infrastructure

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Gravel on an Uptown Street

I only had energy for commuting today, so my bike ride just took me up to work and back, workaday pedaling, just trying to get there and back. As I rode up to my house I noticed this new addition of gravel to the front of the place, in that netherworld between street and sidewalk. Not to get too deep or anything, but whoa, that’s a seriously liminal space. Continue reading →

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Train Crossing the Huey P. Long Bridge

I had a thoroughly delightful Sunday, grading papers, reading, looking through job ads, working on my professional website, and when I finished up my work, I was most definitely in the mood for a long bicycle ride. I made a few tiny adjustments to my brakes and headed out to the levee, wanting to just pedal without monitoring the conditions of the pavement. The sun was just starting to go down, the weather was noticeably cooler than it has been, and I just let my legs get into that spinning rhythm with a song on repeat. Continue reading →

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Our Recovery in Progress Sign at Evans Playground at LaSalle and Valmont

It’s the first day of school–one of my very favorite days of the year. I got up early, polished my apple, and hopped on the Surly to meet this season’s new recruits. Three classes and a burrito later and I was back on the bike heading downtown for a stop at the gym, which today was just an excuse to lounge in the steam room. Continue reading →

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“Confederate Domination” Plaque on a Lamp Post at N. Rampart and Bienville

Today was a good day full of productivity and pep talks and copy machines. After a long day in the new office–it’s beautiful–I headed down to the Quarter for a quick burrito before riding to Mid-City for a bicycle meeting. It felt good to get to pedal some distance today. Man, I really missed my bicycle. I was stopped on the neutral ground waiting for a green light to cross N. Rampart on Bienville when I noticed the plaque on the lamp post. Now, I’ve ridden up and down this street a gazillion times, but lamp posts aren’t necessarily something I’m going to stop and notice. I need the light, not the post. I popped the Surly up on the curb to get a closer look. Continue reading →

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Bike Parking in Front of Dinwiddie Hall at Tulane

I’ve been watching this documentary about New York City, and it is blowing my mind. I am a lot of talk about the importance of bicycle infrastructure, but part of me thinks we’ve already got the roads we’ve got and it might just be too much trouble/money/work to really fundamentally change them. And then I learn about Robert Moses and the development of car culture. Continue reading →

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Terrible Asphalt at Magazine and Julia

You know I love riding my bike around New Orleans. It’s flat as a pancake here and the weather is always perfect for a ride, assuming you don’t mind thunderstorms and 100+ heat indices, which I don’t. But our streets are, in many places, spectacularly awful. We have some repaving projects, some even including facilities for bikes–Chartres, St. Claude, Gentilly, upper St. Charles, La Salle/Simon Bolivar, Loyola–but most streets are a mess of exposed streetcar tracks, potholes, loose gravel, ridges, and all various and sundry temporary patches. Continue reading →

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Exposed Pipe at Octavia and St. Charles

I have never lived in a town that wears as much of its skeleton on the outside as this place. There are the literal skeletons in their above-ground tombs scattered all over the city, but there is also the skeleton of infrastructure–outfrastructure?–that’s always poking through the surface. Continue reading →

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Loose Gravel at Baronne and Polymnia

I’m having a bit of a front derailleur issue that I haven’t had time to deal with, so the Specialized is getting extra riding time. The bike is quick and nimble and those skinny tires offer such a low rolling resistance it can feel like flying. It most definitely did when I hit the brand spankin’ new asphalt on Loyola. So, so nice! I’ve been cursing the resurfacing there for awhile. Continue reading →

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Ship Passing Under the Crescent City Connection

I woke up to a spectacular rainstorm this morning. I moved my car just in time (sort of) and lay about in my apartment listening to the drops pelting my tin roof. It was all very nice and such, but it rained all day yesterday, too, and I needed it slow up so I could ride my bike. I mean, two days without riding in a whole week? I get too itchy too fast for that sort of thing. And New Orleans weather changed it up just in time, as it sometimes does. I hopped on the Surly and headed downtown to the bike shoppe to drop her off for a check up and rode off on a cute little Schwinn rental to check out the scene by the river. Continue reading →

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G. Joseph Sullivan Pumping Station #6 in Old Metairie

I woke up this morning with a major case of senioritis. The semester is almost over, but it’s not over. I, however, am over it. After classes–which went well in spite of my spring fever–I rode the Surly to lunch and then set out to try to get lost. It was a perfect day for that kind of ride, and it was exactly what I needed. I rode around Mid-City and then up Canal to Old Metairie for a frozen yogurt. Yeah, a long ride for TCBY, but sometimes we’ve just got to do it. Continue reading →