A Manhattan civil judge is set to rule that the NYPD was out of line in assessing a new, $1 million fee for traffic control to an advocacy group for its annual Five Boro Bike Tour.
The 32,000-person ride is scheduled for May 5 this year.
Judge Margaret Chan dubbed Bike New York a nonprofit with educational programs that benefit New Yorkers.
“Isn’t that something the city wants to promote, isn’t that the Department of Transportation’s main plan for the city this year?” Chan questioned city attorney Sheryl Neufeld at a Manhattan Supreme Court hearing today.
Chan also rejected the city’s argument that the tour’s $86 fee invalidates the ride as a charity event.
She noted the police department was not imposing the fee in similar events such as walkathon fundraisers for cancer.
“I will give you a formal decision, but you know where I’m going with this,” Chan said.
The group’s director, Kenneth Podziba, was “elated” by the expected ruling in his favor, he said after the hearing.
He bemoaned that a “lack of communication” with his usual ally, Mayor Bloomberg, resulted the group to drag the city to court.
Podziba had said that the traffic control costs would cripple the nonprofit and threaten free classes planned for the upcoming Bike Share program.
The city imposed the fee for the first time in the 40-mile tour’s 35-year history in March. The cycling event was subject to the fine because it is a “nonchartiable athletic parade.”
City attorney Sheryl Neufeld backed the NYPD fee, arguing that the organization was using city streets and over $950,000 in taxpayer monies to support their annual fundraising event.