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Tacky vandal attacks
Sunnyside bike lane
Photo via Councilman Van Bramer’s Twitter
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
City Councilman Jimmy
Van Bramer posted a
photo to his Twitter account
Nov. 29 of a gloved
hand filled with thumbtacks
that he claims were
intentionally placed on
the bike lane along 43rd
Avenue in Sunnyside.
“This represents a new
low and a violent and dangerous
turn by those opposed
to the bike lanes,”
the councilman said on
Twitter.
According to post in
Facebook group “Sunnyside
Together by Pete
Shore,” a Sunnyside father
was biking with his
two children yesterday
when one of the tires
of the bike cart carrying
the kids suddenly
burst. As he inspected
the wheel he found three
thumbtacks lodged in
the tire.
While bringing his
two kids to school Nov.
29, the father found more
thumbtacks scattered on
the same bike path.
“If this is a 13-yearold
kid doing this, I could
maybe understand, but I
assume it isn’t,” the father
tweeted. “Hopefully someone
isn’t really injured
because of this, I picked
up as many as I could on
my four-block walk. Absolutely
disgusting.”
Van Bramer took to
Twitter to express his outrage
over the incident.
“Let me be clear: the
bike lanes are not going
away. I support them.
And while people may
disagree, the increasingly
desperate campaign
against them is now riling
up the worst elements
of our community and inspiring
criminal vigilantism,”
Van Bramer said
on Twitter.
“No matter where
you’ve stood on this debate,
we should all be disgusted
by how negative
and now dangerous the
opposition against them
has become,” he added.
“Now little children have
been placed in harm’s
way because some will
never come to accept that
we have bike lanes in our
community.”
The 43rd Avenue bike
lane has proven to be a
point of controversy from
the beginning.
In July of this year,
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
the Department
of Transportation would
install a pair of parkingprotected
bike lanes
stretching from Queens
Boulevard to Roosevelt Avenue
on 43rd and Skillman
Avenues.
This came after a
Community Board 2,
voted 27-8 against the
proposed lanes. Protests
soon followed.
Nearly 300 people had
been injured along Skillman
and 43rd Avenue in
the years prior to the creations
of the bike lanes.
Van Bramer said that
he reached out to the
108th Precinct for help
on the thumbtack mystery.
The NYPD has yet to
respond to a request for
comment.