MaNNaHaTTaMaMMa | Monthly Archive

Archive | June, 2009

You Can Pedal for Miles…You Just Can’t Park

A few years back, Mayor Bloomberg made a commitment to add 200 miles of bike lanes to the city, which is a wonderful thing. Anyone who has pedaled down the new bike lane on 9th Avenue can testify to the pleasures of biking in the city without immediate danger of being brained by a bus

One (not so) small problem: where do you lock up your bike?

If you can’t find room on one of the (rare) bike racks around the city, you’re left scouting for sign poles, which are often crowded with bikes and which leave your bike at risk for being whacked by a car door, dinged by a cab, or sandwiched in by other locked bikes. (For a sort of helpful DOT map of bike racks, click here.)

The bike lane/bike rack problem reminds me of the school problem (okay, everything reminds me of the school problems, true): those glass-box expensive condos getting built to lure “families” into the city, without anyone, apparently, noticing that the schools didn’t have room for all the shiny families moving into those shiny condos.

So for the moment, these bike lanes are lovely additions to our city, if what you want is a Sunday afternoon ride, or a little exercise. But for those of us who want to use our bikes to get to work, shlep groceries or children, do errands, get to class? As with the condo/school conundrum, Bloomberg again demonstrates that he is a mayor who can’t quite see all the way down the food chain: if he really wants “the people” to start using bikes as alternative transportation, then “the people” need a place to park.

Read full story · Comments { 0 } on June 30, 2009 in street notes

Pride

Caleb and I were rounding the corner onto 14th street when we saw a group of revelers waving rainbow flags, headed for the Gay Pride parade on 6th avenue.

“Dat’s cool flags,” said Caleb. “Dey celebratin’ dere country, I think.”

I remember my first Pride parade, almost twenty years ago, watching as the marchers went past the Washington Square Arch. My brother – who had just come out – walked with Tom Duane, now a New York Senator, but back then only a city councilman. My brother marched; I cried. He looked so happy – and, yes, proud – to be “celebratin’ dere country.”

Unfortunately, of course, Caleb is only almost right, as Frank Rich details in his Op-Ed piece today. “Dere country” is not “our country” because gays and lesbians are still second-class citizens. Those flags symbolize only the promise of unity, not unity itself.

Given the recent spate of hiking trips taken by members of the conservative right (who knew these guys were such an outdoorsy bunch), I wonder how much longer the whole “sanctity of (heterosexual) marriage” argument is going to last. Seriously? If gays and lesbians want to get married so that they, too, can get bored and go on separate hiking trips in Appalachia – where’s the harm in that?

I know Obama’s only been in office for five months and he inherited a plate full of crap, blah blah blah, but wouldn’t it be great if he could usher in the summer with some dramatic statement that would help make those rainbow flags a reality?

I mean, they really are cool flags. Let’s not let them go to waste.

Read full story · Comments { 2 } on June 28, 2009 in Feminism, Gender

What Do YOU Think These People Are Doing?

Today, Tuesday, Caleb and I saw these teams of people along 14th street. Each team had odd contraptions on their laps and was studiously looking at traffic. When Caleb and I asked them what they were doing, they wouldn’t answer us.