Bike Lanes erased - Please help!
Comments
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The words "no doubt" are not the expression of an opinion, but of one making a statement of fact.
So now your rationale is that because the government isn't free of influence from ethnic groups, that this therefore must be the result of said influence? Why do you continue to spread rumors you can't support with a shred of a fact? -
booklaw wrote: you haven't read the New York Times lately.
And I NEVER read the New York Times anymore. I'm tired of reading wannabe novelists writing six paragraph anecdotal leads just to find the real news buried halfway through the jump. -
And what is your interest in denying the obvious?
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Pray tell how it is that the removal of bike lanes is obviously and without a doubt a plot hatched by the nefarious Hasids? So is it just this bike lane, or all bike lanes worldwide are being erased by the Hasids. Ooooooh the evil Hasids.:roll:
As far as I can tell, your knowledge of this is based on a dream you had or some kind of divine intervention. You haven't offered one shred of even hearsay or gossip, let alone evidence of any kind.
Can't you at least make up something like "I know a guy who saw a guy in a big hat and beard and curly sideburns sandblasting the bike lanes."? No, you just flat out say it was the Hasids like you're saying the sky is blue or the sun will rise tomorrow and you're baffled if someone can't follow that bizarre logic. I'm sorry I don't live in a paranoid world of Hassidic conspiracy, but you sound like you're just prejudiced against them. That you claim to be sensitive to anti-Semitism is all the more disturbing and, well, contradictory.
I don't really care about the Hasids anyway - I'm sure they'd want nothing to do with me. But it bothers me to see blanket accusations made about any group without any kind of fact or evidence. Because someday those baseless accusations will be made about group of people I care about or belong to. And when that happens I hope someone else will have the decency to at least say something about it. -
Subject: removal of bike lane
I offer this not as proof that my opinion is correct, but rather as a reasonable basis on which to form an opinion (when combined with the known fact... yes, known fact... that the Hasids have been, at least until very recently, a powerful and effective lobby in NYC as a result of their voting as a united block):
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/21679/did-nycs-transit-dept-strike-a-backroom-deal-with-satmars/
Tablet Magazine is a project of Nextbook Inc.
...
A New Read on Jewish Life
Did NYC’s Transit Dept Strike a Backroom Deal with Satmars?
Bike lane disappears in Brooklyn after months of Hasidic complaints
By Marissa Brostoff | 4:00 PM Dec 4, 2009
This week, New York City’s Department of Transportation abruptly removed a 14-block stretch of bike lane that ran along Brooklyn’s Bedford Ave., a major thoroughfare that at this particular stretch goes through an ultra-Orthodox enclave. The lane had been hotly contested between the well-organized cyclist community and the Williamsburg neighborhood’s Satmar Hasidim, who complained about having to see immodestly dressed bikers ride by. The DOT’s decision, which came with minimal explanation, has sparked rumors on the street and in the blogosphere that city government officials struck a backroom deal with Satmar leaders. Thing is, the rumors may have some truth to them.
“During his re-election campaign, Mayor Bloomberg struck a deal on several issues of special significance to Hasidic leaders,” the urban planning site Streetsblog said. “Whether the Bedford Avenue bike lane was part of the bargain, we can’t say.” Commenters on that blog and others are convinced that it indeed was the quid to some quo. Occasionally, the discussion has verged on what we hope was joke-anti-Semitism, as when someone wrote on Gothamist, “It appears some people are being Jewed here.”
As we noted back in June, the New York Times reported that Leib Glanz, a notoriously shady Satmar leader, had scored meetings with New York’s deputy mayor about bike lanes. Additionally, Bloomberg campaigned hard in the Satmar community this year. “The bike lane is used very, very often, it’s a very important artery,” Baruch Herzfeld, a quirky Modern Orthodox hipster who acts as unofficial liaison between Williamsburg Satmars and bikers, told Tablet Magazine. “The fact that this bike lane was taken away smells fishy.” The DOT declined to discuss these allegations, offering only a brief statement: the lane, it said, was removed as part of “ongoing bike network adjustments.” -
Anybody who has used this stretch of road or some others in Midwood should be more outraged by the head bobbing jaywalkers who look at you... and through you and step in front of you at 20mph while you have the green light. Better still having a free pass to turn any unmarked car into an emergency vehicle in the name of cultural sensitivity. Lots of guys live out some Starsky and Hutch fantasy while responding with sirens full on. Jewish only police and ambulances that drive like they don't see you. School buses are operated as road blocks as children get in and out for shule. Getting hassled because your boobs are hanging out is bad form and should be a punch in the face offense to anybody no matter how holy. A painted bicycle symbol may make you a bit safer going down Bedford, but they are hard to see with all the double parkers. I hope somebody knows the ritual where during worship people make campfires on the street, Bedford,Kent and Flushing are even better during the firestarter fest. The lines on the street don't mean much, just pretend you are playing a game where these people are trying to take you down,they are playing to win, you should be too. This is multi culturalism at it's best.
