Dear City Council and Mayor:

A couple of years before the storm, my husband went to purchase property in Algiers. When he got out of the car and the real estate agent saw him, she said that she “didn’t sell to n*****s.” There was a lawsuit, a settlement, and other plaintiffs. That woman is still selling property in Algiers today.

On Thursday, I was biking with two other white people. We were coming from Garden Oaks, riding on MacArthur towards the Winn Dixie. A white woman hollered how good it was to “finally see people using the bike lanes.” A black cyclist passed after us, headed towards Garden Oaks. Nothing was said to him.

The majority of the cyclists who use the MacArthur and Holiday bike lanes are black, especially on the stretch from Garden Oaks to Holiday on MacArthur. I know why people like Mr. T. Tucker (see the unread public comments from August 29) have been harassed for using the bike lanes and I have not. Some people don’t want to see black cyclists.

Of course, not everyone opposed to the bike lanes is racist, or even white, but that doesn’t matter in the end. In the end, transportation is a system. And like many systems in the United States, it is a system that is rooted in institutional racism.

Biking is more than a hobby; it is an affordable, accessible, and reliable form of transportation in a city where all of those qualities are lacking in city services. I firmly believe that we can also make this particular service equitable. But when you let a group of people from one of the two whitest and wealthiest neighborhoods in Algiers fight to take away transportation infrastructure that protects vulnerable road users traveling from predominantly black neighborhoods, you are part of a bad and broken system.

You don’t have to be a bad person to be a part of such a system, nor do you need to have bad intentions. But regardless of your rationale, limiting the safety and equity of a system that predominantly benefits historically underserved communities will do more than just harm those communities. In this case, it’s likely to result in legal action. In addition to the racially and economically discriminatory effect of limiting safe and free access to Algiers via public protected bike lanes, a number of people who use the bike lanes are in wheelchairs or have limited mobility. For them, with the unkempt state of city sidewalks, the bike lanes are an immeasurable resource for which there is no equal alternative.

I spoke with a man who is wheelchair bound and lives in one of the assisted living units on MacArthur. He is missing part of his right leg. He is one of the “beggars” several people have shamed online in anti-transit posts, so I know most people in the community don’t put much stock in his opinion. But it occurred to me when I was speaking to him about how he didn’t want the lanes removed that his disability checks, if he even gets them, probably aren’t that much. The bike lanes are his best, safest, and most reliable travel resource. And luckily for him, the Americans with Disabilities Act doesn’t care if you panhandle, so his opinion matters just as much as everyone else’s, even if no one bothered to ask for it.

But this seems to be a theme. The people from Jackson Landing, Garden Oaks, Cypress Park, Renaissance Place, and the Cut Off are the people who will truly be most effected by the removal of protected lanes. Sure, the lanes pass in front of the nice houses on MacArthur, but as some homeowners on the MacArthur corridor have yelled time and time again, they don’t use them. But for the people in the periphery communities, the bike lanes are an invaluable access corridor. There is no side street for them to take to get to the grocery stores or pharmacy by bicycle, a fact that is very evident once you look at the map. It was brought up many times in the community meeting that “we were taught not to play in the street.” But biking is no longer just a pastime or exercise; it is a form of transportation. And while a good number of people opposed to protected bike lanes have the privilege of choosing their form of transportation, not everyone has that luxury. That is why the people in these boundary neighborhoods are the real stakeholders. They need the lanes to get to the stores. They need the lanes to get to work. They need the lanes in order to have equal access.

But we already know that the people in these communities have been pushed to the margin. These people who will have safe infrastructure taken away were not even contacted about the community meetings. Nobody went door to door to talk to them. Nobody put signs in their neighborhoods. The best organized engagement effort they received was an Instagram post on a councilman’s account Sunday afternoon before the Wednesday meeting. It is difficult to believe that this effort—or lack thereof—was anything but intentional. It is preposterous to claim “everyone is welcome” when a very specific subset of people failed to even be extended an invitation. With even the shallowest of looks, the platitudes and thinly veiled suggestions of equality fall flat. I biked around handing out my feeble little flyers and with a singular exception in the Cut Off, everyone was in support of keeping the lanes. But with that singular exception, nobody even knew the lanes were likely to be removed.

A recent study from Harvard and Boston University, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that black cyclists were 4.5 times more likely to die than white cyclists (https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(22)00155-6/fulltext#seccesectitle0005). Please also see “Transportation, Sustainability, and Equity” published by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, written and researched by Richard Ezike, PhD: http://www.cbcfinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CBCFTransportationBriefing.pdf. We as a community cannot keep separating into the loud and boisterous haves and the deliberately ignored have-nots. We cannot keep equating convenience and property with real human safety and equality, and we cannot keep having this exact same conversation.

I fully understand that there are a lot of property owners who want the lanes gone and who show up and vote. I fully understand that is a popular and powerful force. I fully understand that I am asking you to stand up for people who may not vote, and may not come to community meetings, and may not be organized. But those are the exact people you took an oath to serve. And in this instance especially, serving them is the right thing to do. Please do the right thing.

Regards,

Naomi Jones