“The neighborhood would have been in all sorts of drama [if the kiosks had been placed too close to or in heavily Satmar neighborhoods. Avoiding that] is a way to avoid conflict,” local biking advocate Baruch Herzfeld claimed.
Satmar Threats And Backroom Politics Cause City To Keep Bikes Out Of Hasidic Areas Of Williamsburg
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The New York Daily News reports that New York City’s new bike-sharing program, which will have bike rental kiosks placed at strategic points around the city, won’t have an outpost in heavily hasidic sections of Williamsburg.
Why?
Because Satmar hasidim threatened to disrupt the program if the bikes – which they view both as dangers to their children and magnets for “immodestly” clothed hipsters – are placed in their neighborhoods.
Several years ago, Satmar succeeded it coercing the city to remove marked bike lanes in their primary area of Williamsburg by using the same basic tactics.
The first phase of the new CitiBike program is set to launch Monday with dozens of rental kiosks across Brooklyn.
“They put the racks where they are going to be used. Look at the hasidic community. No one rides a bike here,” Satmar activist Shimon Weiser, who sits on Community Board 1 and who worked out kiosk locations with the city’s Department of Transportation said.
Weiser is infamous, primarily for his organization of a ban several years ago against the website VosIzNeais because it posted details of crimes committed by haredim – “shmutz,” in Weiser’s words, but also for decades of thuggish actions against things he deemed immodest – or that exposed the dirty underbelly of the Satmar community and its leadership – and for his association with Wiliamsburg's Satmar modesty squad that spawned, among other notables, convicted child rapist Nechemya Weberman.
Another Satmar activist and sometime politician Isaac Abraham warned that Satmar would resort to “civil disobedience” if the bike rental kiosks are placed near Satmar neighborhoods.
“We will put baby carriages there. We will make a baby carriage lane,” Abraham reportedly said with some real degree of seriousness.
“The bike racks are dangerous for pedestrians and children,” Yoeli Klein, who owns the Williamsburg kosher ice cream shop Chocolate Wise, told the Daily News.
“The (chosen) locations were the product of an extensive public outreach process… [and] reflect the input of neighborhoods in the service area,” a city official said.
The next phase of the program also places dozens more rental kiosks in Brooklyn – but none of them are in heavily hasidic areas of Williamsburg.
“The neighborhood would have been in all sorts of drama [if the kiosks had been placed too close to or in heavily Satmar neighborhoods. Avoiding that] is a way to avoid conflict,” local biking advocate Baruch Herzfeld claimed.