“Bikes are good.”

“Ditmas Parkers: We want more bike lanes,” via The Brooklyn Paper:

“Bikes are good and anything that encourages people to come to this neighborhood will help us,” said Sam Levin, the manager of Cortelyou Hardware. The store is now on Transportation Alternative’s bicycle-friendly list and is offering a 10-percent discount to any customer who shows up on a bike. “Bike lanes also will make the street safer for bike riders.”

I love that the quote from a local who supports bike lanes doesn’t come from the owner of a trendy bar or restaurant that symbolizes the gentrificapocalypse, but straight from a manager of a good, old fashioned hardware store.  While the chair of CB14’s transportation committee is predictably chafed about wrong-way cyclists and making sure bike lanes go on “appropriate” streets, it’s the real New Yorker, the man who sees the street and how it’s really used, who gets it.