Bike

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But in Greenpoint, 37% of residents bike at least once a month, according to the Health Department, although the study did not indicate whether hipster unicycles were included.

That is more than double the citywide average, according to TransAlt, yet not a single ticket was issued in the Brooklyn neighborhood last year. Greenpoint is majority white and only 3.8% of residents were Black in 2017–2021 when counted with Williamsburg’s population, according to American Community Survey data examined by the NYU Furman Center.

Despite the disparities in ticketing for “bicycling on sidewalk” offenses, there was just one more crash between bicycles and pedestrians in the 70th Precinct last year than in the 94th, where Greenpoint is located, according to the DOT. The 78th—which contains the actual Prospect Park—and 84th were the only two Brooklyn precincts with double-digit crashes between bicycles and pedestrians, easily ranking first in incidents borough-wide. Between the two, 17 bicycling on the sidewalk tickets were issued. Both are majority white neighborhoods.

Of tickets for bicycling on sidewalk, 13.5% were also issued within 50 feet of

NYCHA developments, which only cover roughly 1% of city land, and 95% of those ticketed were nonwhite.

And the absence of bike lanes can be deadly: The New York City Department of Transportation found in 2017 that n ine out of 10 citywide cyclist fatalities occur where there’s no dedicated space for bicycles, and 15 of the 18 New York City bicyclists killed last year were involved in a crash involving a motor vehicle, according to the NYPD.

“All New Yorkers deserve access to bike infrastructure, and DOT is on target to install a record number of bike lanes and protected bike lane miles this year,” said DOT spokesperson Monica Bruno.

“Under the Adams administration, equity is a key factor in how we locate new bike lanes, with a new formula for determining project locations that considers community demographics and whether neighborhoods have been historically underserved.”

The half-century-old TransAlt is a long-time proponent of bike lanes and critic of “car-centric” infrastructure.

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/ amnews1

Chaffers

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News to report deeply on the root causes, impacts and solutions for gun violence, caught Chaffers’ attention and got her really excited about the role.

“I think that’s a really important approach,” she said. “Coming from more of an opinion background, I had some issues with the objectivity framework, which I think became nationally apparent, like during the Black Lives Matter protests.”

“But I think if you start from an approach of, we know this is an issue that deserves attention, then I think, as long as you’re doing fact-based and data-backed articles… it’s stillworthy journalism. And I think the paper understands that,” she added.

Shannon will join an all-Black, multi-generational investigative team, an environment she said she’s looking forward to growing in.

Coming fresh from her Fulbright research residency in Berlin, Germany, she said that she got “a global perspective” on the issue of gun violence and the importance of linking the history and root causes of the issue in the U.S. into her work.

As the first gun violence reporter for the team, Chaffers said she’s passionate about the contributing factors that impact gun violence, from criminal justice and gun control to housing inequality.

“I’m definitely interested in all aspects of the beat, from looking at the root causes to the impacts,” she explained. “‘And then also solutions, I think [are] really important too.”

When she’s not reporting,Chaffers hopes to find a soccer league to join in the city. Aside from being a huge Arsenal fan (“That should be in the piece,” she said), Shannon enjoys visiting museums and perusing through bookstores, hitting up the science fiction and narrative nonfiction sections to see what catches her eye.

If you would like to support Shannon’s work, please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting bit.ly/amnews1.