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Love or Hate Citi Bike in Park Slope and Carroll Gardens? CB6 Wants to Know

 A Citi Bike rider rolls past a station at Henry and Degraw streets in Carroll Gardens.
A Citi Bike rider rolls past a station at Henry and Degraw streets in Carroll Gardens.
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DNAinfo/Nikhita Venugopal

BROOKLYN — If you have an opinion on Citi Bike and you'd like to share it with local leaders, here's your chance.

Brooklyn's Community Board 6 is holding a public hearing this month on Citi Bike's expansion into neighborhoods in its district, which includes Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Gowanus and Park Slope.

The hearing comes about a month after a tense CB6 meeting in September, where several residents loudly protested Citi Bike's arrival into their neighborhoods. 

One 80-year-old Cobble Hill resident shouted at board members, asking "Is there a bike stand in front of your house? Is there?" in an incident that was captured on video.  

CB6 Chair Sayar Lonial told protesters at the time that Citi Bike would not be discussed at that general board meeting because it was not listed as an agenda item, but promised that a public hearing would be scheduled in October.

The committee is looking for comment and concerns on the bike share's deployment — which had been under public review for a year — "for the primary purpose of reviewing and evaluating the density, location, placements, and size of the district's docking stations with the Department of Transportation," according to a notice released Wednesday.

The hearing will be held during the board's transportation and public safety committee meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the 78th Precinct, located at 65 6th Ave. Each person will be given up to three minutes to testify. Written comments can be emailed to info@BrooklynCB6.org or mailed to 250 Baltic St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 by 5 p.m. on Oct. 20. 

Frustration with Citi Bike's arrival into Community Board 6 even reached Mayor Bill de Blasio, who spoke to a caller from Park Slope Thursday morning on WNYC.

"I'm your neighbor, I'm your supporter, but I'm very upset that Citi Bike has recently taken hundreds of spots in Park Slope," the caller said. 

The mayor said each docking station was only "a test" and could be removed or relocated. 

"It is a test in each and every case to see how well used they are," he said. "If they're heavily used, good. If they're not, we can take them back out or we can alter them or change locations."

De Blasio, who lived in Park Slope and still frequents his local gym and coffee shop there, said he could personally relate to the caller's plight as a car owner in the area.

But the city's population density as well as climate concerns demand that alternatives to cars must be encouraged, he said.

"Citi Bike has been very popular, very well used," he said, "and has certainly contributed to people not using cars."