By Helaina Hovitz

Last week, 330 CitiBike stations were installed in Manhattan and Brooklyn, garnering a reaction from most Manhattanites that can essentially be boiled down to this: not on my block.

Or, at least, not where it’s currently installed.

The CitiBike program, also called Bike Share, will place bike rental stations throughout parts of the city, allowing riders to pick up a bike at one location and drop it off at any other CitiBike spot.

Sponsored by CitiBank, the program is under the purview of the Department of Transportation (DOT).

On Thursday, May 2nd, Community Board 2 held a meeting at P.S. 41 to give West Village residents a chance to voice their concerns about the Bike Share program, but it wasn’t just West Villagers who showed up to gripe. People from all over the city came to speak their peace about the program — but some of it wasn’t so peaceful.

Chair David Gruber said that the board received 160 calls and emails, 70 percent of which were negative comments.

“The DOT chose not to come to this meeting, we don’t know why,” he said.

“People are upset about the size and volume, and once we saw it in place, we realized red dots on a map aren’t the same as something actually being on a street and installed,” Gruber said of the major complaints about Bike Share.

While most people in attendance said that while they actually weren’t “against” the program, they weren’t happy with the way it was being implemented.

“I’m shocked that this showed up on my block. The magnitude of it and the lack of notice provided to residents by DOT is unconscionable. They’re too big and too clunky on residential streets, and the community was not properly informed,” said West Village resident Lisa Cannistraci, who spoke for many when she added that “they obstruct building entranceways,” a problem that will worsen when the stations are filled with an average of 40 bikes each at the end of the month.

While many in attendance weren’t opposed to the bikes or the bike program, they were “opposed to the way that the city handled placing the bike racks around the city — mainly, in front of their entranceways.”
The bike racks on Barrow Street, for example, are located directly in front of residential buildings with 170 units. Residents claim that elderly people can’t get to their Access a Ride busses, and that ambulances can’t access the building, either.

“That means elderly and children will have to navigate around the bikes to get a cab or Access A Ride. We’re not opposed to the rack, but it needs to be moved, and we have alternative locations in mind,” said Cannistraci. “These bike stations located on historic landmarked blocks are a travesty. They need to be moved to more commercial locations, perhaps in front of the Citibanks, since this is their project.

West Village resident Charlie Decker, 69, wasn’t just concerned about the rack placement, though; he thinks that allowing inexperienced riders to hop on bikes whenever they feel like it, especially after they’ve had a few drinks, is a recipe for disaster.

CitiBike stations will be placed throughout downtown Manhattan.

“It’s dangerous to promote neophytes grabbing a bike in New York, especially tourists. Are you going to wait until 10 people are slaughtered to see that? Inexperienced bikers are going to get hurt riding around New York City,” he said.

Bikes lined the fence outside, and pro Citi Bikers with signs lined themselves up in front of the school’s entrance, eagerly awaiting press.

Hilda Cohen, who works in the West Village and lives in Fort Greene, said that those showing up to protest on Thursday were most likely absent at meetings held to discuss the plans.

“We’ve been involved since 2011, and we’ve been here every step of the way. We’re excited,” said Cohen. “I’ve never experienced a more inclusive community process than the one they did with Bike Share.

Jane Brown, who lives on West 4th between 7th Ave South and W. 10th, said that sanitation trucks haven’t been able to get through the racks, and piles of trash and water have been attracting mice.

“There’s no way for them to clean. It’s a health hazard. Someone’s going to get hit by a fire truck this summer pulling out,” Brown said. “If they’re benefiting and making money off of it, why doesn’t Citibank but them in front of their branches? Let them see the trash, the water, and the mice.“

Residents of 99 Bank Street, among other West Village Streets, countered that they were never alerted of their block being a potential location in the first place, that it was never a red dot on the map they were given.

Ed Zimbalatti, board president of 99 Bank Street, filed a lawsuit last week that has been re-filed as a petition. “The space in front of our building was never designated as a planned site. There was no outreach, it just showed up. Who made this decision, after all this outreach? That’s what we want to know,” said Zimbalatti.

