In a letter to the editor, Jersey City resident Yvonne Balcer expresses that everyone should have a right to see the fire department union’s report on the Franklin Street bike lane.

Screenshot via YouTube.

Dear Editor:

I attended the Heights Community Coalition Meeting on May 27 where Mayor Solomon took questions from the public.

My question was on the report mentioned at the Jersey City Municipal Council Meeting March 11, 2026 on the Franklin bike lanes. This report was done by the Fire Department union. The Jersey City Council meeting is now on youtube.

At 2:16 timeline, former council candidate and attorney Catherine Healy discussed this report when she said, “City’s studies show that emergency response time would be slowed between one time and five minutes … that is shocking that this would go through knowing it would put an entire community at risk.”

Then there were the comments of Councilman Zuppa at time line 2:29, where he said, “I reviewed the study done by their union, and the actual data from the pilot was reviewed…the data from the pilot showed a less of an impact.”

I asked Mayor Solomon why the information from the Fire Department Union wasn’t placed on the city’s website. Solomon said the Fire Department Union is private.

So, public employees paid by public tax dollars for the safety of the public are now private, according to the mayor.

In my lifetime, I have seen Fairmount, Jewish, Greenville, St. Francis, and now Christ hospitals close. We are not relying on one hospital.

Now, Bayonne Hospital is handing out layoff notices, but fast, reliable response time in emergencies is not important to this administration, only bike lanes.

How would someone survive a heart attack, stroke, or asthma attack when time is important? Did the city ask the Medical Center about their response time? I doubt it. As Catherine Healy said, a 10-minute trip is now 25 to 30 minutes.

When you leave Jersey City and go to other cities without bike lanes and see traffic move, you realize how ridiculous Jersey City has become. Yes, accidents do happen; accidents increased when the State of New Jersey introduced “right on red laws” back in the 1970s.

Remove the “right on red laws” in urban areas and get rid of bike lanes so emergency traffic can move. Our lives depend on it.

Yvonne Balcer
Jersey City resident