I ride my bike to work every morning through Hasid town at the exact time when all those giant yellow school buses are making their pickups. They drive dangerously fast and then pull over sideways across the entire street to pick up those cute little Hasid tykes. Aside from the obvious fear of being run over and left for dead, I get a little nervous about being spit on. It's like a billion degrees out and I wear, at most, two articles of clothing. We're talking a dress and biker shorts here. I'm always fearful of getting a kosher lougie hawked right in my face for showing too much cleave.
I don't understand why religion is taking precedence over citizenship. No one is trying to encroach on places of worship, Yeshivas, or in private domiciles...and I would think that's pretty much where religious "ownership" begins and ends.
I think the "hipsters" (Yah, they need a new name...the Granola Hoodies, or the Honey Bunches of Soy, perhaps) should file a suit against the city for discrimination.
@Spirit Fingers: The city's technical reasons for removing the bike lanes were not religious; they sided with the safety concerns (note technical, no one in their right minds believes that the fact that it was Hasids complaining didn't help this along but keep in mind bike lanes have been removed in non-Jewish sections of the city for trumped up safety concerns as well), and bike lanes aren't a right - so how is this discrimination? I think what they did was awesome and hilarious but honestly? You don't need a bike lane to ride in the street - a better act of civil disobedience would be to just send parades of topless female cyclists (TOTALLY LEGAL IN NY, unlike graffiti) down the streets.
@allyzay: I think if you can prove that one group's religious ideology contributed to some unfair action by the city, than yeah, in my book that's discrimination.
But you know, I loathe the "Granola Hoodies" who frequent food eateries and stay for hours using the free wireless making us working schlubs have to lug our sandwiches back to the office in the rain, because you need to take up six chairs with your laptop, its accoutrements, all your iPhoneing/podding/yoga mats, and one fucking cup of coffee. So yeah, I could lodge a complaint, but I don't because it's been deemed acceptable for them to be there, even though free wireless isn't a right. Pffttt!
@Mike Jahn: Where are they referred to as "loathsome"? The article describes hispters and hasidim as "loathed". The implication is that they are equally loathed by others in the city, not by the blog author.
The thing is, the consistent pattern here is The Hasids vs. EVERYBODY. Period.
Apart from all of the historical conflict between blacks and the Hasids in Crown Heights which many people just chalked up to the "silly negro" syndrome, you can't get more unreasonable than strong arming the City to cover up bike path lanes on a major biking thoroughfare just because you don't want "outsiders" biking down a particular public street. If you were so observant of your religion and trying to adhere to the whole "do not stare at a woman's bare elbow" thing, you wouldn't look.
NY is not filled with closed, walled-off neighborhoods. This is ridiculous. This whole bending to the Hasids thing has been going on forever.
@ms_priestypants: It must have been tough for them trying to decide if the spray paint would be better used to paint their $3000 bike a solid color, or restore the lanes they will be riding that bike in.
Seriously, though. Watching them get paint all over their hands is unnerving.
@HaysiFantayzee: Muslim punk rock is definitely a real youth subculture. It seems cool, though I don’t know much about it. Apparently it all starts with a 2003 novel by Michael Muhammad Knight called The Taqwacores. (LA Times)
@A Message To Rudy: "Watch where you're going in Will-iams-burg/
Too much cleavage showing in Will-iams-burg/
There's much to like here in Will-iams-burg/
Lest you ride a bike here in Will-iams-burg/
(Thanks to DennyCrane for the idea. It has legs. C'mon someone, get to it! This has the potential for a great West Side Story parody.)
01:06 PM
I'm Team Cycles.
12:06 PM
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11:51 AM
[tonightatthepit.blogspot.com]
11:50 AM
I think the "hipsters" (Yah, they need a new name...the Granola Hoodies, or the Honey Bunches of Soy, perhaps) should file a suit against the city for discrimination.
12:08 PM
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But you know, I loathe the "Granola Hoodies" who frequent food eateries and stay for hours using the free wireless making us working schlubs have to lug our sandwiches back to the office in the rain, because you need to take up six chairs with your laptop, its accoutrements, all your iPhoneing/podding/yoga mats, and one fucking cup of coffee. So yeah, I could lodge a complaint, but I don't because it's been deemed acceptable for them to be there, even though free wireless isn't a right. Pffttt!
12:59 PM
11:43 AM
That said, if one more "entitled" cyclist blows a whistle at me I'm going to clothesline him.
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11:36 AM
Apart from all of the historical conflict between blacks and the Hasids in Crown Heights which many people just chalked up to the "silly negro" syndrome, you can't get more unreasonable than strong arming the City to cover up bike path lanes on a major biking thoroughfare just because you don't want "outsiders" biking down a particular public street. If you were so observant of your religion and trying to adhere to the whole "do not stare at a woman's bare elbow" thing, you wouldn't look.
NY is not filled with closed, walled-off neighborhoods. This is ridiculous. This whole bending to the Hasids thing has been going on forever.
11:11 AM
PS, your subscription to Adbusters is up, don't forget to renew.
11:16 AM
11:47 AM
Seriously, though. Watching them get paint all over their hands is unnerving.
11:06 AM
While hipsters grabbed their cocks by night while seated on the ground,
They tried to repaint the bike lane, 'til Hasids beat them down,
Til Hasids beat them down
"Oy and gevalt!" the Hasids said,
"Now call NYPD!"
"We just don't like hipsters on bikes.
They are so damn sexxxy!"
The hipsters yelled: "You guys all smell!
And fuck you through a sheet!
We need a lane to share our pain
While hogging up the streets!"
The cops then said "Hey why can't youse just learn to get along?
You both wear dumb hats, and drink cheap booze, and you all smell kinda strong!"
All glory be to Billyburg
With its diversity
Hasids and hipsters hand in hand
Neither truly sexxxy
Neither truly sexxxy!!!!
Aaaaaaamen!!!
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11:13 AM
"I Feel Pretty (Verklempt)"
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01:23 PM
Too much cleavage showing in Will-iams-burg/
There's much to like here in Will-iams-burg/
Lest you ride a bike here in Will-iams-burg/
(Thanks to DennyCrane for the idea. It has legs. C'mon someone, get to it! This has the potential for a great West Side Story parody.)
10:52 AM