Best City in the World! #NYC via GW Bridge @ mile 47 of ride. Seriously best day in July.
30.07.10
Morning Brooklyn Ride - Midtown Manhattan from the Pulaski Bridge, #NYC 07.31.10, 7:36 am - this is mildly scenic I guess except for the fact that Newtown Creek (Nieuwe Stad) is one of the most polluted waterways in the US. It’s so polluted that a massive underground chemical pool of toxins has leached into the ground and is heading south through Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
31.07.10
Pepsi-Cola sign along the East River, Hunters Point, Long Island City, Queens, NYC 07.31.10 - I prefer diet Coke but I’ve always wanted to see this sign up close - via my morning ride.
31.07.10
Cicadas used to be the soundtrack of my summers when I was kid. Their whiny drone was ever present at our lake house in the Ozarks (hillbilly camp) from June through September.
Now living in NYC, they start around the end of July/beginning of August and their songs have become the sad signal of the beginning of the end of summer.
By the way, we never heard cars in the Ozarks woods.
19 plays
01.08.10
Sad Polar Bear, CPK Zoo, NYC, 08.13.10 - Shortly after this photo was snapped, the polar bear slowly turned his back to everyone, waited for a moment, and took a dump into his swimming lagoon. I’d like to think it was his way of saying “fuck off” to the crowd staring at him.
13.08.10
Sad Penguino, CPK Zoo, NYC, 08.13.10 - there were lots of “happy” or active penguins. This lil’ guy’s pix just came out sad.
13.08.10
Da Ghost Stroller moves! TV-7 & 11 are here on the corner of 6th Ave & Berkeley Place. It moved from corner of 6th Ave & Union. #GhostBikes #ParkSlope
17.08.10
Liz Padilla was hit and killed by a truck 5 summers ago at 5th Avenue & Park Place while cycling. Her Ghost Bike is pictured above. She was 28 years old and hers was the first Ghost Bike installed in NYC. Unfortunately it wasn’t the last. In the past two years, a young son was killed on Dean Street and a dad was killed on 8th Avenue.
Cycling is something I do 3-5 times a week. It’s something I’m teaching Jr. and Baby Gurl to do too. I hope they will come to love it as much as I do. It’s REALLY fun! It’s just scary how “dangerous” it seems sometimes although protected bike lanes have helped on a lot of levels. I hope NYC continues to become more bike friendly as Jr and Baby Gurl get older.
So while the Park Slope “Ghost Stroller” mystery is something fun to gossip about during these August dog days, it’s important to remember that the reason the stroller caught everyone’s attention is that the Ghost Bikes around NYC are memorials to people killed. Friends and family killed while they were riding for fun, or riding to work, or doing an errand, or working. Ghost bikes represent lives taken too soon. And they are startling when you see them. The first time and the 100th.
Here are some links to more information about Liz Padilla, the Liz Padilla Memorial 5K and Ghost Bikes.
17.08.10
