A boozy seltzer maker’s attempt to peddle free bicycles to Brooklynites who will be affected by the L train closure descended into a disarray that recalled city and state officials’ attempts to manage the looming transit crisis itself, according to a local who didn’t walk away with a two-wheeler.
“You could compare it to what happened yesterday — nobody did a lot of planning, or thought things through,” said Jenifer Rosenberg, who lives Greenpoint and rides the L train daily. “It was just really badly organized.”
Rosenberg swung by the giveaway — for which, bubbly-beverage bottler Spiked Seltzer handed out free bicycles at 5:30 pm on Tuesday through Thursday to the first 20 people with proof of Kings County residency standing in a line near its Wythe Avenue billboard — on Wednesday around 3 pm.
But she left an hour later after being told her she wouldn’t receive any of the bikes, which instead went to others who had friends wait in line for them or left bags on the sidewalk to hold their places in line, according to the Greenpointer, who said organizers didn’t show up to oversee the process until about an hour and a half before the handouts began.
“People brought friends and cut the entire line,” Rosenberg said. “Also, the people who organized it showed up at 4 pm, rather than monitoring the situation during the day.”
But another Kings Countian who rode away on one of the shiny new blue or white two-wheelers thanked bigwigs of the Connecticut-based brand for providing him with a way to get around that he said is more efficient than any option offered by the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“Now I have this means of transportation that’s safe, quick, and reliable, unlike what the MTA was providing me,” Carl Guthwin told News 12.
