Op-Ed: Community Wake Up Call

by Jay Sorid – www.eastflatbush.info 

The very misleading Community Board “CB  9” Bike Lane Survey results will be used in the future by NYC DOT to connect the bike lanes on Kingston and Brooklyn Ave north of Eastern Parkway with the proposed bike lanes on Kingston and Brooklyn Ave that will run south of Empire.

The CB Transportation Chair shared total survey percentage results at the most recent CB 9 Transportation  which informed of a 57 percent approval rate of bike lanes, but does not disclose  that 55 percent of the CB 9 residents who took the survey are actually opposed to new bike lanes.  Basically, the survey was put on reddit and 103 anonymous people with anonymous addresses from outside the district are included in the survey, as are 12 people who are not sure if they live in CB 9.  

CB 9 Transportation Committee Misleads

The CB 9 Survey informs that 216 /384 persons or 57 percent are in favor of bike lanes.  However, said survey includes 103 / 384 persons who do not live in the district and 12 persons who said they “maybe” live in the district.  

When looking at 269 survey respondents who actually live in CB 9, 148 / 269 or 55 percent are opposed to the bike lanes, which is almost the exact opposite.

I called CB 9 District Manager Dante Arwine this past Friday, December 13, 2024 and he provide me with the survey counts which I quote. 

There is a high risk of fraud in the current CB 9 bike lane survey being anonymous (email address only, no name or address asked) and being put on Reddit.

Give a listen to the December 11, 2024 CB 9 Transportation committee meeting at the 48 min 45 sec mark in which the Chair and another committee member tell how CB 9 survey results show 57 percent of those who responded want bike lanes going south from Empire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSO6LBDCAo&list=PL8KRNx4GNQcoR6WlKEHRXioRSCPWXxK4W&index=2

At the 49 min 45 sec mark, CB 9 Transportation Committee Benny Rosenberger expresses his bewilderment at the results and says, “Really, I thought there was a lot more opposition.”  

At no time during the most recent CB 9 Transportation committee meeting, did the pro-bike lane committee members disclose, that said survey included 103 responses from persons who do not live in the district, and 12 persons who are not sure (voting “maybe”).

At no time during the most recent CB 9 Transportation committee meeting, did the pro-bike lane  committee members disclose, that the CB 9 survey was put on Reddit encouraging people from outside the district to vote. “Make sure to tell everyone you know in CB9 (map) to fill out the survey, but anyone can fill it out.”

ttps://www.reddit.com/r/MicromobilityNYC/comments/1h3tkv7/help_needed_fill_out_this_survey_today_to_stop_a/?rdt=39320

Maybe I should share the survey with some local temples where I live in Merrick, Long Island and ask them if they would like to help out some fellow Jews in Brooklyn? Of course I shouldn’t, which is why I didn’t fill out the survey. My interest in writing this is so the Jewish community is not in the dark. I simply advocate for the majority’s opinions in the JNF’s recent survey.

I ask readers to take the CB 9 survey before December 19 at 3:00 pm by clicking on any of the following links and share the link with your friends and encourage them to further distribute to the shuls and Whatsapp groups in community board 9 only. I will ask the District Manager for final counts and hopefully the Jewish vote will be counted accurately.

Here is the direct CB 9 Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSck1oTBUKqi8LM9jxwOU2C1Q7Nh6FRSU2FusclRJaUTJTJOPA/viewform 

Here is the CB 9 Webpage that contains the link for verification purposes: https://www.nyc.gov/site/brooklyncb9/news/board-news.page 

I created a website called EastFlatbush.info which has additional pertinent information and is hopefully easy to remember:  www.eastflatbush.info 

It is important that when Community Board 9 votes this Thursday on Bike Lanes, Board members can rely on results from the Jewish community that show an overwhelming amount of people in CB 9 do not want bike lanes. Yaacov Behrman, leader of Jewish Future Alliance did a 900 person survey and showed 83 percent of persons responding were adamantly opposed to bike lanes.

