Transportation
A Very Different Reception for Bike Lanes in Brooklyn's Poorest Neighborhood
Two years of consensus-building led to a celebration, not a protest.
A new stretch of bike lanes debuted in Brooklyn this week, but this time they're not being met with outrage or protests.
The physical distance between a famously contested Prospect Park West bike lane in Brooklyn's upscale Park Slope neighborhood and the city's newest lane, on Brownsville’s Mother Gaston Boulevard, is only about three and a half miles. But the economic gap is huge. Brownsville remains one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City, with a stubbornly high crime rate.