The business of New York is business and the business of a mayor, in significant part, is to speed that business, not to bring it to a stop. Mayor Bloomberg seems not to have thought of this aspect of his job, but I suppose he has been preoccupied by the planning needed to change parties from democrat to republican to independent and to support term limits and then not support term limits and then to support them again. His mind certainly was somewhere else when he appointed Janette Sadik-Khan Transportation Commissioner and allowed or encouraged her to add hundreds of miles of bicycle lanes to the streets of New York.
This is lunacy. No one bicycles to work. The working people of New York have to arrive at their places of employment clean, dry, and presentable. Ms. Sadik-Khan may bicycle to work, but she is the Transportation Commissioner. She may be at liberty to show up at mayoral press conferences with disheveled hair and wearing a baseball cap and a sweat suit and, in all likelihood, smelling like a goat, but the rest of us are not. Street Fighter, The New York Times, March 6, 2011, page 1.
A small minority of us may bicycle to work or for work, but the idea of encumbering the flow of vehicular traffic for the vast majority of us by creating bike lanes is ridiculous. There are streets in Long Island City where the bike lanes have reduced vehicular access to the Queensboro Bridge by fifty percent and reduced the width of the streets permitted to motor vehicles to such an extent that a driver cannot use the street without infringing on the bike lanes. The same is true in Manhattan. This misuse is particularly offensive when no bicycle riders appear to use these lanes. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of bicycle riders I have seen on Vernon Boulevard, near my home.
The methodology of the mayor and Ms. Sadik-Khan in dedicating the bike lanes also is offensive. Did they ask anyone if they wanted bike lanes in their neighborhood? Not really. The mayor and Ms. Sadik-Khan are off on their own and, adding insult to injury, Ms. Sadik-Khan is described as brusque, uncompromising, alienating, needlessly conflictive, wacko nutso, dismissive, confrontational, and a screamer. None of this is hard to believe if you look at the picture of her on the front page of the Metropolitan Section of The New York Times for March 6, 2011. Underneath the visor of her baseball cap, her face has the look of a newly admitted inmate in an insane asylum. Mayor Bloomberg is standing in front of her holding a press conference, so this analogy might be particularly apt. Id.
This is lunacy. No one bicycles to work. The working people of New York have to arrive at their places of employment clean, dry, and presentable. Ms. Sadik-Khan may bicycle to work, but she is the Transportation Commissioner. She may be at liberty to show up at mayoral press conferences with disheveled hair and wearing a baseball cap and a sweat suit and, in all likelihood, smelling like a goat, but the rest of us are not. Street Fighter, The New York Times, March 6, 2011, page 1.
A small minority of us may bicycle to work or for work, but the idea of encumbering the flow of vehicular traffic for the vast majority of us by creating bike lanes is ridiculous. There are streets in Long Island City where the bike lanes have reduced vehicular access to the Queensboro Bridge by fifty percent and reduced the width of the streets permitted to motor vehicles to such an extent that a driver cannot use the street without infringing on the bike lanes. The same is true in Manhattan. This misuse is particularly offensive when no bicycle riders appear to use these lanes. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of bicycle riders I have seen on Vernon Boulevard, near my home.
The methodology of the mayor and Ms. Sadik-Khan in dedicating the bike lanes also is offensive. Did they ask anyone if they wanted bike lanes in their neighborhood? Not really. The mayor and Ms. Sadik-Khan are off on their own and, adding insult to injury, Ms. Sadik-Khan is described as brusque, uncompromising, alienating, needlessly conflictive, wacko nutso, dismissive, confrontational, and a screamer. None of this is hard to believe if you look at the picture of her on the front page of the Metropolitan Section of The New York Times for March 6, 2011. Underneath the visor of her baseball cap, her face has the look of a newly admitted inmate in an insane asylum. Mayor Bloomberg is standing in front of her holding a press conference, so this analogy might be particularly apt. Id.
Most disconcerting of all is the fact that many bicyclists seem to have no acquaintance with the traffic rules and laws. They run red lights and stop signs. They speed through crowds of pedestrians. They block emergency vehicles. Ms. Sadik-Khan disputes this fact and claims that speeding, crashes, and injuries all are down. It is tempting to speculate that these results derive from the fact that vehicular traffic has been brought to a halt, but at least as potent is the fact that the Department of Transportation has cooked the books. According to The New York Times, the statistics Ms. Sadik-Khan has cited are just smoke and mirrors, cherry picked, made up, and deceptive.
