BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

No warning and on earth day no less...

Class action suit.

Well that sucks.

As a sidenote, did anyone get caught off guard by the "Slick it up" ad on the right side? Or am I the only one getting that?

Caught off guard would be an understatement, I was LMAO.

Agreed with Stu, that's a massive lawsuit waiting to happen. And unlike most suits that I outright detest, this one is totally justified.

Is there any details of people getting their bikes back or were all of them actually trashed?

A linked page says they'll be getting the bikes back. No word on whether the cops will be returning the busted locks too.

One can only speculate about how many of these bikes belonged to commuters and were their only source of transport. There's a bureaucrat somewhere in need of a U-lock beat down.

If the city had any decency about it, they'd give out gift certificates good for a few bucks toward a new bike lock. There's really not much difference between what they did and wantonly slashing tires on a parking lot full of cars. And then towing the cars.

I have no idea how they're going to decide who owns which bike. Expect rampant theft.

88MS88: Not that it's an excuse, but it's pretty hard to bike anywhere from Lower Manhattan that you can't more quickly reach by train. Maybe some far-flung stretches of Brooklyn and Queens or New Jersey, but that's about it.

I can only imagine the dudes who may have built the sweet vintage italian ride of their dreams which they had locked up for a few hours only to have it tossed in the back of a truck and gone forever.

This is gonna get ugly.

Looking again at the original picture, aren't those actual bike racks that the cops are cutting the bikes from? We should be so lucky around here to have a continuous set of racks like that. They may not be the best design, but wow, just to be able to lock hundreds of bikes to something other than a big fence, such as the Burger King on ECarson at the end of the Tweed Ride, or the phenomenal turnout at BP-HQ on Wednesday night.

Here's a comment from one of the blog posts about this. I'm sure this guy's story is pretty typical of how it went down.

"Just wanted to let you know that I am one of the bike owners. I have already retrieved my bike however it was heavily damaged. Both rims were bent and the frame had significant damage. Obviously this damage is from the way my bike has been handled. I inquired who to send the bill to and they sarcastically told me to basically eat it. I am waiting for an attorney to return my call however I fully intend to sue. My bike is worth $900.00 alone stock, the lock they cut was worth another $150.00, and the custom additions I've added (custom paint scheme, etc) is worth roughly another $1500.00. I also intend to go after damages if possible."

Update: Gothamist: Bikes waiting for pickup at 7th Precinct

I agree with someone on the blog post there. Several people should write hand-letters to President Obama himself about the issue. He might be the one man with the power AND morality to help resolve this issue over the fairly flawed and corrupt NYPD.

Just my two cents...

Mayor Bloomberg has rolls of $1,000 bills in his bathroom that he wipes with, doesn't he? Him and the Donald. Whoo-hoo, new bikes for evrabody!

Actually I don't even know if there is a $1,000 bill.

Actually I don't even know if there is a $1,000 bill

I'm a librarian, I have to answer questions like this one.

Short answer, not any more. But if you had one you could buy $1000 worth of stuff with it.

I would be furious. Look at the way those bikes are just thrown into that truck!