In Case You Missed It…

…I wrote an editorial for the Park Slope Patch about the specious arguments of NBBL and the wide community support for the new PPW.

NBBL also has an editorial on the site titled, “PPW Bike Lane is Dangerous,” There’s no need for me to do a deconstruction–the commenters over there are doing it instead–but I did want to respond to one thing:

The pro-lane activists, on the other hand, were sitting in secret barroom meetings to coordinate DOT strategy and a campaign of intimidation. Unfortunately, they succeeded: some of our members are now afraid to speak publicly for fear of retribution.

“Secret barroom meetings” may sound sinister, but where else are people supposed to meet now that Bloomberg has banned smoke-filled rooms? Seriously though, what city agency isn’t meeting with community representatives and, yes, individual “activists” when trying to built ground support for a project?

Look, I get it. NBBL wants people to believe that the deck was so stacked against them from the beginning that they didn’t stand a chance of having their opinions heard. So let’s reshuffle the deck. I propose this compromise to members of Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes: you call off Chuck Schumer, Iris Weinshall, Norman Steisel, Marty Markowitz, Anthony Weiner, Marcia Kramer, and maybe even the editorial board of the New York Post, and we bikers will agree to tone it down on a few blogs. You know, because we bikers all talk to each other.