. A witness, who Bengen says has agreed to testify in court, snapped three pictures of what happened next. We'll let Bengen describe it:

The driver then went berserk. Talk about road rage. He threw open his door forcing me and my bike to the ground giving me some awful bruising down my leg. As I was now on the ground yelling at him that he's in a bike lane and was just about to run me over, he started to scream at me "Don't even think about it, don't even think about it." I'm still not sure what he meant by that. With me lying on the ground quite shaken, he suddenly stopped his assault and did something very unexpected. He moved away from me, picked up my bike where it was nearly underneath his truck. He then stood it up on its kickstand, and got back in the truck and drove away left into 20th street.

If the episode had ended then and there, one might assume that the driver, who remains unidentified, had counted to ten and wrestled his anger under control. But it looks like the guy may hold a grudge.

Last week, Bengen received a phone call from Detective Christopher Cipolli at the 10th Precinct. Officers from the precinct had arrived at the scene promptly following the altercation, Bengen says, and Cipolli had been very helpful during the investigation that followed. So it was with an apologetic tone that the detective informed Bengen that he had to come down to the precinct on Friday. The reason? Because the Manhattan DA had filed charges of criminal mischief against him. (The DA's office is also pursuing assault charges against the SUV driver.)

"I had to go through the very humiliating process of being handcuffed and put into an interview room -- locked and barred -- for an hour or so," Bengen recalled. After a fingerprint check, Bengen was released. He has a date in Manhattan criminal court set for July 14. The driver will appear on the 13th.

The Manhattan DA's office could not identify the prosecutor who filed the charge against Bengen. When we asked about the basis of the criminal mischief charge, a spokesperson said that when Bengen appears in court "there will be more details." The offense of criminal mischief entails causing property damage of $250 or greater, so presumably the prosecutor will contend that Bengen "recklessly" took aim at a 7,000-pound SUV. Criminal mischief is a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison.

We'll be keeping tabs on this case as it moves to court. According to Bengen's attorney, Mark Taylor, the accusations against his client shouldn't hold up. "There’s no basis for the charges against Ray -- it’s clear that he was acting to protect his own life," Taylor said. "It’s unfortunate that the DA is choosing to prosecute this case."

On Saturday, over 50 people, including several local electeds and candidates, joined bereaved family members for a memorial march in honor of pedestrians killed on Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen.

In recent years, drivers have struck and killed six people on Ninth between 36th and 45th Streets. The victims were eulogized this weekend, with the circumstances of their deaths -- some of which received little or no mention in local media -- recounted. The march was sponsored by the Clinton Hell's Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety (CHEKPEDS), the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association and Transportation Alternatives.

Impatient motorists lay on their horns as the procession, with TA's Shin-pei Tsay bearing a memorial plaque, crosses 40th.

A New Orleans brass band played hymns along the route.

Anahi Vargas, sister of Fabiola Grande Coyotl, speaks. Coyotl was seven months pregnant when she was hit by a truck at 38th Street in November of 2008. Her death didn't make the news.

Berthet railed at the local press for ignoring the carnage on city streets, where on average a pedestrian is killed every 36 hours. The Daily News was the only paper to cover Saturday's march.

TA's Paul Steely White called for safer street conditions and prosecutions of deadly drivers.

Tsay and TA's Julia De Martini Day install a plaque at Ninth and 37th.

Photos: Brad Aaron

CHEKPEDS, the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association and Transportation Alternatives will hold a march tomorrow in honor of pedestrians killed on Ninth Avenue. The march will begin at 2:00 p.m. on the west side of Ninth at 45th Street and will proceed to 36th Street. Along the way, commemorative plaques will be installed for six pedestrians killed by cars in recent years: Randolph Walker, Nina Petrov, Douglas Dibble, Fabiola Grande-Coyotl, Sabina Paradi, and most recent victim Susanne M. Schnitzer.

Sabina Paradi, killed on Ninth Avenue in 2007

Reads a TA media release:

Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, with its many accesses to the Lincoln Tunnel, remains one of New York City's most dangerous streets for pedestrians. The community was once festering with crime, but in a recent survey 70% of the residents said they fear for their lives when they cross the street, while only 5% are scared of crime.

