Bike lane erasure.

The NYPD arrested two men who were trying to repaint a 12-block stretch of bike lanes that runs through South Williamsburg at 4am yesterday. The bike lanes have been a major point of contention between the Hasidic population of S. Billburg and their northern hipsterati neighbors whose women ride through the hood in tight jeans and revealing shirts. If you want to get an idea of the outrage, just check out the 115 comments on the Gothamist article about the guerrilla bike lane addition.

While I hate to see us lose any ground in the city, I also understand that mapping the city’s lanes is an organic process and there will be some give-and-take. Painting our own lanes probably isn’t the best way to garner support among the car-driving city dwellers, but I support the painters’ gusto.