Response to Village Sun Editorial by Steve DiLauro by Jack Brown June 2, 2022

Brown gives an account of how the reckless disregard for public safety was promoted by the irrational zealotry of Transportation Alternatives. I have written in the Sun previously. The social contract was broken when Michael Bloomberg was Mayor. I was told by then-Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh in 2010, “THE REASON THERE IS NO ENFORCEMENT IS BECAUSE TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES DOESN’T WANT IT.” TA based their zealotry on — I was told — some apocryphal study done in the outback of Australia — “THE MORE BIKES ON THE STREETS, THE SAFER THE STREETS FOR BIKES.” Well not only — if true — was there no correlation between rural Australia and the Big Apple, but that fancy has proven to be deadly wrong. Bloomberg didn’t need the campaign contributions but he did want to attract the Tech (FANG) industry — and not incidentally give the real estate values a boost. Techies like to ride bikes. Requiring helmets or having the law enforced would dampen enthusiasm, ipso facto NO ENFORCEMENT FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. For cyclists it’s all the rights of the road and none of the responsibilities. Hence bike bedlam. Charles Komanoff, a self-described visionary, is the sophist in chief of TA. I spoke to Prof. John Pucher, an internationally recognized transportation expert and biking advocate. When I told him about TA arm-twisting about law enforcement, he said emphatically, “I TOLD THEM NOT TO DO THAT.” Bloomberg told DOT Commish Sadik-Khan, “Do whatever you want. Just don’t screw up.” Well, hubris given license knows no bounds. Anarchy prevails. In my view, as a veteran of the bike industry and spokesman for Coalition Against Rogue Riding, this demonstrated a reckless indifference for public safety and human life. The grandiosity of Charles Komanoff is akin to that of Donald Trump. Only Komanoff couches it in statistics and intellectual pretension. If anyone has any doubt that NYC and other areas have been affected by Komanoff’s meglomania, see a recent article in the Washington Post. It leads with reference to Komanoff’s 180-degree reversal on the value of nuclear energy. At one point he was perhaps the leading detractor on the value of nuclear energy, he has now seen the light. Realizes that climate change needs the more efficient energy nuclear provides. At the same time he was cooking up his animosity to nuclear energy, he was dreaming of an Big Apple without motor vehicles — where the NYPD only enforced the law against the evil motor vehicle and let two-wheeled rogues run wild on the streets and sidewalks. So now the NYPD has been undermined. Lawless two-wheeled culture has expanded and jeopardizes every step we take. The parks are not safe. With the dining shacks, the sidewalks are even less safe than prior to the pandemic. Let us all recognize Charles Komanoff for the Donald Trump-like snake oil salesman he truly is. Dollar Bill De Blasio went along with TA for the votes and campaign contributions. He too kept the NYPD on a short leash. This is the underbelly of one of the signal boils in the Big Apple’s Progressive Paradise. Let us all recognize the inept arrogance of one of Harvard’s ignominious alums, Tribecca’s Charles Komanoff.