It is very encouraging that a potential future Manhattan DA is taking part in events like this, and we'd feel a lot better about Liu's involvement if he'd stop badmouthing measures to make pedestrians safer.

Expect calls tomorrow for passage of the Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez Law, which would mandate safety training and community service for New York State drivers who seriously injure or kill a pedestrian or cyclist. According to TA, the driver who killed Susanne Schnitzer left the scene. Though he was later located, he has not been charged for taking her life. In such cases, the Ng-Martinez bill would give DAs more options to pursue charges, adding a modicum of muscle to the state's weak laws against deadly driving.

Another motorist falls prey to the urban jaywalker. Photo: James Poling

All together now: The driver was not charged. 

In all fairness, the reporters and editors at the News were probably making an effort to present both sides of the story by even mentioning the vehicle's alleged rate of travel -- as if (also allegedly) crossing the street outside of a marked crosswalk were an offense on par with driving a 5,000-pound vehicle at highway speeds through a pedestrian populated urban environment. But the bias, intended or not, is revealed in the term "jaywalker" itself.

Care of the Chicago urbanist blog west north, an excerpt from Peter D. Norton’s 2008 book "Fighting Traffic" offers a lesson in early 20th-century etymology.

A ‘jay’ was a hayseed, out of place in the city; a jaywalker was someone who did not know how to walk in a city. Originally the term applied as much or more to pedestrians who obstructed the path of other pedestrians — by failing, for example, to keep to the right on the sidewalk. As autos grew common on city streets, jaywalkers were more often pedestrians oblivious to the danger of city motor traffic… ‘Jaywalker’ carried the sting of ridicule, and many objected to branding independent-minded pedestrians with the term. In 1915 New York’s police commissioner, Arthur Woods, attempted to use it to describe anyone who crossed the street at mid-block. The New York Times objected, calling the word ‘highly opprobrious’ and ‘a truly shocking name.’ Any attempt to arrest pedestrians would be ’silly and intolerable.’

The cleverest anti-jaywalking publicity effort was in Detroit in 1922, where the Packard Motor Car Company exploited the new fashion for monuments to traffic fatalities. Packard built an oversized imitation tombstone that closely resembled the monument to the innocent child victims of accidents in Baltimore. But Packard’s tombstone redirected blame to the victims. It was marked ‘Erected to the Memory of Mr. J. Walker: He Stepped from the Curb Without Looking.’

A St. Louisan, defending pedestrians’ traditional rights to the street, tried to turn the ‘jaywalking’ label against those who promoted it. ‘We hear the shameful complaint of jay walkers, to console jay drivers,’ he wrote. ‘It is the self-conceited individual who thinks people are cattle and run upon them tooting a horn.’ ‘Make every machine stop and wait,’ he demanded, ‘until the road is clear, and give precedent to people who are walking. The streets belong to the people and not to any one class, and we have an equal right, in fact more right than the automobile.’ But promoters of the epithet ‘jay driver’ failed.

In 1920, when the wave of public safety campaigns was just beginning, ‘jaywalker’ was a rare and controversial term. Safety weeks, more than anything else, introduced the word to the millions. Frequent use wore down its sharp edge, and it passed into acceptable usage as a term for lawless pedestrians who would not concede their old rights to the streets, even in the dawning motor age.

And so, thanks in part to the burgeoning auto industry, walking outside the lines became a transgression punishable by injury or death, with little or no commensurate responsibility assigned to those doing the injuring and killing.

Almost as an afterthought, the News reported in the same story that an elderly man, again unidentified, was struck dead by a taxi driver on Sixth Avenue near 57th Street Friday night. His crime? "Crossing against the light."

"I was driving up Sixth Ave. and the next thing I know he was lying on my windshield," said driver Mohammad Islam, 27, who was not charged.

