Electric Bike or Electric Motorcycle?

Every evening, untold thousands of New Yorkers get dinner delivered by electric bike riders, but those vehicles are technically illegal. NYPD officers have been ticketing deliverymen even though lunch at NYPD HQ gets delivered by e-bikes.

The root problem is definition: when is a bike not a bike? When does a “power-assisted bike” become a moped, motorscooter, or motorcycle? And when do electric 2-wheeler riders need operator licenses? As with e-commerce, ridehail, Airbnb, and consumer drones, lawmakers are fighting a rearguard action after technology got well ahead of regulation, and it’s hitting New Yorkers where they eat. Ironically, NYC says it will let UPS make deliveries by ebike.

More:

“Electric Bikes Are Blurring The Line Between Bicycles And Motorcycles,” Matt Brown, Jalopnik

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Steam-Powered New York

There are 100 miles of steam pipes under New York City’s streets, and many have been there since 1880. They currently serve about 2000 buildings.

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L.A. Foodie Explores NYC

California food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson explored Big Apple foodways in the April 1 edition of the Los Angeles Times:

“My first culinary encounter was with pizza, a mysterious kind of baked tlayuda, covered in macerated tomatoes and milk coagulation, and occasionally smothered with a type of thinly sliced lap cheong called pepperoni. The odd dish, sometimes referred to as a pie, washed ashore from Naples some years ago. While the taste takes some getting used to, pizza can be enchanting when done properly.”

— “For cramped New York, an expanding dining scene,” Lucas Kwan Peterson, Los Angeles Times

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An Empty Vessel in the Big Apple

Hudson Yards has opened, a new office, upscale condo and luxury shopping development built over an active trainyard on New York’s West Side. The city and state chipped in $6 billion for the project, but maybe that’s not as bad as it sounds.

What is bad, undeniably, is the 150-foot-high, 16 storey, copper-covered selfie magnet looming over Hudson Yards plaza called Vessel. The structure, consisting of 154 flights of stairs, may be a perfect metaphor for New York: you keep climbing but get nowhere.

Amazon: Escape From New York!

In a corporate blog post on Valentine’s Day, Amazon announced it won’t build a publicly-subsidized headquarters campus in New York City after all. The Long Island City project was popular with local real estate developers and top politicians but elicited vocal protests from residents and unions as well as NY State Senator Mike Gianaris and celebrity Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Amazon intends to expand its planned Northern Virginia HQ2 instead. Maybe.

More:

“Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters,”

“Amazon pulls out of $3 billion deal to bring HQ2 to NYC,” Bob Fredericks, New  York Post

“Amazon won’t be building HQ2 in New York City after all,” Gaby Del Valle, Vox

“Why Amazon Bailed on Its New York Headquarters,” Josh Barro, New York Magazine

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jubilantly trumpets Amazon’s cancelled HQ2 plans,” Summer Meza, The Week

“Amazon’s Winning Streak Ends in New York,” Shira Ovide, Bloomberg

“Jeff Bezos Is Right at Home in the D.C. Swamp, but Amazon Might Have Bit Off More Than It Can Chew with the Big Apple,” Joel Kotkin, Daily Beast

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Displacement is not community development.

Displacement is not community development. Investing in luxury condos is not the same thing as investing in people and families.

Shuffling working class people out of a community does not improve their quality of life.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 13, 2018

One reaction to Amazon’s pending HQ2/2 project in New York’s Long Island City.

More:

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not thrilled about Amazon coming to Queens,” Melissa Locker, Fast Company

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NYC Hot Dog Stand License: $289,500. Per Year.

Licenses for a New York City hot dog stand can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. There are 3,100 hot dog stand licenses in New York City, and there’s a 20 year waiting list for them. The licenses, not the hot dogs.

A “Half as Interesting” video from Wendover Productions

Update:

“‘Unjust and immoral’: street vendors call on New York City to issue more permits,” Erin Durkin, The Guardian

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The M.T.A. Workout

“Welcome to the new M.T.A.: Metropolitan Transit Athletics! Grab a towel, swipe your MetroCard, and get ready to sweat. Daily membership costs only $2.75.”

“The M.T.A. Workout,” a fitness plan by The New Yorker.

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Liberté, Fraternité, Mobilité!

 2018 Citroën Bastille Day Rally & RendezVous, Washington Square, NYC

On July 15th the annual Citroën Bastille Day Rally & RendezVous toured the streets of New York, starting at Grant’s Tomb on Riverside Drive and cruising down to the Waverly Place side of Washington Square. Most vehicles were the Deux Chevaux (2CV) model, the beloved “parapluie sur quatre roues” (“umbrella on four wheels”). At the same time these fanciers of French cars were on the road, France was winning the World Cup. Quelle ironie!

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America

“America,” composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, from the 1961 film West Side Story. Rita Moreno (Anita) and George Chakiris (Bernardo) are the principal singers in the movie; their roles were originally created on Broadway by Larry Kert and Chita Rivera in 1957.

“Life is all right in America, if you’re all white in America”

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