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booklaw wrote: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/21679/did-nycs-transit-dept-strike-a-backroom-deal-with-satmars/
Ok, well there you go. That's what I was looking for. Thank you.
Sounds like New York politics as usual. The Hassids probably don’t bike that often or use the bike lanes that much, and likely found them to be a nuisance in their neighborhood. So, they used their political pull to get the bike lane removed from where they live. It’s neighborhood politics really since it doesn’t apply to the whole city.
But that’s exactly the same process by which the bike lanes were put there in the first place. Another group of people, known as cyclists and environmentalists, saw that cycling was dangerous in New York City and wanted to change that. Transportation Alternatives was formed and used their influence and money from contributors (like me) to get the government to put in the bike lanes.
So now TA is likely lobbying to get them put back in. Now I’m not going to claim to have any idea who has more influence with City Hall, the Hassids of Williamsburg or TA, but the TA clearly has been successful in its endeavors because only few years ago there were no bike lanes, and now they are everywhere. But you gotta love a borough where you have two such different groups, both with silly garb and headwear, pitted against each other in grass-roots politics. -
Julius Orange wrote: But you gotta love a borough where you have two such different groups, both with silly garb and headwear, pitted against each other in grass-roots politics.
I have to admit I laughed out loud.
And yes, I do wear the funny helmet and bike gear.
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catwalkertexasranger wrote: School buses are operated as road blocks as children get in and out for shule.
FYI, the law in NY says that traffic must come to a complete stop when school buses are discharging or picking up kids. On two way streets traffic is supposed to halt in both directions. For many years, this law was enforced upstate NY and in more rural areas, but not in NYC. Several years ago there was a serious push by NYS DOT to have stricter enforcement. School districts were notified that they could stop across multiple traffic lanes on one way streets, in order to allow kids to get off the bus and cross without fear of being run over. While many bus companies don't do it, the hassids seems to strictly interpret this law.
Since bikes are considered vehicles under the VTL, they too must come to a complete stop and yeild the right of way to any children getting off of a school bus. Once the bus puts on its flashers or has the stop sign deployed, all traffic must come to a complete stop. -
What I don't understand is why the Hassidic community thinks this will significantly reduce bikers on Bedford.
It is a major bike thoroughfare for people going to the Wbg Bridge, whether Hassids want them there or not. Not having bike lanes isn't going to keep them away.
Also, how is this "safer" for their pedestrians and kids? Doesn't this bring moving cars closer to them on the sidewalk & while jaywalking? -
homeowner wrote: Since bikes are considered vehicles under the VTL, they too must come to a complete stop and yeild the right of way to any children getting off of a school bus. Once the bus puts on its flashers or has the stop sign deployed, all traffic must come to a complete stop.
This is true & accurate. Of all the conflicts in behaviors, this is one that us bikers are definitely wrong on.
ALL traffic should stop for school buses and kids. -
It has little to do with safety. It is all about protecting themselves from having to witness the horrors of minimally clothed female flesh.
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Boygabriel wrote: What I don't understand is why the Hassidic community thinks this will significantly reduce bikers on Bedford.
It's pretty much the equivalent of removing the sign from a bathroom door. -
booklaw wrote: It has little to do with safety. It is all about protecting themselves from having to witness the horrors of minimally clothed female flesh.
I agree, but I do see the safety thing mentioned occasionally.
Either way, why do they think this will make any noticeable difference, other than making traffic worse? -
homeowner wrote: [quote=catwalkertexasranger]School buses are operated as road blocks as children get in and out for shule.