Photo: hotdogger13/Flickr

At issue was a rezoning provision that would have dramatically increased parking inventory for new Hudson Yards development by establishing parking minimum requirements. HKNA claimed the parking plan -- adopted in 2005 as part of the failed bid to build a far West Side football stadium -- violated a 1982 agreement to limit parking below 60th Street in order to keep the city in compliance with the Clean Air Act. 

The 2005 zoning, according to HKNA, would have permitted the construction of up to 17,500 new parking spots (estimates cited by neighborhood media pegged the number at closer to 20,000). Under the terms of the settlement, says an HKNA statement, "new development in the Hudson Yards will be limited to no more than 6,100 parking spaces" -- a number that, all things considered, "is expected to be approximately the same as would have been constructed under the 1982 zoning rules."

And for the first time, special permits for additional parking spaces will not be approved unless there is an actual shortage of parking in the Hudson Yards area. Currently there is no limit on special permits. The Departments of City Planning, Consumer Affairs, and Buildings will collaborate to keep an up-to-date inventory of parking spaces in the area and publish it on a web site.

The city has also abandoned plans for a 950-space underground garage originally intended for use by the stadium.

Needless to say, for a neighborhood already overrun with traffic congestion and parking garages, with attendant high levels of asthma to prove it, the settlement is welcome news. Here's hoping it might inspire the Bloomberg admin to reconsider its pro-parking push in other areas of the city.

At last night’s Manhattan Community Board 4 meeting the full board voted overwhelmingly in support of the DOT’s proposed extension of the Eighth Avenue bike lane from 14th to 23rd Streets. Only two board members voted against this plan. Zero community members attended the meeting to speak out against the bike lane. Eight community members attended to speak in favor. Because of the noticeable amount of support in the crowd, the chair, J.D. Noland, actually moved Eighth Avenue up from item 27 to item number two on the agenda, knowing so many people were in the room waiting to hear the verdict.

When it came time for the board to vote, at least two board members who had formerly been leading opponents of Eighth Avenue went on record as now supporting the plan and thanking the CB4 Transportation Committee for holding such a thoughtful and comprehensive public forum on the topic in November.

It is important to remember why Eighth Avenue is now being supported by CB4.

1. The board did a thorough job of working with the community and addressing all of their concerns in their resolution, as well as structuring a forum to help alleviate misinformed concerns. The DOT responded to CB4’s desire for meaningful community outreach and has also responded to these concerns, or in some cases indicated the city will work with the board in the future.

2. Supporters SHOWED UP and SPOKE at these public meetings in numbers far outnumbering opponents, making it undeniable that public input matters tremendously in this process.

3. No opponent could argue with the facts: 280 pedestrians and bicyclists were struck on Eighth Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets from 1995 to 2005 (our most recent crash data) -- that’s a very high crash rate. In the year since its installation, a comparable project on Ninth Avenue has achieved dramatic reductions in crashes. Data collected by the NYC Department of Transportation shows the impact of that project, and the results we can expect to see on Eighth Avenue:

• 57 percent increase in cycling
• 36 percent decrease in pedestrian-related injuries
• 50 percent decrease in injuries from all crashes
• 41 percent decrease in the number of crashes
• Sidewalk cycling reduced from 5 percent to 1 percent

People continue to bring up scofflaw cyclists. Transportation Alternatives will be working on outreach along Eighth Avenue. To keep things in perspective, in the last 10 years roughly 2,000 pedestrians have been hit and killed by cars in NYC. This compares to an estimated 4 to 6 pedestrians hit and killed by bikes during that same time, citywide. Every death is one too many, but it is good to have in mind the real source of death and injury on our streets when safety comes up with an intent to incite anti-bike lane sentiment. We all have a role to play in making our streets safer, and this process has demonstrated the need for cyclists to ride with consideration of the laws and other street users in order to shape public opinion favorably toward cycling and future bike lane projects.

Just last week a woman, seven months pregnant, was hit and killed on 38th and Ninth Avenue, in CB4. Pedestrian safety is a huge concern for this community board, and the existing protected bike lane and pedestrian safety improvements on Ninth Avenue point to the undeniable improvements that will stem from a similar design on Eighth.

