> Bike lanes have often become proxies in urban conflicts over gentrification, seen as a street design geared to young professionals, techies and hipsters and a pathway to trendy coffee shops, high-end retail and luxury apartments.
Strong disagree. Bike lanes are a necessary part of any city's infrastructure, providing a safe way for all cyclists to move from one point, to another. To anchor bike lanes to groups of people like techies and hipsters is absurd.
I think another way it could have been put: no one cared enough about bike riders to put in bike lanes until wealthier riders moved in.
Like, yeah, totally agree that bike lanes are an important part of any city's street planning. The more absurd thing is that there have been people riding bikes through the streets of SF for decades, and it wasn't until parts of the city began to gentrify, and bike shares became popular amongst the wealthier residents, that anyone cared enough to fix the problem.
I think it's not quite like that. More like what happened at Howard U. When no one as moving in and gentrifying people accused them of not doing enough for the community. It begins gentrifying and they get accused of contributing to the gentrification by upkeeping their environs too much and attracting gentrifiers.
As a former Howard student, I think the school's just hella cheap, but also doesn't like getting negative attention from the outside. Students (myself included) have been complaining for years about the quality of the buildings, and asking for renovations. But it wasn't until the neighborhood started gentrifying, and the new neighbors started to complain, that Howard did anything about it.
Which is why people get upset. Its not that the changes aren't good, its the fact that the change doesn't happen until someone else asks for them.
I don't know about Howard but seems like lots of colleges are spending on fancy new buildings (etc) to attract students and that's driving up the cost of education? Do you think that has anything to do with it?
Howard specifically tries to brand itself as a school that has a large amount of economic diversity, and a high percentage of students who are first generation college grads (around 38% for the class of 2014 [1]). Its a pretty well-known/prestigious HBCU, and doesn't have a problem attracting applicants.
But, unlike a lot of other schools in its position, its alumni network generally doesn't give back all that often (probably in part because first-gen college students are more-likely to have financial responsibilities to their families, and less-likely to be able to afford to give/prioritize giving back to their universities).
But I do specifically remember having to move off campus because my dorm had a mouse/mold problem (woke up multiple nights in a row to mice in my bed, and started having breathing problems because of the mold. Some students even had mushrooms growing out of their carpet). And when I brought it up to the director of residence life, he responded by saying that it wasn't a big enough deal to address, and that students always complain about these things and eventually stop pushing....So....
Is that an indictment of the old residents (who didn't / couldn't push through the legislation) or the new residents (who use their power and influence to get it done)?
Its probably more complicated than that. In areas that don't have bike lanes, people tend to just bike on the sidewalks, and pedestrians just put up with having to move out of the way. The reason is likely a mix between being historically ignored by the city, not bothering to really try, and also just knowing that sidewalks are safer to bike on (even if inconvenient).
When wealthier people move into a neighborhood, expecting bike lanes, they push for them. They probably have more power/influence, but they also have a higher since of entitlement that causes them to not give up, even if the city pushes back.
People who agitate for change are more likely to get change. Wealthy residents advocated for bike lanes. The previous residents didn't. How else could the world possibly work?
Are you sure the previous residents didn't advocate for change?
You don't think there's a small chance the previous residents _did_ advocate for change, but their advocacy wasn't effective because it wasn't backed by wealth?
For many poor and middle class people bikes were a sign you were poor and could not afford a car. So some people in the middle would avoid biking so as not to look poor.
Upper middle class, having some security and wealth didn't care about "looking poor". They could ride $5000 bikes to display wealth or could ride $50 used bikes, interchangeably. They already had status so bikes were neutral or even positive (I'm active, I'm pro environment, etc.)
Anecdote: I come from a working-class neighborhood. Adults on bikes were roundly ridiculed when I was growing up. There is absolutely no chance (or evidence) that the adults of my childhood had any interest in bike lanes (for exactly the reasons you describe).
Yes. I am extremely confident that newcomer wealthy residents were asking for bike lanes in a way that previous less wealthy residents weren't. You might ask yourself why so many people have an interest in avoiding this explanation. It's just politics.
> To anchor bike lanes to groups of people like techies and hipsters is absurd.
Completely agree. The phrase "this is why we can't have nice things" comes to mind. I can sort of understand the backlash against corporate shuttles or even Uber, since these roll in and only benefit a certain layer of society. However, that decidedly does not seem to be the case with these bikes. From the article:
> “When you look at the transportation privileges that have been provided for these techies, and when you now look at these bikes, it’s not for Juan. It ain’t for Pablo ... The feeling of people in this community is like we don’t exist.”
