Hail To The Yuppies And The Paths They (Won’t) Trek!

There’s no end in sight to the controversy behind bike lanes being constructed in our community. On a personal level, I grew quite tired of hearing about the crazy ways the Department of Transportation (DOT) was changing the direction of traffic to accommodate the new bike paths, which would connect Canarsie to other communities by encouraging cyclists – or rather, forcing them – to pass through the neighborhood. 

Hello yuppie!

I don’t have an opinion on where Canarsie should have them or if they’re creating more of a mess than anything. One question I have about these bike lanes and their ability to bring more passersby through our community is: What’s in our community for out-of-town cyclists who will actually use these bike lanes to peruse Brooklyn?

I’ve already offered my two cents about the idea to bring a ferry to Canarsie Pier. What does Canarsie have to offer visitors? Nail salons? Chinese take out places that are on every street? A storefront church in which to worship? Let’s get real!

I was finishing one of my runs in Canarsie Park a couple of months ago and left the park from the back, passing Canarsie Road. A woman on her bike got my attention. I could tell she was one of these yuppies not from our community – a Caucasian girl with a long skirt and purse strap slung across her chest is not an everyday sight in Canarsie. In what sounded like an Australian accent, she asked me where the nearest coffeehouse was located, saying she just came from the bike path off of the pier and wanted a small, quaint place to sit outside and enjoy a drink.

What is this – Park Slope??? Prospect Park?? We ain’t got no cafes, eateries or restaurants with outdoor dining! So what do we have to offer those avid cyclists who follow the bike path from Paerdegat Avenue North to the park? McDonalds?? Gas stations where they can pump their bike tires with air?

I told the local tourist that she could head to Rockaway Parkway to our local Dunkin’ Donuts – or McDonald’s for a cup of java. She made a face as if to say, “I’ve biked for miles on that nice long path to reach this community where there are NO nearby cafes that I can sit outside?” I was almost embarrassed to tell her that she should have kept going to Cross Bay Boulevard where there are a lot of outdoor seating-type places – BY THE WATER (yeah, sort of like Canarsie, but better!).

It’s a great idea to connect Brooklyn bikers through a common path that will encourage them to explore different communities in their travels. Subsequently, there must have been a rhyme or reason for proposing the bike lanes along Shore Parkway and along East 102nd Street.

However, I’m sure there’s a better place in Canarsie for visitors to pass than the projects at Bayview Houses – where drivers are taking an alternate route to get to the Belt Parkway and there’s already mass confusion!

Still, bikers who want to stop in Canarsie after a long ride need more than just a $1 store to make their experience worthwhile.

When I was a kid – back in the 1980s, Canarsie had lots of small delis, bakeries and café-type businesses – but no hipsters! There were a lot of people biking in our community back then. I remember, when I lived on East 91st Street near Seaview Avenue, biking to Canarsie Park and riding over the sand dunes. My favorite time to bike at the park was when merchants in the area sponsored the street fair all along the avenue. You could spend a day pedaling around the park, then enjoy a cold drink or snack from the vendors at the fair – and the fair had HUNDREDS of people. It would have been ideal back then to have a bike path leading into Canarsie so residents of other communities could join our fun times.

But no.

Fortunately, when residents protested the bike lanes in Canarsie, including one that would be placed along East 108th Street, it seemed to have worked and the DOT listened to our demands. Things are somewhat back to normal, thanks to fighting the good fight.

It all works out in the end; Canarsie has little or nothing for the hipster yuppies who bike through the borough. They’ll turn back or keep going when they reach our commercially inept community. Happy trails!