State Sen. Zellnor Myrie on Gentrification, Master Plans and the Inherent Bias of Cops

Dave Colon

Originally published in StreetsBlog

This has been a bloody year for cyclists across the city, but especially in Brooklyn, where 17 of the city’s 26 cycling deaths and two dozen pedestrian killings have occurred. Of the cyclist deaths in Brooklyn, 13 of them have happened in areas of the borough where the city hasn’t added safe biking infrastructure, even as city officials are encouraging people to ride. At the same time, cycling is on the rise among people of color, according to State Senator Zellnor Myrie. So it all adds up to an inequitable, dangerous situation. To plot the way forward, Myrie, a Democrat, will host a forum in Crown Heights on Wednesday night to “learn … how we can fight to make biking safe and accessible to everyone in our community,” he said. Before the forum, Myrie spoke with Streetsblog’s Dave Colon about what the future of Vision Zero enforcement should look like.

"There really needs to be a process by which the planning is done with the community and not at the community. I think you meet the biggest resistance when the community feels like they’re being planned at and not with."

Read the full story in StreetsBlog.