[*BCM*] Op/Ed

[Lee Peters]

That letter is as much about the provincial character of the city as it is about bike parking.  Agreed, the argument is as slippery as a summertime horse apple, but so is that of Landmarks Commission.  The comment is in response to a department in the city that has no business blocking the installation.  The historical citation is mostly sarcastic to directly confront the commission.  The historical inaccuracy is only through omission and remember I only have 186 words.

Coal and Horses?  Well, if we imagine the invention of the bike was triggered by necessity for convenient and low energy transportation, then coal and horses are obsolete for personal locomotion. Trouble is, those inventors kept working, sometimes developing bad ideas.  Think of Orville and Wilbur, one minute they are biking down the street, the next generation their invention is used to drop horse apples onto Dresden.  (please don't evoke Godwin's Law for my WW2 reference)

I appreciate all of your comments and ideas, so don't worry I will still sing in the shower tomorrow morning.

Lee


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Anne Wolfe 
  To: Boston Critical Mass 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 1:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [*BCM*] Op/Ed


  No, historical accuracy wasn't the point of the letter.  It is just the part that will get most easily picked apart to write off a good point as coming from some fool, which Lee isn't.  If the bike racks were easy to get through the mass populace, it would have happened much more easily by now.  Instead, no bike racks, no parking meters, no nothing, and an excuse to totally disregard a very valid point.  Because disregarding valid points with collateral side issues never happens in the Boston media now, does it?  

  I'd like something more working on that 38,000 people cycling in and around Boston every day.  That's something that would surprise a lot of people, and starts people thinking there's strength behind it.

   
  On 28/11/06, Andrew Toomajian <andytoomajian at hotmail.com> wrote: 
    great letter lee!  congrats.

    to the peanut gallery - historical accuracy isnt the point.  if it were, we'd make the place a swamp again.  we humans tend to be pretty selective in what parts of history we want to keep and what ones we relegate to the dustbin.  lee's letter seems to make the point that bikes are every bit as valid as cars in the back bay, and perhaps more so.  and it does this successfully. 

    personally i'd love to see the whole back bay become a pedestrian mall, but right now a few bikeracks seems a good goal.

     
    - andy


    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

    "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."    

    - James Baldwin  
    ________________________________________________________________________ 

     




--------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:10:23 +0000
      From: goannego at gmail.com
      To: list at bostoncriticalmass.org
      Subject: Re: [*BCM*] Op/Ed 



      I thought it was a great letter. 

      Until I realized that at the time of creation, the Back Bay as cited was a swamp and the roads were backed up with horses, carriages, mud, and (as Colonel Potter used to call it) "horse puckey."

      Different to cars, but not much safer, and a different kind of dirt.  Pro bikes, good, but appealing to the historical sense seemed to have a big flaw.

       
      On 28/11/06, Lee Peters <lfpeters at gis.net> wrote: 
        Hey kids -- This is the 1st letter I got past the editors of the Globe.  (Turtle provided guidance on how to do this a couple months ago, thanks!)

        http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2006/11/28/back_bay_bike_racks_perish_the_thought/ 



        _______________________________________________
        Boston Critical Mass mailing list
        list at bostoncriticalmass.org
        http://bostoncriticalmass.org/list
        To unsubscribe email list-unsubscribe at bostoncriticalmass.org





      -- 
      Anne Wolfe, LL.M.
      Mobile: ( 077484) 76599  
      Nothing can be compared to a faithful friend, and no weight of gold and silver is able to countervail the goodness of his fidelity.  - Ecclesiasticus 
      Certes, Toto, sentio nos in Kansate non iam adesse. - D. Gale 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Check the weather nationwide with MSN Search Try it now!

    _______________________________________________
    Boston Critical Mass mailing list
    list at bostoncriticalmass.org 
    http://bostoncriticalmass.org/list
    To unsubscribe email list-unsubscribe at bostoncriticalmass.org





  -- 
  Anne Wolfe, LL.M.
  Mobile: ( 077484) 76599  
  Nothing can be compared to a faithful friend, and no weight of gold and silver is able to countervail the goodness of his fidelity.  - Ecclesiasticus 
  Certes, Toto, sentio nos in Kansate non iam adesse. - D. Gale 


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Boston Critical Mass mailing list
  list at bostoncriticalmass.org
  http://bostoncriticalmass.org/list
  To unsubscribe email list-unsubscribe at bostoncriticalmass.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bostoncoop.net/pipermail/bostoncriticalmass/attachments/20061128/4de78369/attachment.htm