Sunday, May 29, 2005

Kibitzing with kash

This week Bikescape goes to the ballpark to visit with bike valet extraordinaire Kash and his kids, Iris and Zoe. We talk about car free living with kids in the 'burbs and in the city, ballparks without parking, car free vacations to Yosemite and a lot of other things.

Then, as usual, we look at news and events in the world of cycling.

The podcast of the Scavenger Scramble alleycat race is still to come. It's going to take some time to make sense of the hours of audio I accumulated that day!

I will post links in the next few days.

Listen to the podcast

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Bike to work day

Bikescape joins the legions of workers as they bike to their jobs on Bike to Work Day. We meet few of the ones who are not in any particular hurry and get their thoughts. Chris Carlsson was one of them.

Then, as we do each week, we look at news and events in the bike world.

Listen to the podcast

Scott Mace contributes a segment from San Francisco suburb El Cerrito on the new bike parking set-up at BART Stations.

Still we Speak event in NY.

Reverend Billy supports NY Critical Mass with a benefits in NY and San Francisco.

The San Francisco Housing Action Coalition will host a bike tour led by bicyclist and architect David Baker.

If you're reading this now you missed a great party at the San Francisco Bike Kitchen featuring Cyclecide.

"To get an idea of what, exactly, the Cyclecide folks do, imagine Cirque du Soleil. Now take away the grace and beauty of a hundred seminaked French people and replace it with a bunch of surly, moonshine-swilling, outlaw types wearing monkey boots and moth-eaten clothing." August 2003 SF Weekly


..."contraptions that look like Salvador Dali dream- cycles riding through a psilocybin hallucination...." May 2001 SF Chronicle

"One of the group's mottoes is ``No brakes, no problem.'' These people aren't anti-safety, but safety isn't a major priority. Or a fleeting consideration." August 2000 SF Chronicle


-jon

Friday, May 13, 2005

Robert Moses and the Birth of Car Culture

"At the very moment… that we have torn down our elevated railways, because of their spoilage of urban space, our highway engineers are using vast sums of public money to restore the same nuisance in an even noisier and more insistent form. But what is Brooklyn to the highway engineer - except a place to go through rapidly, at whatever necessary sacrifice of peace and amenity by its inhabitants?"
- Lewis Mumford, The New Yorker (1959)

Did you ever wonder how we got this way? Bikescape examines the legacy of Robert Moses, the man who manipulated government to conform to his vision of the modern city.

Listen to the podcast

The Gowanis Expressway as it looks today

Transportation Alternatives and the community have sued to prevent the reconstruction of this highway in favor of a tunnel.

Robert Caro's book about Moses, The Power Broker

Robert Moses' Response to Robert Caro's The Power Broker

Jack Thurston's archive of bike shows on London's resonance fm radio. He's got some of his shows mp3'd on his blog. Jonathan at Podbike tells me he's now got a podcast feed.

Cars by The Desperate Bicycles and others of thier songs can be found here

(Gosh, I wish I could get rid of these italics...)

-j

Saturday, May 07, 2005

I like my bike

This week we look at bike news as we kick off Bike Month. Then we take a look at my bikes.

Listen to the podcast

Last Fridays New York Critical Mass followed a different strategy this month but the cops still got a few riders as they tried to crush the ride.

Tranportation Alternatives and the NY DOT in New York plans a Bike Summer type month of events this May

Bike Polo in San Francisco

Velodiablo's post about bicycle polo

Take a moment to help stop the threat of bike tolls on California bridges and highways

The Bob trailer is a great one-wheeled cart that's good for camping as well as zipping between cars with a week's worth of groceries.

Burley is a fine worker owned cooperative that made my kiddie trailer and my piccolo trailer-cycle.

A sad article about Chris Robertson who is memorialized by the two Triumphs that I keep for him.

My Soma track bike.

Old Skool Track, NYC

Friday, May 06, 2005

Radical Radio picks up the 'cast

Check it out!

From Radical Radio's site:

"Radical Radio is a non-commercial news, analysis and commentary-based alternative news radio that is comprised of an 18 - 25 hour program that is updated every 2-3 days and features current alternative news from sources like Democracy Now, Free Speech Radio News, the Shortwave Report and international Indy Media reports and mixes them with political speech from groups or personalities such as Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis and many, many others. This is peppered with music and poetry. We aim to offer the best in alternative news radio available on the web. We hope you like the taste more than the bland pablum of commercial radio, or the middle of the conservative perspective that NPR dishes out.. Stay tuned, stay informed and stir it up!"