I took 9^th street today on my ride in. There’s a bike lane there but it’s really the worst possible street that they could’ve put a bike lane on. Between 4^th and 6^th Avenue is always congested. There’s a very busy supermarket, the YMCA and a post office on 9^th between 4^th and 6^th avenue so it’s always super congested. There’s always delivery trucks blocking the bike lane or someone dropping people off at the Y. Today was a good day. I only had to dodge one car and one cart with cans. 9^th from 6^th or 7^th to the Park is great for riding, there’s very limited traffic and the street is very wide but the stretch between 6^th avenue and 4^th avenue is a mine field. Once you get below 4^th avenue it actually gets a little better between 4^th and 3^rd is still congested but there’s much less commercial uses on that street (it’s somewhat residential with some light industrial) and the stretch between 3^rd and Smith is actually pretty nice. You can haul ass and there’s no commercial with a bunch of light industrial uses that for the most part are underutilized.

I have a friend that has a music studio in one of the old factory buildings. The whole area around the Gawanus Canal is going to blow up. You can already see it with places like The Bell House and Low Lands and the restaurants that are popping up along 3^rd Avenue. I went to see The Felize Brothers a couple weeks back and walked down 3^rd Avenue from 9^th to 6^th street. There were a ton of restaurants either opened or in construction, I was completely surprised. I’m not sure it’s the absolute best location. Yes, you’re close to Park Slope but there’s not that many houses on the blocks between 3^rd and 4^th Avenue and you’ve got absolutely no residences on the other side, only the Gawanus. The area completely makes sense for a destination place, like a club or a supermarket. A Whole Foods is supposed to be in development for 3^rd Avenue and 3^rd Street but a restaurant seems iffy to me.

I went to the Met's game at Citi Field last night. It was super fun and gave me an opportunity to ride through Queens, a section of the City that I don't get to that much. I road over the Williamsburg Bridge which is rediculously steep but a fun ride. It's much more nuanced then either the Manhattan or Brooklyn Bridge, there's some turns and splits, etc. that make it interesting. It let me out in Williamsburg and, of course, I had to ride down Bedford Avenue, the heart of Billiesburg. Fun street to be on, there's a ton going on, lots of people.

I road over to Queens, past my father's old house in Long Island City and got onto Queens Boulevard which turns into Roosevelt Avenue. The 7 train runs above the avenue for the much of the way and I figured that I'd just follow the 7 because that's the train that brings you to Citi Field. I passed a great restaurant that I used to frequent when I lived in Sunnyside, La Flor. A really nice spanish place. The housing stock in Sunnyside is incredible, a bunch of stacked multifamily houses. It was a nice place to live for the three months that we spent there.

We only moved to Brooklyn because we were offered a nice place in Park Slope for $880 and couldn't pass it up considering that we spent most of our time driving to Brooklyn to visit friends, anyway. I'm a little sad that we never got to spend more time in Sunnyside, it seems like it could be a great place to get to know.
I continued out Roosevelt Avenue past Woodside and through Jackson Heights and Corona. I stopped at a bodega and got a beer and some water and took this picture of the El. Corona is definitely a place I'd love to bring the family and just explore for an afternoon in the fall any maybe end up at a Met's game!

The Mets game was great, it was a beautiful evening to hang out and watch some baseball. I've never been to Citi Field, so it was a treat to finally get there. We had great seats in the promenade and got to see Angel Pagan win it with a walk-off homer in the 10th. And I got a ride home, sweet!

I took the subway in this morning. Not my favorite. I usually end up drenched from sweat regardless of the weather and somewhat annoyed when I reach work. I do like the reading time, that’s the one bonus. I’m engrossed with a new book called “Fire Season” by Phillip Connors. It’s a memoir of a season that he spent as a fire watcher in the Gila NF in New Mexico. Really, really enjoying it, he’s a great writer and has a real sense of explaining the emotional peaks and valley’s of his time as a fire watcher. Passages that are feeding my desire for some adventure.

Reading it and riding the subway actually got me thinking about why I ride my bike to work. First, I enjoy it, I enjoy seeing that my travels to and from a place are not just about using a “time capsule” to travel, there’s an actual process for me to get there. In New York when taking the subway, it sometimes seems that you get into your time capsule, your subway car, at the beginning of your trip and then emerge from your capsule once you’ve hit your destination. When my wife first moved here, she said she was constantly lost. Understandable, by taking the subway, you loose all sense of perspective and relativity because there are no landmarks that you usually use to guide you as you travel.

The other big reason I ride is that I need some adventure in my life. I spent 40 hours a week sitting at a desk, playing with numbers and statistical formulas, not very adventurous. Being on the bike gives me a sense of adventure, especially when the conditions are bad. Riding in the rain or cold is always exhilarating. When the weather’s in the teens or in the high 90’s, riding gives me something to hold onto that not many other people do. Stuck in this city with 8.3 million people having that is something I like.

