4 page article on angry wing-nut cyclists in NYC
Ben McGrath has written a four page artilce on cycling in NYC in the current issue of the New Yorker Magazine
Its another good fluff piece on people but what about the issues and really:
"On cycling blogs, riders were trading stories of being stopped by plainclothes officers while crossing the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges, and charged with improbable offenses (in one case, for riding thirty-three m.p.h.—a pace faster than Lance Armstrong’s)."
Cycling blogs? How many are there? ITS CALLED BIKE BLOG and I am easy to get in touch with.
Not sure about the love affair between the writer and Tom Bernardin. Can't imagine how people would think all cyclists are a bunch of weirdo wingnuts. Its the typical story...Transportation Alternatives is doing all the work and Time's Up is a bunch of weirdos more concerned with where the beer is hidden.
Its another good fluff piece on people but what about the issues and really:
"On cycling blogs, riders were trading stories of being stopped by plainclothes officers while crossing the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges, and charged with improbable offenses (in one case, for riding thirty-three m.p.h.—a pace faster than Lance Armstrong’s)."
Cycling blogs? How many are there? ITS CALLED BIKE BLOG and I am easy to get in touch with.
Not sure about the love affair between the writer and Tom Bernardin. Can't imagine how people would think all cyclists are a bunch of weirdo wingnuts. Its the typical story...Transportation Alternatives is doing all the work and Time's Up is a bunch of weirdos more concerned with where the beer is hidden.
posted by Michael Green at 8:47 AM
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10 Comments:
Where da beer at?
they hide the beer?
That article was really a serious disappointment! When I heard that the New Yorker was covering Critical Mass, I thought they were going to get to the root of it with some real investigative journalism. Find out why the police have taken it so far, and where the money is coming from. Instead half the article is about some whackjob bitching about food delivery guys riding on the sidewalk, and the rest of the article has about two paragraphs of actual information.
Can someone out there write a REAL article about why all this is happening?
PS Props to the Village Voice and The Villager for some good articles on specific masses and events.
Is the 33-mph comment supposed to be an insult. Umm.. You can EASILY go 33mph on the williamsburg because your going downhill.
The reporter was at Times Up after the August ride. He appeared to be in his early to mid-twenties and dressed like a frumpy college kid. He talked to a few people but didn't seem interested in sticking around for long.
He definately way too much on some of the out-there characters who show up to Critical Mass, and not on the hundreds of normal riders who show up. In typical New Yorker style, he was pretty condescending.
I know the woman he described with the "Quiet Statement against Oil Wars" sign on her bike. He said that she was riding "a child's bike" when in fact it's a folding bike. He seems to be a jack-ass who is more focused on the breezy tone of his article than on getting the facts.
I would love to read The Observer's take. At least they'll have a snappy headline. Maybe even a frumpy 'toon! Bloomie versus The Bad Bodicious Bikers! Dat 'toon would be PRECIOUS! What say you, Observer?
Yeah, that article was pretty embarassing. Why follow around a whack-job under the guise of writing about cycling in NYC? Just write about him and get it over with. Almost seems like he was cashing in on a trendy issue as an excuse for the article.
=v= The beer is generally in the fridge, not hidden at all. The "hidden" remark was from a newbie. Certainly a memorable part of the article, but kind of pointless and unenlightening. The writer also clearly didn't get Reverend Billy, though he did expand a surface attribute or two into the article's title.
See how a better New Yorker writer covered NYC bike activism in 1970.
33 mph is never easy.
I've written more about this lame-ass article at http://bluebirdbike.blogspot.com/
articles like that do not help the problem
it is like a bad joke that only contributes to racism
the bicycle/bicyclist is greatly misunderstood
when these writers get on their soapboxes
they only contribute to the hate
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