Month: August 2010

Biking in Astoria

Get lost?

Don’t forget this ditty from the Dec 3, 1926 New York Times:Verse Affords Means to Get About Queens — E. P. Butler’s Rhyming System Guides All Folks When Street Plans Twist ‘Em. I want to get this framed in needlepoint. I don’t why; I just do. In Queens, to find locations bestAvenues, roads and drives…
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Jersey Farm Stand in Astoria

On that least rural and worst of streets to bike down, there’s a Jersey farm stand in Astoria! He’s there Saturday and Monday. It’s on 21st Street, west side, between 30th Road and 30th Drive (next block from the post office).   Good stuff. Good produce. Give him business.

Why I should leave the house more

Of all the places for heaven on earth, people rarely think of Queens. I was just about to get to work when a friend called and said to meet him in the park for a picnic. So off we went to meet him and his son. My friend, a Steinway-Street restaurant owner, is a well…
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Stop with the honking

I hate honking cars. Probably more than most people. I mean, have you thrown eggs at honking cars? And that’s only after getting pissed off, putting on pants, leaving my house, and talking to the offending driver. And they still honk?! Usually, when the eggs flew, they were honking at the garbage trucks. That’s a…
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The two-speed kickback hub is back!

Indeed, after a 30 to 40-year hiatus, the kickback hub is back! I have an old Bendix 2-speed kickback hub on one of my bikes. I love it. It’s really the perfect hub for a simple tooling-around-the-city bike. The only problem with mine is that it is four pounds. I assume the new version is…
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Bikes don’t hurt people. Cars Do.

Ben Fried over at Streetsblog has the data. In New York, about 10,000 pedestrians are injured in motor vehicle crashes per year. About 50 in bike collisions.

Biking Google Maps

A story by Lionel Beehner in the Times. I still say Ride the City is much better. But I assume Google maps in catching up every day.

HOT Pepper

The generally unremarkable Indian (or Bangladeshi or Pakistani) Bodega on 31st Street just north of the 30 Ave Subway Stop (east side of street) — which does, finally sell beer — has some of the ab-so-lute-ly most fucking hot peppers in the world on sale. They’re laid out on a Hindi newspaper by the register.…
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Bike Lanes Update

The DOT has confirmed that there will be no bike lanes above 29thStreet on Hoyt/Astoria Blvd. The proposed bike lanes in the AstoriaTriangle Redesign were eliminated due to CB1 opposition. However, given this change, the DOT has decided to widen the parking laneswhere the bike lanes were supposed to be, so as to give cyclists…
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