Please join us next Thursday, July 21, at 6:30 p.m., for a fundraising event we're co-hosting for Upper West Side City Council Member (and 2013 StreetsPAC endorsee) Helen Rosenthal.
Helen has been a leading voice for safe- and complete-streets projects and policies, including the recently finished Amsterdam Avenue protected bike lane, a car-free Central Park, and unrestricted access to buildings for people with folding bicycles. She's beginning to gear up for her 2017 re-election bid, and we want to make certain that she gets off to a fast start. Your help is critical!
Please click the image below to RSVP. We look forward to seeing you on the 21st.
We gave you a small break by letting the July campaign finance filing deadline pass on Monday without asking you for money (everyone else was doing that!), but that doesn't mean we're letting you off the hook.
StreetsPAC relies 100% on contributions from you and other supporters of safe and complete streets to fund the critical work of backing candidates who share our beliefs, and the simple truth in politics is this: money talks. We're the only Political Action Committee in New York devoted solely to promoting better streets and transportation policies, and we can't succeed without you.
Please give today to help us recruit and educate candidates who share your commitment to the safety of people who walk and bike, to a fully funded, reliable and accessible transit system, and to achieving Vision Zero. While a good deal has been accomplished during the past few years, there is still so much work left to do.
As an extra incentive, if you contribute $100 or more this month, we'll send you a StreetsPAC t-shirt as a thank you gift.
Donate today!
Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and Citi Bike Change the Cycling Narrative in Bed-Stuy
In case you missed it, amNewYork's Vincent Barone yesterday reported on a terrifically successful partnership between the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and Citi Bike that's doing wonders to promote cycling while dispelling the notion that bikes are a tool of gentrification.
Under the Better Bike Share Partnership, [Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation] teamed up with Motivate, the operators of Citi Bike, and the city’s Transportation and Health departments to get more people using the system in a bid to improve the community’s overall quality of life.
Restoration has worked to help place 26 new stations in areas that would fill gaps in mass transit, and to institute corporate subsidies thatallow for employers to pay for all, or half, of Citi Bike’s $155 annual membership.
Restoration also hosts biweekly bike rides that are occasionally led by community leaders or elected officials, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Councilman Robert Cornegy.
“Restoration is helping shape the conversation of the benefits of cycling,” Adams said. “They’re putting a face on biking that people can identify with that says, ‘Hey, biking is for all.’”
Kudos to all parties involved, and to elected officials like Eric Adams and Robert Cornegy for embracing and promoting the many benefits of biking.
StreetsPoll Results: It's Unanimous!
In last week's StreetsPoll, which came in the wake of the apparent vehicular homicide that killed Brooklyn's Matthew von Ohlen, we asked your opinion of the proper follow-up to such a gruesome act. And unlike the NYPD's 90th Precinct – which actually assigned some officers to summons bicycling violations and hand out safe-cycling pamphlets at the scene the next day – you were unanimous in your belief that the cops should have been devoting 100% of their resources to catching von Ohlen's killer.
The police did report last Wednesday that they had located the vehicle used to kill von Ohlen, but as of today, no arrest has been made. Anyone with information regarding the incident can call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (888-57-PISTA for Spanish). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or sending a text message to 274637 (CRIMES), then entering TIP577.
Congratulations to Angela Stach of Jackson Heights, the randomly selected winner of a StreetsPAC t-shirt from among respondents to last week's StreetsPoll.
