Louise Hainline: “I learned about this project late…”

In this email to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz obtained by Streetsblog, Brooklyn College dean Louise Hainline admits she was told by none other than Iris Weinshall herself that the PPW bike lane was not at all “temporary,” betraying the notion upon which NBBL’s entire case against DOT rests.  In addition, Hainline gives the impression that not only is she against the bike lane on her block, but that entire boroughs may be inappropriate locations for bike lanes; she describes the axing of the B69 bus as “ironic,” considering the installation of the bike lane, when “coincidental” would be the more appropriate word; she says that Prospect Park was “made for biking” even though it opened in 1867, over twenty years before cycling truly took off in the United States; she questions DOT data months before DOT releases any figures, offering a preview of the confirmation bias she and other NBBL members will exhibit later; and she suggests that cyclists and pedestrians can share the “luxurious width” of PPW’s “lovely sidewalks,” which would ironically — I think the word fits in this context — put Hainline’s friends in Seniors for Safety in danger.

To top it all off she admits that she “learned about this project late.”  It makes her March 2011 admonition to hundreds of PPW fans to “take a deep breath” all the more disdainful, considering how many of them had been involved in the project for years by that point; when everyone else has been in the pool for hours, it’s the person who dives in last who should probably take the deepest breath.

I thought about writing a longer take-down of this email, but it’s hardly necessary.  Luke DePalma, Marty Markowitz’ transportation advisor, already wrote one. [PDF]