Archive for August 31, 2007
back to school
I think I might be in love with this city. It’s been a week, exactly, since I touched down in New York, and I haven’t even begun to stop getting utterly and deliriously lost every time I turn a corner. I’m at a point where I recognize the names of streets near me, but I couldn’t tell you where they go or how to get there. I know I really live somewhere when I can recite the streets in order. In Berkeley, it was Durant, Channing, Haste, Dwight…in Barcelona Passeig de Gracia, Rosselo, Diputacio, Consell de Cent…in San Francisco Oak, Fell, Hayes, Grove…
So far in New York I know I live on Myrtle, and that’s pretty much it. I’m starting to figure stuff out, though – where the closest hardware store is, and the best dumpster for scavenging wood. I also found the local DIY bike coop, which turns out is in a community space literally half a block from my house. I walked in last Saturday to a chaotic mess of greasy tools and neighborhood kids, and helped Joe, a shy10 year old, put a bike together.
The bike itself left a little to be desired, lacking derailleurs and brakes, but Joe’s friends were already done with their bikes, so it was all I could do to get him to tighten his seat post before he bolted out the door.
One of the best things in New York so far is the bike lanes on the bridges. Every bridge over the East River has a separate bike path, and the Williamsburg bridge bike path is elevated over the car traffic. The first time I rode over it there was a group of bike punks sitting in the closed off section that led to the other side of the bridge drinking 40′s out of paper bags and laughing at all the bikers who went charging off towards the closed bike path only to come up short against the chainlink fence and sheepishly turn around.
