The rally, organized by Freewheels, the bicycle defense fund, featured a special guest: Reverend Al Sharpton and members of Sean Bell’s family joined riders to speak out against the mass ticketing of cyclists and the fatal police shooting of Bell.

Sharpton began by telling the hundreds of listeners that, whether in Union Square or Harlem, the police should be there to serve the people, not the other way around.

“The same privatization that they’re doing in the north end of this park is the same gentrified privatization they’re doing in Harlem,” Sharpton declared.

“If we can come together as Critical Mass, if we can ride together, if we can protest together, we can make this city livable for everybody together,” he stated

As he spoke, Sharpton was flanked by Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, Bell’s father and other friends and family of Bell. All were wearing white T-shirts with “SEAN BELL” emblazoned on them. Also wearing that shirt and addressing the crowd was Yetta Kurland, a civil rights attorney who is a candidate for Christine Quinn’s City Council seat.

“We are going to work together to have a Critical Mass in this city where we can ride in justice,” Sharpton said.

The plan was to have Sharpton speak and then join the bicycle ride in a pedicab provided by Time’s Up!, the West Village environmental advocacy group. However, minutes before Sharpton began talking, while attorney Wylie Stecklow was still addressing the rally, a yell of “Critical Mass, Yeah!” rose from the back of the crowd, followed by the traditional tinkling of bike bells. A majority of cyclists then poured onto 14th St., heading west.

When Sharpton did start speaking several minutes later, there was still a sizeable crowd of bystanders and cyclists listening.

“There’s something wicked when we think it’s more important to deal with getting on line to watch ‘Sex and the City’ than to stand up for justice in the city,” he said to cheers.

“We are all Sean Bell, we are all Critical Mass,” Sharpton concluded.

Bell’s father, William Bell, took a briefer, more conciliatory tone.

“Justice is nice,” he said, “but I just want to see Reverend Al ride a bike.”

Sharpton and the family then stood at the edge of the square and looked around for a minute until someone walked up and offered him a bike. Without hesitation, Sharpton climbed onto a Fuji Crosstown 3.0, a 21-gear hybrid considered well suited for bike commuting. After straddling the aluminum-frame bicycle for a minute, Sharpton took a few tentative pedals, then got his balance and started riding west on 14th St., surrounded by a dozen other cyclists. Doing a short route, the entourage rode to Fifth Ave., down to 12th St., east to University Place and back to Union Square.

. . .

The six were busted over a 90-minute period Tuesday afternoon in the bathrooms of the 71st-Continental Avenue station in Forest Hills and the Union Turnpike station in Kew Gardens. They were charged with public lewdness, the sources said.

. . .

. . . “They’re notorious. They’ve been historically active bathrooms for that kind of stuff,” said one police source.

Cops made the six arrests after hiding in bathroom closets.

At Union Turnpike, a transit employee said cops conducted another sting four weeks ago.

Same with the Barbie doll and the Louis Vuitton handbag.

In raids in the metropolitan area yesterday, federal agents arrested at least eight people and charged them with heading a counterfeit products ring. Authorities say the ring has been smuggling into the country and then distributing massive quantities of fake brand-name goods manufactured in China, including Apple iPods, Major League Baseball and National Football League caps and Marvel comic books.

The counterfeits, which included millions of the phony Trojans, were sold for the past three years mainly in small discount stores in the area, as well as elsewhere in the country, including Texas and Virginia, according to court documents.

A spokeswoman for Church and Dwight, the company that manufactures the legitimate Trojan condoms in the United States, declined to comment on whether the counterfeit Chinese condoms could fail to prevent pregnancies or the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

But a source familiar with the federal investigation said that while the counterfeit condoms were of inferior quality, samples had been tested and they were no riskier to use than legitimate ones.

Less than a month ago, construction was completed on the new Gansevoort Plaza in the heart of the historic Meatpacking District. The cobblestone intersection, formerly a bottleneck clogged by truck and taxi traffic, now is home to an array of scattered tree planters, stone slabs conducive to sitting and bollards with white reflectors on top resembling, in the eyes of some, a female breast. Meanwhile, traffic flow has been reduced to a single lane.

The project is the fruit of a community-based effort that began in 2005 with the recognition that the Meatpacking District was moving farther away from its traditional uses and toward a new identity as a center for nightlife and upscale shopping, with all the traffic that accompanies such a change. A group of community leaders formed the Greater Gansevoort Urban Improvement Project to spearhead a ground-up initiative to address their concerns about traffic, safety and preservation of a neighborhood that had been designated a historic district by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2003.

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The plaza is a temporary D.O.T. project that will continue to be shaped by community input and available funding down the line. The streetscape improvement was paid for out of D.O.T.’s budget, with contributions by [the Meatpacking District Initiative] for additional plantings. M.P.D.I. has assumed responsibility for the plaza’s maintenance for the meantime. However, M.P.D.I. ultimately hopes a formal business improvement district, or BID, is approved for the area, after which a funding stream will become available for streetscape maintenance. M.P.D.I. is four months into the roughly 18-month process to gain approval from the city to form a BID.

For now, M.P.D.I. will be distributing a survey to local residents and business owners to solicit feedback on the plaza’s design and use. The organization will then compile these results and submit them to D.O.T. for review. The space is currently being considered for outdoor events and a weekly Greenmarket.

Some active residents, however, have already informally let their opinions be known, expressing concerns over the choices of materials used and design scheme. Marge Colt, vice president of the Horatio Street Association, pointed specifically to what she called the “defacement” of the cobblestone street, the “senseless” traffic pattern and the “conflicting” seating designs.

And in what seems to be a pathetic attempt to dodge a ticket for the gross — and potentially dangerous — parking violation, a handwritten note was placed on the dashboard alongside a worthless fire union parking placard. “I’m really a fireman,” the note read. “I work in Engine 46.”

“Ask Traffic Agent Maria Daniel,” the note continued. “Thank you for your courtesy.”

The black SUV — boasting the vanity license plate BRAVEST1 — was parked on Van Cortlandt Park South at the corner of Gale Place in Kingsbridge on Sunday afternoon. Neighbors said the car was frequently parked in that spot. It was stationed just 3 feet from the fireplug, far less than the 15 feet required by city law.

“Every firefighter in the City of New York knows not to park in front of a hydrant,” said one high-ranking FDNY source. “Don’t they teach that on the first day of the [Fire] Academy?”

“Could you imagine if a fire engine couldn’t reach the hydrant because of that guy?” the source asked.