New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has announced a plan to create a car-free zone along a 6.9-mile stretch of Manhattan streets on three Saturdays during the month of August. The experimental initiative, which the Mayor has dubbed "Summer Streets," stretches from 72nd street, taking a jog over to Fourth Avenue at 14th St., crossing over to Lafayette and stopping just shy of the Brooklyn Bridge. This anti-American anti-auto experiment is like a grenade signifying Mike's true intentions — an all-out full-frontal car assault.
If you remember, this is the same Mayor who introduced a failed proposed fee for driving into the center of Manhattan. While we wholeheartedly supported that proposal to clear Manhattan of tourist traffic and silly city commuters, allowing those of us who enjoy driving freer reign of the city streets — for a price, of course — this is a bridge too far. Not only that, but we'd have never supported the idea if we'd realized his true end-game — clearing the city of all cars.
That's right, our fear is this is just the first grenade lobbed in an anti-auto war of aggression which won't stop until Mayor B has what he truly wants — a city free of all cars! Good god, do you realize what that would mean? Everyone would take the subway — can you imagine the smell? Um, well, it could get worse. [NYC.gov via Treehugger]