In the middle of the night, a portion of the racks were removed and, for some reason, replaced by a giant slab of rock.

“Clearly there were a lot of plants here,” said Jeff Barr, referring to the group standing with signs and countering their comments to reporters. Barr, who filed the lawsuit at 99 Bank, spoke while leaning on his own bike.

“They’re a great way to ride around, but this location was not properly thought out. The size of the stations are too big for where they are,” Barr said. “Nobody wants to stop the program. But it’s not safe. People will ride on the sidewalk to pull up to the posts.”

His sentiment was echoed by Decker, who expressed concern that “people are going to be popping out of nowhere, buses and trucks are going to be swerving and hitting either them, buildings, or pedestrians.”

Inside, the criticism continued.

“It’s going to be creating more traffic and congestion, and I don’t know how green that amount of pollution is,” said Marna Lawrence. “I also have an objection about using public land for private gain. Citibank has no right to steal public space.”

Michael Murphy, communications director of Transportation Alternatives, a biking/walking/mass transit advocacy group, said that he thinks “the burden of proof lies with the people raising these phantom concerns.”

“Since none of the other major cities currently operating a bike share program endure these problems, what possible reason do we have to think we will in New York City?” he said. “This isn’t a he said/she said situation – we can actually look at the cities where this program is underway and verify whether or not these concerns make any sense.”

The DOT did not respond to specific questions regarding community members’ concerns about safety of riders, garbage truck and emergency vehicle access, or whether some bike rack locations might be relocated. A spokesman said that Citi Bike in conjunction with DOT held 400 meetings with community boards to determine the best locations for the racks, and also consulted the 65,000 online requests and comments.

By Mayor Bloomberg’s estimates, the program will be “great for local businesses” and generate 170 new jobs along with $36 million in revenue for “the city.”

Still, citizens of Gotham remain skeptical.

“I’ll bet you Mayor Bloomberg has never been on a bike in New York City in his life,” Decker challenged on his way out. “And if he has, it wasn’t without an entourage of ten people riding around him.”

“New York City demands a world-class bike share system, and we need to ensure that Citi Bike launches as flawlessly as New Yorkers expect on Day One,” DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in a statement.

The delay has been blamed on software issues related to the payment and tracking system that Citi Bike will use, and the DOT said that that its engineers are working with specially designed solar panels and circuit boards and will continue to test and improve them.

Governor Signs Krueger’s Banking Bill
After passing both houses of the state Legislature earlier this year, Sen. Liz Krueger’s bill banning the banking practice of “yield spread premiums” was signed into law by Gov. Cuomo last week. The legislation axes a predatory lending practice that financial experts say contributed to the financial crisis.

Yield spread premiums are essentially kickbacks given to mortgage brokers or lenders when they lead borrowers to take out more expensive, riskier loans than they should qualify for or can afford. It’s a practice that has been decried as unethical and a major cause of the foreclosure crisis, but until now, had remained legal. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, over 85 percent of all brokered subprime mortgages have yield spread premiums attached to them.

“Yield spread premiums have created perverse incentives, driving irresponsible, dangerous activity in the mortgage market,” said Krueger, who is the ranking Democratic member of the Senate’s Finance Committee.

Provisions in the national banking reform law passed by Congress, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, will ban yield spread premiums, but won’t go into effect until 2014.

Tavern on the Green Operator Named
The Department of Parks and Recreation announced that they will be awarding a 20-year licensing agreement to the Emerald Green Group, a Philadelphia-based company, to operate and maintain a restaurant at the former Tavern on the Green location in Central Park.
The selected operator, the Emerald Green Group, swayed the city with its proposal focusing on locally sourced food and a 200-300 person outdoor seating area.

“We are pleased to select the Emerald Green Group as the new operator of Tavern on the Green,” Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. “They have done an outstanding job with Beau Monde in Philadelphia, and their vision for the iconic Tavern on the Green will create a casual restaurant and outdoor café that everyday parkgoers, neighbors and visitors can enjoy.”
The new restaurant is scheduled to open in fall of 2013.