I also like the competitive nature of biking. Every time I ride there’s at least one or two small competitive encounters with other bike riders or drivers. It’s a give and a take for sure, sometimes I’m not even thinking it but someone will pull up to me, draft for a while and then pop by me as we start up the incline of the bridge. I’ll think “it’s on”. We all do it, it’s just a bit more pronounced when your legs are what’s making you go. You have to be committed to giving that extra power to get your bike to move. You can't just extend your toe and watch as your miles per hour rise. You feel it. and I guess that's one other reason I like riding too.

Anyway, I took the 2/3 IRT line to Bergen Street this afternoon. I was meeting my father, his partner and my family in Park Slope for dinner. I got off near Pintchik Paints, which has been there forever. It's right on the corner of Bergen and Flatbush and I've been driving, biking, walking by it for decades. I walked down Bergen Street which has a ton of (fairly new) boutique's. There's a comics store, a bike shop, a sex shop and a couple places to eat, maybe a bar. The whole transformation of Bergen and, even more so, 5th Avenue is incredible. I remember growing up and never, ever going down to 5th Avenue.

I would never go below 7th Avenue. First of all, there was no reason to go but secondly, it was fucking scary or maybe it wasn't but I sure as hell wasn't gonna find out. The only time I would go below 7th Avenue was to go play basketball at the park on 3rd Street between 4th and 5th Avenue. One thing that makes me a bit sad is, I'd bet good money, that the majority of the shops on 5th Avenue are gone once the Barclay's Arena comes in. The rents are going to skyrocket and many of the shops will get forced out. Welcome, ESPN Zone, Heartland Brewery and Madame Tussauds!

I had a bit of a tough commute this morning. I took my "usual" route through Park Slope to Clinton Street which leads through Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights to the Brooklyn Bridge. I must have been completely caught up in my own shit because I almost got hit about 4 times. It was probably me. I’ve also just come to the realization that I am turning 40 this Friday. It’s kind of just hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s damn hard to believe. Somehow I thought that things would be very different then they are. Right now, I’m living in Brooklyn about 1 mile from where I grew up. Don’t get me wrong, things are not all that bad, Brooklyn is an incredible place – I just biked to work and on Sunday the family and I biked to the farmer’s market and didn’t get into the car all day. Most weekends, we don’t, there’s no need to. But. But…I’m feeling that I need something else – I grew up here and when I was growing up I always felt out of place. For many years after I left, I figured that I’d never come back. After September 11^th, I moved back. It just seemed like the right thing to do, my family was here and it was my home.

Now, it’s different. I’m turning 40. Yesterday – we had a quiet lazy morning. It should have been an easy relaxing morning but I couldn’t relax, I was stuck inside. All I wanted to do was be outside, maybe sipping on my coffee looking out over the backyard, maybe doing some weeding in my garden, watering the kale. Watching the kids run around. I don’t know, I’ve never actually done it. I’ve always lived in apartments. But I’m feeling that I need something different. And I’m talking more than just a different route.

The best part of the morning was playing with my daughter. We played with some blocks and little Fischer-Price people. The first thing that I realized is that she’s turning into her own little person. One of the weird things about having two kids especially ones that are somewhat close in age is that you’re always tailoring things around the oldest kid. What does Gus need? What does Gus want to do?

And the younger one, for the most part, follows along. It was so interesting to have special one-on-one time with my daughter, where you really see as her personality blooms. She’s got a cute little quirky sense of humor. She’s constantly asking her self little questions about what she’s doing with wacky little faces and she was very interested in building structures and then having “the big bad wolf”, played by her favorite doll, Catherine, knock it down.

In the afternoon, they had semi-closed the Manhattan Bridge bike path. And I recently heard that it was going to be closed for 6 months, which is a real bummer. It's so much easier than taking the Brooklyn Bridge in the afternoon. Especially in the summer.

I decided to just go through the sign and ride the path anyway and it was actually a really nice ride - there was absolutely no one on the path. I road down Jay Street and through Park Slope to make my way home. I have a new favorite street. St. Marks Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue. The street is completely covered in a tree canopy. Then road down 7th Ave to 1st Street and the park. It was a nice ride, even in 90 plus temps.

Beacon would definitely be a different commute

So, I went up to Beacon with my family today. It's beautiful up there. I spent a lot of my childhood going to Candlewood Lake, which is about 20 or so miles to the east of Beacon. So, everything about Beacon reminded me of Candlewood Lake or The Lake we would call it, the smell as the sun started to set, the trees, the beautiful and surprisingly large hills that cross the area of the country. Hell, they may even be mountains!

