Spotted On McGuinness Boulevard: Missing Ghostbike

February 23, 2010 by
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

Many of you are no doubt familiar with the senseless death of Solange Raulson. For those of you who are not, she was struck and killed by a truck at the intersection of Nassau Avenue and McGuinness Boulevard December 13, 2009. Many questions have arisen about how this tragic event came to pass and how it is being handled by the N.Y.P.D. Most remain unanswered. But two things can be asserted with 100% certainty: she died too young and is missed by many.

ghostbikes.org erected a memorial at this intersection (which you see at left) to serve as a reminder of Ms. Raulston’s life— and death. Now jump forward to today: as I was running errands I made an interesting discovery.

This item has gone MIA. I find this curious as the other memorials at this intersection were untouched. Does anyone have the 411 regarding what happened here? If so, please share via comments or contact me email at missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com.

Thanks!

Miss Heather

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Comments

10 Comments on Spotted On McGuinness Boulevard: Missing Ghostbike

  1. d on Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 2:17 pm

    2. I saw it there around midnight Saturday night so the disappearance is very recent.

  2. missheather on Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 2:19 pm

    3. Makes sense. I saw it on Friday.

  3. SpillConspirator on Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 10:38 pm

    4. Are the other ghost bikes still in place? I know there is one on Kent St & McGuiness? Is it possible that the PD started to remove them? I sure hope not. I think those bikes send out a powerful message.

  4. missheather on Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 10:42 pm

    5. The one at McGuinness and Kent is still there. Only Solange’s is missing.

  5. Achromatter on Wed, 24th Feb 2010 12:48 am

    6. Hi Miss Heather,

    Judging from the glory-hole on the lamp-post, it looks like the A.D.D.-button is gone as well. There could be myriad reasons the items were removed. Perhaps vandals, or miscreants searching for bike parts, or perhaps it was removed by some flavor of city-agency.

    I’ve lived in Greenpoint for about 37-years. I totally respect, and personnaly have no issue with such memorials, however, that is a really busy intersection during most of the day, and REALLY busy during rush-hour. There could be upwards of 40-50(or more) people crossing both ways, during one traffic signal cycle.

    Since there is a D.o.S. trash-bin on the very corner(which is as necessary as the memorial IMHO), the memorial bicycle and the trash-bin create(d) a bottle-neck of about 4-5 feet that all these pedestrians need(ed) to squeeze through, or walk out into traffic in the street(Nassau Ave).

    I wouldn’t be surprized if the city hadn’t received many complaints. The first few times I crossed that intersection, after the memorial was up, the thought of someone tripping over it and getting hurt, or falling face first into traffic and getting run-over, popped into my mind, and then I thought to myself “that prolly won’t be there very long”. I’m sure something less intrusive would likely not be taken down.(if in fact it was taken down for that reason). That’s likely why the one on Kent & McGuiness is stuill there. I believe location, effect on traffic(pedestrian or otherwise), and the hazards it may create, should be taken into account when deciding what type/size memorial is to be erected.

    A lady from my block was killed in/at the McGuiness/Nassau intersection about a year or two ago, along with others I’m sure, and folks keep(kept) a memorial on/at the center median lamp-post for a while now. That spot is outside any foot-traffic lanes, so the memorial is left alone.

    Take care, love reading the site almost every day from work.

  6. eriatric on Wed, 24th Feb 2010 2:59 pm

    7. Very sad that this bike has gone missing, and I hope it resurfaces.

    FYI, there will be a benefit show for Solange tonight at the Knitting Factory: http://bk.knittingfactory.com/event-details/?tfly_event_id=4729

  7. rutila on Thu, 25th Feb 2010 10:29 am

    8. Agree with Achromatter 100%.

  8. Streetsblog New York City » The Weekly Carnage on Fri, 26th Feb 2010 1:40 pm

    9. […] Ghost Bike for Solange Raulston Is Missing (NYS via […]

  9. tsak on Fri, 26th Feb 2010 10:58 pm

    10. How weird. Saw it couple of days ago and thought that it looked run down. Now it’s gone.

  10. davepagl on Fri, 23rd Apr 2010 3:03 pm

    11. Ms. Raulston’s family is interested in exploring whether there is a basis for a wrongful death suit. We are now looking for eyewitnesses to the accident or anyone who was present at the scene of the accident in its immediate aftermath. Please leave your contact info in email to davepagl@gmail.com. Thanks for caring. Dave.

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