Thanks to all who turned out and vocalized their support for one of NYC’s premier bike lanes and a beacon for the livable streets of our future.

Pedestrian refuges mean cyclists aren't the only beneficiaries of cycle tracks. Photo: wrkng/Flickr

The board's transportation committee signed off on the lane last month. Still, about a dozen speakers turned out to oppose the project, which has community advocates, including CHEKPEDS, calling for a strong showing tonight by all who support a safer Eighth Avenue.

WHAT: Manhattan Community Board 4 General Meeting

WHEN: Wednesday, December 3, 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Roosevelt Hospital, 10th Avenue between 58th and 59th St.

Last night, the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 4 voted 8-2 in support of extending the protected bike lane on Eighth Avenue, now under construction below W. 14th Street, north to 23rd. Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives sends this account.

The meeting turnout was high, with roughly 40 people speaking 2-1 in favor of the proposed protected bike lane. There were a lot of cyclists, most of them Chelsea residents. Joshua David of Friends of the Highline, Mike Epstein representing Google, as well as Ian Dutton and Shirley Secunda from CB2 all helped set a good, supportive tone early on. The issue of gay (or-anti) gay street design, which got some mention in the press last month, was dismissed early one by one speaker as a "lavender herring" and never came up again.

Of the 10-15 people speaking against the project, about five spoke as if this was a referendum on cycling, railing against bikers as public enemy #1 (thank you Hunter College). There were a few speaking on process, and criticizing the DOT for inadequate public outreach in drafting the design. And several spoke about specific needs, like loading zones on particular blocks and banning left turns on some west-bound streets to preserve metered parking for businesses.

The overall tone of the meeting was respectful and upbeat, and hopefully it carries over to the full board meeting, where we'll need everyone who spoke last night (and more) to come out again and speak for the project.

The recommendation came with conditions, including education and outreach to cyclists and businesses and consideration for commercial parking and loading zone needs. The committee also wants all signals to be accessible to street users with physical impairments.

The plan will go to the full board -- where the project was previously rejected, based, at least in part, on the anti-gay argument -- on December 3. 

Image: NYC DOT 

Plastic bollards separate bikes from car and truck traffic at W. 23rd.

Pedestrian island under construction at 29th.

The 31st Street island is already getting some use.

Bet you didn't see this one coming.

As part of Mayor Bloomberg's vision for far West Side redevelopment, the streetscape between 10th and 11th Avenues from 33rd to 42nd Streets is to be transformed with four acres of park space, linking to new commercial and residential high rises. Five designs have been submitted, with the winner to be chosen in October. The Post reports that, according to the Hudson Yards Development Corporation, phase one of the project is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

CHEKPEDS wants to ensure that the finished product addresses neighborhood considerations, such as:

• Will it be mostly for cars or for people?
  
• Will it be mostly for workers or for residents and neighbors?
  
• Will it be mostly shaded and green or more like a plaza?
  
• Will it be open 24 hours a day?
  
• What should it bring that the neighborhood lacks?

Designs will be on display tonight at 6:30 at Hudson Guild in the Dan Carpenter Room, 441 West 26th St. between 9th & 10th Avenues.

Image via New York Post

This pic came in to the Streetsblog Flickr pool a few minutes ago from the Park(ing) spot on Eighth Avenue and 23rd Street.

Keep those photos coming!

Photo: 0r/Flickr

Manhattan Community Board 4's transportation committee unanimously approved DOT's plan to install a physically-separated bike path on Eighth Avenue in Lower Manhattan. The committee enthusiastically recommended the plan to the full board on Wednesday. The board then voted to ignore their own committee and block the plan. Apparently, some members feel that complete streets and safe bike infrastructure are somehow incompatible with the neighborhood's gay-friendly environment. Chelsea Now has the play-by-play:

Board member Allen Roskoff was more specific. “I refer to Eighth Ave. between 14th and 23rd Streets as ‘Gay Boulevard,’ he said. “Large numbers of gay people go there… It’s where we feel at home. … The atmosphere there—the restaurants, the activity, the people walking— it’s a home to many of us that no other avenue is. I don’t think these changes are for the positive in any way, shape or form.”

