For Schumer, a Bike Lane Far Too Close for Comment
By ASHLEY PARKER
When Senator Charles E. Schumer arrived in Jackson Heights, Queens, for a Sunday afternoon news conference with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg about the 2010 census results, he began regaling the gathered officials with tales about his bicycle ride through the neighborhood the previous day.
And when it was his turn to speak, he mentioned his cycling adventures again — twice.
"Just coincidentally, yesterday I rode my bike around these neighborhoods," Mr. Schumer said to the reporters and television crews. "I rode through Maspeth and Middle Village and Jackson Heights and Elmhurst."
He added proudly, "I ride my bike all over the city."
Even Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, Democrat of New York, chimed in. "I know that Chuck Schumer likes to bike," she said. "I do too."
But the senator became abruptly and uncharacteristically reticent when, at the end of the news conference, which had been called to discuss the city's appeal of its census count, a reporter asked him about the most high-profile cycling issue in the city: the bike path along Prospect Park West, the elegant Brooklyn avenue where he resides.
"I am not commenting," he said, at first politely and then more emphatically: "I am not commenting."
Mr. Schumer's position is especially curious because the lane became the focus of a lawsuit this month, and the groups that filed the suit have close ties to Iris Weinshall, Mr. Schumer's wife and the city's transportation commissioner until 2007.
And Mr. Schumer is usually happy to show off his enthusiasm for cycling. In the summer of 2001, he took a reporter on a lengthy, meandering Tour de Brooklyn on a blue mountain bike he had picked up for $75 at Toys "R" Us, marveling, "What I like about these rides is that you never know where you'll end up."
Pressed on Sunday about whether he supported the lawsuit, which seeks to have the lane removed, a more irritated Mr. Schumer repeated his mantra: "I am not commenting."
Mr. Schumer and his staff are clearly sensitive about the subject. Questions about it were not allowed during the news conference. A Schumer aide instructed a reporter to call the senator's office to learn more about his position. The call was made, and the answer was similarly unenlightening: "The only thing I can say on the record is no comment," said Mike Morey, a spokesman for Mr. Schumer.
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