I debated posting this in Off Topic, since a lot of political stuff goes there. But this bears directly on Mustachian principles, so I thought this was an appropriate section for it.
I live in Queens, where NYC is planning a
waterfront greenway. It would be a 16-mile path for pedestrians and bicyclists that would run from Astoria to the border of Nassau County, connecting several existing parks.
Sounds great, right? The greenway plan is a welcome step toward building the
human-friendlier, car-optional city we should all want. It gives Queens residents another option to get around besides driving. In that sense, it increases our freedom. It encourages exercise, helps people connect with nature and the outdoors, and reduces traffic. Who could object to this?
Well, someone does: Vickie Paladino, the MAGA city councilwoman who represents part of the area the greenway would pass through. For reasons best known to herself, she's rabidly opposed to bikes and bike paths.
The NYC Department of Transportation has been holding forums about the greenway plan to spread awareness and invite public comment. The most recent one was on October 24. It was a
workshop, where attendees saw a presentation from city employees about the plan and then broke up into small groups to discuss how they'd like to see it implemented.
This was a problem for Paladino's purposes. What she wanted was a
hearing, where only one person at a time gets to speak. Obviously, her plan was to invite her hardcore supporters to monopolize the microphone, yell, grandstand, give speeches, prevent anyone who actually supported the greenway from getting to talk, and ensure that nothing got done.
But like I said, it wasn't a hearing, it was a workshop, which is structured so that a single person can't dominate it in that way. To deal with this problem, Paladino flat-out
lied to her constituents to rile them up. She told them it
was a hearing, even though that was never the plan and none of the announcements of the meeting described it as such.
According to some people I know who attended this meeting, Paladino and her supporters showed up in a group. They tried to take over the meeting, and when they failed, they
yelled, cursed, made a fracas, and stormed out. Then she went on social media to complain that her voters, the only people who matter, are being ruthlessly oppressed by Big Bike. The title of this post is from a flier she handed out:
Paladino is angry about the bike path because she believes bikes are pointless and no one uses them. She says it will take away "valuable street parking," as if cars are the only means of transportation that matters, and our entire society should be designed around driving to the exclusion of all alternatives. This is
Car Clown-ism raised to the level of a religious cult.
She's also opposed to it because - you can't make this up - she says it will be a getaway route for bike-riding criminal gangs. (You can also flee a crime scene by car, but somehow I doubt she's against roads.)
If you never would've thought that something as simple as a bike path would become a hyperpolarized partisan issue, well, this is where we are as a country. Republicans have decided that driving everywhere, for everything, is the only way Americans should live, and anyone who disagrees is the enemy. It's a variety of the same paranoia that's led them to invent conspiracy theories about the "
15-minute city" - another walkable-city concept that they've decided is a grand plot to steal their freedom. If this mindset hasn't reared its head in your town yet, it's only a matter of time.
