Trouble at mill: NYC CM

Apparentely NY is a 'blue state'.

Greens Defend Critical Mass and Bicycles Against Mass Arrests
Green leaders spoke out against efforts by law enforcement to target Critical Mass, defending cyclists' right to assemble. Critical Mass, which holds mass bicycle rides to celebrate the bicycle as a healthy alternative to the automobile, has been the target of recent mass arrests and confiscation of bicycles. 'Police could easily allow Critical Mass rides to proceed without incident, instead of disrupting them and arresting riders,' said Henry Lawrence, past President of the Florida Bicycle Association and Florida Green Party candidate for Bay County Commissioner in 2004. 'Cities should make every attempt to accommodate bikes. Cities face increasing traffic demands, the effects of car exhaust such as asthma epidemics among children, and global warming. Bicycles represent one of the best hopes for clean urban transportation.'

Team development: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Do only the first two observations pertain to Critical Mass? Or does critical mass occur after norming has been achieved? Or is it more like the time for action is past, now is the time for senseless bickering?

With lawsuit and nets, city keeps chasing Critical Mass
In the city’s latest legal maneuver against the monthly Critical Mass bike ride in Manhattan, just days before last Friday’s ride, the city issued a controversial summons to four members of Time’s Up!, an environmental action group on E. Houston St. that supports, but claims it does not organize, the Critical Mass ride. Time’s Up! now burdened with growing legal expenses, held the first of several planned fundraising meetings at its headquarters Monday night. Lawyers plan their response to the lawsuit, and the constitutional issues it raises, by April 19.


Hey, arsehole, that's no way to treat a valuable & loved pedally.

City riding hard on cyclers' freedom

My wife and kids spent Purim at a Greenwich Village synagogue. I celebrated the holiday in a sausage joint near Union Square, hiding from the police. Just outside my one-man shul, on 17th Street, dozens of bicyclists were being arrested for riding without a permit, in what the cops call a 'procession.'

Freedom to ride
A few weeks shy of the NYC Critical Mass's 12th anniversary, the monthly bike ride is once again under attack. On March 15, Ray Kelly, Parks Commish Adrian Benepe and the City of New York filed a fresh complaint to shut down the ride. (The last legal attempt to do so, spearheaded by the NYPD's Assistant Chief Bruce Smolka, was denied by a federal judge in December.) The new complaint, which names four TIME'S UP! activists and those 'in concert' with them, seeks to enjoin anyone from promoting or advertising Critical Mass in any way. It also states that any gathering of 20 or more people requires a permit.