After a year, FOPS is still fighting a broken bike promise

The city wants three things, and so do we, about 100 supporters of the Friends of Pine and Spruce were told at a meeting Thursday night.

Unfortunately, they are not the same three things, FOPS President Lloyd Brotman told the group, meeting in the Locust Street law officers of Bochetto & Lentz.

FOPS board member Ken Luongo said there was a “dramatic” difference from FOPS’ birth one year ago. The “runaway train” toward concrete barriers had been slowed.

What FOPS wants “is a return to the temporary stopping [in bicycle lanes] agreement we had with the Nutter administration.”

Nutter promised residents along the bike lanes they would always have access to their doorways, whether in a private house or condominium apartments.

The city broke its word when it passed the idiotic no-stopping ordinance.

It was not the first time FOPS was screwed, such as this bait-and-switch move at an October City  Council session. 

FOPS’ other desires are no barriers in the bike lanes, and no new loading zones without residents’ approval.

The city, however wants no stopping, no matter how brief, in bicycle lanes; loading zones, and concrete barriers.

The city had a goal of no bike deaths by 2030, but has pushed the goal back to 2050. 

Most bike deaths are attributable to two things — speed and intersections. The city’s plans address neither of these, said Luongo.

The city won’t listen to our solutions, Luongo said, and drew attention to a recent Council field trip made to Hoboken, which hasn’t had a traffic death since 2017. The Inquirer reported the story, including the fact that Hoboken is one square mile with only 60,000 residents. The Inquirer reported that the tiny town does have bicycle lanes, not all of which are protected, but did not note that none of them have any kind of barrier.

Hopefully the Council clown car that visited Hoboken will be able to figure out that the barriers have zip to do with safety.

FOPS remains open to compromise, but the city ignores us, said Luongo. They only respond to law suits.

The meeting was held in office of George Bochetto, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of city law that even the city doesn’t have.

He’s an owl in the law library, and a bantam rooster in court. He previously won the return of the Frank Rizzo statue, protected the Christopher Columbus statue, and beaten Septa’s reduced-service plans in court.

The loading zones the city ordered put in were illegal because it didn’t have the authority to do that, Bochetto proved in court. The zones were pulled, but the city went back to court, because it has so few other problems to fix.

The city usurped a legislative mandate, said Bochetto, and he has more where that came from.

Bochetto alleged the city violated the Sunshine Act, and he will use that as a point of attack.

He also will attack councilmanic prerogative, by which other members of the body defer to the wishes of the District Councilmen, in this case Mark Squilla and Kenyatta Johnson.

FOPS has spent more than $100,000 fighting to force the city to keep its long-ago promise: Residents of Pine and Spruce should have curb access to their homes.

It is not much to ask, and it was a promise made by the city.

Here is more info about FOPS, the issues, and how to donate.