So as of like a year ago, the Hasidic portion of South Williamsburg was up in arms over a bike lane that runs through its center. The original complaint concerned “inappropriately clad” Williamsburg girls distracting the pious Hasids from being fundamentalist assholes, and the Satmar community began lobbying politically for the lane’s removal (as well as threatening to park their buses in the lane and generally act like cult-ish dickheads.
In the intervening months, the fight became a microcosm of election-year politics. The NYC DOT changed traffic routing like three times around the new Kent Ave. bike-lane in an effort to appease all parties. Complaints were lodged with Community Board 1 about lost parking. Transportation Alternatives got involved. And so on.
So now with the election over, and Bloomberg’s third term bought and paid for, the smoke has cleared to a quiet un-striping of the Bedford avenue bike-lane exclusively in the fourteen blocks of Hasidic Williamsburg. This was done to little announcement and fan-fare. It seems that whatever debts were owed by the city to the Satmars are now being repaid.
Which leads me to the events of two nights ago, when some SUPER DIRECT ACTION ACTIVIST bike kids repainted the lane guerilla-style in the middle of the night and were arrested by the Hasidic SECRET POLICE.
God.
