Transcript Now Released: Williamsburg365 Raised Concerns Over Bike Lane at Mayor Adams Jewish Media Roundtable

By Y.M. Lowy

As previously reported, Williamsburg 365 was present at a recent Jewish Media meeting where Mayor Eric Adams addressed concerns over the new bike lane on Bedford Avenue. The full transcript of the discussion has now been released. The mayor emphasized the role of elected officials and the Department of Transportation in addressing safety issues, particularly for children and buses in the area.

Gaby Yabra (Williamsburg 365): Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. What steps is the administration taking to address the concerns of the Williamsburg residents about the new bike lane? And how do you plan to balance the need for safer cycling infrastructure with the community's feedback?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, when was that right lane built? When was it built? Do you know? A couple weeks ago it was installed. This is the one where? On Bedford Avenue. Okay, because we do a real job of trying to get community feedback as much as possible. But you should really lean into whomever is your local elected, I don't know who your local council person is over there. But they should play a role in making sure that the voices are heard from their community. If they're a good council person, they’ll do that. If they're a council person that's just pushing their own agenda, then they're going to get ahead of their community. And so, who is it?

[Crosstalk]

Mayor Adams: They're out there in their community. You know, so I'm not sure, this is on Bedford Avenue? It is. We're gonna look into the exact, they should have brought it to the team, they should have brought it to the community. There's an important community rollout.

Now, by law we have to have a certain number of miles of bike lane. And the advocacy that's pushing for it must meet the advocacy that's pushing against it. And we listen to the community. A DOT commissioner plays a vital role in listening to what the community desires.

Gaby Yabra (Williamsburg 365): Community has been giving for the DOT an altered route to make the bike lane to go from DeKalb and it should go on Classon Avenue, so it shouldn't accommodate those three blocks. That is causing children the danger when they're going off the streets, the buses et cetera.

Mayor Adams: Let me see the logic of why the commissioner is doing that right now.

Shapiro: I think the commissioner is working on a plan to sort of create some barriers because the issue where they were coming off the buses and bikers were hitting kids.

Commissioner Kreizman: And as the mayor says, everything is done with dialogue, we've had a meeting even in this room, we had the commissioner and members of the administration listen to community leaders from Williamsburg for all we could do, various leaders were invited to this room for a dialogue on the coming of the alternate means of addressing the school situation and follow-up conversations, so we're definitely looking at ways of addressing that. Thank you.

Photo Credit: Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office