Greenpoint is seeing blue.
The G-train-dependent neighborhood and neighboring Williamsburg will get 53 Citi Bike stations as part of the private bike-sharing program’s $30 million expansion, the Brooklyn Paper has learned. One local was thrilled to hear about the bikes, which are supposed to arrive by the end of the year.
“This helps ease transportation congestion, so I support it 100 percent,” Rolf Carle said. “As long as the stations are placed responsibly and with the character of the neighborhood, I am fine with it.”
The planned stations span the area from Flushing and Marcy avenues at the border of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant to Franklin Avenue and Dupont Street in Greenpoint, a block from the mouth of Newtown Creek, according to a map provided to the area’s Community Board 1. Notable station sites include one in McCarren Park where Union Avenue is set to be converted to green space, one on either end of McGolrick Park, and one beside the India Street pier.
Citi Bike officials originally planned to include more stations when the program rolled out in May of 2013, but they had to scale back when Hurricane Sandy destroyed equipment stored in the Navy Yard and sponsor Citibank opted not to fund its replacement. The program got a cash infusion last year when a real estate developer bought Alta Bicycle Share, Citi Bike’s troubled parent company, and the program announced it was expanding into Greenpoint, and Williamsburg. Now, planners can afford to build on many of the spots they picked years ago.
“They were chosen to minimize community impacts and maximize connections to transit and local destinations,” said Citi Bike spokeswoman Dani Simons.
Not everyone in Greenpoint is excited by the arrival of the blue bikes. One resident said the growing popularity of cycling, and cycling infrastructure, has made the neighborhood’s streets hairy enough already.
“There are too many bikes around here as it is, and everything is bike lanes,” Michael Hoffman said. “It is bad enough that you have to look out for cars, but now you have to look out for bikes, too.”
Another wave of expansion is slated to come in 2017 to Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Gowanus, Crown Heights, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.