King’s call for ‘robust review’ of Algiers bike lanes gets unanimous council nod

In this screen grab of the City Council’s virtual meeting on Thursday, Councilman Freddie King III discusses his resolution for fellow council members.

 

In what is seen as an interim victory for homeowners along Algiers’ MacArthur Boulevard corridor, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday (Jan. 20) unanimously ordered a “robust review” of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s plans to install more protected bike lanes in the city’s West Bank neighborhood.

The City Council also agreed to receive more input from the public on the Cantrell administration’s Moving New Orleans – Bikes program, according to a resolution authored by newly seated District C Councilman Freddie King III.

Read King’s resolution here.

In comments to the council Thursday, King said he was following a campaign pledge he made to voters when he was running for office last year.

“I heard from the residents of Algiers,” King said. “They felt left out of the decision-making process for the design of these bike lanes and the erection of these bike lanes. … I was constantly asked about these bike lanes.”

He said he did not offer the resolution in opposition to bike lanes.

“It’s simply to give the residents of Algiers, not any other part of the city, a voice in how their part of the city should look. It’s nothing more. It’s nothing less.”

The city has plans for more than 11 miles of these bike lanes in Algiers. Proposals for protected bike lanes include Gen. Meyer Avenue, Gen. de Gaulle Drive and Woodland Drive – some of Algiers main and most-traveled thoroughfares. Protected bike lanes have included the reduction in lanes designated for motor vehicles.

King asked the council to have its Community Development Committee, which he chairs, “to request input from individual stakeholders regarding the continued need for protected bike lanes on certain streets in Algiers and also to establish a more robust review policy for current and future bike lanes,” according the resolution.

The resolution stops short of specifically halting further development of bike lanes in Algiers until a review is complete. The committee must report back to the council within six months “regarding recommendations for further actions,” according to the resolution.

The committee’s review is confined to Algiers, meaning that bike lane development continues across the city. A protected bike lane currently is being installed on North Miro Street in the 7th Ward.

At-large council members Helena Moreno and JP Morrell, District A Councilman Joe Giarrusso and District B Councilwoman Lesli Harris sit on the Community Development Committee.

King, a lawyer in private practice who won the election in the runoff with 62 percent of the votes, has firsthand experience with the network of bike lanes that the Cantrell administration is installing citywide as part of its Moving New Orleans – Bikes initiative. In 2020, the administration installed a protected bike lane on Newton Street in Algiers, raising the ire of business owners along that corridor who lost on-street parking.

King’s law firm was among the affected businesses, and he was among the business owners who wrote a letter to Mayor Cantrell in June 2020 asking her administration to “remedy” the matter. The protected bike lanes remain in place more than 1 1/2 years later.

Many Algiers residents, meanwhile, have spoken out in opposition to the bike lanes, particularly residents who live in the five neighborhoods along the MacArthur Boulevard corridor.

Many of those residents formed the Our Streets Our Choice Coalition, opining that bicycle advocate and business groups have had more influence on the public policy to ultimately create hundreds of miles of bike lanes across New Orleans than the residents who are most affected by it on a daily basis. 

King recognizes this in his resolution. He wrote that “certain bike lanes have caused significant community disruption to the residents of Algiers.”

The former District C representative, Kristen Palmer, was an advocate for the bike lanes and is said to have provided an $11,000 grant to Bike Easy, a Central City-based nonprofit that has for years worked to create the network of bicycle lanes across New Orleans.

New Orleans enacted a “Complete Streets” ordinance in 2011 and bolstered it by resolution in 2018. In 2019, city officials held a series of public meetings to gather input and unveil its plans to install bike lanes.

But many Algiers residents say the city didn’t go far enough to inform residents of what was ahead. By the time residents learned what was ahead, the city’s plans already were approved. By its own admission, Cantrell’s administration has said it followed an “accelerated” schedule in implementing its Moving New Orleans – Bikes program. In just two years, it planned to create a 75-mile network of connected bike lanes citywide.

Many Algiers residents balked in the Spring of 2021, when a portion of Holiday Drive and all 1.7 miles of MacArthur were reconfigured to accommodate protected bike lanes. The city eliminated two motor vehicle travel lanes on MacArthur between Kabel and Woodland drives and installed hundreds of unsightly, reflective bollards to border the bike lanes. Homeowners along MacArthur saw their on-street parking affected, with some residents losing that parking altogether.

By one count, an average of eight bicyclists travel on MacArthur daily. More than 12,000 motor vehicle drivers use the boulevard daily as well.

In stepping into the contentious bike lane debate that has pitted Algiers residents against bike lane proponents across the city and beyond, King already has become a target — just as many Algerines have been for merely voicing opposition to the bicycle-centric roadway designs.

He’s been accused of “pandering” to residents who are “misinformed” about bike lanes. They say, inaccurately, that he wants to remove all bike lanes in Algiers. He doesn’t care about bicyclists’ safety, they say. See some examples here and here.

And he’s the focus of at least one ghoulish attack. According to a photograph that was circulating on social media Thursday, someone posted a sign above a ghost bike memorial, in which bicycles are painted white and are erected at sites where riders have been struck and killed by cars or trucks.

“CM. King loves ghost bikes,” the sign read.

The ghost bike memorial was reportedly left just outside New Orleans’ City Hall.

In advance of Thursday’s meeting, 101 people submitted comments to the council, both in support of and against King’s resolution. It was unclear Thursday evening how many comments favored King’s resolution and how many were against.

Given the number of comments, a council clerk spent 10 minutes reading them, giving equal time to both sides of the debate.

David Wadleigh, a leader in the Our Streets Our Choice Coalition who also has been a target for attack by bike lane proponents, submitted a comment that was read aloud. So, too, was a comment submitted by Brad Ott, an Algiers bicycle enthusiast who also spoke in favor of the resolution.

Given the verbosity of both comments, their’s were the only two read aloud during the five-minute period allotted to favorable views. Comments given in opposition to King’s resolution were more concise, and as such, the council clerk was able to read more of them aloud.