Port Jefferson Anti-Motorcyclist Governance

Updated April 13 2010

The incorporated village of Port Jefferson - home to the Bridgeport -bound ferry from Long Island's north shore and popular tourist destination for bicyclists, motorcyclists and motorists alike - has an unfortunate history of trying to make life difficult for motorcyclists.

In March of 2010 a newsletter bearing the the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District letterhead was sent to businesses in the village, pictured and transcribed below. This newsletter contains bigoted ideas which as motorcyclists and as citizens of the United States we find shocking. See a copy of the newsletter below.

You may telephone 1-631-476-2363 and/or email the Port Jefferson BID at info@portjeffbid.com to politely let the BID members know your feelings about this incident.

*** Update April 6 2010: The Mayor responds!
http://www.portjeff.com/cms/a-message-from-mayor-margot-garant/

*** Update April 13 2010: The American Motorcyclist Association issued a new AMA ACTION ALERT. You may use this new Action Alert to thank the Mayor of Port Jefferson and President of the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District for denouncing the newsletter and clarifying their stances. We still think it is necessary to keep pressure on the PJ BID until they permanently remove the author of the March 2010 newsletter from their organization. Feel free to add mention of that need to the text of the letter when you utilize this Action Alert.

Summary April 8 2010: The Port Jeff BID was supposed to hold their regular monthly meeting at 7pm on April 6, 2010. That meeting was essentially cancelled at 6pm. We say "essentially" because when we showed up fifteen minutes early, we were prevented from entering and witnessed most of the BID members leaving a few moments later. BID Secretary George Wallis then met the large crowd of angry motorcyclists in the lobby of the Village Center for a Q&A session in lieu of the regularly scheduled BID meeting.

Given what we know and what we've seen, our impression is that the District members met early and told George Wallis "you started this shit George - you go finish it".

So George Wallis faced the crowd (pictured - right foreground) with one lone, quiet employee and flanked by a handful of police, defiant and indignant in the face of an agitated but relatively orderly crowd. Two other board members were present but made no attempt to identify themselves.

Wallis was eventually joined by Port Jefferson's Mayor Margo Garant, who began with a statement and then continued the Q&A session and attempted to keep it from becoming a George Wallis beat-down. In her statement, Mayor Garant (a) distanced the Village from the sentiments of the newsletter and from the BID and (b) insisted that the newsletter was the work of one rogue BID member who was operating without the approval of or knowledge of other BID members. The Mayor fell short of naming that one BID member and when George Wallis was asked directly if he was responsible for the newsletter, his answers were evasive and non-responsive. His gutless dance was a good enough affirmation for us! Regardless, we have statements from a number of officials implicating him specifically. It only surprised us that his arrogance and audacity didn't rise to the point of admitting what he did.

The Village Center hosted over one hundred motorcyclists including ourselves, Jim Barr representing Long Island ABATE, attorney Mitch Proner representing AIM-NCOM, and leaders and members from about a dozen other local and nationwide motorcycle clubs and organizations representing everyone from police and firemen to one-percenters. Also present were a handful of local business owners and residents, a few of whom also are motorcycle riders, and some law enforcement. More came to the Village but remained outdoors, just to make their presence felt.

Except for the matter of the evening closing with a warning from the Village police that they intended to enforce laws which do not exist (see the parallel parking discussion near the end of this page), we experienced no intimidation. Just stubborn stupidity from George Wallis, from the beginning of the meeting to the end. Other business owners present in the crowd went out of their way to set themselves apart from George and his ignorance, and proclaim themselves and their businesses as motorcycle and motorcyclist -friendly.

In the aftermath of this, it is worth noting that officials from the Village of Port Jefferson have been working very hard to get their stances out in the open and make themselves available by phone and email, including the Mayor herself. If you write to them, most likely they will answer you! We find the open dialogues warm and encouraging and hope that this sorry episode will lead to some positive developments for the motorcycling community. We only wish - and we're certain the feeling is now mutual - that the Village would have made formal statements about the newsletter before the poop hit the fan.

The Port Jefferson Business Improvement District has, sadly, become an embarrassment to the Village and perhaps even a liability. An announcement on the official Port Jeff web site has BID President Bruce Passarelli considering retirement from the BID. It remains to be seen whether the Village can control the BID, much less whether the BID or the Village or anyone else can control Mr. Wallis, or if they can simply eject him from the position he so casually abuses.