FYI, the law in NY says that traffic must come to a complete stop when school buses are discharging or picking up kids. On two way streets traffic is supposed to halt in both directions. For many years, this law was enforced upstate NY and in more rural areas, but not in NYC. Several years ago there was a serious push by NYS DOT to have stricter enforcement. School districts were notified that they could stop across multiple traffic lanes on one way streets, in order to allow kids to get off the bus and cross without fear of being run over. While many bus companies don't do it, the hassids seems to strictly interpret this law.
Since bikes are considered vehicles under the VTL, they too must come to a complete stop and yeild the right of way to any children getting off of a school bus. Once the bus puts on its flashers or has the stop sign deployed, all traffic must come to a complete stop.
All children should be able to walk to school safely. All children should be able to enter and exit a bus in safe conditions. School crossing signs are non existent in NYC. Signs (some flashing) post in the middle of the street are common outside NYC. When a bus prepares to stop, the driver typically puts on a yellow warning light(s) informing drivers in both directions that the bus in preparing to stop. When stopping a red light comes on and is often followed by a stop sign shield that is deployed so that drivers in both directions can see the bus is stopped. Teaching kids to cross the street one way as a child and another as an adult is larger issue. Cars passing a stopped bus is a serious crime and should be dealt with daily near all our schools regardless of area of the city. Turning a bus on a 30-45% angle so that the signs are not visible is stupid. Allowing kids to ever think or be taught that there is a "safe time" to be standing or crossing a busy road is even worse. Having been part of bicycle safety programs for 6 years children in NYC are some of the most poorly educated on traffic safety, 1 reason is even bus drivers don't have a standard behavior. God bless bikini tops and the babes who ride down Bedford wearing them. Say no to tribe logic. Put up some school zone signs and write tickets until your fingers fall off in the name of child safety. City needs money what better place to start with people who can't stop for school buses A 1500 dollars sign would pay for itself in a day or two -
Julius Orange wrote: [quote=armchair_warrior]too bad the Hasidim has such pull in this city. they objected to the ankles and the neck lines etc.. being too sexy to ride through their community.
What on Earth are you babbling on about? This is about bike lanes being erased and you keep whinging on about Hassids?
Are you one of those people who blames EVERYTHING on the Jews? Cool, me too. I'm having a hard time spreading the rumor that Jews started the swine flu. The whole Kosher thing is hurting its credibility. Also, I believe anti-Semitism is purely a fabrication created by the Jews for sympathy.
lol no I love jewish people and their customs etc... but the Hasidim are the odd ones out in the jewish diaspora.
i'm too lazy to go dig up news articles about this bike lane thing and about the Hasidic opposition. They made sure they didn't allow any laws or changes that would interfere with their mohel's work.
I don't generally like religious fanatics from any group. -
If you ever find yourself in the coffee line at a medical conference, be prepared to eavesdrop on a gaggle of doctors exchanging the medical equivalent of "war stories," wild tales of clinical misadventures and treatment plans gone awry. It was precisely at such a venue that I heard what easily qualifies as one of the strangest — and scariest — medical tale of recent times.
It actually began in 2004 when the New York City Department of Health received reports of 3 newborn, male babies who contracted herpes simplex virus (HSV-1). All of them required weeks of hospital care and intravenous injections of powerful antiviral medication. Tragically, one of them died from the infection.
Unlike a mere cold sore or an embarrassing, painful crop of genital blisters, herpes for a newborn is truly a life-and-death matter. Aggressive and relentless, the herpes virus can destroy an infant's brain in a matter of days. Every pediatrician who notices any type of blister on a newborn's body shudders as he contemplates whether its cause is merely an abrasive blanket or, far worse, a harbinger of a systemic infection with herpes.
But the story only gets stranger. Using a mixture of detective work and medical acumen, the New York City Department of Health figured out that all of these babies contracted herpes shortly after undergoing a ritual circumcision by the same mohel, the religious figure in the Jewish faith charged with conducting the ancient and spiritually important ceremony called a bris.
Under Jewish law, the mohel is required to draw blood from the circumcision site, ostensibly to remove what the Old Testament refers to as "impurities" and what we might interpret today as germs. The thought, back then, was that a flow of blood away from the circumcision site would carry these potentially dangerous entities away from the baby. But the traditional way to do this, a practice called Metzizah bi peh, calls for the mohel to use his mouth and suck out the blood.
