advocacy

Shoup Dogg, Parking Policy Cult Hero, Fills Fordham Auditorium

Shoup Dogg, Parking Policy Cult Hero, Fills Fordham Auditorium: Shoup quoted Seinfeld’s George Costanza to sum up the essential New Yorker attitude when it comes to curbside parking: “It’s like going to a prostitute. Why should I pay when, if I apply myself, maybe I could get it for free?” [I think the quote says it all… (however the article is a bit about Shoup who believes that the congestion problem can be improved by charging a more accurate cost for street parking in NYC.]
Source: StreetsBlog

Professional services for professional blogs

Professional services for professional blogs: For Dave Winer, for me, for Ben Toth, for John Halamka, and for a growing number of professional bloggers in the sense I’m defining the term, there’s got to be a better way. We don’t need services that are free. We need services that are reliable here in the present, and that offer tiered levels of future assurance. If you build it, we will pay. [Opportunity knocks…]
Source: Jon’s Radio

Cyclist Doored, Killed by Truck in Midtown

Cyclist Doored, Killed by Truck in Midtown: Here is the wire report:

FINAL UPDATE,RESP-4 REPORTS A CYCLIST TRAVELING NORTH BOUND 6 AVE BTWN 36 & 37 ST WERE A RED PICK UP TRUCK WAS PARKED BY THE HYDRANT WHEN THE PASSENGER OPENED THE DOOR AND STRUCK THE CYCLIST . THE CYCLIST WAS STRUCK BY A PASSING BOX TRUCK.THE CYCLIST WAS TAKEN TO BELLVUE HOSPITAL {DOA} ..SIGNS & MARKING IN GOOD WORKING ORDER..PER OP-26

And here is how it was reported in the Daily News. Note the number of steps taken, and not taken, by the cyclist to put himself in mortal danger — starting with the headline.

Bicyclist killed after falling in front of truck
 
A 63-year-old man bicycling in midtown Manhattan Wednesday morning hit a car door and flipped into the street before he was run over and killed by a box truck, police said.

The man, whose identity wasn’t immediately released, was not wearing a helmet, a police source said.

It’s as if every action — hitting the door, flipping into the street — was initiated by the cyclist, who wasn’t even wearing a helmet. The drivers of the vehicles, meanwhile, are never mentioned in the story. In fact, the article makes it seem as if there were no drivers.

The Ace Hardware truck that hit the man stayed at the scene. [Perspective is why blogging rules. There’s an outlook, a framework through which we all view the occurrences in our lives. Shift the framework and our perspective changes, and so does the way we record the account of a given moment. Because of human nature, all the major papers report news from a similar perspective (in order to become a reporter, editor, etc. requires certain qualities which are self selecting for a given viewpoint.)]
Source: StreetsBlog

New York Times Employees Say Renzo Forgot the Bike Parking

New York Times Employees Say Renzo Forgot the Bike Parking: There was just one problem. While the Times and developer Forest City Ratner were promoting their new Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper as a “technologically advanced and environmentally sensitive” exemplar of green construction, a lack of bike parking and policies hostile towards cyclists were discouraging employees from commuting to work by the city’s most environmentally-friendly mode of urban transport.
[I have a similar problem in my current location… there’s no way to bring a bike into the building, leaving a bike outside all the time is a poor idea. Sad. So little thought to the simple things that improve everyone’s life.]
Source: StreetsBlog

Don’t complain about the game. Change the game you’re playing.

Don’t complain about the game. Change the game you’re playing.: The people who insist on telling you that you can’t are often actually saying I can’t. For whatever reason: fear, self-doubt, teachers, managers or parents who quash them (whom they let squash them), a complete lack of belief in their own power, a kind of sublimated jealousy and rage because you succeed where, of course, they “can’t.”

It’s true that this stuff sometimes comes straight from the mouths of people who care (or purport to care) about you, your business, your product, your career, whatever. They may think they’re trying to do right by you, but I’ve found that the people who say such things are afraid of life… not just for themselves, but for you, too. They’re afraid you might fail because they’re so horribly afraid of failing. They’re afraid that you might succeed, too, because what kind of light would that cast on their failure to do exactly what you’re doing right?[Great piece on success, failure, and making stuff happen.]
Source: (24)Slash7