If I did not send two emails to the CB 9 Transportation Chair asking about CB 9 resident voting counts  and hadn’t reached out to the District Manager on Friday, Dec 13, I am not sure the community would have been informed of non-residents skewing the Community Board 9 survey.

Right now, the CB 9 Transportation Chair and a few cyclist enthusiasts are going to tell the Community Board that 57% of the total respondents are in favor of bike lanes. I am aware of only one blog that posted the CB 9 Bike Survey. I hope that the CHJCC or others send out an email blast. 

At the last community board meeting before the summer recess, where the bike lane issue was put up for vote, the community board was ready to vote down bike lanes, but the CB 9 Chair Fred Baptiste amended the resolution to exclude out the bike lane issue.   

The NYC DOT should absolutely be transparent about future delayed travel times by blocking the proposed traffic lanes that will be removed by putting out traffic barrels and a few “bumper” traffic trucks that have the lighted arrows in the back.

If Community Board 9 approves the Kingston and Brooklyn Ave Bike Lanes south of Empire, NYC DOT is of course going to connect to the same corresponding lanes north of Eastern Parkway that extend to Greenpoint. (See NYC Bike Maps –   https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikemaps.shtml)

Politically, Mayor Eric Adams appoints the Commissioner of NYC DOT and the Mayor is running for election next year.  City Council member Crystal Hudson’s district includes Brooklyn and Kingston Ave north of the middle of Empire. City Council member Rita Joseph’s district includes Brooklyn & Kingston Ave south of Empire. Crystal Hudson is running for election next year and her last election was very close.  Rita Joseph is also running for election next year. Both Rita Joseph and Crystal Hudson have candidates running against them.

A resident at the Nov’24 CB 9 Transportation meeting commented how cyclists don’t stop for stop signs.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KKNh2lcY3g&list=PL8KRNx4GNQcoR6WlKEHRXioRSCPWXxK4W&index=3 – November’24 CB 9 Transportation Meeting, 31 min 45 sec mark.  

There is a recent push now to get E-bikes, E-Scooter licensed and insured.  What happens when a kid walks  in a cross walk after seeing the WALK crosswalk sign and the cyclist can’t see the kid because he is racing down Brooklyn Ave and has no accountability ?  

If all of Brooklyn Ave is a bike lane, and Kingston becomes a bike lane to Empire, naturally, bikers will continue up Kingston to Eastern Parkway or they will ride back up on the Brooklyn Ave bike lane in the wrong direction.

Keep in mind, there is a good chance all the land by Kingsboro Psych between Albany and Utica will become another Starrett City. Streams become rivers in storms.  Your bike lanes will be bike highways when Vital Brooklyn is completed, so now is your chance to negotiate with the elected officials for bike licensing and a municipal parking lot on semi-vacant land somewhere on Clarkson. 

This Thursday’s Community Board 9 meeting will not be held at the usual place of 400 Empire Blvd. Not surprisingly, Community Board 9 will hold the Bike Lane vote meeting about as far from the Jewish community as you can get before finding yourself in Prospect Park Lake.  

This Thursday’s  Dec 19, 2024  CB 9 General Board meeting will be held at 46 McKeever Place as indicated in the below link.  

The distant location from the community being effected is cause for CB 9 Chair Fred Baptiste to delay the bike lane vote tomorrow and write a letter to NYC DOT not to make any decisions in the interim.  https://www.nyc.gov/site/brooklyncb9/calendar/calendar.page#calendar1/day/2024-12-19

https://www.nyc.gov/site/brooklyncb9/calendar/speaker-request-form.page – CB 9 Public Comment Request Form for General Board Meetings, like tomorrow.

There is no racial or anti-semitic tension at Community Board 9.

There are issues between people on an individual level, so I encourage all to attend.

The community board was ready to vote the down the bike lanes issue before.  If a few parents show up and speak, then perhaps the Community Board can realize the insanity of locating an E-Bike/E-Scooter/E-Moped Bike highway adjacent to schools because bikers currently do not follow traffic laws because they are unlicensed, unregulated and unaccountable, but talk of change is starting.

https://www.nycevsa.org/about   – Here is a group with a very informative video, that is pushing for bike licensing and regulation and bike traffic enforcement.  I invited them to come to the General Board 9 meeting after they emailed me back.

