Everyone's got a story, especially in a wacky place like New York City. Today, we can add one more wild tale to the eight-million-item list-- a kite-surfer washed up on some rocks at the edge of Liberty Island, home of the Statue of Liberty.
Kite Surfing near a national monument, in a perilous waterway, in cold weather, near marine police on 24/7 anti-terrorist watch? Bad idea. Image Source
Apparently, the athlete was taking advantage of the windy conditions coming our way thanks to Tropical Storm Ida. Problem is, he was doing it in one of the country's busiest bodies of water. The Hudson river, which surrounds Liberty Island, is difficult to navigate because of complex currents, and notoriously polluted to boot.
Sometimes the big surf created by stormy weather is appealing to surfers (kite and wind surfers, too), but the desire to harness extreme conditions should never come before a consideration of the potential hazards. At the very least, utilizing one of New York City's many other bodies of water would have been wise. The Long Island Sound, perhaps. Almost anything would have been a better idea.
Since New York City was attacked by terrorists in 2001, the waters around lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty have been patrolled 24 hours a day by United States Park Police, so causing a disturbance in the area is not something that will be taken lightly.
The surfer (still unidentified so far) is in Parks Police custody right now, wasting both his own time as well as that of the Parks Police.
So watch the surf reports if you're into that sort of thing, and see if you can catch some big swells or heavy winds without putting yourself in harm's way. Kite surfing is a great way to enjoy particularly blustery days, but it shouldn't happen at the expense of anybody's safety!
Cycling in New York has risen by more than a quarter this year! According to stats from NYC's Department of Transportation, cycling has increased by 26% in 2009, and they attribute it to improvements in bike paths around the city. It's definitely easy to track the installation of paths on major roads, but I don't think that the improvements alone account for the surge.
Biking has become more popular everywhere in the past few years. Global Climate Change has started to seem like less of a theory and more of a reality with every freakishly devastating hurricane or tsunami, gas prices have been on the general rise, and the global economy crash has left lots of people looking for a way to cut down transportation costs.
Thing is, the national increase in cycling doesn't make cycling all that much safer. New York streets are still full of potholes and maniac drivers, for example. You can fill in the potholes, I guess, but I'm not sure anything could convince New Yorkers to start using their turn signals or obeying the speed limit.
This bike parking structure in Amsterdam is an example of the sort of thing transportation funding could help create. Here in New York, there is a shortage of bike parking and many cyclists are forced to unsafely lock up against trees or scaffolding.
Part of the problem has to do with national transportation budgets. Across the board, federal funding for road improvement is directed toward car-heavy highways in the suburbs instead of dense cities, where conditions are the worst. On top of that, billions of dollars in federal stimulus money has gone unspent this year, particularly funds that were earmarked for improving pedestrian access to roads in Michigan, North Carolina, and Massachussetts.
In many cases, the hold-up is due to opposition or apathy in local communities. Because it's so unsafe to ride on our biggest roads, bicyclists are kept off in the shadows, and Joe Average doesn't see much point in building a pedestrian crosswalk or a seperated bike lane for the invisible bike-commuters. The most useful thing we could possibly do is also the simplest and the most obvious-- we need to make ourselves visible while we walk or cycle!
If you have errands to run, this could be as simple as parking your car in one place, then walking from destination to destination instead of moving the car. The more traveling we do on foot or on a bike, the more our neighbors will see a need for improved pedestrian infrastructure!
And as for all that lost stimulus funding... the federal government is just taking it back. Maybe it will get re-dispersed next year...
U of Wisconsin was representing particularly hard at the event, opening the day up with performances by a few poets from their urban arts program, "First Wave". The poets were all winners from the Knicks Poetry Slam in 2007 or 2008 who scored scholarships into UW's First Wave, the world's first ever college hip-hop and slam program.
In just a couple weeks, contestants will know if they've been selected to advance into the semi-finals, but even those of us who didn't audition for the slam came away with the knowledge gained in an array of financial planning and college information workshops.
And everybody got to take in a day of world-class entertainment by poets, dancers, MC's and beatboxers. Scope the video and you'll see what I mean.
Stay tuned to PlayCity for coverage of the Knicks Poetry Slam as semi-finalists get announced-- the real competition is just warming up!
A lot of people smash pumpkins for cheap thrills. Some people make a serious sport out of it, construct catapults and cannons, then compete with one another for height and distance...
But some people smash pumpkins to save the planet!
That's right. I went to the Linden-Bushwick Community Garden in Brooklyn a few days ago to spend an afternoon destroying pumpkins. After we made the pumpkins go splat, we put them in the garden's compost bin along with food waste collected from neighbors and local businesses.
In a few weeks, the waste will be fertile soil to plant vegetables in. Next year, the Bushwick Farmers Market will be selling vegetables grown in our pumpkin compost.
These pumpkin guts look nasty, but they're going to turn into fresh produce soon enough!
Every vegetable that gets grown locally keeps a delivery truck off the road, and every plant grown in composted soil saves a few pounds of food waste that would have gotten buried in a dump forever.
I wasn't kidding when I said we were saving the world! Check the video, and I bet you'll want to start composting too. I really haven't had so much fun in months.
The 2009 World Series kicked off last night, and this year's matchup between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies is a rare treat for baseball fans on the east coast, a matchup that hasn't happened in over 50 years.
Some reporters are calling it the "Turnpike Series", a reference to US Route 95, which connects New York City and Philadelphia as the New Jersey Turnpike. I think its a great term to use, because it sounds ugly, and it's being used to describe an ugly series.
Don't get me wrong, I haven't actually been this excited about Baseball since I was a little kid. The Phillies are the most losing team in all of Major League Baseball history, and the Yankees lead in championship wins, with 26 World Series victories.
Yet coming off of last year's groundbreaking victory, the Phillies are in a position to redeem themselves after decades of losing, while the Yankees stand to take home World Series number 27, a league record. In many ways, this is a classic series. So where's the beef?
Well, news outlets and fans on both sides of the stands are getting a little out of hand. Philadelphia sports fans are pretty notorious for their loyalty and passion... as well as their propensity for vandalism, violence, and general meanness.
After the Phils won their National League pennant last week, live news feeds showed throngs of elated fans chanting "F--- the Yankees" in center city, and that was actually a subdued display compared to the window smashing and looting that went on after their World Series victory last fall.
Shane Victorino (pictured here at the Phillies' 2008 World Series Victory Parade)was the object of some un-called-for trash talk by the New York Post. Image source.
The New York Post put a picture of Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino on their cover last week, photoshopped to appear on the body of a female cheerleader. The headline? "The Frillies Are Coming to Town". In addition to demonstrating a poor attitude, the Post is upholding the homophobia and macho attitudes too common in all sports.
Baseball is already hurting, with ratings down as a result of steroid scandals and rising ticket prices. Sports are supposed to provide a space where we can safely re-enact the little battles and rivalries that exist in our regular lives, but when the ugliness follows folks out of the stadium, sports can't provide any escape.
Can Phillies fans keep themselves non-violent? Can Yankee fans keep their egos in check? I think this is a big chance for both clubs and their fans to dispell their negative reputations. The thing is, I have to wonder if fans from outside the tri-state area will even be willing to watch the Turnpike Series. Here's hoping for the best.
