This morning, (driving in my car, outside the park), I spied a bunch of suits and a blue-draped table. Suspecting free refreshments or a walking tour, I came back on foot to discover a press conference by opponents of the proposal to ban cars in Prospect Park. It was me and two photographers, a sad little turnout. (I had a Miss Piggy moment that, as premiere bloggeuse du parc, moi had not been invited!) The Windsor Terrace Alliance, Assemblyman Jim Brennan, and the chairs of park-adjacent Community Boards 7 and 14, with assorted other "stakeholders," called for more community consultation, including open CB hearings and an environmental impact statement, before any total ban on cars is enacted. "We're down to four hours a day Monday through Friday," said CB 7 chair Randy Peers. "There's no more room for compromise." Their beef, of course, is that a ban would flood already-congested surrounding streets—their streets—with congestion, pollution, and danger to children at play.
Peers also said they "abhor" the tactics of a "well-funded bicycle advocacy group representing a minority view."
Ah, that arch-enemy would be Transportation Alternatives, and you gotta feel almost sorry for today's gang going up against such a Goliath of media-savvy. Comparisons are painful: TA recruited a charming multicultural quartet of teen "advocate interns" to dress up like trees, blog, clock cars with a speed laser gun, and gather 10,000 signatures from cyclists and other park users, 
which they delivered en masse after a telegenic march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The Windsor Terrace Alliance had, in addition to its local pols, a feisty elderly lady and lifelong WT resident who called Jim Brennan "Joe," expressed her fear of "a big disturbance," and complained about local traffic jams. (However, I am not naive enough to think that media savvy always translates into clout; crotchety elders deliver more votes than teen activists, and perhaps more than cyclists and web designers.)
Images of TA teens: Transportation Alternatives
My own take? Both sides persuade me, because I'm a park cyclist but also a driver who lives on a park block, whose simplest daily errand is already an angina-inducing plunge into total park-perimeter gridlock.
Me while cycling in park during car hours: This is ridiculous. Fume-belching rush-hour traffic turning Olmsted and Vaux's masterpiece into a speedway...bike lane blocked by cretinous pedestrians wearing I-Pods who can't hear my pleas...check my right, yep, it's kill or be killed...TA is right, the future is not the automobile, gotta turn the planet over to the cyclists! Ban the cars, and not only will everyone start riding bikes or taking public transit, but voters will rise up and demand wind-powered monorails everywhere!
Me while driving anywhere: This is ridiculous. Caton Avenue is already an interstate highway disguised as a two-lane local road; I've seen two kids hit by cars since we moved here; will I wait through another red just to get off my own block? Dear God, if it's this bad now, what would rush hour look like without the Park Drives to take off some of the pressure? Cars produce danger, pollution, and congestion—keep them in the Park where they belong, goddamit!
Maybe we need what we've already got—a compromise, rush hours only. Then later, during the Obama administration, we can work on getting bike lanes on every street, the kind that keep cars from hitting you, and maybe wind-powered monorails too; then no one will object to having to drive around the park instead of through its green heart.
I'm with you, honey. Let me keep cruising thru the park. (It's hardly ever open anyhow.)
Posted by: Karen | October 04, 2008 at 12:37 AM