Central Park Precinct Community Council
The Central Park Police Precinct holds down the massive fort of our favorite urban haven, and their Community Council brings residents into the inner workings of crime fighting in the park. Their next meeting is on Monday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Central Park Precinct station house, on the 86th Street Transverse Road. Speakers will include the precinct’s commanding officer and community affairs officer, representatives from the Central Park Conservancy, Park Enforcement and the Central Park Medical Unit. There will also be a special guest speaker from the FBI, and all speakers will be available for a Q & A after they speak. To find out more about the Community Council, email centralparkcommunitycouncil@gmail.com.

The New York Times and other news outlets reported that around 4:30 p.m. last Thursday, a horse pulling a driver and two passengers got spooked in Columbus Circle and bolted, eventually shedding his carriage, which toppled over. The 6-year-old horse, named Oreo, wasn’t seriously hurt, but did have to be sedated by police with a tranquilizer, and his rampage damaged two cars and injured three people before he was caught on Ninth Avenue.

Upper West Side Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal pointed to the incident as the latest reason to support her bill to ban the carriages in New York.

“I have been calling for an end to a practice that places profit above safety—the safety of the horses and the unsuspecting public for years,” Rosenthal said in a statement. “If an industry is incapable of preventing recurring accidents, the State has a responsibility to step in. We have been lucky up to this point, but our luck is bound to run out.”

Bike Share Pushed Back to Spring
Hopeful cyclists looking forward to taking advantage of the city’s bike share will have to nix their dreams of riding through the crisp fall weather this year. The Department of Transportation announced that the city’s Bike Share program will be delayed—again—and will not be implemented until March 2013. The program, sponsored by Citi with a $41 million investment, will launch with its initial phase of 7,000 bikes at 420 stations spread throughout Midtown and Lower Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

“New York City demands a world-class bike share system, and we need to ensure that Citi Bike launches as flawlessly as New Yorkers expect on Day One,” DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in a statement.

The delay has been blamed on software issues related to the payment and tracking system that Citi Bike will use.

Tavern on the Green Operator Named
The Department of Parks and Recreation announced that they will be awarding a 20-year licensing agreement to the Emerald Green Group, a Philadelphia-based company, to operate and maintain a restaurant at the former Tavern on the Green location.

The selected operator, the Emerald Green Group, swayed the city with its proposal focusing on locally sourced food and a 200-300 person outdoor seating area.

“We are pleased to select the Emerald Green Group as the new operator of Tavern on the Green,” Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. “They have done an outstanding job with Beau Monde in Philadelphia, and their vision for the iconic Tavern on the Green will create a casual restaurant and outdoor café that everyday parkgoers, neighbors and visitors can enjoy.”
The new restaurant is scheduled to open in fall of next year.

Espaillat Gets Major Endorsement
City & State reports that the McManus Political Club, the oldest and only citywide political club in New York, has decided to endorse Sen. Adriano Espaillat’s re-election bid, Espaillat’s campaign said. “As the oldest political club in New York, we know a great elected official when we see one,” the club said in a statement provided by Espaillat’s campaign. “Senator Espaillat has been a strong fighter for New York’s working families. He understands the challenges and opportunities our state faces, and he has demonstrated the leadership needed to move New York forward.” Influential in areas like Hell’s Kitchen, a new part of Espaillat’s Senate district, the club could help Espaillat shore up support there against his opponent, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares. In the latest filing period, Espaillat raised $45,390 and has $38,000 on hand, while Linares raised $28,850, and has $82,000 on hand. Of course, Espaillat’s depleted cash reserves are due in part to a closely contested congressional primary against Rep. Charlie Rangel.