To be sure, this peculiar means of viral spread remains rare. Nevertheless, there have been 11 cases of male babies who contracted herpes following circumcisions that included Metzizah bi peh reported over the past 5 years in New York, Canada, and Israel. In 2005, there were 4 infected babies in New York City and all of them were circumcised by the same New York-based mohel (who only recently was persuaded to take a prolonged vacation from his line of work).
According to Dr. Thomas Frieden, New York City's Commissioner of Health, coincidence is not an explanatory option. "There is no reasonable doubt that the practice of Metzizah bi peh has infected several infants in New York City with the herpes virus, including one child who has died and another who has evidence of brain damage," said Dr. Frieden.
Given that more than 70% of all adults 40 years of age or older are infected with the herpes simplex virus; that the mouth is the most common site of HSV-1 infection; and that most adults with oral herpes do not know whether they are infected, typically do not have symptoms, but can still spread the infection to others, one can begin to understand the potential public health problems associated with such a tradition.
Indeed, this is precisely why the Chief Rabbinate in Israel and the New York-based Rabbinical Council of America, which serves more than 1000 rabbis in the United States and Canada, began urging all mohels to avoid the potential spread of infection by using a tiny, sterile glass tube to draw the blood instead of putting their mouths directly on the circumcision wound. The overwhelming majority of mohels working today follow this interpretation of the custom.
Yet the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community persists in adhering to ancient law precisely as it was written. That is, after all, what "orthodox" means. And despite the hedging and explaining by their less orthodox counterparts, Hasidic rabbis insist that performing the bris exactly as it was described in the Bible is essential to what it means to be Jewish.
So when the New York City Department of Health proposed a voluntary ban on the practice, the Hasidic community tersely told the government agency not to interfere in their religious beliefs or practices. Indeed, the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community, one that has a great deal of political clout in New York City politics, has pledged to fight any health edicts restricting the ancient practice with the proverbial tooth and nail.
Even if such a law could be written, how would you enforce it? After all, the bris is almost always performed in the parents' home, out of the view of the health department or a police officer.
Certainly this means of contracting a deadly infection is rare. Only 7 cases of mohel-related herpes have been reported in New York since 1998, and each year there are 2000 to 4000 circumcisions performed in that city alone. But rare does not mean nonexistent. No one can deny that this practice presents a real and serious health risk.
Just as frightening, there have been reports of other Jewish parents who, while less exacting in their religious practices, hired ultra-Orthodox mohels without knowledge that they practiced the potentially risky Metzizah bi peh procedure.
Dr. Frieden, the same public health crusader who managed to get cigarettes banned from all public spaces in New York City, admits that negotiating the rocky shoals of this controversy represents the "most delicate issue I have had to deal with."
"My ideal would be to inform the community so that they stop doing this and a large part of the Jewish community has accepted it," Dr. Frieden explained to me in an interview. "But this issue is far from over and it is still going on among those who are most Orthodox. If it were simple, we would have dealt with it simply."
That's an understatement. It has been years since I studied Talmud, but I know what my Rabbi would have uttered in response to this quandary of Biblical proportions: "Oyyyy."
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/545756 -
Mayor Balances Hasidic Ritual Against Fears for Babies' Health
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By JIM RUTENBERG and ANDY NEWMAN
Published: January 6, 2006
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Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times
Orthodox Jewish men visited Gracie Mansion Thursday for a meeting with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Correction Appended
With three days to go before Election Day, ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, held what was by far the largest rally of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's campaign. With searchlights bouncing across the Brooklyn sky and klezmer music blaring from speakers hoisted on cranes, thousands of Hasidic Jews, in black hats or head scarves, cheered the beaming mayor from rooftops and blocks upon blocks of bleachers.
When one of the most revered Orthodox leaders, Rabbi David Niederman, addressed the throngs, he praised the mayor for his push to create more affordable housing, his takeover of the public schools and his support for the constitutional separation of church and state.
For many in the crowd, the last reference was code for the administration's decision to hold off from taking action against an ancient form of ritualistic circumcision practiced by some Hasidic rabbis that had been linked to three cases of neonatal herpes in late 2004, one of them fatal.
