2 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 September 27–October 3, 2019
Driven out
Motorists host ad-hoc
meetings across Brooklyn
to undermine bike lanes
MEAN
Streets
enough that we’ll get their attention.
We’re trying to use
our voice,” said Shellie Hagan,
who organized the meeting
along with Fort Greene resident
Lucy Koteen and Community
Board 2 member Ernest
Augustus.
The bike lane rebels aren’t
shy about drawing some heavy
comparisons, and fliers advertising
the Fort Greene town
hall emulated German Pastor
Martin Niemöller’s famed
1946-poem “First they came,”
which condemned complacent
dissenters amid the rise of National
“First they took away traffic
lanes. Then gas stations.
Now they’re coming for the
parking,” the flyers read.
The advertising campaign
was not too effective — only
about a half dozen car lovers
showed up for the meeting
— but the Fort Greene
town hall follows a gathering
in Park Slope earlier this year,
where locals packed Seventh
Avenue’s All Saints Episcopal
Church to condemn a bike
lane on Ninth Street.
Former local district leader Renee Collymore (right)
accused the de Blasio administration of destroying
the middle class by encouraging the Department
of Transportation to build more bike and bus infrastructure
at the expense of city’s motorists.
Both meetings eschewed
the official pipeline for extending
gripes to city government
— community boards — as
motorists embrace a growing
resentment of the boards’
volunteer civic gurus, whom
Hagan called out of touch and
ineffective.
“The community boards
don’t really represent the
neighborhoods, it’s just a
giant bureaucracy and even
when you do get something
through the board, they’re just
advisory and politicians will
ignore them when it’s convenient
for them — it’s kind of a
waste of time,” Hagan said.
Instead, the drivers are
organizing their own gatherings
and inviting local politicians
to hear from them
directly. Council Majority
Leader Laurie Cumbo spent
about 40 minutes at the Fort
Greene meeting and a representative
for Borough President
Eric Adams was present
at the Park Slope meeting
in January.
But if the drivers are organizing
meetings in an effort
to be heard, they’re creating
opportunities for the opposition
to express themselves
as well.
“The people who are going
through the trouble of organizing
these forums are a
pretty small minority that is
averse to change,” said Eric
McClure, who co-chairs Community
Board 6’s Transportation
Committee and is the
director of the safe-streets
advocacy group StreetsPAC.
“For advocates, the reason
they show up is that if electeds
are there, they see that
the car owners view is not
monolithic.”
Locals turn out for adoption event
When memory fades,
Socialism.
our commitment endures.
Sunnyside Community Services’
CARE NYC Program helps people
cope with the stress of caring
for someone with Alzheimer’s or
dementia. We provide caregivers with
counseling, education, and
so much more.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
You’ve heard of the socalled
“War on Cars” — now
meet the resistance!
Car-owning Brooklyn
residents are gathering in
churches throughout the borough
to plot the destruction
of bike and bus lanes in their
communities, which one former
pol blamed for the downfall
of the middle class!
“If you’re trying to get
rid of my car, it’s almost like
you’re trying to take away the
middle class family, because
biking is not for everybody,”
Renee Collymore, a former
Fort Greene district leader.
One recent gathering at
Fort Greene’s Lafayette Avenue
Presbyterian Church on
Sept. 17, dubbed a “Townhall
on the NYC War on Cars,”
invited motorists to discuss
policies that redistribute
the city’s transit wealth
away from drivers — axing
parking spaces in favor of
bike lanes and eliminating
driving lanes to make way
for dedicated bus lanes — as
car owners seek to retake the
roads, according to one Clinton
Hill resident.
“We want to be on the game
board, we want to be noisy
Our wrap-around
services, including
assistance with
enrollment in long-term
Medicaid coverage and
obtaining a home health
aide, ensure we can
support caregivers at
many stages. If someone
you know is a caregiver
in need of support,
please have them call
877-577-9337or email
carenyc@scsny.org.
CARE NYC is supported in part by a grant from the New York State Department of Health
Photo by Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn’s
boulevard
battle lines
By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
These furballs are homeward
bound!
A pack of adorable Brooklyn tail
waggers found loving homes during a
pet adoption event last Saturday, when
a local animal shelter stationed an
adoption truck outside a Fort Greene
apartment building.
The Bideawee adoption truck carried
six dogs and five cats to Ashland
Place between Fulton Street and
Lafayette Avenue, where dozens of
passersby boarded the van to meet
the four-legged fuzz muffins.
All but two of the furry friends
found forever homes during the
event, according to volunteer
Courtney Weinholtz.
Bideawee holds semi-weekly adoption
events across the city.
Furr-ever friend:
Frank, a puppy, found
a loving family at the
Bideawee pet adoption
event in Fort
Greene last Saturday.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Homeward bound!
Frank, a puppy, found a loving
family at the Bideawee pet adoption
event in Fort Greene.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
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