Some locals will be thrilled, others enraged. At this hour, workers are re-installing a City Bike station at the intersection of Grand and Henry streets, a short distance away from Frank’s Bike Shop.
The city temporarily removed the station in June to accommodate Con Ed utility work. Some residents smelled a conspiracy, theorizing that the terminal had been yanked out due to pressure from a sizable group of people protesting the location so near Frank’s, which they felt endangered his survival. Via the community board, the Department of Transportation gave assurances that the station, located in an area poorly served by public transportation, would be restored. Today, they made good on that promise.
Meanwhile, another station at Grand and East Broadway, which was established later in the summer, has gone offline. A worker on site told us the docking units and kiosks are being upgraded; he did not say how long this location would be out of commission. But according to Citi Bike’s Twitter feed:
Today we’re moving the station that’s been temporarily at E Broadway/Grand back to Henry/Grand since ConEd construction is done.
— Citi Bike (@CitibikeNYC) August 28, 2013
So, we’ll have to see whether both stations actually end up staying.
(Thanks to TLD reader Sabina, who noticed this tweet).
This is an outrage! All they’re doing is taking up well needed parking spaces. Not many people are going to be using these bikes in the winter. Bloomberg, New York is not Europe! It’s a slap in the face to those residents and vendors like “Franks Bike Shop” who endured the bad times, only to be pushed out by these idiot politicians and their one sided policies who are hurting real New Yorkers, not the implants.
I like to think we can try to accommodate everyone on the streets (cars, bikes, pedestrians, trucks, busses, etc) and not only people who are rich enough to afford cars.
Um, this station is going in the middle of a traffic island where there were no parking spaces. And Frank himself has said that he’s not at all worried about bike share stations in the immediate vicinity of his shop (he’s more concerned about the ones near hotels).
This should be good for page views!
More people in Manhattan don’t have cars than do. I for one welcome the bike racks back.
It’s complete nonsense that the bike share racks will hurt bike rental businesses. They server two different functions. It’s hard to believe the people who make this claim believe it themselves.
Yes! So glad it’s back. But we still need a third station. This is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city.