But now, with the election over, the city's Health Department, while not banning the procedure, is angering those Hasidic leaders just the same by pushing a public health campaign against the rite, in which the practitioner, or mohel, sucks the blood from the circumcision wound to clean it. The department took the action after linking the rite to additional cases of herpes in infants, one of whom suffered brain damage as a result.
Some in the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities say the city is infringing upon their religious rights. They go so far as to accuse Mr. Bloomberg of reneging on what they say they took as an election-year assurance that the administration would leave the matter to rabbinical authorities. But others outside those communities had been harshly critical of the administration, saying that it failed to take adequate action against a practice that has been endangering the lives of infants.
The dispute, which had the mayor trying to calm rabbinical leaders at Gracie Mansion yesterday in what his aides called a frank exchange, has put Mr. Bloomberg in the rare position of balancing a key constituency against the policies of one of his most trusted commissioners. And it occurs against the backdrop of the roiling ethnic politics of New York, with Orthodox leaders having threatened to disrupt the mayor's inauguration last Sunday by wearing yellow stars like the ones Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany.
The Bloomberg administration denies that politics have had anything to do with its decisions, and administration officials say they made no pre-election promises regarding the rite.
"The mayor has a fundamental commitment to public health," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the commissioner of health and mental hygiene. "That didn't change when it looked like the smoking ban was going to cost him re-election, and it didn't change in this case."
Still, Dr. Frieden said, there were plenty of other factors to make an issue affecting a small percentage of city Jews as thorny as the smoking ban that the mayor pushed in 2002, which affected millions. In this case, Dr. Frieden said, the administration is trying to balance religious rights against the health of infants by educating parents about the dangers of the procedure.
"There's no question this is one of the most delicate issues I've ever had to deal with," he said.
Dr. Frieden and other officials said they were forced to act in recent weeks after discovering the two new cases of herpes infection.
But some Hasidic leaders see political motivations at work.
"The whole thing seems to be that Bloomberg before the election just told the health commissioner, 'Listen, cool it down, and wait till after the election,' " said Isac Weinberger, a leader in the Satmar Hasidic sect in Williamsburg. "It was a flip-flop. He fooled the community."
The health department began focusing on the risks of the procedure, known as metzitzah b'peh, after it learned that one boy in Staten Island and twins in Brooklyn, circumcised by the same mohel in 2003 and 2004, contracted Type-1 herpes.
That form of herpes can prove deadly for infants, who, health officials argue, are of particular risk during metzitzah b'peh. Most non-Orthodox Jews have abandoned the practice, as have even many Orthodox Jews.
But Orthodox rabbis who support the procedure say 2,000 to 4,000 such circumcisions are still performed each year in the city. They insist the procedure is safe and does not transmit herpes, which can be contracted by infants from their mothers, during childbirth. For some Jews the procedure is crucial to raising boys in a Jewish tradition.
"We chose America because of religious freedom. That's why we are here," Rabbi Niederman said this week in an interview at City Hall. "There is no compromise on this issue, because we know it is safe."
The issue erupted in August, when the health department prepared an order prohibiting the mohel whom the department had linked to the three cases of herpes, Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, from performing further circumcisions. After members of the Central Rabbinical Congress promised to keep him from performing circumcisions and to investigate the cases involving him, the health department stopped drafting the order.
The mayor and his health commissioner said they would continue to study the matter but that they would not ban the practice, with Mr. Frieden saying that such a ban could be seen as interfering with religious freedom, and that a ban would be unenforceable anyway.
And, in a message heard loud and clear by rabbinical leaders, Mr. Bloomberg said on his radio program, "It is not the government's business to tell people how to practice their religion," although he also promised, "We're going to do a study, and make sure that everyone is safe."
Some outside the Hasidic communities criticized the mayor's statement, seeing it as a decided change of tack for an administration that had banned smoking and taken an aggressive stand on public health issues in general.
"He has made it legally impossible to have a cigarette and a cocktail at the same time, anywhere in the city," fumed the writer Christopher Hitchens on Slate in August. "I'll trade him his stupid prohibitionist ban if he states clearly that it is the government's business to protect children from religious fanatics."
