The NYPD's 94th Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is working hard to build on its reputation for being New York City's most infamous bike thieves. Too much demand for bike parking in the neighborhood? "I know what to do," says the 94's commanding officer Dennis M. Fulton. "Bust out the circular saw!"

This time Greenpoint resident Ben Running caught the whole thing on video tape. Running says the confiscated bicycles seemed to be in use:

They didn’t look like beat up bikes that had locked up there forever — they looked like they were being used,” said Ben Running, a Greenpoint resident and cyclist who filmed police removing the bikes from a street sign near the corner of North Eighth Street. “Bikes shouldn’t be removed without some kind of notice.

One section of the Kent Avenue two-way bike path has been painted. Two more will follow. Image: NYCDOT [PDF].

We've got another dispatch from the ongoing bike lane drama that is Kent Avenue. At Wednesday night's information session hosted by Brooklyn CB1, the DOT team gave a short presentation [PDF] outlining their plan to address truck traffic changes caused by converting Kent to one-way flow. Then the public was invited to comment.

Truck routes in North Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

A couple of things to keep in mind. The traffic changes are happening in three phases. So far only the first has been completed. Once the whole thing is finished and truckers have had some time to learn the new traffic patterns, the straightest shot heading south goes nowhere near Wythe or North 11th. DOT intends to promote this route, which takes trucks down McGuinness Boulevard instead, and work with the local police precincts to keep truckers off streets where they're not supposed to drive.

As for the notion that the project makes streets less safe (some opponents went so far as to say the new traffic patterns will endanger children), it's hard to take seriously. This is not just a one-way conversion: The crossing distances will be shorter and the roadway narrower on Kent Avenue, which motorists used to treat as a little stretch of autobahn in Brooklyn. Now that traffic will be calmer.

The bike lane was always intended to be a precursor to the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. The new design now occupies the greenway footprint, so opposing the bike lane is tantamount to opposing the greenway. An area undergoing as much residential development as North Brooklyn sorely needs this new space for pedestrians and cyclists. Walking to the waterfront will feel much safer and more appealing, and biking to the Williamsburg Bridge won't just be limited to a few brave souls. CB1 embraced those improvements when it approved the greenway plan last April [PDF]; the same benefits should feel much more tangible once the Kent Avenue bike lane is completed next month.

Come out tonight and support the city's first two-way, on-street protected bike path.

DOT representatives will be presenting their plan to address traffic changes caused by the new one-way vehicular flow on Kent. The new design establishes the greenway footprint and re-establishes on-street parking and loading zones. No new truck routes have been created, though southbound truck traffic will travel differently than before. Plenty can be done to mitigate the truck traffic changes, but there's a lot of hearsay and misinformation floating around. You can be sure that some North Williamsburg residents living close to those designated truck routes will be there tonight, and they'll be loud. A show of support for safe cycling would give a big boost to this important link in the city's bike network.

The meeting gets started at 6:30 (sorry about the late notice) at 807 Manhattan Avenue -- the entrance is on Calyer Street.

Clarence sends these shots from Kent Avenue, where the striping and painting of the city's first two-way, on-street parking protected bike lane is currently in progress. This is the view looking north from the vicinity of Clymer Street. The project will be completed in two phases. According to DOT's project presentation [PDF], the current work, stretching from Clymer to Broadway, will be complete in mid-September; the second phase, from Broadway to North 14th Street, is slated to wrap up in about a month. Below is the view looking south toward Clymer.

L-r: City Council candidates Ken Baer, Doug Biviano, Ken Diamondstone, Jo Anne Simon, Evan Thies.

It was an opportunity for the candidates to show how well they understand the most critical transportation problems facing New York City by rebutting Reina with a well-reasoned argument. Traffic generated by the free price on Brooklyn's three East River bridges overruns the 33rd District, which includes parts of Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Park Slope. Congestion pricing, supported by outgoing rep David Yassky, should be as much a no-brainer here as it is in Lower Manhattan.

Only one candidate, Doug Biviano, a former campaign staffer for Kucinich 2008, came close to giving Reina what he asked for. "I'm not against congestion pricing," he said, "but I think we have to be careful about unintended consequences. Do we want to hit people with that toll? In this climate, I don’t think we want to. That would kill contractors."

