Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia and a legendary figure in the Livable Streets movement, speaks here with transit activists Commuters United for Transportation Equity (COMMUTE). If you care about our city’s future and particularly the mobility of low-income New Yorkers, have a look.
A cargo bike like this costs a month’s salary for some.
CD vendor on two wheels.
I previously visited Recife and Olinda in 2005, and for some reason it feels like there are more people riding bikes now… my imagination? perhaps. But bikes make a lot of sense during Carnaval, when streets get closed to traffic, buses get re-routed, and many vendors carry their wares (and visitors their companions) on two wheels.
There is also a sizable majority of the population who cannot afford cars and must rely either on public buses or walking (and the occasional horse), to get around. Bicycles would seem like a good alternative for the brave (see below) who can come up with cash to purchase one. I’m not sure what the going price for regular bicycles is (one cargo bike we saw apparently goes for 300 reais – around $170 US at current exchange rates – which for some people represents an entire month’s salary, but a good investment considering how much it can carry). I saw some bikes even in the most hilly areas of Recife (which tend to be low-income communities) though not many in Olinda, a beautiful historical town with colonial architecture and semi-vertical winding cobblestone streets.
Everyday riding on the main streets here is not for the faint-hearted, as buses careen by at about 50 mph and cars clear their path by beeping their horns as they zip through the scattering pedestrians. One person also told me that a woman riding alone will get robbed of her bike pretty quickly, and whether that is true or not I saw almost no female cyclists.
P1010102, originally uploaded by Sustainable Flatbush.
Cargo bikes are very big here, carrying everything from huge bottles of water to sounds for the party!
Okay, so I’ve been a rather bad blogger for a week or two, but I have a really good excuse: I’m in Recife, Brazil for Carnaval!
Needless to say it’s crazy here (in a good way), but I have a few photos to post that are relevant to the sustainability discusssion… here they come!
2007 was the first fully operation year for Sustainable Flatbush, and I must say we accomplished a lot. Starting with our Kickoff Meeting on March 16th at Vox Pop Cafe/Bookstore, the goal was to find people in the neighborhood who wanted to work on sustainability issues locally. To my amazement, 25 people braved a blizzard to attend this event, and we had a great discussion where some common interests and goals were defined. (Full disclosure: to boost attendance I scheduled this event one week after my birthday and combined it with a party… but at least half the people there were new faces to me!)
Park(ing) Day on Cortelyou Road (story below!). Photo by Keka
For our second event we celebrated Bike Month with a program of Streetfilms (curated by yours truly) and a guest appearance by their creator Clarence Eckerson. In keeping with our theme of overcoming weather challenges, Clarence’s flight from the West Coast was delayed by severe rains and while waiting for him we conducted a discussion on Congestion Pricing with Livable Streets luminaries Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives and Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog. Clarence’s honorarium was a vegan cupcake.
Event #3, an Urban Permaculture Lecture with former Flatbush residents Wilton Duckworth and Joan Ewing of Green Phoenix, packed Vox Pop with permaculture enthusiasts who exchanged ideas on how to apply this sustainable design practice to city living.
Then we worked with Lower East Side Ecology Center to create the first e-waste recycling event south of Prospect Park: Cortelyou Road Electronics Recycling diverted a truck full of discarded technology (and its accompanying toxins) from the landfill. Many thanks to Christina Datz-Romero for her pioneering work to make New York City more sustainable through LESEC’s recycling and composting programs, and for helping me stake out the perfect spot to park the big red dumpster.
In July we teamed up with the Green Edge Collective for Event #4, Eating Sustainably: a meetup and discussion on Sustainable Food. The Green Edge ladies, known for their Eco-Eatery tours and Supper Club community potlucks, kept the discussion lively as topics ranged from healthy food shopping to plastic bags to the environmental implications of consumption. Lots of food for thought (ouch).
I spent most of August on the West Coast, playing music, visiting family, and touring Oregon’s Willamette Valley by bicycle with a group of sustainability-minded vegans. Who knew quinoa was such a useful grain?
We started Autumn off right by participating in the neighborhood’s biggest street festival, the Flatbush Frolic, with a table full of materials promoting recycling. Eve Martinez from the Department of Sanitation’s NYC WasteLess program brought her full compliment of recycling stickers, brochures, posters, and fridge magnets. (What’s a street fair without fridge magnets?) We got to know our neighbors and I scored my new favorite T-shirt.
On September 21st Park(ing) Day was celebrated all over New York City, the U.S., and Planet Earth… including right here in Flatbush. We occupied a parking space and created a park for the day, complete with real grass, trees, a bench, art supplies, live music… and lots of people, especially kids! (See photo above.) Naturally Streetfilms covered this event, and Cortelyou Road Park is featured in their piece… check it out! This event’s special thanks go to Lindsey Lusher of Transportation Alternatives, who coordinated resources and information for almost two dozen sites all over NYC, and especially to Keka Marzagão, without whom Cortelyou Road Park simply would not have been possible! In addition to providing every possible form of support (moral, creative, physical), Keka insisted that we have real grass, which provided endless wonderment and joy to everyone who visited our park.
Okay, so in October we recuperated. By November we were ready to kick off a whole new level of activities with our Town Hall Meeting. 25 people attended (our magic number, perhaps!), and six committees were established, each with specific goals and projects. We are now holding monthly meetings where newcomers can get involved and committees report on their plans. 2008 already looks exciting, with the R3 Committee’s Post-Holiday Electronics Recycling Event coming up this weekend, the Gardening Committee planning a Spring event in conjunction with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Livable Streets Committee working on a Transportation Conference with Center for the Study of Brooklyn and Transportation Alternatives.
