City Drops lawsuit against Time's Up.

So after four years of stress, legal strategies and disruptions of ones regular life, trying to make NYC better and more environmentally friendly...our great city has dropped the lawsuit against Time's Up. Maybe it had to do with Jym Dwyer's expose in the NYTimes about how the NYPD infiltrated "law abidding" activist groups with undercovers to guard against Mayor Bloomberg's great Republican fantasy of having 5,000 rich texans come here and defecate on our mostly Democrat town. So now during demonstrations, as activists we have to worry about spending 48 hours in a toxic bus depot and having all of our meetings be infiltrated by big white guys who look like cops...BECAUSE THEY ARE COPS! Our great Mayor, who has never had to answer to any of the wrong doings on civil liberties violations stayed on the defensive track in a recent NYTimes article by Diane Cardwell. The mayor thinks it was necessary to spy on activist groups all over the country, because of security. Ah yes the old terrorism adage...saves you from anything. I mean who knows what those Billionaires for Bush might do with their dangerous satire and highly volatile costumes. Good to know that several City Council members were also on the NYPD's list of suspects...probably because their black.

Well for whatever reason, the city has come to their senses and dropped the lawsuit which basically had to do with a deep hatred of Critical Mass and a goal of intimidating bike riders as much as possible...even though they dene

Yesterday Bill DiPaola, executive director of Time's up was on WNYC

He also issued this statement:
"The spying, the lawsuits, and the city's constant implication that Time's Up and the bicycling community are in the wrong, all create an illusion that there is some type of problem. We have already started to see lower attendance at some of our outdoor events. I have heard a lot of comments from bike riders that they are worried about being arrested or harassed, especially on group rides. We can turn things around by being positive and not repeating the city's negative messages and by letting people know constantly that non-polluting transportation is on the rise, including hybrid vehicles, pedicabs, and bicycling, which is totally true and we should be proud of that.

These divisionary tactics and laws and regulations, including caps and bans, are also affecting the pedi-cab industry. At a meeting at Xup where Norman Seigel spoke with the pedicab industry, who have just hired him as their lawyer, he noted that these tactics have a long history in trying to break up our community and that we need to put aside differences and work together. He also stressed that change is possible, even though it can seem overwhelming, and by working together and keeping the message positive, we can achieve our goals, or in this case, defend ourselves against the city.

This hostility towards us only attests to our success in increasing the number of cyclists and increasing non-polluting transportation within the city. Ultimately, we will get safer infastructure, and more and more people are becoming educated about environmental issues everyday. More good news is that the lawsuit against Time's Up is in the process of being dropped, the bike coalition is totally working together, and the pedicabs are now in the fight. We just need to hang in there. Our work is not going unnoticed.

Bill
Keep it positive."

NYC critical Mass is Friday March 30th, 7:00pm Union Square North. RIDE ON!