Biviano was followed by Evan Thies, who played an active role in last year's campaign to pass congestion pricing as a consultant for Environment Defense and the Pratt Center. "I do absolutely support congestion pricing," he said to some applause. "Neighborhoods like this are disproportionately affected by the traffic that’s created by the lack of congestion pricing. Contractors in the outer boroughs supported congestion pricing, because instead of spending time in traffic, they’d be spending more time working for clients." Thies later named congestion pricing his top transportation priority and noted that the next City Council will need to take it up again in 2010 to fund the MTA Capital Plan.

Jo Anne Simon, an attorney who serves as Democratic district leader in the 52nd Assembly District, gave another strong statement in support of pricing. "The gratuitous traffic that comes over the bridges is just that, gratuitous," she said. "We’re a doormat. It’s costing us in infrastructure; it’s costing us in health. The challenge for us as policy makers is to convince people in the outer boroughs that congestion pricing benefits them too. It’s not just for Manhattan."

Ken Diamondstone and Ken Baer, the other two candidates at the forum, also endorsed congestion pricing. Baer took the more enthusiastic stance, noting that pricing revenues can help plug the MTA Capital Plan's $10 billion hole. Diamondstone said he "believes strongly" in the policy but thinks exceptions must be made for people with disabilities and, in a novel carve-out suggestion, musicians.

By this point in the debate, candidate Isaac Abraham was long gone.

Abraham, whose base is in Williamsburg's Satmar Hasidic community, left soon after taking a swipe at the Kent Avenue bike lane, about 30 minutes into the event. (He told the crowd of about 50 that he had a wedding to attend.) At least Abraham made an appearance, which is more than we can say for no-show Steve Levin, a protege of Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez. The day before the debate, Levin backed out of his commitment to attend.

On the question of truck traffic, the need to fund the Cross-Harbor Freight Tunnel was widely invoked by the candidates, but council members can't do much to advance a project that needs billions in federal cash to get built. The more intriguing responses came from Simon and Thies. Simon raised the prospect of truck tolls on the East River bridges (you can do it with E-ZPass transponders, she said), which would put a halt to the free counterclockwise route that sends trucks through downtown Brooklyn streets, while Thies proposed giving Traffic Enforcement Agents the authority to "bust trucks for traveling on non-truck routes."

It wasn't the only question on which Simon and Thies distinguished themselves. While the two Kens showed a solid commitment to street safety measures like automated enforcement and traffic-calming infrastructure, Simon and Thies consistently displayed a broader and more current grasp of transportation issues.

Responding to a question about improving streets for walking, biking and transit, Thies was the only candidate to broach the politically difficult subject of off-street parking reform. "I'd like to prevent garages from being built in developments near subway stops," he said. "It’s bad urban planning, it brings traffic." Simon, meanwhile, made the evening's sole statement on bike-share, a project that she said "needs to be pursued."

Aside from Abraham's early turn at the mic, fireworks over bike lanes failed to transpire. One audience member did mention that she fears cyclists while driving at night, and asked the candidates if they would push legislation requiring cyclist registration and helmet use. To read what they had to say, check out "Audience Question #1" over at TA's candidate survey blog.

By all accounts, the new plan enjoys the support of former opponents, including the Satmar Hasidic community and businesses along Kent that would see loading zones return. While supporters may have had the numerical advantage last night, they were not the loudest.

"DOT could barely get through its presentation," reports TA's Wiley Norvell, with lots of heckling coming from residents of North 11th Street (which is already a truck route but would receive diverted traffic). The meeting had already been going on a few hours by the time public comment on Kent Avenue started, Norvell said, and not that many people testified. "A lot of people who were there to speak in favor felt a little browbeaten."

There was no vote on the agenda last night.

No one is dismissing the issue of truck traffic, which could be mitigated, in part, by stricter route enforcement. But the latest plan is the product of an already long and contentious public process. "DOT came up with a design that satisfied those concerns," said Norvell. "There's never a perfect scenario that leaves everyone grinning ear to ear, but there's always a safest scenario."

