Citi Bike Concerns Take Over Cobble Hill Community Board Meeting

COBBLE HILL, BROOKLYN — A group of boisterous locals showed up at Wednesday's Community Board 6 general meeting to deliver a unified message: the area's numerous new Citi Bike stations are harming their quality of life.

The subject was not on the night's official agenda, leading to a brief period of escalating frustration during which one attendee started aggressively yelling at the board's leaders, leading one CB6 member to call the police.

(In fairness, the man also expressed outrage that there wasn't an American flag in the front of the room, diluting the thrust of his argument. He had stopped disrupting the meeting by the time the police arrived.)

CB6 chair Sayar Lonial encouraged attendees to speak about the Citi Bike issue during the meeting's public comment period, and to report problematic stations to the city's 311 system. He also said the board's transportation committee could deal with the issue in October. (The matter couldn't be added to the committee's Sep. 15 agenda due to the advanced notice requirements of public meetings laws, he explained.)

Central to the night's theme was the belief that the new stations were imposed on the community without public awareness or input.

The Department of Transportation's Citi Bike expansion plan for Gowanus and Red Hook was reviewed during a June CB6 meeting that Lonial presided over. At that time, the board voted to support the DOT's plan, so long as residents were given the right to "question specific locations" for docking stations.

But those at Wednesday's gathering said they were unaware of that, or any other, public Citi Bike discussion prior to the stations' arrival.

Three of those in attendance came with petitions calling for the removal or relocation of area stations.

Carroll Gardens resident Debbie Ruiz said she had collected more than 500 signatures, while fellow local Dennis Sciria said he had 650 more.

A third individual, Park Slope's Marianne Borrelli, described the Citi Bike expansion as "overkill," and said her petition drive had netted more than 400 signatures.

Many of those gathered said that while they weren't against Citi Bike inherently, many station placements didn't make sense.

One resident said the loss of parking spaces means her husband now has to park a half-mile away from the house.

"I have lost five [parking] spots," said Vinnie Scotto, who said he lives on 4th Place between Clinton Street and Henry Street. What's more, he said, Citi Bikers "ride on the sidewalk," meaning "kids can't play" there like before.

Others said the docking stations had made already small streets even tighter, leading to traffic accidents. Meanwhile, more logical docking locations were being ignored.

"Just put them someplace the city owns, not on the streets," Ruiz said.

The Carroll Gardens resident also said that it made no economic sense to replace parking spaces by area businesses with Citi Bike stations.

"You can't take your family to dinner on a bike," she said.

Pictured at top: a Citi Bike station in Cobble Hill. Photo by John V. Santore