The worlds of cycling and activism have a long history of intersecting. In the 19th century, bicycles were a vehicle of liberation for women fighting against disenfranchisement. Swarms of riders also rode to demand safer paved streets, only to see their victories robbed from them by the imposition of the automobile years later. More recently, Critical Mass proved… Continue reading Why Civil Disobedience Needs More Bikes
Tag: Occupy
‘Scorched Earth Urbanism’ and other Quasi-Satirical Street Vocabularies
When defining a new term, or redefining a marginalized term, it helps to define its converse. The word ‘sustainable’ has become such a meaningless marketing brand. If we’re going to take this one back from the PR firms we’ll need to draw a few lines. The opposite of ‘sustainable’ should be understood to be ‘terminal’.… Continue reading ‘Scorched Earth Urbanism’ and other Quasi-Satirical Street Vocabularies
Forget It, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
Possibly the most famous closing line to a film, the last utterance of Roman Polanski’s neo-noir Chinatown was meant to convey the sense that no amount of truth-telling or investigative light-shining can stop corrupted bureaus of city government. For anyone who hasn’t seen the film recently or isn’t familiar, Chinatown is loosely based around the real… Continue reading Forget It, Jake. It’s Chinatown.