An editorial last week in a local Yiddish newspaper, Der Blatt, cited the mayor's position then as a catalyst for the huge campaign rally for him on Nov. 5 in Williamsburg.
"What has been promised to us prior to the recent elections - and this was the only request we made - was that the subject of metzitzah b'peh should be completely untouched by the city department of health," the editorial said. "This and only this was the reason why thousands of Orthodox Jews registered themselves to vote, undersigned a petition to the mayor, came out in droves, men, women and children, to an unprecedented rally."
Rabbi Niederman said this week that he believed that Orthodox Jews supported Mr. Bloomberg because of many of his policies, not just his position on the rite, and said it would be unfair to question his political motives. Nonetheless, he said, "Before the election, we were very proud that the mayor did the right thing."
He said he was "astonished" and "shocked" by the city's more recent actions.
In December, Dr. Frieden wrote an "open letter" to Jews recommending against the practice and highlighting an alternative in which a sterile tube is used. He has also announced a plan to hand out literature about the practice's dangers to postnatal mothers. And a new health department alert has reminded hospitals of a mandate to report what Dr. Frieden described as "all unusual manifestations of disease" in newborns.
Dr. Frieden said his hand was forced when his department discovered the new cases of neonatal herpes - one coming in the spring, the other, in which the infant suffered brain damage, coming in October - and conclusively determined that they and the earlier cases were caused by metzitzah b'peh.
He emphasized that the city had no plans to take more aggressive action against the procedure. "I really have bought into the worldview that says for some part of the community metzitzah b'peh is integral to circumcision, and circumcision is integral to being Jewish," he said.
One public health specialist, Dr. William M. McCormack, director of the infectious disease program at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, said Dr. Frieden's move "was probably the least that he could have done with a clear conscience."
But members of the Central Rabbinical Congress said that Dr. Frieden was in effect going over rabbis' heads by talking directly to their congregations in an attempt to persuade them to abandon a centuries old religious practice.
An open letter responding to Dr. Frieden, signed by "a member of the Jewish community" but approved by Hasidic leaders, said, "The citizens of the observant Jewish community live by the our own Director of Surveillance, with mandates that have guided and preserved our families for thousands of years."
Rabbi Niederman, who attended last night's meeting at Gracie Mansion, said the mayor calmed the rabbis by calling for a meeting of doctors who agree with the city and doctors who agree with the rabbis at which they would find "common ground."
"Maybe it needs a Camp David, you know what I mean, for three days, and nobody leave the room until an agreement is reached," Rabbi Niederman said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/nyregion/06rite.html?pagewanted=2
thats political power.
I wish they would cops that is would enforce the fake volunteers that isn't going to a emergencies
. I have no problem with the Hatzalah but alot of guys do the emt certified etc.. to get the fake lights and abuse the lights . i know a few guys that did that. -
Um, thanks for all that, but Booklaw already enlightened me as to the where the Hasid thing came from. I have to say though, without the reference it did sound kinda paranoid.
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Julius Orange wrote: Um, thanks for all that, but Booklaw already enlightened me as to the where the Hasid thing came from. I have to say though, without the reference it did sound kinda paranoid.
I see your point, but it's pretty widely known that the Hasidim openly opposed the bike lanes in their neighborhood, and that was before my friend who works @ DOT and attends all relevant community hearings told me such.
Also if you give them the chance (or even if you don't), they'll tell you it themselves. Like the guy who tried to run me off the road (literally) on Lee Avenue. He was quite explicit about what he thought of bikes in his neighborhood.
My crime? Passing him while he was double parked in a traffic lane, and then didn't get off the road when he came up behind me. -
Bedford bike path connects from river to beach it is an excellent resource. It can bring you to 15 schools,including Medgar Evers,Brooklyn and Kings Colleges , pretty easy and without taking up a parking space. It drops you close to Prospect Park ,a few libraries and the Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Museum. This is about a whole place not religion . If a chump with herpes did something to some kids with the permission of his parents,house of worship and the government I still think it's ---ked but it's doesn't make me a safer cyclist. If anybody else did this to a bike path or a child for religious reasons their career would be blasted but in New York things are a little different. We endangered your kid because she may wear a low cut top while on her way to school. We killed our kid because it's a tradition that usually works out,sorry about the herpes thing. In most every part of the US these statements would be answered with jail or fines or loss of a job for everybody involved . The kid commuting to Evers or Brooklyn College doesn't deserve some painted safety lines because a micro group has mad a fashion arrest. Nfw. There is little to no chance of my foreskin being touched while using the bike path on Bedford, my issue is to be able use a public road safely. All the mohel and weenie wack talk will make them take their eye off the prize. If you went to Detroit or Boston and said the some radical rasta group wanted their own cops and ambulances they would laugh you out of town.Dr.Farakan doesn't like bike paths,Buddah don't bike. It's simply not normal no matter how many political contributions you get. If a certain group wants a walled city they can seek one ..upstate. Anti car not anti people.
