Culture Making Articles items tagged recreation

Gotham’s bike boom

2025-01-02T22:53:00Z

Christy: ?I bought a used mountain bike on Craigslist three weeks ago and I've quickly become addicted to riding around my city—to work, church, the farmers' market and grocery store. As this article points out, there are plenty of dangers involved, but the exhilaration and delight far outweigh the close calls with car doors. Not to mention that my commute by bike/ferry is slightly shorter—and cheaper—than my commute by bus/ferry/subway.?

In a metropolis known for its aggressive traffic, noise and fumes, cyclists crisscross New York City on two wheels while dodging cars, trucks, cabs, pedestrians—and even other bikers tearing around with no hands on the bar.

Despite the dangers, biking is New York City’s “fastest growing mode of transportation,” says City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who herself bikes to work in lower Manhattan, about a mile from her Greenwich Village home.

The number of cyclists has jumped by 80 percent in the past decade—to 185,000 among the more than 8 million city denizens. City officials say they’ve worked to make the city more biker friendly. They note the hundreds of miles of marked bike paths created in recent years, safety awareness campaigns and handouts of free helmets to unprotected cyclists.

from "Biking 'Fastest Growing' Way To Get Around NYC," AP Article/WCBS, 15 August 2009

Slides, by Kirsten Tradowsky

2025-01-02T22:53:00Z

Nate
: ?I like many of Tradowsky's paintings of band practices, swim lessons, and kids involved in other more or less extracurricular activities.?

"Slides," painting by Kirsten Tradowsky, 2007 :: via New American Paintings

Tibetans Play Pool

2025-01-02T22:53:00Z

Nate
: ?More on the cultural importance of tables.?

"Tibetans Play Pool," by Natalie Behring, 2006 :: via ffffound/Flickr

Not a place where you can get hurt

2025-01-02T22:53:00Z

Unlike the Garden, the theme park is not a place where you can get hurt—or if you do, it’s not your fault, and you can sue. And to keep you from getting hurt, in the theme park, you are never alone. Not only are you accompanied by throngs of other park guests, but by omnipresent representatives of the theme park corporation, there to ensure and (if necessary) enforce enjoyment of the theme park on the owners’ terms.

—Culture Making, p.112