If there was one piece of advice I could give new residents of Greenpoint, it would be, “Bike, don’t walk!” So many great places in North Brooklyn are a 25-minute walk away but only a 5-minute easy cruise by bike. And, the BQE siphons most of the aggressive (i.e. non-Greenpointer) traffic off our streets.
Of course, there is the usual hassle of trudging your bike in and out of the apartment. No more! You have seen all the new Citi Bike racks in Greenpoint. Tonight at 50 Kent Ave. (b. N. 11th & N. 12th Sts.), the ‘CB people will be offering $25 membership discounts, a free outdoor screening of E.T. with Reese’s Pieces, and more.
You can RSVPÂ here, and more details are below.
Even with all the protected bike lanes in Greenpoint, there are going to be times where you are sharing the road with cars. So I recommend attending the 6 pm urban bike skills class that Citi Bike is offering free tonight at the same location, to avoid being this guy:
The movie E.T. starts at 8 pm. There is a bike valet if you bring your own bike, and if you are Citi Bike member already, you get VIP seating. Here are some of my favorite practical bike routes for you new initiates:
(1) Greenpoint has tons of mom & pop stores, and many don’t stay open past 6 or 7, so by the time you leave work they are packing up for the night. If you want to cook at home, you’d normally be relegated to what you could scrounge together at the bodega. However, a few supermarkets, like the Foodtown on Metropolitan near Bedford, and (more ambitiously) the huge Food Bazaar on Manhattan by Broadway, are both open late and accessible by bike lane.
(2) If the G train is acting bonkers, or you just want to cut out a transfer late-night or on the weekend, biking over the Pulaski Bridge to the 7 train stop at the foot of the bridge puts you one stop away from Manhattan. It’s like Greenpoint has its own L train! Pretty soon we’ll turn Kips Bay into our own East Village, right 🙂
(3) Lots of new clubs opening in Bushwick these days — bike home instead of waiting for a 2 AM L train. You’ll be shocked to realize most of those clubs are only a 15-minute bike ride from Greenpoint.
(4) Buses to a lot of cool places leave from the Williamsburg Bus Depot (at Broadway and Havermeyer St.), including Select Bus Service buses with speedy routes. The depot is a legacy of when the area was teeming with tenements and a lot of people needed to get from there into the city for work, or to the outskirts on weekends. Before the MTA figures out that is not the case anymore and re-routes everything, enjoy this secret gateway. It’s a real fast shot down the Driggs Ave. bike lane, then a quick left on Broadway.