Which reminds me... Have you looked in to joining your local Community Board lately? This kind of thing is going to keep happening until either the Community Board system is overhauled or we get more Ian Dutton's, Christine Berthet's and Teresa Toro's serving on local boards.

The DOT's plan for a pilot project on Eighth Avenue, which can be downloaded here, mirrors the complete street redesign of Ninth Avenue one block to the west. The Eighth Avenue bike lane also runs through part of CB2, which unanimously approved the project last month.

It's also worth noting that outcry against the bike lane at CB4 was not at all universal and that Community Boards only have advisory power. DOT can go ahead with the project with or without the board's support. Again, from Chelsea Now:

Board member David Hanzel observed that “walking down Ninth Ave., I think it’s an improved experience.” He said there’s less traffic, fewer cars making sharp turns, and it’s “more of a leisurely stroll now.”

Hanzel was seconded by longtime member Bob Trentlyon, who observed that the discussion was the “most retro conversation I’ve heard at a board meeting in a long time. … There must be two Ninth Aves., because the Ninth Ave. I see, the traffic is moving very smoothly along… There are no businesses that have gone out of business since this has happened; there are more people starting to use the bike lanes.”

State lawmakers reached an agreement yesterday allowing the city to move forward with plans for a recycling transfer station on Manhattan's Gansevoort peninsula near 14th Street. The step may do more to reduce traffic than any other measure passed during the latest legislative session, which wrapped up this morning.

The Gansevoort station is part of the city's Solid Waste Management Plan. By requiring each borough to handle its own trash, the plan is projected to reduce truck traffic within the city by about 3.5 million miles per year, in total. Areas that handle a disproportionate amount of the city's waste and the attendant truck traffic -- and suffer higher asthma rates as a result -- stand to see the greatest relief. As Mobilizing the Region noted last month, the opening of a Manhattan recycling station will mean fewer trucks fanning out to the Bronx, Brooklyn, and New Jersey.

Because the Gansevoort station is slated for a site on the Hudson River Park, state approval was required. Speaker Sheldon Silver had blocked the station last October at the behest of three Manhattan Assembly members. This time around, provisions were included to set aside future park funding and assure public access to the Hudson River Greenway during construction.

Photo: anazzarophotography/Flickr

The ride starts at 8:30.

For more info visit T.A.'s Bike Month web site.

Wanted: Real Reformer for NY's 75th Assembly District (Chelsea)

New York's 75th Assembly district has been represented by an out of touch party hack for over 35 years with little to show for his efforts. Colleagues describe him as indecisive and lacking the leadership qualities to get promoted to the next level. He has also failed to adapt to the shifting customer base.

Even the local newspaper (NY Times) has called him to task in a recent editorial: "New Yorkers deserve to be mad as hell about Albany, and their best revenge is at the ballot box. All they need now is to find decent candidates. In Manhattan, where the Democratic primary is the election, it is time to challenge even the most established members of the Legislature - like Assemblyman Richard Gottfried on the West Side or Assemblywoman Deborah Glick."

Even his website (http://www.richardgottfried.org) hasn't been updated in over eight years. It still lists him as representing the 64th district - before the post-census redistricting.

Help Richard "Dick" Gottfried find a new job by putting in an application for his current one. Serious Reformers Only need apply.

DOT had sent the board a list of bike racks to install on our sidewalks. After an extensive review, it became apparent that in many locations there is not enough space to accommodate both large bike racks and pedestrians, while the many bike deliveries businesses definitely need a solution. This concept should sound familiar, since the community recommended this approach as part of the 9th Avenue Renaissance vision.

It's a concept that's also familiar to DOT, as last year the city swapped three car spaces for 30 bike spots in Williamsburg. CHEKPEDS is proposing that two car parking spots per intersection -- one on the east, one on the west -- along Ninth between 36th and 56th Streets be converted for bike parking.

Photo: musiquegirl/Flickr