But then:
> Supporters [...] claimed it is one of the most accessible in the country, with a $5 annual membership for low-income people and options to sign up without a credit or debit card.
This just sounds like complaining about change for the sake of it. Then again, maybe this whole anti-gentrification story is overblown. It could just be bored kids with no larger agenda. After all, the article even mentions it's common for vandals to target bike sharing systems when they first appear.
Well they managed to block a bike share location near my house after crying about how it would gentrify the neighborhood and harm the businesses on 24th st. More important for them to have a parking spot for the Tesla out front I guess.
Another thing it looks like is appealing to the disenfranchised the way it's done in a place like Venezuela.
You blame all maladies and shortcomings on the professionals, the middle class, the merchants, etc., who are taking your entitlements at every chance. It has the typical characteristics of incited class struggle.
Yep. Stuff like this gets twisted and distorted and then whipped up by politicians, pundits and "journalists" in order to get votes, viewers and clicks. It's disgusting.
edit: downvote? what's to downvote? seriously? don't be a coward, explain yourself!
What something is, and what something is seen as, are rarely the same thing. Even something shared across class boundaries.
Visiting a coffee shop (no matter what you buy) will always be seen as a luxury activity, even though people have been going to diners for coffee (or making their own) for years.
Probably because coffee shops tend to charge two to four times more for a cup than a diner would. Like, you could buy a bag of coffee grounds for the amount some people pay
If you just get a cup of coffee, the price is usually about the same, modulo free refills. The quality from the coffee shop is also usually better.
Diners (at least those where I live) have started offering more options (including cappuccino style concoctions) in response to the coffee house trend, and now tend to match the prices of those coffee houses.
what something is seen as is largely shaped by politicians jockeying for power and muckraking journalists whoring their principals for clicks.
edit: again with the downvotes? is this not largely true? I think you give most people too much credit if you disagree with this. please back up your down votes with some kind of argument.
Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN and (more importantly) stop using the site for ideological battle? That's destructive of what HN is for.
The bigger difference is between single people and families. If you have an infant or disabled family member, transportation through biking isn't practical. If you have two kids at different schools who both need to arrive between 8am and 8:15 while you need to be at work before 9, then biking isn't going to cut it. If you coach your son's baseball team and need to carry a ton of gear, you need a car. However, if you're only responsibility to is to get yourself to work before 10am, then biking is great!
I can understand the frustration from people who need to drive when new infrastructure geared towards biking seemingly comes at the expense of drivers. Ex. Market St, the main street in downtown SF, is scheduled to be closed to private vehicles and only used by bikes, taxis and buses.
If your children are old enough to ride a bike but too young or too poor to have a car, then they can actually bike to school themselves which could make the commute nicer for everyone. They could bike alone, with friends, with a sibling, or with a parent depending on their age and how far they have to go. In the Mission there are a ton of schools so a lot of students probably don't have to travel far especially when they're young.
Definitely. Anchoring bike lines or bike infrastructure to any one sub-set of people is asinine. Hell, linking bike riding with any one sub-set of people is problematic.Spend any time around a bike co-op and you'll see that lots of people need bikes and bike lanes — from decked-out road bikers to those of lower income who don't own a car, and yeah, maybe some hipsters with fixies.
That part of the article left a nasty taste in my mouth. The only reason anyone would make such a statement would be to backup their own shortsighted, backward-looking way of thinking.
> cycling is a physical activity that you can partake in well into old age.
I'm not sure at what age it's no longer safe. Even when you are young, riding around a busy city with traffic can be a bit dangerous. Coordination decreases as you age, and at certain point, one fall can yield broken bones. A broken hip, for example, when you are old can be the beginning of a permanent decline.
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Recurly was born in 2009 from the changing needs of businesses. With the industry’s movement to subscription-based models, the need for a sophisticated recurring payment management platform has exploded.
On the surface, subscription billing sounds easy: charge a credit card a certain amount every month. But companies of all sizes have discovered that managing recurring billing is significantly more challenging than processing one-time payments.
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Strong disagree. Bike lanes are a necessary part of any city's infrastructure, providing a safe way for all cyclists to move from one point, to another. To anchor bike lanes to groups of people like techies and hipsters is absurd.