While feedback from residents and business owners about the presence of motorcyclists has been overwhelmingly positive, the people of Port Jeff have expressed a few concerns about general decorum. We would like to remind our fellow motorcycle riders that we stand out, so even if per capita we're equally as good or as bad as any other people, we end up being unwitting ambassadors for the entire motorcycling community. Free speech is nice but there is a time and a place for everything. The time and place for the Seven Words is not in the vicinity of families with impressionable children.

This is the newsletter. The highlighting is our own and a transcription follows for the benefit of Internet search engines.

PORT JEFFERSON
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
NEWSLETTER

Our goals this year are the same as our founders were in 1998:
"to promote the district as a good place to live, work, and shop... to improve the
overall appearance and quality through architectural improvements,
landscaping, redevelopment, decoration, signage, lighting, and improved
sanitation."

EDITION: MARCH 2010

Food for Thought...
NO Parking on Main Street

Safety
No dangerous conditions getting in & out of cars
No parallel parking tying up traffic
No delivery trucks double parked
Relief of traffic congestion
Great tourist attraction allowing for events, ie. Street Fairs, Marketplace, Carnivals, etc...
Better crosswalk visibility & access
Better visibility for stores
No motorcycles
No unsightly presence of motorcyclists
Better snow removal access
Easy access for trash removal from garbage cans
Better "Street Sweeper" access for street debris

UPCOMING MEETING
TUESDAY, APRIL 6th, 7PM
At the Village Center, by appointment only.
If you are interested in attending a BID meeting or becoming a BID member, please call ahead with your agenda so that we may arrange a time slot.

P.O. Box 275. Port Jefferson, NY 11777. (631) 476-2363. Email: info@portjeffbid.com. www.portjeffbid.com

In recent years there have been many examples of Port Jefferson's repeated attempts to violate motorcyclists' rights to assemble freely, travel un-encumbered, etc. At Village Board meetings, people like Harry Faulknor (Village Trustee), George Wallis (owner of the Steamroom restaurant, the Port Jefferson Frigate confectionary, Fish & Company, the Martha Jefferson Riverboat and of Scotsman's Collision in Mount Sinai, as well as Secretary of the Port Jefferson BID), Michael Mart (member of Port Jefferson's Chamber of Commerce and of their BID's Parking Committee, poet and former owner of the Good Times Bookstore) and Ronni Rosen (of Stony Brook University's Small Business Development Center) have attempted to ban motorcycles from the Village entirely (against Federal laws), banish motorcycle parking in the Village (against Federal and State laws), banish motorcyclists to inconvenient, out-of-the-way lots and otherwise discourage all motorcyclists from enjoying the village's offerings.

The Village of Port Jefferson one season began ticketing motorcycles for not parallel parking, illegally superseding New York State law which specifically allows more sensible, space-efficient perpendicular parking and prescribes exactly how it is to be performed. They again threatened to continue this practice in the April 2010 Village Center meeting.

Not long after the silly parallel parking debacle, the Village of Port Jefferson introduced legislation to limit to one the number of motorcycles that could park in an individual parking spot, again illegally superseding state law, which doesn't prohibit sharing already scarce parking spaces. They also planned to force motorcyclists into a Brookhaven lot where non-resident motorcyclists would be forced to pay $7 each. Long Island's motorcyclists responded by taking up every on-street parking space in the town one busy summer weekend, one motorcycle per space. The Village saw the light shortly afterward, but the sign pictured on the left remains today in George Wallis' parking lot for his confectionary and one of his restaurants, across the street from the Port Jefferson - Bridgeport Ferry terminal.

That sign threatens a $250 fine and/or FIFTEEN DAYS IN JAIL (the maximum penalties for a 'violation' in New York State) for bringing a motorcycle onto the property, under NYS Penal Code 140.05 which states: "A person is guilty of trespass when he knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in or upon premises."

We wonder why Mr. Wallis thinks it would be, could be or should be unlawful to employ a motorcycle to visit a candy store or Port Jeff's "white castle of seafood", but that may be a matter for our attorneys to straighten out.

It is time to make it clear to the Village of Port Jefferson that their intolerance is not acceptable. There is no reason for law-abiding motorcyclists to take this crap from anyone. Stand up for your rights!!!

Take careful note of the names and businesses listed above. Know who your friends are and who are your enemies. Do not let anyone you know patronize businesses whose owners object to and vigorously work against your very existence. Be sure to inform your friends and relatives!