Last night some 300 people packed a meeting with the Central Park Precinct’s community council, where the recent NYPD crackdown on cyclists who pedal through red lights was the hot topic. But those who hoped to persuade the NYPD to adjust their enhanced enforcement policy—including Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer and Upper West Side City Council Member Gale Brewer—walked away disappointed. Streetsblog reports that Captain Philip Wishnia "offered no hope that his precinct’s enforcement of red-light laws at each of the loop road’s 47 traffic lights will abate, nor any assurances that his officers will exercise meaningful discretion." Not even the words of an innocent child could change his mind!

The meeting took place one day after the Memorial Ride & Walk to remember cyclists and pedestrians who died last year, and at one point an 8-year-old girl asked Wishia: "If cyclists are being killed all the time, why are they being punished?" Adult critics included Stephen Bauman of the Five Borough Bicycle Club, who argued that cyclists are not subject to Vehicle and Traffic Laws during non-car hours. "I think you’re making up the law,” Bauman reportedly told Wishnia. "VTL does not apply directly to bicycles, and only to roadways ‘ordinarily used for vehicular travel.’ "

Captain Wishnia did say, "I believe there’s a possible way of correcting” the policy of strictly applying to bike riders the laws originally made to slow down cars, the Examiner reports. But it's unclear when that correction will be made, because Wishnia revealed that "he is simply being instructed by higher-ups to enforce the law and has no flexibility," according to Streetsblog. Wishnia told the crowd they should appeal to lawmakers to change the law, and Brewer reminded everyone that she proposed a bill in 2006 that would have closed the park to cars for a trial period.

That never happened, and now police manpower has been focused on handing out $270 tickets to cyclists who bike through a red light even when the intersection is clear and no cars are in the park. Wishnia said last night that 230 summonses have been issued to cyclists so far this year, compared to 160 speeding summonses issued to drivers during all of 2010 (and 62 in 2009). Stringer is calling for the DOT to change the lights to flashing yellow when the park is closed to cars, but the department—perhaps reluctant to appear too friendly to cyclists after recent media hit jobs on DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan—did not bother to send anyone to the meeting.

So where do cyclists go from here? One commenter on Streetsblog has a novel idea:

Everyone take out your checkbooks. Write a check for $230 to the Central Park Conservancy. in the memo section write “from an avid cyclist”. Sign it. Then write VOID in large letters across the check. Put it into the mail addressed to:

Douglas Blonsky
Central Park Conservancy
14 E. 60th St
New York, NY, 10022

Feel free to attach a short letter, a copy of your summons, etc. Money talks. Maybe start your note with, “I used to enjoy riding around Central Park, but those days are gone…”