Here are the meeting details courtesy of TA, who reminds everyone to keep the speeches short and sweet:

DOT Presentation on Kent Avenue
Tuesday, June 9th
Sign up to speak by 6:15 pm
Swinging 60s Senior Citizens Center
211 Ainslie Street (Corner of Manhattan Avenue) Brooklyn

Enjoying car-free Bedford Ave. during Williamsburg Walks 2008. Photo: acsweet/Flickr

Starting tomorrow, Bedford Avenue from North 4th to North 9th Street will be open to pedestrians only on six Saturdays from noon to sunset. This year's Williamsburg Walks is a project of community residents along with Neighbors Allied for Good Growth and The L Magazine.

Every Sunday in June, Vanderbilt Avenue between Dean Street and Park Place will go car-free from noon to 5 p.m., thanks to the Vanderbilt Avenue Merchants District and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council.  Says the PHNDC: "There will be music, art and gardening, face painting, sun and trees, shopping, eating and relaxing, biking and performances, and people watching. Plus a few surprises."

Word is there will be plenty more Summer Streets action this year. Stay tuned.

Here's a look at the revised and extended route proposed for the Kent Avenue bike path. Currently the bike lane runs from Quay Street to Clymer Street. As you can see in this map from DOT's project presentation [PDF], the new route would continue several blocks further south, to Flushing Avenue.

The other big difference: Kent's existing Class 2 bike lane would become a two-way, physically-protected route. With auto traffic on Kent converted to one-way flow, this enables the return of on-street parking and loading zones, which bike lane foes had clamored for.

DOT unveiled the proposal at a forum on Wednesday, and the Brooklyn Paper reports that at least one vocal opponent of the bike lanes, Leo Moskowitz, has been won over.

The re-routing of a truck route across a few blocks of north Williamsburg, however, has aroused opposition from new quarters. So, at least for a few more months, we might get to see this all-time classic photo continue to grace the web pages of the Brooklyn Paper.

Follow the jump for a rendering of the proposed Kent Street geometry.

Photo: i'm not sayin, i'm just sayin

In an attempt to make peace among cyclists, who support a pair of controversial Kent Avenue bike paths, and drivers and business owners who oppose the lanes because of their impact on parking, the city is forging a truce that could turn Kent Avenue into a one-way street lined on two sides of parking and loading zones -- as well as a protected two-directional bike lane, sources told The Brooklyn Paper.

Insiders who attended meetings between the Department of Transportation and factions of South Williamsburg’s Satmar community said the one-way, one-lane Kent Avenue would run northbound between Clymer and North 14th streets.

Such a plan would allow the city to convert the hotly contested no-parking and no standing zones on either side of the road into legal parking lanes -- one of which would serve as a buffer for a protected two-directional bike lane on the waterfront side of the roadway.

The new bike path will be separated by on-street markings a la Grand Street, according to sources familiar with the plan.

The configuration more closely resembles that of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, which will eventually succeed the bike lane on Kent Avenue. "This establishes the greenway footprint much sooner than would otherwise be the case," said Transportation Alternatives' Wiley Norvell. A two-way protected path on Kent, he added, could serve as a groundbreaking precedent for other on-street paths -- even more so than the two-way path planned for Prospect Park West, which doesn't contend with any cross-traffic.

Another thing to watch for is the treatment of parking. The absence of parking on Kent has given pedestrians an unobstructed view of traffic, making crossing the street safer. The revised design should make ample use of daylighting to keep sightlines clear and open. "As long as those safety gains are preserved, this is a win," said Norvell.

Enjoying a game of four-square out on the street in Jackson Heights. Photo: Transportation Alternatives.

Using surveys and other data collected before and after last year's car-free events, Transportation Alternatives sheds some light on the upward trend in their new report, "I Walk in My Street" [PDF]. Here are some of the notable findings reported by TA:

• Before Summer Space, only 42% of respondents said they would visit Montague Street more often if it were closed to auto traffic; during the closure this number jumped to 72%.
• The percentage of respondents who rated the pedestrian experience of Montague Street as “Good” or “Very Good” increased from 79% before the closure to 97% during the events.
• 100% of those surveyed at the 78th Street Play Street felt that the event “enhanced the park and farmers’ market.”
• Pedestrian streets encourage walking: during the Williamsburg Walks event, 47% of those surveyed said that they had walked to the event, a 14% improvement over normal levels.
• Montague Street retailers experienced 26% higher sales during Summer Space than on comparable days in 2007, on average.

