New York City, the wealthiest and most powerful city in America, cowers in fear and lays helpless before the all-powerful and totalitarian bicycling lobby. Behold the once glorious libertarian paradise that was Gotham! Now, pedestrians and motorists will be occasionally obliged to negotiate around bike-sharing racks! Which are colored blue!! Truly, what a sad, sad day for American freedom.(Via David Watkins.)
"I represent the majority..."
ReplyDeleteChoke.
Not in my neighborhood...
This woman doesn't remind my of Ayn Rand -- she reminds me of the stereotype of a prissy old-money matriarch. She probably lives in a big Victorian mansion in some quiet old neighborhood in the city. At the country club, she and her chauffeur-driven friends sit around complaining about the rabble getting in their way on the way to the opera. And they sneer at Bloomberg as he walks past, because he and his efficiency-minded managers are taking all the charm out of being rich in NYC.
ReplyDeleteHer comments are on the level, intellectually and otherwise, with the periodic complaints from some conservatives about our sartorial choices - George Will was probably the most recent, bemoaning the ubiquity of denim and chiding the upper orders for emulating the fashions and cultures of the lower orders. Conservatives voicing this complaint wish to see class hierarchy inscribed, not merely in the economic and political order, but in the materiality of our daily existences, visible to all, so that all may know - may be made to know, and made to observe - the proper rituals of deference and disregard. Complaints about the Citibikes emanate from the same galaxy of resentments and hatreds, combing contempt for the hoi polloi with contempt for environmental sensitivities and those who harbour them; the little people should be neither seen nor heard, but when seeing them and hearing them is unavoidable, it must occur on the terms of the Great and Good, and the little people must know their places.
ReplyDeleteWhen he ran for mayor in 1965, William F. Buckley wanted to make NYC bicycle friendly.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesdispatch.com/news/article_77bc8776-0fb6-5410-9d98-74a4fa6e5f00.html