Faster Than A (Not) Speeding OJ

 It’s ironic that California, where American car culture was born, was the location of the world’s most famous slow-speed chase—which, some argue, was also the birth of another unfortunate phenomenon: “reality” TV.

Now, I know that two instances of something doesn’t make a trend, especially if those instances are nearly three decades apart. Oh, and the pursuit of O.J. Simpson involved automobiles in the L.A. (no American calls it “Los Angeles”) area, and the chase in this video took place in the northern community of  Brentwood. 

The police were in their car when they followed their suspect, who was riding a bicycle—not much slower, I believe, than OJ drove his Ford Bronco.

A New Way To—And Off—The Island

 Here in New York City, we’ve gone from two months of unusually warm Fall temperatures and almost no rain to nearly two weeks of cold and almost daily rain.

The other day, I “played chicken” with the rain, all but daring it to fall on me as I rode, with no particular destination in mind.  More than anything, I wanted to ride for its own sake and to declare (at least to myself) an end to the flu or whatever turned my respiratory system into an EPA Superfund Site for a week.

Well, the rain chickened out (What else can I anthromorphosize in this post?)—perhaps out of spite, as I was riding one of my fendered bikes. So I had a dry, if chilly, ride with one pleasant surprise.

The RFK Memorial (formerly Triborough) Bridge is really a complex of three different spans that converge on Randall’s Island. One span, the Art Deco-inspired (and prettiest), connects Astoria, Queens with the Island and has a pretty good walkway/pedestrian lane.  I often crossed it when I lived in Astoria. Another, shorter, span links the Bronx to the Island. Its walkway, which zig-zagged up to East 132nd Street from the Island, closed nearly a decade ago, after the much better Randall’s Island Connector opened.

The third span, to Manhattan, includes a walkway that was accessible only by a sharply-winding ramp like the one on the Bronx span. But the entrance to the Manhattan ramp was easy to miss because it was tucked into a spot under the span itself, obscured by fences lining an NYPD maintenance facility. Also, it was very poorly lit: I am not the only one who wouldn’t use it at night.

Well, the pleasant surprise I encountered is a new, much safer, way to access the Manhattan span for cyclists, pedestrians and people with mobility aids.

I hadn’t planned to ride across the Manhattan span, but I did, just to check out the new entrance. It helps, I believe, to make the Island more accessible. I don’t think it will entice me to ride on or through the Island—I already do so more than most people—but I believe it might encourage others.

Liberation

 I live a block from the New York Botanical Garden and have visited several times during the eight months I’ve lived here.

About a mile (1.6 km) away is the Bronx Zoo. I went a couple of times as a kid but have no inclination to go there now:  I don’t think I can bear (no pun intended) to see animals in cages.

I do, however, wonder how they might escape.