Hundreds of frustrated West Village residents last night spewed their anger over the city’s controversial bike-share program at a community-board meeting.
“We’re second-class citizens in our own city,” said Sean Sweeney, a member of West Village’s Community Board 2, which hosted the meeting at PS 41, and the SoHo Alliance. “They don’t care about the residents.”
He claimed that many of the bike racks now flooding SoHo are obstructing public art spaces and galleries:
“What kind of Philistine — what sort of iconoclast would destroy a public-art space to put up advertising for Citibank?”
Retired advertising executive Charlie Decker, 69, has been an avid biker since 1969, but he just can’t get on board with the program, which began this month in Manhattan below 59th Street.
“This benefits 3 percent of the population and is an imposition to 99 percent of the population,” said Charlie Decker, 69, noting that he has been bicycling since 1969.
“I contend Mayor Bloomberg has never been on a bicycle in New York City,” he added.
West Village resident Dorothy Sluszka questioned the motives behind the program.
“I’m wondering how much money Bloomberg and Citibank have made off of each other,” she fumed.