Ride Boulder Co

Reclaiming our streets…in NYC

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Jennifer in Uncategorized

I just returned from a great trip to NYC, where I spent some time with my brothers and an enormous amount of time walking all over the city.   Boarding the plane back to Boulder I realized I was physically shattered. I had walked at least 6 miles a day, taken the subway a couple of times, ridden in cabs and watched in awe as some cyclists threaded their way through the streets looking well-fashionable if a little crazy without a helmet.  One of the most amazing scenes for me was to look down streets full of amazing architecture, bursting with people, color, and noise. There seemed to be so much history everywhere I looked: the smoothed-with-age wooden banisters of my brother’s place in Brooklyn, the cracked and slightly uneven stoop of some of the brownstones and the impressive foyers of some of the public buildings.

My brother took me through Times Square, which has been made pedestrian-only in some areas. I thought, at the time, what a great, progressive idea but after seeing the video below think that perhaps it is an attempt to redress an imbalance. What we once thought of as the ultimate in convenience and progress has had a number of unintended consequences. This video highlights some of those, I especially love the one of the woman wearing a beret, who has her little dog comfortably arranged in basket in the front of her bike. What I didn’t know was how much we changed our public spaces: sidewalks, parks, etc to accommodate the car. If we could change back them to adapt to a new mode of traveling, there is no reason we cannot adapt again and perhaps even improve things, as well.

Picture source.