The Citi Bike rack at Petrosino Square in Soho that the community has been fighting to remove is right outside the Lafayette Street home of a Citibank executive and former deputy mayor, The Post has learned.
Residents collected 600 petition signatures and 132 letters to the Department of Transportation, demanding the rack be relocated so the tiny park can be returned to its use as an art space.
Some politicians and the community board also want to move the station — but the DOT hasn’t budged.
Now residents say they think the DOT is reluctant because Ed Skyler, Citibank’s global vice president of public affairs and a champion of the bike-share program, lives right across the street.
“My feeling is, ‘Aha! So that’s why!’ ” said Minerva Dunham, a local artist.
Dunham began protesting the racks at the end of April.
“It’s so disappointing to me that New York City, which is supposed to be a city of great art, can be so crass as to think that a transit depot was superior to the tradition of the display of art and the tradition of Soho,” she said.
Geoffrey Croft, of NYC Park Advocates, said: “It’s obviously ironic that the city’s most controversial bike-share site is mere feet from [Skyler].
“It’s too bad that his neighbors have to be tortured.”
Skyler has been a major player in the bike-share program and has said he recommended Citibank sponsor the program after DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan reached out to him.
When asked yesterday whether the rack should be moved, Skyler said there is no right answer.
“You can’t make everybody happy, and that’s just unfortunately the way it is,” he said.
“It’s really up to the DOT or through people in the neighborhood, who have different ideas for where it should go.”
Residents, who have filed an injunction against the city over the rack, said they had used the square as an art space.
“Now we have this junk,” said Josephine Scialoia, 75. “It’s just ridiculous.”
The DOT said Skyler had no role in the rack’s placement.
Citigroup, which owns Citibank, also said it had no say in the Soho rack’s placement.
“Citi has no authority to make decisions on station locations,” said Andrew Brent, senior vice president of consumer public affairs. “The Department of Transportation selected the location after a public process, and we understand they are actively reviewing the additional community feedback on it.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger