East SideJune Update on Greenmarkets and Bike Lanes
Here’s a quick update on our two key issues we are campaigning for:
1. Greenmarkets: Following the withdrawl of the PS 6 location, we quickly moved into action, asking the Community Board and both City Council Members in the area to find new locations. Now we have a pretty good deal in the works – expansion of the St. Stephen’s location from 2 vendors to 5 AND a new location near the Stanley Isaac’s Center on First and 92nd. Community Board 8 will be discussing this on June 8th at the Isaacs Center Beacon @ P.S. 198/77, 1700 Third Avenue, (95th/96th), Auditorium.
I do not expect that this will receive any opposition like the PS 6 location, but nevertheless we will be distributing our flyer all next week leading up to the meeting.
2. Bike Lanes: We have collected about 1000 signatures to lobby local elected officials and the Community Board to install buffered protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues. Today we received a strong endorsement of this idea from the local East Side newspaper “Our Town” an Editorial titled “Break Cycle of Debate”:
Bikers deserve bike paths, safe spaces to ride on city streets. We cannot call ourselves innovative until we have set aside a dedicated areas and not just a path along the rim of the island. For Environmentally-friendly bicycles to take center stage in our consciousness and in the solutions of our transportation questions, so too bike lanes must take up valuable real estate on our thoroughfares, main and otherwise.The Mayor and the city council should do what they can to make this happen. And while they are at it, bikers need spaces to store their bikes, for a few hours or a full workday….Bikers and non-bikers, with a little help from their political leaders, should be able to put together an agenda of mutual benefit. That will improve the ride – and the walk – for all of us.
We agree. This article was faxed to Community Board 8, Councilmember Jessica Lappin’s office and State Senator Liz Krueger’s office with our note of approval. We hope to work with local community leaders to draft this ‘agenda of mutual benefit” for cyclists AND pedestrians.