Anthony Weiner is supposed to have said to the mayor, "When I become mayor, . . . I'm going to spend my first year . . . [having] a bunch of ribbon-cuttings tearing out your . . . bike lanes." Good for Anthony! Street Fighter, The New York Times, March 6, 2011, page 1. Rededicating streets in New York, first dedicated to commerce, to bike lanes is moronic or, better, wacko nutso.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bruce Claugus
Bruce Claugus http://www.c-mlaw.com/attorneys/bruce-claugus/ was born in 1948 and has practiced law since 1976. He is the founder of the firm of Claugus & Mitchell LLP http://www.c-mlaw.com/ and DeForest Global Partners LLP http://www.deforest.mx/english/areas.php and practices primarily in the areas of banking, finance, and commercial and intellectual property litigation. http://www.c-mlaw.com/overview/ Mr. Claugus is responsible for all of the areas of practice of the Firm. He pioneered the use of pre-export facilities to finance the privatization of natural resource properties in Latin America http://www.c-mlaw.com/aop/new-york-latin-america/ and is renowned for his forceful and innovative presence and tactics in corporate transactions and litigation.
The formation of DeForest Global Partners LLP exemplifies his drive and focus on innovation and aggressive tactics. http://www.deforest.mx/english/index.php This new venture is expected to become a major vehicle in the improvement of services to Mexico and South America with offices in Mexico City, Puebla, Monterrey, Queretaro, of the United Mexican States. Along with Claugus & Mitchell LLP in New York, Salas Piza (founded in 1989) will maintain the offices in Mexico City, Garcia Heres (founded in 1998), will maintain those in Puebla, Lobo & Graham (founded in 2001) those in Monterrey, and Rodriguez, Ruis y Zepeda (founded in 2002), those in Queretaro. Affiliates include Casa Hierro in Lima, Perú http://www.casahierroabogados.com.pe, Estudio Trevisan in Buenos Aires, Argentina http://www.estudiotrevisan.com, Garcia Parot y Cia. in Santiago, Chile http://www.garciaparot.cl, and Kosmas y Kosmas in Panamá, Panamá http//www.kosmasykosmas.com.
The formation of DeForest Global Partners LLP exemplifies his drive and focus on innovation and aggressive tactics. http://www.deforest.mx/english/index.php This new venture is expected to become a major vehicle in the improvement of services to Mexico and South America with offices in Mexico City, Puebla, Monterrey, Queretaro, of the United Mexican States. Along with Claugus & Mitchell LLP in New York, Salas Piza (founded in 1989) will maintain the offices in Mexico City, Garcia Heres (founded in 1998), will maintain those in Puebla, Lobo & Graham (founded in 2001) those in Monterrey, and Rodriguez, Ruis y Zepeda (founded in 2002), those in Queretaro. Affiliates include Casa Hierro in Lima, Perú http://www.casahierroabogados.com.pe, Estudio Trevisan in Buenos Aires, Argentina http://www.estudiotrevisan.com, Garcia Parot y Cia. in Santiago, Chile http://www.garciaparot.cl, and Kosmas y Kosmas in Panamá, Panamá http//www.kosmasykosmas.com.
In 1984, he earned a Master of Business Administration degree from The University of Chicago http://www.chicagobooth.edu/ where he studied under Nobel Laureate Merton Miller http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_KOBVrVPZKgJ:www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/00/000603.miller.shtml+Nobel+Laureate+Merton+Miller&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com, Victor Zarnowitz , and Dean Jack Gould.
Mr. Claugus has been a lecturer at numerous capital markets workshops in New York and Mexico conducted by such entities as El Financiero, The Lubin Center for International Business, and the Harvard Club. He has published with and at the request of Institutional Investor and has been quoted frequently by El Financiero, Latin Finance, and Crain's New York Business. http://www.c-mlaw.com/attorneys/bruce-claugus/
Professional Memberships
- New York State Bar Association www.nysba.org/
- Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honorary www.tbp.org/
- Down Town Association www.thedta.com/
- India House Club www.indiahouseclub.org/
- The Down Town-Lower Manhattan Association www.d-lma.com/
- New York
- Illinois
- Bank of Cyprus - Decision
- Chevy Chase Bank - Decision
- Chere Amie - Decision
- Moyna - Decision
- Pace - Decision
- El Financiero
- Harvard Club Address
- Latin Finance - Shaping Up
- Latin Finance/El Financiero - Uncertainties, Value, and the Participation of U.S. Institutions
- Unblocking the East
- Pace University
- Infocast - 1 Negotiating
For more information from Bruce Claugus, visit http://bruceclauguss.blogspot.com/2011/05/bruce-claugus-and-his-law-firm-claugus.html; http://bruceclauguss.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-york-international-law-firm-of_10.html; http://bruceclauguss.blogspot.com/2011/04/creative-solutions-to-intractable.html; http://bruceclauguss.blogspot.com/2011/04/choke-points-to-die-for.html; and http://bruceclauguss.blogspot.com/2011/03/bruce-claugus_4871.html.
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