Biking in Greenwood Cemetary?

JoshB wrote: Wishful thinking bub, but no. Park those two wheels and exercise those legs; bikes are banned. Or at least they were last year. And the year before.

yup, it's an active cemetary, not a park around a historic cemetary

Subject: Idiotic rule

Oh man, don't get me started. The "no bikes" rule in Green-Wood Cemetary is bizarre, nonsensical and most of all, a real shame. Why can't I go with my old Brookyn cousin by bike to visit his parents graves? That was our plan a couple of summers ago but we weren't allowed. Green-Wood management didn't think biking to the grave site was "compatible with the decorum" of the cemetary. Rather, they preferred us to visit the cemetary in an exhaust-spewing, loud, broken down '87 Toyota pick-up. Rolling up in that piece o crap vehicle, we were given carte blanche to drive anywhere we wanted on the grounds. Rolling up on bikes we were treated like criminals.

I think this rule is so ridiculous that I actually wrote Green-Wood's management a letter a few years ago urging them to change the rule. I hope other people might write them too. Their response to me was that they view bicycles "as recreational in nature." Try telling that to the 130,000 New Yorkers who now use bikes to commute to work at various times during the year. BTW -- our part of Brooklyn happens to have the largest % of bike commuters. Bikes are most definitely transportation for a lot of Green-Wood's neighbors.

I know it seems weird to some people to get exercised about not being able to ride a bike around a graveyard. But it's actually a common thing in other cities. I've done bike rides through the old historic cemetaries in other big cities and it's fantastic. It's really the best way to see take in the full expanse of the grounds in a day. And if you don't think that's appropriate for a cemetary note that sight-seeing is totally encouraged in G-W. At 478 acres there's no way you can do it on foot in a day. These cemetaries also provide some of the nicest urban biking you can find. Windy roads and hills and trees and grass. It's clearly not a place to do laps or race. But it's a great place for a chill ride around the grounds.

As to this idea that Green-Wood is all about decorum, the cemetary was originally conceived as a recreational area as well as a place to bury the dead. In 1850 G-W was one of the largest tourist attractions in America after Niagra Falls. People used to eat picnic lunches on the grass and go for horse-drawn carriage rides and stop at the gravestones of the local celebrities. I think it's time for management to open it back up to the public. It's one of Brooklyn's greatest assets afterall.

Brooklyn has the least park space per person and per acre than any of the five boroughs. The streets are still way too dangerous for kids to ride by themselves. It's absolutely pathetic that I can't visit my cousin's parents graves by bike and that my kids won't be able to ride there either.

If you want this rule to change, shoot this guy an e-mail. It'd be good for him to hear from more people:

Kenneth A. Taylor
Vice President for Operations
Green-Wood
New York's Historic Cemetery
500 25th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
phone: 718-768-7300
fax: 718-788-1101
e-mail: [email protected]

the cemetary is beautiful to walk around in. it was built like a park. anyway yeah no bikes, its kinda stupid you can have a car, like the other said.

it's funny b/c we were just talking about this before the post came up - about no cycling in greenwood cemetary. what we speculated is that some idiot took to off road biking over the grass and gaves and thus the rules were made... i would be curious to know the real reason for this rule and further more, why not BIKES and NOT CARS?! that would rule.

i agree with you pitu, but i also know that cars drive through there recreationally, too. i mean, people like to stroll through there as well. just seems strange that there is a no bike rule.

they won't let you jog in there either. I would have liked to do that once or twice, but no biggie.

i understand that they want to keep some dignity to the place, and that bike races might detract, but greenwood does position itself as a recreational place, at least as far as sight-seeing goes. witness the maps they sell with graves of famous people marked on them.

the cemetery is a lovely place to stroll around -- in fact, i've read that it was the recreational experience of strolling around greenwood that led manhattanites to lobby for the creation of central park. i bet it's a lovely place to go for a drive, too, and that a lot of those cars are not in fact carrying mourners. personally, i think it's wonderful to imagine a cemetary being visited and enjoyed for reasons beyond personal connection to the dead. i think that is, in a way, the best thing we can hope for: that people will continue to look at our names and dates and wonder who we were and what we were like, that they will think about us long after everyone who has known us personally is gone.

that said, what the "no bikes" rule effectively does is prevent people without cars from visiting specific grave sites that are far from the entrances. (that place is BIG and HILLY.) it's only a minor inconvenience for recreational walkers, since there is still plenty to see close to the gates, but it would be a major problem for a car-less person whose grandmother was buried farther away.

at graceland cemetery in chicago, similarly old and active and centrally located, they have no problem with bikes, and so i used to hop on mine and go visit my great-grandmother and others. i didn't notice anyone behaving disrespecfully or leading a peleton. and i think my people were/would have been happy for the visit.

i nthink the implication is that PP is good for the jog and picnic, but you best only stroll in GW

Subject: Re: Idiotic rule

communitybuilder wrote:
Kenneth A. Taylor
Vice President for Operations
Green-Wood
New York's Historic Cemetery
500 25th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
phone: 718-768-7300
fax: 718-788-1101
e-mail: [email protected]

Brilliantly said.

I just wrote him an email.

Yavel wrote:
I can see where Green-wood would draw the line at bicycles. I'm not sure that I would want to see people biking through the cemetery, and basically treating it as a park, if I were there visiting a grave or attending a funeral.

given the high proportion of new yorkers who don't own cars, i think it really, really stinks -- without a car it is very difficult to get around the place, which would make it pretty tough to visit a grave that wasn't right by the entrance without, what, renting a uhaul?

the cemetary intentionally positions itself -- and long has -- as a recreational spot. i think it's lousy that no kind of biking is allowed at all, although of course i agree that off-roading and racing and the like would be out of line.

If you're hale enough to get around on a bike, it seems to me that you ought to be able to make it to any point in the cemetery on foot? There are several entrances around the perimeter of Green-wood, so you can choose the entrance that is closest to where you need to be. My two year old and my octagenarian grandmother seem to be able to hoof it around the cemetery just fine.

Yavel wrote: If you're hale enough to get around on a bike, it seems to me that you ought to be able to make it to any point in the cemetery on foot? There are several entrances around the perimeter of Green-wood, so you can choose the entrance that is closest to where you need to be. My two year old and my octagenarian grandmother seem to be able to hoof it around the cemetery just fine.

i don't have a personal problem with getting around the cemetary -- since my interest is to look around in general, not at a particular spot, the places closest to the entrance suit me fine. and i have plenty of places to tool around on my bike, at speeds that would never approach winning the tour de my block.

i'm just suprised by the absolute restriction, and don't find bicycles more disturbing than cars, that's all. and, as i said above, i have nice memories of biking to visit family graves in chicago.

kenneth taylor's point about decorum is well taken. tourist attraction or not, it's still a cemetery after all.

so why not prohibit the inappropriate behavior rather than a type of vehicle? you wouldn't want cars racing through the cemetery either, or blasting their stereos.

something like this should do:

"please respect this place. no noise, no speeding. thank you."

mr. taylor?

I strongly agree with each of the last two posts.

pensodyssey wrote: This thread makes me sick to my stomach. You people are complaining because you can't ride your goddamn bikes around in a cemetary? Good god. Talk about a misplaced sense of entitlement.

Oh Snap!

you've just been NECROCONFRONTED!