Entries tagged with “bicycling” from Patell and Waterman's History of New York

Dear readers:

You're hereby invited to a Bike Bash at 8 Mile Creek (240 Mulberry St., near Prince), sponsored by my awesome local bicycle shop, Bicycle Habitat, the evening of Thursday the 8th.

I'll be one of five finalists reading original odes to our bicycles, all competing to win a new Trek Soho S. The audience will vote on our performances -- so I need friends to be there! The party lasts from 6 to 9; happy hour is in effect until 10. The first 50 attendees get a free drink! The readings will take place around 7 or 7:30. The event will be held in "The Creek Bar," downstairs.

The bike I've written a poem for is my recently retired crappy red Schwinn. I rode it hard and it served me well. I've written about it lovingly before. I'd publish my poem here but that would spoil the surprise, so turn out and lend me a push! (If you turn out and help me win, I promise to post the poem here.)

Earlier this week Mayor Bloomberg announced a major makeover for a good stretch of Broadway (between Herald Square and Columbus Circle), designed to offer more pedestrian space and safer biking. From Transportation Alternatives' StreetBeat:

Broadway and the great public squares that it joins will be reclaimed as pedestrian space. What was once the Wickquasgeck Trail will once again become New York City's great walking street. The pilot project will be implemented by the DOT this spring, transforming sections of Broadway in Times Square and Herald Square into pedestrian zones. The stretches of Broadway between Columbus Circle and Times Square, and between Times Square and Herald Square, will be endowed with protected bike lanes, increased pedestrian space, and local traffic-only vehicle access.

Will people start strutting in their Sunday best?

Previously on AHNY.

And elsewhere.

Oh, and one more for good measure.

Do you know Kevin Walsh's Forgotten New York?

I've had a copy for a year or so, and every once in a while remember to pack it with me when I'm heading to an unfamiliar neighborhood. (There's also an accompanying blog, cheerfully cluttered, that's well worth checking regularly.)

The book offers hundreds of out-of-the-way or in-plain-sight-but-easily-overlooked details from the city's past, broken into categories like "Truly Forgotten," "Quiet Places," or "What's This Thing?" It's  designed for New Yorkers rather than tourists; it's for people constantly on the look for little glimpses into lost parts of the city.

I rarely use the book to find a destination for an afternoon outing, say, but when I pack it along it always adds a nice dimension to a trip to or from somewhere I already wanted to go. A few weekends ago, ssw and I took our bikes and headed up the paths along the Hudson. We weren't sure how far we'd go, though we had a vague idea we wanted to go kayaking up at Pier 96 before the weather turned. Once we were done (and had spent enough time spread out in the sun to dry our asses off) we got back on our bikes and headed up as high as St. Clair Place, around 125th street.

I had my copy of FN in my basket, and vaguely had some idea that we were close to Grant's Tomb, which we'd never managed to visit. So we circled around until we hit Riverside Drive, pumped our way up the rather steep hill, and made our way back a few blocks to 123rd St.

Do you know who's buried at Grant's Tomb? I'm sheepish to admit I didn't know the answer to that riddle until we visited with FN's assistance.

One minor disappointment, though. I remembered, when the Hudson River path hit St. Clair Place and we decided to stop our journey north, that FN had an entry explaining that street's name. It accompanies the entry on Grant's Tomb, in fact. It has to do not with the more famous tomb, but with an obscure grave nearby:

Five-year-old St. Clair Pollock was playing on the rocks overlooking the Hudson River on the Pollock property, and fell to his death on July 15, 1797. When the Pollocks later sold the property, his father (perhaps his uncle; records are unclear) made the request that St. Clair's grave, which was on the property, would always be respected. A small stone urn remains marked, "Erected to the memory of an amiable child." St. Clair is also commemorated with the very short St. Clair Place, which runs between the Hudson River and West 125th Street under the Riverside Drive Viaduct, about a half mile to the north.

We only spent about 15 minutes looking for it, but we couldn't find the little stone urn, which is supposedly a little ways "up Riverside" (I assumed that meant north), "standing by itself, surrounded by an iron fence."

I suppose I'll have to go back and look again. Tip for bikers: ride back downtown as far as you can along Riverside Drive itself, which is somewhat more spectacular than I would have imagined and certainly lusher than a ride along the river at that point.

A rather remarkable drama unfolded last week over on Colin Beavan's No Impact Man blog:

After nearly being crushed by a black Mercedes driven by a recognizable state senator, Jeff Klein, who happens to have an autocentric voting record to say the least, not to mention a foul mouth and a general lack of civility, Beavan asked his readers to phone Klein's office to demand he meet with Beavan and others from Transportation Alternatives.

I'm impressed most of all by Beavan's call for his readers to exercise civility even as they engage in this little bit of political and environmental activism. When I get squeezed off the road by a suit in a black Mercedes, I often lose my temper and come out with the same kind of language Klein deals in. My bad.

In any case, after hundreds of phonecalls, Klein's office agreed to set up the meeting. Should be interesting.

Via Streetsblog. Photo credit: ABC News.

I wrote earlier about Mayor Bloomberg's desire to reclaim parts of Manhattan for pedestrians. Starting today, and for the next two Saturday mornings, almost seven miles of Manhattan's streets -- from the Brooklyn Bridge to the middle of Central Park will be closed to automotive traffic from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. as part of the "Summer Streets" program. The motto of "Summer Streets" is "Play. Run. Walk. Bike Breathe." The route runs up from City Hall, Lafayette to Fourth Avenue, then up Lexington, up Park Avenue after Grand Central Station, and finally across 72nd Street to the park.

According to the publicity materials for "Summer Streets":

This event takes a valuable public space - our City's streets - and opens them up to people to play, walk, bike, and breathe. Summer Streets provides more space for healthy recreation and is a part of NYC's greening initiative by encouraging New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation.

Modeled on other events from around the world including Bogotá, Colombia's Ciclovia, Paris, France's Paris Plage, and even New York's own Museum Mile, this event will be part bike tour, part block party, a great time for exercise, people watching, and just enjoying summer mornings.

There are three rest stops along the route, each of which has a full schedule of activities during the morning. It's a great idea, and I hope that some of you who are in town will be able to take advantage of it. Click here for a flyer about the event in PDF format.

Only in New York would a bike path on concrete next to iron girders and careening subway cars be part of something called a "Greenway."

According to the Parks Department, "A greenway is a linear open space, such as a path or trail, which links parks and communities around the City, providing public access to green spaces and the waterfront. Greenways expand recreational opportunities for walking, jogging, biking, and in-line skating."

The Manhattan Bridge path, which opened in 2004, links the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway and the Brooklyn Greenway. So it, too, is a "greenway." I think the city should at least paint it green, matching some of the bike paths around the city. In a piece published on May 14m 2008, Joshua Benson, the bicycle program coordinator for the New York City Department of Transportation, answered readers' questions about bicycling in New York, including one about painting bike paths green.