Seen & Heard: Five Boro Bike Tour on Sunday

FIVE BORO BIKE TOUR ON FOR SUNDAY
The TD Five Boro Bike Tour is rescheduled (thanks to A. for the heads up) for Sunday, with the route starting at Battery Place and heading up Trinity to Sixth Avenue till it hits Central Park. The start is in waves beginning at 7:30 and ending with the fourth wave leaving from Canal Street at 9:20. The race ends in Staten Island.

MCC JAIL TO CLOSE TEMPORARILY
The Justice Department will temporarily close the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the jail behind 1 Centre Street where Jeffrey Epstein died, in order to assess its safety and conditions, according to The New York Times and everyone else. The Justice Department statement said that the department had “assessed steps necessary to improve conditions…at least temporarily, until those issues have been resolved.” The jail houses 233 inmates.

AHMED’S COFFEE CART OPEN ON SATURDAYS
H. wrote to say that Ahmed, who has the coffee cart on West Broadway at Warren in front of the dry cleaner, has added Saturday hours to his schedule. “He is a lovely person and is expanding his hours to catch up a bit from the impact of the pandemic. The coffee is great and he also has breakfast stuff like sandwiches and bagels.”

 

7 Comments

  1. So far, I have not seen any posters about 5 Boro Bike Tour. No information of who to contact if their music is too loud. Those were part of the agreements they had with CB1 in 2019 after years of complaints. Hopefully, they will be better neighbors this year. Time will tell.

  2. I’m happy to report that they only had 4 speakers on the block leading up to the stage (plus the ones on the stage itself). None on the other blocks. That’s what they agreed to in 2019. (I still feel for those living on that block.)
    So they have proven that they can run this safely without blasting music on the 5+ streets leading up to the start. Safety was one of their arguments for the need for blocks of speakers. Yes, it was smaller this year but 20,000 bikers is still a lot. Thanks, Bike NYC for keeping your promise to the neighbors of Tribeca.

  3. @S: It’s nice to see you credit Bike NY’s (somewhat) quieter 5-Boro Bike Tour startup today. I’ve passed on your compliments to one of the organizers, a friend, and he was pleased that your fears weren’t realized and that you said as much. Graciousness is in short supply these days, but not on your part. Nice.

    • Thanks for your kind words. I actually went to the stage to thank them & acknowledge their efforts. I think they feared I was there to complain so they seemed quite surprised & relieved to receive my thanks. I believe we can co-exist & I’m glad they’ve found a way to run the tour without jolting us out of bed at 6:45 on Sunday. That said, I still think it makes more sense to start it near Battery Park, especially since they tell folks to park in Staten Island & come over on the ferry.

      Thanks for passing on my experience to your friend.

      • S
        The Tour which started in 1977 has had to adapt to a changing city. The start line area originally was pretty much non residential as was the industrial waterfront of Queens and Brooklyn-now look at Dumbo. The organizers work hard to minimize inconvenience to residents but acknowledge they do exist. The talks with local community boards are done in good faith, in an effort to get along with our fellow New Yorkers. I would add that this event occurs one day a year-imagine the disruptions for folks that live along 5th Ave. I will add that the logistics of running a 30,000+ person event on bicycles are quite complicated and the idea of starting at Battery Park on the surface make sense but keep in mind the line of cyclists waiting to start the tour stretches from the start line almost all the way down to Battery Park. Only a few thousand of the 30,000 come over from Staten Island in the morning. The Tour is a world class event that fellow residents as well as visitors from all over the world come to NYC to ride in. Lastly the funds raised support the free classes that Bike New York provides in the 5 Boroughs, mostly in economically disadvantaged and underserved communities.

  4. Organizers contacted CB1 in advance and provided a contact number.

  5. Thanks for the tip about Ahmed’s coffee stand. I grabbed a coffee there this morning, very good!

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