Senate Debate Turns the Heat on Hoylman
City & State reports that Brad Hoylman, a candidate for the seat to be vacated by state Sen. Tom Duane, faced questions earlier this week from Democratic primary opponents about his former job at the Partnership for New York City, a pro-business group where he was a vice president and general counsel. At debate, one candidate, Tom Greco, asked Hoylman what he did to save St. Vincent’s Hospital, since Bill Rudin, the developer behind a controversial plan to redevelop the shuttered hospital, was on the Partnership’s board. Another candidate, Tanika Inlaw, criticized Hoylman’s ties to big business, saying she has no “special interests” backing her. Hoylman, a community board chairman who has the backing of Duane and other members of the party establishment, sought to distance himself from the Partnership, saying the city gives away too many incentives to companies and calling for an end to a carried interest deduction benefiting the city’s many billionaires. He also noted his years of work on affordable housing, public education and open space. “I think my record in the community speaks for itself,” he said.

By Rebecca Harris

Columbus Circle, a popular access point at the southwest corner of Central Park, regularly swarms with aggressive bike rental merchants, hounding passersby like handbag salesmen peddling their wares on Canal Street. Desperate to make sales as it is, some of these people fear their livelihoods will be threatened when Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new Citi Bike program takes effect.

The bike share is being billed a commuting alternative for New York City natives, designed for short-term bike use only—a mode of transportation from point A to point B, with individual rides over 30 or 45 minutes, depending on the package purchased, incurring overtime charges. It follows a model that has been used with success by cities across the United States and around the world.

“It’s just like you would use the subway—it’s a public transportation system,” said Michael Murphy, communications director for Transportation Alternatives, an organization that advocates non-motorized means of traveling within the city.

In theory, Citi Bike would not be used for leisurely, lengthy rides through Central Park. Still, with rates comparable to those of local rental stores and the availability of a 24-hour pass, some out-of-town riders said they would be tempted to opt for the hassle-free city option.

“If they were safe, convenient and affordable, I would very likely use [Citi Bikes] instead,” said one woman, a Charlotte, N.C., native who was biking with her family last week in Central Park. “Especially if you could just stick your credit card in and go and avoid having people harassing you like they do here, it would be much less of a hassle.”

She noted that Charlotte had recently launched a pilot test of their own bike share—the program officially opened on Wednesday—and praised the system, which follows a similar model to its New York counterpart.

John Henderson, a lifetime New Yorker and an employee at Central Park Bike Rentals, said that although he believes the program will be good for the city, he is afraid that it could “tremendously and negatively impact” how he makes his living.

“It’s going to take the food out of our mouths, really,” he said. “This is how we make our livelihood, how we make our trade. It’s going to be very difficult for us.”

Other vendors said they cannot know what the bike share has in store for their business until it happens, but hope that if the program truly caters to locals and not to tourists, it will not chip away too much at their customer base.

Andrew McKenzie, an employee at Bike & Roll, the only establishment at Columbus Circle at which available bikes rest in a visible bay rather than an off-site location, expressed confidence that Bike & Roll will not suffer extensively from the competition Citi Bike might pose.

“We’re already established, people know about us. We do have locals come here and we have locations all over the city,” he said. “We really offer the same services that the Citi Bike share will. We have good visibility, people can see all of our bikes here, they can pay with a credit card. It’s convenient and we’re well-known.”

Still, McKenzie’s optimism will be put to the test once Citi Bike is up and running. Many customers renting bikes to ride in Central Park, including visitors whose home cities have successful bike share programs underway, said emphatically that they would choose to rent bikes from the city if given the option.

Helen Marmilic, another tourist who ventured to Central Park last week to bike, said she and her husband would choose a city bike option over a local rental establishment because of a presumed upgrade in quality.

“I would be more likely to use the city bikes because I assume they would be better quality,” she said. “We’re avid bike riders, and let’s just say these [local rental] bikes leave a lot to be desired.”

The couple, who hails from Melbourne, Australia, also has experience with a bike share of their own. Melbourne launched its program in 2010, and Marmilic said her family has frequently made use of the option at home.

One bike renter expressed skepticism that Citi Bike would be implemented at all in the near future, citing repeated delays that have stalled the program this summer. The program had an initial launch scheduled for July; it was later pushed back to August. Now, the city will not give an exact start date. The Department of Transportation said last week that a launch plan was underway, but did not provide further details as to the cause or extent of the delay.