It takes a lot of preparation to put on a pedestrian street, and TA's report also includes detailed explanations of how each neighborhood pulled it off. You can learn how the organizers went about community outreach, city permitting, volunteer coordination, the whole shebang. While it's too late to apply for a pedestrian street this summer, if you're interested in bringing one to your neighborhood in 2010, it's never too early to get cracking on a game plan.

The Kent Ave. bike lane at work. Photo: New York Times

"It was a really great showing of community support," Santogade told Streetsblog. "The board didn't indicate that there were any changes being discussed about the bike lane." No vote was held on the matter, which has already passed through the CB1 wringer. After the public feedback, some board members also reiterated their support for the bike lane.

Stirring testimony came from regular bike lane users who described "what it was like before, with cars racing by at 50-60 mph on one side, and being afraid of car doors opening on the other side," Santogade said. "They commute there because the trains are packed and they don't have cars, and this is a vital connector on their way to work."

Notably, a member of Nydia Velazquez's staff also spoke briefly to confirm the congresswoman's support for the bike lane, which is a precursor to the long-anticipated Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. Velazquez has secured $14.6 million in federal funds for greenway construction.

Members of the Hasidic community, widely viewed as the epicenter of bike lane opposition, did not make their presence felt at the forum. Only one representative from the community spoke against the lanes.

About half the speakers testified in support of deposed transportation committee chair Teresa Toro, who was instrumental to progress on the Kent Avenue bike lane and the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. Some board members asked the executive committee to reinstate Toro, said Santogade, but board chair Vincent Abate, who has stated that Toro was dismissed for speaking to the press, played it close to the vest.

"He said, 'Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it,'" Santogade recounted. "He said he had four months left on the Community Board, and he’d never left an organization fractured and with unfinished business, and that he considered this to be unfinished business." No formal action was taken.

Velazquez has played a big role in advancing the greenway, securing $14.6 million in federal funding for its construction. Staff members at her Brooklyn and DC offices were not available to confirm or comment on the bike lane opposition.

If it wasn't painfully obvious already, this can no longer be dismissed as your typical bike lane flap. To counter the opposition and show support for critical safety improvements, be sure to show up tomorrow at the full Community Board 1 meeting about the bike lane (211 Ainslie Street; sign up before 6:15 p.m. to speak). And if you haven't signed on yet to Transportation Alternatives' e-fax campaign, now is the time. More direct, in-person appeals will certainly be necessary, and we'll keep you posted about organized actions going forward.

Want to work the phones a little this afternoon? Check here for contacts at Velazquez's Brooklyn office, and here for City Council members Yassky and Reyna. They need to hear from constituents who don't want to see Kent Avenue take a step backward toward the dangerous bad old days:

The controversy over the new bike lanes on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg (which recently resulted in the ouster of livable streets activist Teresa Toro as chair of the CB1 transportation committee) was chronicled in the New York Times over the weekend:

New York City has created more than 100 miles of bicycle lanes in recent years to encourage and accommodate the number of people who, compelled by a desire to preserve the environment or preserve their bank accounts, have taken to getting around on two wheels.

But the effort to turn the city into a place that embraces bicyclists has clashed with a long-entrenched reality — New York is a crowded, congested urban landscape where every patch of asphalt is coveted.

Gothamist has been following one of the most surreal aspects of the Kent Avenue drama—the ups and downs of the very unofficial "detour" sign pictured above, part of the anti-bike-lane campaign. On private property, it advises drivers that school buses will block the street and the bike lane while picking up and dropping off children. As of Dec. 31st, it was back up. As Gothamist writes, "The big question now is whether the city cares enough to step in and take it down."

As committee chair, Teresa was instrumental in winning New York City's first on-street bike parking, last summer's Williamsburg Walks event on Bedford Avenue and -- don't forget this -- a 39-2 Community Board vote in favor of the suddenly controversial Kent Ave. greenway plan.

