Forest Hills Chamber President Joins Fight Against Bike Lanes

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- As plans loom for the next set of bike lanes along Queens Boulevard, the president of Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce has added her voice to the growing local opposition.

Leslie Brown, who heads the umbrella network for Forest Hills businesses, came out against the Queens Boulevard bike lanes planned from Yellowstone Boulevard to Union Turnpike with a petition on Change.org. She claimed the lanes would eliminate "hundreds" of parking spaces, which would be a fatal blow to local business who depend on them.

The petition quickly picked up steam, having garnered nearly 500 signatures in the three days since its launch on Friday.

The NYC Department of Transportation hopes to implement the bike lanes later this year as part of the last phase of a years-long safety redesign along Queens Boulevard. While the DOT has begun collecting community feedback on the project's next phase, a final design hasn't been decided on, and thus the number of parking spaces to be replaced is still up in the air, a spokesperson said.

Brown, who could not be reached for comment, claimed in her petition that Forest Hills shops are already "struggling to stay in business as it is," thanks to steep rent costs and consumer trends toward online shopping. Eliminating parking spaces used daily by their customers would only exacerbate the problem, she said.

"Without parking, where will our neighborhood be?" Brown asked in the petition.

As an example, she pointed to Rego Park business owners along Queens Boulevard, who complained business has tanked since bike lanes replaced nearly 200 parking spots on its service road medians from Elliot Avenue to Yellowstone Boulevard last year.

"The businesses located in this area are suffering financial losses and customers are shopping elsewhere," Brown wrote. "These lanes cannot expand eastward into Forest Hills and compromise the heartbeat of the Forest Hills neighborhood that are our small businesses."

But members of Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit that has long advocated for the Queens Boulevard bike lanes, claim the lanes have been unfairly blamed for loss of businesses in the neighborhood.

Laura Shepard, who co-chairs the nonprofit's Queens Boulevard committee, called the viewpoint "a bit short-sighted" and said she believes swapping out parking spaces along the roadway for bike lanes will pay off for local businesses in the long run.

"I understand that this was a transition for the neighborhood, but I think that over time things are going to turn around," Shepard told Patch. "Especially in the spring, I think a lot more people are either going to get bikes or get out their old bikes an start using them."

Shepard, a lifelong Forest Hills resident, said she's actually run into more local businesses while cruising the bike lanes.

"I used to avoid Queens Boulevard because it wasn't pleasant to walk on or pleasant to cross," she said. "Since the bike lanes were installed, I spend tons of time on it and I see places I didn't notice before."

But Brown, who also called herself a lifelong Forest Hills resident and former business owner, insisted those businesses - and the jobs that come with them - will be no more without customer parking. She urged residents to sign her petition and contact local politicians to protest the bike lanes.

"Without neighborhood stores the Forest Hills community will surely decline and the community feeling will be lost," she wrote.

For its part, the DOT is meeting with merchants along Queens Boulevard and collecting feedback and surveys for the project's next phase, a spokesperson said. Residents can still give their opinions on the upcoming redesign via an online feedback survey.

The department plans to go before Community Board 6 for approval of its final plan this spring.

Lead photo via Shutterstock.