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September 7, 2015- by Steven E. Greer
For many years, the construction of The Battery has closed down the bike path that would allow bikers to go from the Hudson River path over to the Seaport on the East River, and there never has been a good bike path from the ferry station eastward. Meanwhile, the small businesses in the Seaport still struggle after 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. Opening a continuous bike path would do wonders for their tourism business.
I tried to Citi Bike from Battery Park to the Seaport yesterday, and was able to do so, but it was not easy. From the Staten Island ferry to the heliport, the bike path is flooded with pedestrians not realizing that it is a bike path. Other sections are still completely closed. Only an adventurous person would try to bike this.
However, bike paths are easy to make. The City DOT in one day could create the easy-to-use path needed to connect the bustling Hudson River side to the struggling ghost towns around the Seaport. There is no need to wait for flood prevention studies, etc. Just do it now.
In less than 30-minutes of biking around the Seaport, I discovered El Luchador taco shack and wrote about it. I would eat there many times a week if the bike path were open. What other shops do we not know about because the Seaport is isolated off?
And why am I the only one to write about this? Where are our so-called leaders? The only thing we read about in the Seaport is the Howard Hughes corporation project. There are many things that can be done right away to drive business to the Seaport.
(Which I might do as a city council member in 2017)
You should run!
Yup. You’re right on target.
This needs to be done asap and it won’t take a lot of time, money, or effort.
The area around the Governor’s Island ferry is the one spot that is dicey as heck. A bike lane with dividers would prevent havoc there.
As CitiBike expands to the UES this fall, I will be biking this route at least 4 days a week. Hopefully the city gets their act together and fixes this problem.