Brooklyn Spoke

Check out this safety video from Danger Rangers reminding kids to wear helmets, a message I can get behind.

At about 11 seconds in, the narrator tells children to “Make sure ya stop at all the stop signs and traffic lights,” and the video shows a helmet-wearing biking dog coming to a stop at a stop sign.  But don’t blink or you’ll miss the car passing on his left blow through the stop sign.  Does the New York Times know about this?  Maybe they need a PSA reminding drivers not to be jerks, especially when cuddly little animals are riding their bikes?

I found this picture on the Museum of the City of New York website.  It’s a 1915 shot of Ninth Street and Prospect Park West.  Note the trolley tracks that turn onto PPW from Ninth Street and the absence of parked cars.  You can also see what appear to be two strollers in the picture, including one being pushed across the street.  That’s probably the only thing that hasn’t changed on Prospect Park West in the past ninety-five years.

See my previous entry on why cries of aesthetic desecration are a selective viewing of history.

When bicycle safety is treated like a war of attrition, with every soldier responsible for her own body armor, we all lose. When we can freely ride on streets where we are not threatened with deadly violence at every moment, we all win. – Elly Blue, Grist.org

I don’t think there’s much to say about yesterday’s Op-Art by Bruce McCall in the New York Times except to say that it makes Marty Markowitz look like a man ahead of his time.

There’s certainly room for satire in the overheated debate on bikes and bike lanes, with lots of caricature-worthy personalities on all sides, but good satire is typically not created by the establishment.  It’s why Fox News’ 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour failed even though there’s definitely an audience ready for a conservative answer to The Daily Show and why CNN’s attempt, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News, crashed and burned.  Satire is funniest when it comes from an outsider position of the powerless making fun of the powerful.  When it’s the other way around it’s not so much satire as it is bullying.

Want some good satire?  Enjoy this video brought to my attention by @Naparstek.

There was no column by Randy Cohen, The Ethicist, in yesterday’s New York Times magazine, but he did put up a great podcast. He devotes the podcast to the ethics of cars, specifically driving one in a city such as New York.  (Atlanta, Phoenix, and Dallas, you’re mostly off the hook.)  You may not agree with all of it, but it’s a fun, short listen.

My wrap-up of last night’s CB6 meeting is over at Streetsblog.  Thanks to editor Ben Fried for asking me to do this.

Read this editorial in today’s New York Times, and ask yourself one thing: only 1% of New Yorkers commute to work by taxi, yet when was the last time the Grey Lady ran an editorial asking for better enforcement and ticketing of cab drivers?

I’m not saying that I endorse or even excuse bad behavior by cyclists.  The law is the law and I wish more cyclists would observe it.  But based on the amount of ink spilled and pixels generated by the Times, you’d think bicycles were a far larger menace than they actually are.  Car drivers run over one million red lights every day.  So where’s the pedantic editorial explaining the law to drivers?

…even if it’s really her parents who love biking.

This has been an activism-filled couple of days for me, so it’s refreshing to focus on something that’s just plain fun.

My friend Susan of Hello Banjo is having a great holiday sale this Sunday from 2 to 6 PM in Brooklyn.   She writes:

A few crafters and I will be selling handcrafted jewelery, notebooks, tote bags, baby bibs and onesies, vintage items and fashionable sample sale items. Most things are $1 to $20. Bring cash. Please come and have some free wine and cheese while you shop. For more info and to invite friends and rsvp go to this Facebook link.

You can also find more of her stuff at Etsy.