That’s the news for 2007. Much much more to come…
Special Thanks (in order of appearance):
Keka Marzagão (website/logo design, photos, VJ, chief co-instigator)
Jeff Duneman (DJ Drummerman, groove provider for Events #1-3)
Sander Hicks and the staff of Vox Pop
Cacao Arcoverde and Ileana Santamaria (musical magic for Event #3)
Susan Siegel and everyone at Flatbush Development Corporation
Clarence Eckerson and all at Streetfilms
Christina Datz-Romero (Lower East Side Ecology Center)
Carolyn Gilles and the Green Edge Collaborative
Lindsey Lusher (Transportation Alternatives)
Eve Martinez (NYC Department of Sanitation)
Mark Levy (host of Sustainable Flatbush Mothership)
Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener)
Eli Kramer (Brooklyn Junction blog)
Gretchen Maneval (Center for the Study of Brooklyn)
Cycleliciousness blog (inspiration for a bike-friendly NYC)
The Flatbush community for supporting our green future
Brooklyn bloggers for setting high standards of journalism, neighborhood pride, and humor
YOU… for reading
For those of us who conduct many of our activities (shopping, errands, visiting friends, etc.) by bicycle, sharing the road safely with motor vehicles is a daily concern. Thanks to Bed Stuy Blog for putting this neighborhood interest topic on the radar:
Cycling is great for your health (or, it is when you’re not mowed down by an SUV or when someone takes the time to look before opening their car door) and it’s good for the environment, so why aren’t Brooklyn neighborhoods (beyond Williamsburg) more bicycle friendly? I’ve come close to getting hit so many times in Bed-Stuy, simply because drivers are not paying attention to driving or they just don’t expect someone to be actually using the bike lane. Sometimes it can be very frustrating.
Willoughby Ave Bike Lane sign (photo by BedStuyBlog)
Like she said…
The comments following this post turned into an exchange of ideas on how to improve the situation and a proposal for a neighborhood bike ride. It’s a local blogger’s dream to see this kind of response turn into positive action. Go Bed Stuy Blog, and I’ll see you on that ride in ‘08!
Next Sustainable Flatbush monthly meeting:
Monday December 3rd, 7pm
462 Marlborough Road (between Ditmas and Dorchester)
Committees will report on their activities and plans, including:
R3 Committee
Post-Holiday Electronics Recycling Event
January 5 and 6, 2008
Livable Streets Committee
Central Brooklyn Transportation Conference
to be held at Brooklyn College, early February 2008
Gardening Committee
Neighborhood Gardening Event
in collaboration with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
location TBA, late February 2008
Just a reminder:
Sustainable Flatbush Town Hall Meeting is TONIGHT!!
Please join us:
WHAT: Sustainable Flatbush Town Hall Meeting
WHEN: Monday, November 12th at 7pm
WHERE: 462 Marlborough Road (between Ditmas and Dorchester)
Tonight’s meeting will focus primarily on the formation of committees to carry out service projects and set long-term sustainability goals for our neighborhood. Proposed committees include:
• R3 (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
• Sustainable Gardening
• Energy: Efficiency, Alternatives
• Transportation/Livable Streets
• Local Business Outreach
• Schools Outreach
We will also discuss upcoming actions (including our participation in Flatbush Development Corporation’s holiday event at Newkirk Plaza on December 8th) and formation of partnerships with like-minded local and citywide organizations, and hear a report on the highly-anticipated Flatbush Community Garden.
Hope to see you there!
I am disappointed to read that some of our Brooklyn elected officials are still claiming congestion pricing would place an “unfair burden on the poor” — Assemblyman Nick Perry (D–East Flatbush) calls congestion pricing “a wanton exploitation of tax-paying New York City drivers†and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D–Fort Greene) claims “It’s unfair and unjust that those who make the least should pay the most and those who make the most should pay the leastâ€.
I agree with Mr. Jeffries’ equation, just not with the driving part: those who truly make the least are also the least likely to own cars! With rising gas prices far out of any local control, what elected officials (and, frankly, everyone in this city) should be worrying about is how to create a public transit infrastructure that gives every New Yorker, especially those of less financial means, equal access to a decent car-free commute. At the moment Brooklyn’s wealthiest neighborhoods are also the ones best served by public transit; if people who live in those districts choose to drive, they are also the ones best equipped to pay a premium for it, and to finance a better transit system for the rest of us.
I would go on to say that if Jeffries is truly concerned about “those who make the least”, he should work on providing them with a safe bicycle network, which would bring their commute costs close to zero. More people on bicycles and fewer in cars would also be a great boon for public health: less pollution and more exercise is a win-win. As Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota, explained the motivation to improve his city’s bicycle infrastructure (in leiu of building an elevated highway around the city), it “sends a message that a citizen on a $30 bike is as important as one in a $30,000 car”.
Here is today’s last word on the subject, from a youth activist:
“Congestion pricing would not only help get cars off the road, leading to a reduction of pollution, but will reduce the upper respiratory diseases that have settled in the lungs of my mom, cousins, aunts, uncles, abuelas, abuelos and even my little brother,†said 16-year-old Joaquin Brito, a youth justice organizer with UPROSE, a Sunset Park–based activist group.
Brito scoffed at politicians who claimed congestion pricing would be an unfair economic burden on drivers.
“If you can afford to pay $8 for a venti latte and a cookie from Starbucks every day, then you can afford congestion pricing,†he said.
I hope Perry and Jeffries are listening.