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Ok, now this sounds paranoid.
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catwalkertexasranger wrote: Bedford bike path connects from river to beach it is an excellent resource. It can bring you to 15 schools,including Medgar Evers,Brooklyn and Kings Colleges , pretty easy and without taking up a parking space. It drops you close to Prospect Park ,a few libraries and the Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Museum. This is about a whole place not religion . If a chump with herpes did something to some kids with the permission of his parents,house of worship and the government I still think it's ---ked but it's doesn't make me a safer cyclist. If anybody else did this to a bike path or a child for religious reasons their career would be blasted but in New York things are a little different. We endangered your kid because she may wear a low cut top while on her way to school. We killed our kid because it's a tradition that usually works out,sorry about the herpes thing. In most every part of the US these statements would be answered with jail or fines or loss of a job for everybody involved . The kid commuting to Evers or Brooklyn College doesn't deserve some painted safety lines because a micro group has mad a fashion arrest. Nfw. There is little to no chance of my foreskin being touched while using the bike path on Bedford, my issue is to be able use a public road safely. All the mohel and weenie wack talk will make them take their eye off the prize. If you went to Detroit or Boston and said the some radical rasta group wanted their own cops and ambulances they would laugh you out of town.Dr.Farakan doesn't like bike paths,Buddah don't bike. It's simply not normal no matter how many political contributions you get. If a certain group wants a walled city they can seek one ..upstate. Anti car not anti people.
Yeah, but this is Brooklyn. Racial politics trumps all. And as much as you bikers may be saving the world one gear at a time, most Brooklynites do not bike AT ALL. Those that do tend to bike only for recreation. The everyday commuting cyclist is a serious minority. If the politics of Brooklyn is about anything its the battle of minority against minority. Bikers got trumped by the Hassidim. It's not the first time the Hassidim have bested another group, and it won't be the last. Learn from the previous battles in Williamsburg and CH. Get your voting block together, come out in serious support of a local politician, and be prepared to put your money where your mouth is. Anything else is just a waste of time. -
Its kinda funny how i got called a anti Semite, which reminds me of along time ago when i was still in school this ultra religious jewish guy. Said NYtimes was being anti Semitic, that time it was a jewish editor and still has some what jewish owned(check up? lol).
anyway i pointed it out to him umm dude its jewish owned!!! but here now in the us you can't point out Anything that what Israel does or be label anti Semitic.
ps its hard to grow up here(brooklyn) being anti semitic, you either know mostly jews or italians in white nabes. brooklyn when i was growing up was very segregated.
I remember my chinese friend way back his family try to buy a house in a white area, the old jewish lady wouldn't sell cause she wanted to keep the area white. -
the bike lanes on bedford and lee/nostrand makes perfect sense. its a shortcut from that area to the rest of the area of brooklyn. I drive through it to cut around the BQE.
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I don't think being Jewish necessarily precludes one from being an anti-Semite. It's a crazy world.
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"I don't really care about the Hasids anyway - I'm sure they'd want nothing to do with me. But it bothers me to see blanket accusations made about any group without any kind of fact or evidence."
- Julius Orange
It would seem you aren't from Brooklyn let alone NYC. It would benefit you greatly to stop posting in this thread or any other thread until you have lived here long enough to make relevant posts that actually make some sort of sense let alone add to or aid the community. -
Make me
-
This thread has certainly fallen off the rails. But my question is - why does this upset some people so much? Don't residents of a community - even Hasidic Jews - get a say in what happens in their community? Do bike riders always get the final say in where bike lanes go? Just asking.
Howdy, Stranger!
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