The plantergate saga continues!
Someone moved one of several large potted shrubs directly into the path of the Jay Street bike lane Downtown Friday, the latest in a recent series of incidents in which the planters, installed by the city to deter illegal parking in the biking route, have been mysteriously relocated.
“There was just a big planter that’s been moving left and right around Jay Street and it was squarely in the center of the bike lane,” said Boerum Hill resident Matthew Wolsky, who encountered it as he biked to work during the morning rush hour.
He successfully navigated around the misplaced planter and continued on his way, but said he was convinced that whoever created the roadblock must have done it on purpose.
“I don’t think it was an accident; it was intentional,” Wolsky said.
The city Department of Transportation put six of the pots in the striped channel between the bus and bike lanes last month, and scofflaws have been relentlessly shuffling them around ever since.
Workers for business booster group the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership have been given the Herculean task of moving the planters back when they’re out of place, and now must rise to the challenge several times a week, according to a spokeswoman.
The shrub-shifting suspect remains unknown, but must be strong or have some help — it takes at least two Downtown Brooklyn Partnership workers to push each greenery holder back into its correct spot.
A transportation department spokeswoman said the agency was planning to notify the Partnership about the latest planter-moving incident and refused to say whether it had yet cooked up a plan to keep the pots in one place.
In other Jay Street news, the city installed a plastic barrier with short posts, or bollards, sprouting out of it — otherwise known as a “Qwick curb” — on Monday in a bid to prevent drivers from parking in the bus lane alongside MetroTech. Wolsky called that move a welcome addition, but conceded that it, too, can be easily defeated by aggressive drivers.
“I think they’re a great idea, it’s some physical protection,” he said. “You often see people driving right over the plastic ones, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.”
