New York Post – by JULIA MARSH and MATTHEW
The president of the city firefighters’ union blasted the bike-share program yesterday, calling the placement of the racks a hazard to emergency responders — as the city continued to shuffle racks around in response to community outrage.
“The bike racks present challenges to firefighters and frankly, trying to get around the city now is harder than ever before,” Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy said at a press conference in Manhattan.
He was responding to a Post article that detailed complaints from residents of a West Village co-op where a 92-year-old resident was having an emergency on Sunday afternoon — and an ambulance had to park several doors down so EMTs could maneuver around the racks in front of the West 13th Street building.
“I think that it is going to continue to impact response times for emergency vehicles in a negative way,” Cassidy added.
The union honcho’s words directly contradict the assertion by Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, who insisted, “We have not experienced any problems nor do we anticipate issues operating at or near bike racks.”
But on Monday night, the city removed the portion of the Citi Bike rack in front of The Cambridge co-op on West 13th Street.
And yesterday, city workers continued hastily moving Citi Bike racks from problem spots to more practical locations ahead of the program’s Monday launch.
“I just don’t get why the city is being so heavy-handed with this,” said Chelsea resident Russell Orenstein, 54.
Orenstein watched yesterday as workers switched a 31-bike dock from the north side of West 22nd Street near 10th Avenue — where it was blocking the curbs in front of seven residential buildings — to the south side, where it now sits in front of Clement Clarke Moore park.
He maintained that an “uproar in the neighborhood” sparked the move.
“It was a safety issue. Think about firetrucks and ambulances trying to get to people,” Orenstein added.
A DOT spokesman said that the 22nd Street kiosk was relocated for “technical reasons, allowing for more docks than the previous location.”
Opponents of the controversial program have been lobbing lawsuits and complaints at the city for bungling the rollout of 300 Citi Bike locations around town.