“The delay has sparked such questioning and interest because of overwhelming demand for this program,” Murphy said. “I hope they meet that demand as quickly as they can, but I would rather they do it right than do it fast.”

When the program does launch, there will be no bike stations located on the Upper West Side. The most uptown docking bay is located just on the southeast edge of Central Park, and the tentative map on the Citi Bike website shows two locations at Columbus Circle. The DOT received numerous suggestions for locations in the neighborhood further uptown but did not answer questions about how the decision was made to keep bike sharing out of the Upper West Side for now.

Murphy said he believes the complete absence of stations further uptown is a result of lower demand for a bike share in those neighborhoods. He added that he hopes the docking bays will eventually expand to all parts of the city.

“They can’t just drop them out of the sky all at once. The rollout is starting in locations where there is more demonstrated demand, around the Central Business District,” he said. “We hope to eventually have a five-borough bike share program, but obviously that will have to happen in stages.”

Via Citi Bike

By Paul Bisceglio

Where are all the bikes?

New Yorkers expected to see 7,000 more of them at this point in the summer, but now Citi Bike, the city’s new bike share program, has been delayed for unspecified reasons.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed in a radio interview on Friday that the city was unsure of when the new fleet of bicycles would be available to the eager public for rent.

“Still working, trying to get it done,” he said. “With any big system there’s always things that you’ve got to make sure work before you turn it on. We’re not going to turn it on until it’s ready.”

Department of Transportation spokesman Seth Solomonow echoed Bloomberg in a statement. “We’re working on the launch plan and will update the public as soon as we finalize all the details,” he said.

The Citi Bike initiative aims to have 10,000 bikes on city streets with 600 moveable docking stations by the end of next summer. Users will pay a daily, monthly or annual fee to have 24-hour access to the bikes, which they can ride of up to 45 minutes per session without additional charge.

Citi Bike’s website, which previously said “Citi Bike is launching in July!,” now promises that the program is “coming soon to a street near you.” The program’s Twitter feed said earlier in the month, “look for the launch in August,” but an official date remains to be set.

What is a Bike Share Program?
Bike sharing is essentially a self-serve bike rental. Members go to any one of the electronic docks to withdraw a bike and deposit at another dock when they’re done. Cycling is not only healthy, it’s often quicker than public transportation—and a lot more fun! Now, commuters can enjoy the benefits of riding a bike without having to worry about storage or maintenance.

How many bikes are there?
There will be 10,000 bicycles around the city, with over 600 docking stations to facilitate rental and return.

How do I become a member?
People interested in renting a bike through the program use the automated kiosks at every dock to purchase a daily or weekly pass with a credit card; they’re then given an access code. Those who’d like an annual membership sign up online and receive a special key in the mail that allows them to unlock the bikes.

How much does it cost?
The base prices for membership are $9.95 for 24 hours, $25 for a week and $95 for an annual membership. However, the cost also includes ride charges of up to $4 for 60 minutes, $13 for 90 minutes, $25 for 120 minutes and $13 for each additional 30 minutes over two hours.

How does it work?
Riders get the first 30 minutes of their ride free, while annual members get 45 minutes. Most bike trips in the city are under two miles and take less than half an hour. People who wish to take longer rides simply have to dock their bike and then rent out another one straight away.

What happens if I go over the limit?
People who hold onto their bikes too long get charged an incremental fee the longer the bikes are out of the system. This is designed to prevent theft of the bicycles more than anything. If you’re nearing the end of your time and the closest dock is full, there is an option to gain an additional courtesy time to find another dock.

How will I know if there are bikes or empty docks nearby?
Each kiosk will have its own map. In addition, CitiBike will also releases a smart phone app called SpotCycle, which will provide real-time bike and dock availability.

What’s to stop someone from stealing a bike?

Users are supposed to leave their bikes at the docking stations when they’re finished. If they try to bring the bikes home, they’ll soon face a rather large credit card bill. The bike parts have no resale value, and each bike is equipped with a GPS.