A serious and sometimes not so serious personal blog
The man is articulate, respectable, well-spoken, and knows how to carry and handle himself during a friendly interview and a hostile debate. I almost wish he was running for President now, and I’m pretty sure he’ll be the nominee in 2028.
Do yourself a favor and listen to the actual debates and speeches. Put the TikTok down.
I think the last time we took part in this event was in 2019. Or 2018. Probably 2018, because we did the Bronx 10 Mile Run in 2019 so we probably trained for that instead. Last time, we chose the 25 mile route and wound up out by Pelham Bay Park, but we haven’t been doing as much riding so we went with the 10 mile route this time instead. We’re forever trying to find time to get back into the shape we were in before COVID lock-downs happened.
The Tour de Bronx was very good for a free event. There were a lot of conflicts between the emails they sent out and the event website, like whether people could use Citibikes, how many free event t-shirts were available, and even what time the event was starting. Start times for the three routes weren’t announced until around 2 AM the day of the event. That’s poor planning. Plus, the roads were open to vehicle traffic. Weirdest of all, the 10 mile route was only 7.5 miles.
However, there were trailing vehicles, including a pickup truck and an ambulance. There were route marshals at key junctions, the route was marked on the road with spray paint, and the route was available to follow in the Ride With GPS app. There were also free refreshments at the end of the course. Plus, the weather was perfect for riding and the other riders were friendly and helpful. We even made two new friends that we’re looking forward to seeing at next year’s Tour de Bronx.
Hopefully next year we’ll be back to doing the 25 mile route.
4K available in the settings if your device can support it.
I rode into Washington Square Park and decided to loop around just to see what was going on. Early evening late afternoon around 4 PM or so. I can’t remember the last time I saw the park so full of people. I guess everyone was out trying to enjoy the last Summer Saturday of 2024. The camera angle is a little high because I was on a bicycle. I’m still trying to get the angle right.
Been sick for a few days so I didn’t really go out and do anything this weekend. I did find some weird YouTube videos though, and here’s two of them:
For some of these people, I wonder if they just didn’t know. There is an NYU dorm on this block and there was a lot of traffic being caused by people dropping off their kids who are about to start Fall Semester. I imagine a lot of them are from Upstate or Central New York and maybe don’t understand the significance of bike lanes. I get into this place sometimes, mentally, where I just assume that other people know things that I take for granted because they’re common.
Maybe they were all playing follow the leader, with the “leader” being a TLC vehicle driver who should have known better. I hope he enjoys the ticket he’s going to get from the 311 report I filed.
Also, shout out to the guy who was making a statement by sitting on his Citibike in the bike lane, blocking the cars.
The event was kind of sad and empty. I did my Summer Streets Bronx ride on the last day of Summer Streets at almost the last hour (Sunday August 25th at 1 PM), so maybe attendance was down, but I also did my Summer Streets Manhattan ride on the last day of that event at literally the last hour and the route was jam packed with people until past the end of the event.
In comparison, Grand Concourse was pretty barren and most of the people who were there were clustered around the two southern event hubs listening to music and sitting around in camp chairs while their kids chalked the road or looked at their phones. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s nothing that can’t be done in one of the nearby parks or on the corner of the block like you’d see on any regular Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.
It seems like people in the Bronx missed the point. Or it could just be that there was less to see along the route, which was truncated from the original planned route of of 165th Street to Mosholu Parkway to just East Tremont to Mosholu Parkway, so there was less interest. Grand Concourse just isn’t that interesting, especially compared to riding your bike down the center of Manhattan, right through the Financial District, and then onto the Brooklyn Bridge if you want. At least not to me, anyway. I wasn’t too thrilled with the Bronx 10 Mile run route, which covered a lot of the same ground back in 2019. The Tour de Bronx bike ride was really fun, though, because you got to experience more of the borough, and to me it feels like Bronx Summer Streets should have offered at least a taste of the same.
It was hard to say no to the Bronx route since we live nearby. Still, I kind of wish we’d driven down to Brooklyn and checked out the last day of Summer Streets for that borough instead, but I guess that will have to wait until next year.
In the meantime, there are plenty of bike routes in and around the city to enjoy. The old rail trail running north out of Van Cortlandt park is a good example, and I’ve still never ridden along the south Brooklyn waterfront.
Summer Streets is an event in New York City where stretches of road are closed down from 7 AM to 3 PM to regular vehicle traffic and are opened up to pedestrians and cyclists for recreational use. It started out on just a small stretch of 4th Avenue, but year after year more roads and longer stretches of road are made available for Summer Streets use.
I almost missed it this year, but my wife reminded me about it when she went out riding last weekend and accidentally rode into the Summer Streets route and wound up riding the length of Manhattan down to and over the Brooklyn Bridge. This current weekend was the last weekend for Summer Streets in Manhattan so I made sure to get out there, even if only for a little while, to enjoy having the whole road open to ride around on.
Whole road is kind of an overstatement, though. There were so many people out there on bicycles and walking and running that it was actually a bit crowded. It was still a lot of fun, though, and made me wish that Summer Streets took place every Saturday from 6 AM to 7 PM all Spring, Summer, and Fall long.
I do have one more chance for Summer Streets next weekend, but it will be here in the Bronx on Grand Concourse. I’ve done a few organized runs up and down the route that has been selected for use, so it won’t be a new area for me, but I’m going to do it anyway because it’s rare to have a long run of space to use for cycling in such a dense urban area. I’m grateful for the greenways and bike paths in parks here in the city.
That being said, it’s kind of exciting to ride up and down blocks in Lower Manhattan. There’s a lot to look at and experience when you’re out riding on your bike and it’s not as dangerous as it used to be if you stay on the side roads or in the bike lanes on major avenues.
We finished up our Manhattan Summer Streets ride with a trip to Chinatown to have a late lunch / early dinner at Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles on Doyers Street. It’s a great place and if you haven’t been, I highly recommend it.
On the weekends, we’re almost always going out to do something active: chores, exercise, visiting family, eating out, etc. Yesterday, I had this idea in my head that I just wanted to get to a nice spot in a park and chill for a while. I could sit and read for a bit and take in the scenery. Instead of feeling pressed to do something, I could just lean back and relax and take in the sights and sounds around me, and that’s what I managed to do.
My wife and I parked in the East Village and rode our bikes over to Veselka for brunch. Afterwards we rode over to Washington Square Park to look at the vendors and then we found a quiet spot in the shade, situated sort of behind the music stage area, to just sit and relax. The air was fresh, the breeze was cool, and it was pretty cool to be able to take in different types of music while reading on my Kindle. My wife spent her time sketching.
Fun facts:
Overall, it was a relaxing success of an afternoon.
This is mostly Japanese language learning. I took a short break on Latin American Spanish but went back to Japanese.
Next stop, 365 days. It’ll happen, because Duo threatens me daily from a widget on my Home Screen.
I guess this case was too high profile for DA Bragg to sweep under the rug.
Assamad Nash should never see the light of day again. He is the poster child for why New York’s bail “reform” law is not only a failure, but is actually harmful to residents. People with long rap sheets should reach a tipping point where they are just permanently incarcerated. There is no reason for Christina Yuna Lee to be dead, and she wouldn’t be if Assamad Nash hadn’t been repeatedly released.
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