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Sorry, NIMBYs: DOT Wins First Citi Bike Placement Suit
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 25, 2013
Modified Oct 25, 2013
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Jen Chung/Gothamist
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 25, 2013
Modified Oct 25, 2013
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The Department of Transportation is free to drown the city in sea of blue bike-shaped metal, and there's nothing you can do about it; this week, a Manhattan judge awarded the DOT its first lawsuit win over Citi Bike rack placement, ruling that the city was justified in setting up a docking station in SoHo's Petrosino Park. Oh, and the program is also apparently losing some money, but we'll get to that in a minute.
The 32-bike Petrosino Square station reportedly takes up about a third of the teensy park, and earlier this month a neighborhood group took the city to court over the racks' placement, arguing it was public parkland and the bikes were for commuters, not pleasure-cyclists.
But Judge Cynthia Kern ruled yesterday that the group's concerns were a no-go. "Bicycling is an important form of recreation that has had a proper ‘park purpose’ for many years demonstrated by the fact that the infrastructure to support bicycling, such as bike paths, bicycle racks and rest stations are common incidents in parks," she wrote in her ruling. Not that wee Petrosino has any room for all that fun-biking, or anything: "It’s pretty clear the citing of this Citi Bike station is not a park purpose as it has zero connection to that tiny park," Parks Advocate Geoffrey Croft told the Post.
Meanwhile, it doesn't appear that the Most Controversial Bike Share Program of Our Time has been much of a financial windfall for the city. "“I don’t think [it’s making money] yet,” Mayor Bloomberg said of the program yesterday, ostensibly sending pleasure spikes rolling through Steve Cuozzo's nervous system.
But fear not, fair cycling New Yorkers, for the bikes will not be banished quite so soon! "You’ve got to get everything out there, and there’s a lot of teething at the beginning,” Bloomberg said. “It is, I think, better than anybody had anticipated in terms of usage.” The city says New Yorkers have taken about 4.5 million rides on Citi Bikes since the program kicked off in May, and so far only one bike has mysteriously spent the night in my apartment building.
Tagged
citi bike
dot
NIMBYs
petrosino square
soho
steve cuozzo
Rebecca Fishbein
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