The proposed bike lanes on Kingston and Brooklyn Ave, South of Empire, is simply the NYC DOT building the southerly half of the Kingston and Brooklyn Ave bike lanes first, and then NYC DOT will build upwards to Eastern Parkway after Vital Brooklyn on Clarkson is built.

The CB 9 Bike Resolution 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d4haf20njs4z8zsudv5cq/Bike-Resolution.pdf?rlkey=9706dmu05kb99lekmbuupi0bk&dl=0   – Here is the CB 9 Bike Lane Resolution – Although it says that the Board OPPOSED to the NYC DOT plan, there is other open ended vague language in the THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED section which expresses guidance for protected bike lanes, implying that if they are needed go ahead.  The resolution is poorly worded and does not protect the community from bike lanes, instead it is giving suggestions on the type of protected bike lanes.

The resolution should be specific as to which of the FOUR bike lane proposals in the Original DOT plan it approves or disapproves and not ambiguous as to the Board’s specific intentions on each of the Four Bike Lane Proposals. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/brooklyncb9/downloads/pdf/2024/brooklyn-ave-kingston-ave-empire-blvd-winthrop-st-jun2024.pdf  – See page 19

This kind of wishy washy vague resolution, if passed, when added to a phony CB 9 Survey which talks about 57% CB 9 Bike Lane Approval will give license to the NYC DOT to add bike lanes  and will dupe the Jewish community that should know that 103/384 people who responded do not live in CB 9 and may be living in Europe now for all we know. 

The CB 9 Transportation Chair has recently informed me and will tell you that NYC DOT does all their surveys like this.  I received the annexed anonymous person, anonymous address Clove Rd Survey from CB 9 Transportation Chair.   https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CloveRdPS  

https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/current-projects.shtml – maybe this is how NYC DOT gets the public opinion / narrative for all their bike lanes?  – just get an organized special interest group from out of the neighborhood to take a survey and send it by social media to similar whatsapp / interest groups?

https://www.nyc.gov/site/doi/index.page – I suggest CB 9 and anyone reading this consider whether NYC DOT needs to be investigated based upon this anonymous surveys for NYC DOT projects and possible REDDIT groups.  

I am not suggesting that any CB 9 members be investigated – my job is just to inform the community of information related to policy effecting the district.

CB Board Chair Fred Baptiste should not allow a vote on a big issue like bike lanes to take place far ( 46 McKeever Pl) from where the people effected live, and far from the usual place where the Board usually has its regular meetings ( 400 Empire Blvd – NY Ave & Empire)- The CB 9 Board Chair appoints the Committee Chairs and also appoints the resident members of the each committee.  The Board Chairs of Community Boards are usually the board chair for years.

Residents of Brooklyn Ave and Kingston will not be able to give public comment as easily and will be discouraged from attending in number.  This is a bad look for Community Board 9 and gives the appearance of impropriety that the Board does not want the public showing up.  It’s not hard to adjourn this or they should have picked a different day.

I suggest that the Dept of Investigation look at NYC DOT anonymous surveys and the current CB 9 Anonymous Surveys which seem to be creating the political narrative necessary to advance their agenda which relies on unreliable data and due process issues.

https://www.thejfa.org/dotsurvey  – Here is Yaacov Behrman’s ( JNF ) invaluable survey which asks identifying information like name, address, zip code, cell phone …etc….Info can be redacted for FOIL responses.

Because Yaacov Behrman’s study is more accurate, all of his survey responses should be added to the CB 9 survey, and refined if necessary by CD District, so the CB 9 Board Members can have a more accurate understanding as to reliable public opinion which should not be skewed for anyone’s political agenda.  This is another reason why CB 9 Chair Fred Baptiste should adjourn the CB 9 Bike Lanes “Anyone with an Internet Connection Vote.”

Israel is not giving up Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights.

CH/EF should not give up Kingston and should follow with similar resolve in protecting it.