Tag: Bronx

Tour de Bronx 2024

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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.

Summer Streets Bronx

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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.

One of the few interesting things to see along the Grand Concourse route.

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.

Bronx shooting at Mt Eden train platform

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This is the train I would take if I used the subway to get to work. But I don’t take the train because, despite what the mayor and MTA officials have been saying, it’s not safe to use the subway system in New York City. They know it. We know it. They won’t police the city properly and then act surprised when people don’t want to expose themselves to danger.

I’m very much against congestion pricing because of situations like this. If the city and the train system was safe, it would be different, but the NYPD has been neutered. We need to bring back stop and frisk. We need to make arrests stick so that jails aren’t a revolving door for repeat offenders with rap sheets longer than a CVS receipt. We need to stop spending money on illegal aliens and spend it on things that matter.

Shootings on the trains. Protesters being allowed to shut down roads and buildings with impunity. Kids getting kicked out of schools so illegals can live in them. $53 million dollars for prepaid debit cards for illegals when US CITIZENS are living on the streets or struggling to keep bills paid, including US Veterans. It’s a shame. It’s scandalous. But elected officials don’t care. They seem to think that people value illegals over the rights and needs of citizens and keep wasting our money on them. What money they aren’t pocketing, like that missing $850 million dollars that disappeared into De Blasio’s wife’s pockets.

I can’t understand how these Democrats run the city into the ground and then act surprised that everything is going off the rails. They keep adding taxes and tolls and fare increases, but they don’t provide improved services, and no one’s salary is going up fast enough to cover all of these expenses, including higher rents. All of the money we pay in taxes is being mismanaged and misspent. New York City feels like a third world country. And what I can’t understand the most is how people in New York City keep voting Democrat anyway. I guess some people just like to keep hitting themselves.

Attempted break-in and slow NYPD response

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My wife and I were watching a movie and we started to hear this banging noise from the hallway. When it went on for more than a few minutes, I stuck my head out the door to see what was going on and I saw this skinny crackhead looking dude in a heavy black coat banging on a door down the hall with some kind of tool.

I looked at him and he looked at me and he didn’t even care. He just kept banging on that door.

While I was looking down the hallway, the super’s wife opened her door across the hall and I waved her back inside and told her someone is breaking into an apartment down the hall. I took one more look at the guy and shut the door and called the police.

I placed that phone call at 5:50 PM.

We listened to the guy hitting the door and using what sounded like a hammer and chisel for about ten minutes. Then we got bored and went back to watching our movie.

Twenty minutes later, we heard an altercation in the hallway so I went and looked again and the building super was running the guy off.

The police never showed up. I called 911 again and asked why the police hadn’t responded to a report of a man hammering his way through the door of an apartment. The operator told me that the “job [was] in the system” and she wasn’t sure why there was a delay in my area.

I could only say, “very reassuring” and ended the call.

The NYPD finally responded an hour after my first call. One hour. The criminal got away because the NYPD failed to respond in a timely fashion, which means the guy will probably be back. What if he had attacked someone in the hallway?

Thankfully, the door held. Even if there was no one home, no one deserves to have all of their property stolen or vandalized, or to possibly have pets injured because the NYPD was too busy eating donuts to respond to a call. We’re supposed to trust them to help us when we need them but how can we?

They don’t show up for 311 calls for noise or huge numbers of double and triple parked cars blocking the road, or parked on the sidewalk. They don’t show up for a crime in progress. Will they really show up and save you?

You can’t rely on the police to save you or even to help you, only to write a report about how you got wasted after the fact. We need more 2A friendly laws in New York City so regular citizens don’t become victims due to lax policing and even laxer sentencing.

Photos: I-287 accident last Tuesday

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Last Tuesday I got stuck in traffic while trying to get to work because of an accident. I was late to work the previous week for the exact same thing, so I had to take photos this time to make sure my boss knew I wasn’t bullshitting her.

I figured they’re worth sharing. The weirdest thing about the accident to me is that the person in the smaller vehicle looks like some old lady that just rolled out of her living room to yell at some kids for being noisy in the street.

This section of 287 is rough. People get into car accidents there all the time because of cars veering from the left lane into the middle lane to cut the hard left exit onto 27 East, Prospect Expressway, followed immediately by people merging into the highway from 3rd Ave and then everyone opening it up on the straightaway if possible to make up time before the Belt Parkway split.

287 is called the Gowanus (‘Go anus’) Expressway, which adds some comic relief to getting screwed by bad traffic backups there regularly, but during the school year traffic is so bad that I’m thinking about taking the train to work instead, even though the trip would be 1.5 hours each way.

An unfinished post about COVID-19 from April 1, 2020

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This is something that I started writing on April 1st of 2020 but never turned into a full post. I think it was shortly after this that I started working full time for the 2020 Census and I got sidetracked. It’s nothing unusual, but still interesting to see what I was thinking about back then, during the height of the pandemic in New York City. Unsurprisingly, I was concerned about toilet paper.

Coronavirus Journal: Day 28 – Impact areas and hoarding in the city

People in poorer neighborhoods are being harder hit, but they’re also less likely to hoard.

Cheap toilet paper in stock. Everything isn’t being immediately wiped out. It’s amazing, because this area is one of the harder hit areas of the city. It’s an area where people are still boarding the train every day to head to work because they work in essential services. They’re being infected in the trains.

I live in one of the hardest hit areas in the city and the country for COVID-19 and I think it’s because most of the people that live in this area work in industries that kept going during the pandemic, so close contact in public transportation and at work kept transmission rates high.

According to current CDC data, transmission, hospitalizations, and deaths are down, despite people mostly giving up on masking and the lack of interest in booster shots. I imagine the numbers are trending downward because more people are developing some level of immunity. I’d also read previously that viruses tend to evolve into less lethal forms to ensure their own survival as well, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I have a feeling COVID-19 is going to be around for the long-haul now, like other serious illnesses. We’re going to have to figure out how to mentally accommodate that knowledge while we get back to living our lives.

Board of Elections training

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Almost a year ago, on October 1st, 2020, I submitted an application to work for the Board of Elections in New York City. I figured it would be interesting to actually work on an election day. Plus, I’d heard it was pretty good money. I cut it a little too close to work on the 2020 general election (and maybe that was a blessing in disguise considering how contentious it was), and I never heard back about training, so I sort of gave up on the idea.

Today, I got an email about attending training on Thursday in the late afternoon. It’s strange that the notice was so short, but it fits my schedule because I work early mornings. I’m going to go check it out and see what they’re offering. I took a look at the election schedule and the upcoming election is on November 2nd, which is a Tuesday. Being honest, if the hours required conflict with my regular job and doesn’t pay as much, it isn’t going to be worthwhile, even for the experience of participating in the democratic process in a more involved way.

What an official absentee ballot for Bronx County, US looked like for the Nov 2020 General Election

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Just in case anyone was curious, this is what an official absentee military ballot looked like for residents of Bronx County, New York City, for the 2020 general election.

I wound up not using it. I went to the polling station and voted in person. I was doing some house cleaning, found it, and thought it might be useful to someone in the future.

PDF available below:

Official-Absentee-Military-Ballot-11-3-2020-GEDownload