The City of Beacon was beautiful, as well. It seems that Beacon would be a town more than a city but it's actually a city, unless the firetruck was labeled wrong. It's got much more of a town feel to me....there's one main street called - "Main Street", surprisingly and it doesn't seem that there's many other streets that run parallel to Main Street, which gives it the town feeling. Main Street is surprisingly long with definite differences in the sections of Main Street. The section close to the Hudson was somewhat artsy with a town feeling. I took this picture of what I'm assuming was in it's past life a bank. It's now a baptist church but still incredibly beautiful. I had a hell of a time trying to find any information about this building. I figured that it would be on the historic buildings register or something but I was unable to find anything. I think that it's run by the Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church, maybe that's got something to do with it. I'd love to find out more about the building.

The middle section was a bit more deserted and the last section ( I only call it that because it's the last section that we were on) has more of an antiquey feel. There seemed to be a bunch of antique stores and what looked like some old mill buildings around a creek.

The city also has a "river pool" in the Hudson River. Basically, they put in a floating enclosure that's about 15 feet in diameter and about 30 inches deep. It's for kids, mostly, but I really enjoyed it too. Swimming in the Hudson was pretty fun and rediculously beautiful. Overall, I really enjoyed Beacon.


I also saw a beautiful hummingbird, which is always a blessing. Hummingbirds continuely amaze me, so precise in their movements. Jerky. but gentle. The contradiction of their precise movements, the speed of their wings and their delicacy and size always amaze me...they're definitely something I want to learn more about. This picture is not of the hummingbird I saw in Beacon, that one was slimmer and seemed that it would be more efficient in it's movements. This is a picture of a hummingbird taken in Phoenix, Arizona last December. They're beautiful whereever they are. Good night.

I was going to take my normal route this morning, considering it was my first “official” morning commute but when I got to the Gowanus Canal, I was forced to take a detour. The draw bridge was up…so I back tracked and road on 3^rd avenue through Boreum Hill, down Dean Street and over Bond Street to the Fulton Street Mall.

I was able to take a great picture of the old Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn building on Fulton Street.

They recently demolished the famous and infamous Albee Square Mall (as Biz Markie said “my home is the Albee Square Mall, my house is the Albee Square Mall”) that was directly behind the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn building. For nostalgic reasons, I was sad to see the Albee Square Mall go but completely understand why it needed to go. Since the demolition, you can really get a whole new perspective on the beauty of the Dime Savings Bank building (built 1906-8 by Mowbray & Uffinger).

That whole area is going through an incredible transformation with the rezoning of downtown Brooklyn that happened in 2004 and it will change even more once the Barclay’s Arena is finally completed. The whole area was somewhat of a dead zone ever since I can remember and there still are some buildings along Livingston Street and Flatbush Avenue that have really bad non-commercial land uses as their street frontages. I remember taking the B41 down Livingston Street to go to school in the early 1980’s. It was bad then and is equally as bad now.

Even on Fulton Street where you’ve got tons of retail, there are many building where the upper floors of the building are left empty. I assume, it was just more profitable to use the stairwells as street retail or there was absolutely no demand for non-street level commercial along the strip. I suspect that much of this will change in the coming years.

Beautiful ride home. There are a ton more bikers out on the roads this year. The difference over the last couple of years is pretty incredible. I took the Manhattan Bridge home. The Brooklyn Bridge on a nice summer afternoon, make that any afternoon is swamped with tourists. Not worth it.

Completely obsessed with this Bon Iver song, it led me home!

Ok this is my sophomoric attempt at creating a blog. This afternoon while riding my bike home, I thought that I should start a blog chronicling my commute to and from work everyday. I figured that the best way to keep it interesting would be to take a different route every day. For some reason, I thought that I might be able to do it for a year, so I'm starting today, it's July 14th Bastille day. I'm thinking that even taking a slightly different route qualifies as changing my route, say taking 13th street instead of 11th street on my ride in....

I took my usual route both this morning and afternoon, so tomorrow will be my first "new way". My commute this morning consisted of riding up Prospect Park Southwest, to Brichard Circle then down 15th Street to 7th Avenue, to 13th Street all the way to 2nd Avenue, through the Lowe's parking lot and back onto 9th street. Right on Smith and left on a small street I can't remember the name of. To Clinton Street which leads you right to Tillary and the Brooklyn Bridge.

On the way home, I took the Manhattan Bridge to Sand Street and...I'm not sure the name (shit, gonna have to pay more attention) to Mrytle and Adelphi to Atlantic and Vanderbilt. Through Prospect Park and I was home. Here's a shot of the bike path on Adelphi Street along Fort Greene Park. Beautiful neighborhood and it's been the route I've been relying on recently.

I guess I'll figure out how to become more efficient at posting and more interested, if I actually continue doing this. I hope to.

I tried to catch a picture of a three legged dog that I saw on my ride home but couldn't get the picture in time, so I only caught the crosswalk, gonna have to get a bit better at taking pictures while riding, too!

Here's the map of the route, I took. It's not the best map but it's the best I can do now. I'll have to figure out how I can make it look better.

Listening to Fallin' Flyin' by Jeff Bridges. Ok, signing off until tomorrow!