Archive for the Politics category
Yesterday, our nation’s capital witnessed an amazing moment in history: the Inauguralleycat. Couriers and racers from around the country hit the crowded streets of D.C. to hustle hard for fun, glory, and to celebrate monumental social change. The District’s own Elliot Caldwell won first place, and received an autographed copy or “Bike Messenger’s Life” by “Fast” Eddie Williams and some free beer. Everyone else won some free beer and a whole lot of hope and confidence in our tattered homeland.
Eddie, Elliot, and race organizer John Dinn. Photo via DC Courier/Hub Racing.
No entry fee, no staggering prize list, just riding to celebrate and recognize… many of the participants continued on to inaugural rides or parked their whips with Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s free bike valet parking and stepped onto the Mall to join the 2 million people witnessing the swearing in of Barack Obama. City officials encouraged attendees to ride, citing congested traffic condition and severe lack of parking. Obama and bikes:
the perfect combination.
RIP Bush Administration!
One of my favorite lazy-afternoon things to do is peruse McSweeney’s online. Always good for a witty laugh, the David Eggers-run magazine offers up the perfect combination of cultural introspection and unblushing trash, which always makes for a poignant and entertaining read.
Usually I head straight for the Lists, but today our friend Sarah alerted us to a project out of 826 Valencia, Eggers’ national literacy and tutoring initiative, that features elementary school children’s letters and pictures to President-Elect Obama. The letters have been collected in a new book, “Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: A Collection of Kids’ Letters to President Obama,” and a few selected letters are up on the McSweeney’s website. (This also showed up in today’s NY Times.)
Our favorite was (of course) this one that mentions the awesomeness of bikes:
Dear President Obama,
I want to meet you at my tutoring program with my teacher, Bonnie. Did you ever go to a tutoring program after school like me? What age are your daughters? Are they 11 years old like me? Are you going to help people like my parents find good jobs? I want to tell you that I learned to ride my bike. That is good because I get exercise and play with my friends. It would be cool if everybody rode bikes, because they don’t use gasoline and they don’t make the air dirty. If I were a president, I would give people jobs.
Furthermore,
Karla Mora, age 11
Los Angeles
I had the pleasure last night of attending the State of the City address given annually by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Why would I ride across the windy Longfellow Bridge wearing a flimsy H&M pinstripe suit to sit in a hall with 700 cops and self-important men in greatcoats? Because my reserved seat looked like this:
Marty Walsh, the man behind Geekhouse Bikes, got a royal shout-out from Mayor Menino for his work in helping develop Boston’s grassroots green industry. (read: make beautiful, affordable, innovative custom steel bike frames) Here’s Menino mid-praise:
and here’s Marty, looking all cool and suave on television:
We’re working on a top-secret project with Geekhouse and should have something production ready by spring. Marty comes from a distinguished framebuilding lineage and is constantly emerging with some of the most creative designs and aesthetics while still keeping his prices PBR- we are super excited to be working with him!
Here’s Ryan Bowen:
Ryan lives in LA, but come the 20th of this month, he’ll have ridden 3159 miles to Washington, DC to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president along with an expected 3 million other people.
Ryan isn’t a pro cyclist, and before he set off on December 2nd, he hadn’t really ridden more in a day that the 20 miles his commute entailed. He’s been racking up the miles, moving steadily toward the nation’s capital, and inviting folk to ride with him… check his progress, donate to his effort, set up a ride, or offer him a place to crash at his website.
I caught Ryan on Here and Now, the syndicated NPR show, speaking about why he’s doing what he’s doing and what he thinks the next 4 years will bring. He’s got a measured and carefully optimistic vision- its worth the listen.
