Zero City Officials Will Attend Brooklyn Hearing on Citi Bike Station Placement

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Not a single representative from the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) will attend the highly anticipated Oct. 20 hearing on Citi Bike's latest rollout of Brooklyn docking stations, hosted by Community Board 6. However, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg has insisted the department is paying attention to community concerns.

Community District 6 includes Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Red Hook and the Columbia Waterfront.

Thursday's hearing comes on the heels of strident objections from some community members to new Citi Bike stations in Cobble Hill and Park Slope, including those who packed a boisterous September community board meeting — although some of those protesting seemed unaware that the city had held previous public meetings to help choose the station locations.

Community Board 6's district manager, Craig Hammerman, told Patch that Thursday's hearing will help the board compile a list of current bike stations opposed by community members. He then plans to deliver that list to the DOT.

The board's chair, Sayar Lonial, said Monday that — in addition to a forum for objections — he saw the hearing as an opportunity for other community members to offer their support for the rapidly expanding Citi Bike system, which the board itself officially backed months ago.

As of June, NYC's bike-sharing system had 108,000 annual members, according to the city, and averaged 48,677 rides per day — its highest numbers ever.

Even so, in a letter sent to DOT chairwoman Polly Trottenberg on Monday, Lonial and Community Board 6's transportation committee co-chairs, Eric McClure and Thomas Miskel, said they were "deeply disappointed" to learn the department wouldn't send an official representative to the hearing, a fact they just learned last week.

From the board's letter:

"Brooklyn Community Board 6 has been a leader in advocating for safer, smarter, more efficient shared public spaces since well before the current Administration’s tenure. When it comes to transportation planning and advocacy, we have ample street cred.

To hear that your department declines to attend a public hearing to hear testimony on how CitiBike has both positively and negatively affected our district, is disappointing. It baffles us as to why your team would opt to not hear directly from the community.

We hope you will reconsider our invitation to attend and participate. We can assure you that we intend for the session to be constructive, and we believe it would be beneficial for the department to be present."

Trottenberg personally responded in an email sent to Hammerman on Monday afternoon.

"While we will not be attending Thursday’s meeting, we will of course take CB6’s feedback and work with you all to potentially make adjustments to bike stations as needed," Trottenberg wrote. "We recommend that after the meeting you send us the top five locations of concern and any suggested alternatives and we will evaluate them expeditiously. We have worked with other Community Boards in this same manner, post-implementation, and have found it to be a productive approach."

Trottenberg went on to say that while concerns have been raised about some Citi Bike station locations, DOT also hears "from many more residents who are extremely pleased to have the system in their neighborhoods."

According to a DOT spokeswoman, as of Oct. 10, 8,000 people within Community Board 6 were annual Citi Bike members — including 2,700 who had joined since August.

"We know that when Citi Bike comes into a new neighborhood, there is often a period of adjustment, but that ultimately many residents embrace what is admittedly a new transportation system sharing the streets," Trottenberg wrote. "As our City continues to grow, NYCDOT remains committed to working with CB6 to build a safe, equitable, sustainable and affordable transportation system that best balances the needs of all users and we look forward to continuing our dialogue."

The Oct. 20 hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the 78th Precinct station, located at 65 6th Ave.

Pictured at top: A Citi Bike station in Red Hook. Photo by John V. Santore