Cyclists rallied for the completion of the Fourth Avenue bike lane on Saturday, after riding from Bay Ridge to Atlantic Avenue. Photo by Ben Verde CYCLE OF TERROR
New bike lane dumps riders onto Fourth Avenue speedway
INSIDE
Text and the city
Holiday book fair to showcases volumes of urban interest
A Brooklyn bookstore that specializes
in tomes about New York
City will bring highlights of its
used treasures to the Brooklyn
Holiday Book Fair in Park Slope
on Dec. 7. The event will let holiday
shoppers browse through a unique
selection of titles focused on the
boroughs and neighborhoods that
make up the Big Apple, said the
store’s owner.
“It’s a city of small towns, and
every one of these small towns has
its own story and its own personality
and character,” said Peter
Miller, who runs Freebird Books
in the Columbia Street Waterfront
District. “There’s not another bookstore
that does the same thing.”
Miller’s love for New York Citycentric
books dates back to the
1980s, when he moved here from
his home in Missouri, and became
curious about the Big Apple’s inner
workings.
“I walked around the city and I
just wanted to learn more, and to
learn more, you have to read all
these books,” he said. “It reached
a point where I ended up collecting
tons and tons of books … anything
that was touching on the city.”
Miller took over Freebird Books
in 2007, and modeled it after the
now-closed New York Bound Bookshop,
which sold works solely about
the Big Apple. Now he and his wife
— previously a Freebird customer
— run the business together.
Freebird sells used books from
across all genres, but Miller specifically
seeks out volumes that focus
on the city’s politics, history,
transportation, architecture, and
crime.
“At the end of the day I’d rather
just have a wide variety of things,
and some of them might just be beat
up paperbacks with coffee stains
on them,” he noted. “We try to be
broad in what we have.”
Miller will bring a selection of
his all-time favorites to the Book
Fair at the Old Stone House, where
seven other Brooklyn booksellers
with different specialties will
also showcase their wares. Other
vendors include Marine Park’s Enchanted
Books, which specializes
in vintage children’s books, Honey
& Wax from Gowanus, which sells
antique first editions and other
rarities, and a bookstore on wheels
whose proceeds go to local educational
programs.
The event will also feature
Dutch spiced cookies, colonialera
candies, and a fun community
atmosphere, said Miller, who
has taken part in the fair since it
started eight years ago.
“It’s just such a positive vibe,”
he said. “People genuinely love
talking to book sellers and getting
recommendations. And even if you
don’t make a book sale, you’re meeting
a lot of interesting people.”
Brooklyn Holiday Book Fair at
the Old Stone House 336 3rd St.
between Fourth and Fifth avenues
in Park Slope, (718) 768-3195, www.
theoldstonehouse.org. Dec. 7, 11
am–5 pm. Free.
Your entertainment
guide Page 45
Police Blotter ..........................8
Education ............................... 19
NYC Works .............................. 21
Letters ....................................29
Standing O ............................50
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, NOV. 29-DEC. 5, 2019
BY BEN VERDE
Cycling advocates are demanding
the Department of
Transportation speed up construction
of the Fourth Avenue
bike lane in Park Slope, where
cyclists are forced to merge
with traffi c after the bike path
suddenly ends 15 blocks short
of its fi nal destination.
“Limited lanes in isolation
do not keep us safe,” said
Blythe Austin, who joined a
rally outside Atlantic Terminal
on Saturday as a member
of Families for Safe Streets.
“Every time a lane dead ends
or there is a gap, then we have
to merge back into traffi c –
and that is dangerous.”
The city is currently in the
process of adding pedestrian
safety islands, greenery, and
protected bike lanes from 65th
Street in Bay Ridge to Atlantic
Avenue in Park Slope to
the north-south thoroughfare
as part of the city’s so-called
“Green Streets” program.
Builders started work on
the protected bike lanes —
which separate cyclists from
traffi c via a row of parked
cars — in spring last year,
but work stalled south of First
Street, where northbound cyclists
are forced to either turn
east towards Prospect Park,
or mingle with traffi c along
the uptown speedway.
“You’re asking people on
bikes to basically merge back
into traffi c that’s going 30, 35,
40 miles an hour,” said Brian
Hedden, a bike activist from
southern Brooklyn.
Department of Transportation
spokesman Brian Zumhagen
declined to explain why
construction was halted, saying
only that cyclists shouldn’t
expect any progress on the
bike lane until spring next
year.
When the Fourth Avenue
project was fi rst presented to
the community in 2017, reps
for the Department of Transportation
did warn residents
that construction along the fi -
nal stretch of the bike lane between
Carroll Street and Atlantic
Avenue may be delayed
by the heavy traffi c that passes
through that area, according
to one local transit buff.
“When they originally
presented to the community
board, they told us that because
of the traffi c volume… it
is more of a challenge between
Carroll Street and Atlantic Avenue,
so they need to do extra
work to fi gure out how best to
deal with that,” said Eric Mc-
Clure, the Chairman of Community
Board 6’s Transportation
Committee.
However, the DOT’s foresight
doesn’t excuse the agency
from making an extra effort
to protect cyclists, according
to McClure, who said the city
should rush to complete the
project before the fi rst major
snowstorm of the year makes
the work impossible.
“They should move as
quickly as possible to rectify
the situation,” said McClure.
“It doesn’t seem unreasonable
to ask them to extend work
into the winter.”
And if work can’t be completed
before the weather
turns sour, the city could at
the very least install signs
warning cyclists of the bike
lane’s sudden end.
“Some kind of signage
that would show what kind of
routes to take instead of being
dumped into traffi c would be a
positive thing,” McClure said.
This isn’t the fi rst time cyclists
have complained about
the patchwork construction of
the Fourth Avenue bike lane,
which formerly dumped cyclists
into a construction site
managed by the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
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