It's also worth noting that the Kent Avenue bike lanes were the by-product of a decade of community-driven planning as part of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. Williamsburg's politically-powerful Hasidic community, offended by the loss of parking space and the potential increase in short-sleeved, female goyim rolling through the neighborhood, has vowed to make life miserable for cyclists.

We'll try to get some more details in the new year. In the meantime, get some rest over the holidays, folks. The backlash is for real and it's gonna be a fight in 2009. You can fax a letter to Mayor Bloomberg to express your support for the Kent Avenue bike lane.

The Kent Avenue lane at work, with squad car. Photo: i'm not sayin, i'm just sayin.

Convened by City Council members Yassky and Reyna, the meeting got off to a rough start after MTA reps delivered news about service cuts that will affect the neighborhood. The tone was set for a contentious discussion of Kent Avenue. "Business owners came out against it," said Sholom Brody, a member of TA's Brooklyn Committee. "The problem is 'no standing'; they're really upset about the stretch between Clymer and Division Avenue," a small portion of the lane's full length.

The parking situation has already been through community board review. In April, CB1 approved plans for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, which would offset the removal of parking spots on Kent by identifying new spaces on side streets. (The current bike lane is a stopgap until the Greenway is built.) All told, DOT made three presentations to the community board about the project [PDF]. Opponents now say this process was insufficient.

An NYPD ticket blitz immediately after the parking rules took effect appears to have inflamed opposition, and the usual canards, of course, are in full effect. According to Brody, one bike lane opponent claimed to have seen only 20 cyclists use the lane over the course of a full day, a figure that DOT refuted with its own 12-hour count -- 500 cyclists.

Streetsblog regular Dave "Paco" Abraham inspected the new lane on a recent ride organized by the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. Any hindrance to drop-offs and deliveries caused by the "no standing" rule need not give rise to a hot-blooded confrontation, he says. "The problem is very workable and the BGI and CB1 supporters readily admit it should be addressed and corrected."

Fine-tuning is already underway. "DOT has been working with local businesses and the community to address changes brought about by the project and will continue to look for ways to minimize any impacts," said spokesman Scott Gastel. The agency has set aside a bus pickup and drop-off zone outside one school and approved a loading zone for a local business.

Despite signals that the kinks will be worked out, a vocal opposition based in the neighborhood's Hasidic community is not embracing a conciliatory tone, to put it mildly.

All indications are that the all-out war approach is a non-starter. "We often see issues like Kent Avenue turned into a referendum on bicycling. That doesn't get us anywhere," said TA's Wiley Norvell. "Turning Kent back into a dangerous truck route with no provision for the hundreds of bicyclists who use it every day would be reckless."

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

"The thousands who ride on Delancey every day shouldn't feel like they are taking their lives in their own hands," says Marin Tockman, founder of Adopt-a-Bike-Lane, who was herself the victim of a crash while riding on Delancey. "We want these rides to show bicyclists how much better their commutes would be if this street made space for them."

Over 3,000 cyclists cross the Williamsburg Bridge every day, according to TA, which says the intersection of Essex and Delancey is the third most dangerous for cyclists in the entire city. Between 1995 and 2005, 99 cyclists and 308 pedestrians were injured by motor vehicles on Delancey.

The Adopt-a-Bike-Lane effort was spurred by the death of Rasha Shamoon, who was killed at Delancey and Bowery in August. Today's rides will depart from Delancey and Bowery every five minutes from 6:00 to 7:00. Cyclists will gather for an after-party at The City Reliquary in Williamsburg from 7:00 to 9:00.

Photo: crayfray/Flickr

Here's Simon Weiser, a familiar source in these stories, as quoted in the Jerusalem Post:

"The issue with modesty, it's a problem, but we live in New York, you know what I mean?" said Simon Weiser, a community board member who represents the Hasidim.

"My concern is that there are three bike lanes right next to each other and so many children, so many schools, in a very small area. Everyone understands and knows a bike lane is a nuisance."

While the Jerusalem Post's headline writers stuck with the irresistible "hipsters versus Hasids" angle, commenter Zvi suggests that the bike lanes are entirely consistent with the teachings of the Talmud, which says that "whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Photo: Brian Branch Price/New York Post