Pittsburgh Critical Mass Blog

2006-05-02T10:32:00.000-05:00

OnQ Magazine features Pittsburgh Critical Mass

Peep it on YouTube.

Did someone say that the OnQ news van accompanying the March ride was driving so crazy that it might be what attracted the attention of the police to begin with?

2006-04-04T12:22:00.000-05:00

Attention: Riders who want to file complaints

The Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board is an appointed body that some believe can't do anything. But the mayor and the police chief want to get rid of it, and if it couldn't do anything, then why would they bother trying to make it go away?

At least 15 riders have already filed complaints with the CPRB, and this is a situation where "the more the merrier". To make matters really easy, you can file your complaint online.

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/cprb/html/complaints.html

2006-04-04T10:11:00.000-05:00

A special new blog just for stories of Critical Mass arrests.

Peep it here.

After a very reasonable meeting yesterday to file CPRB complaints, it is the firm feeling of the Pittsburgh Critical Mass blog that Officer Eugene Hlavage is an out-of-control bicycle hater who has a long history of abusing his power. He is making it dangerous for bicyclists to ride in Pittsburgh, and simultaneously dragging down the reputation of the police in this fine city.

It's hard to remember that other officers acted completely reasonably in this incident and plenty of similar ones, and the police department should waste no time getting this very bad apple off the streets and away from guns.

2006-04-01T09:42:00.000-05:00

WQED decides to feature Critical Mass.

They showed up for interviews, and will have a piece on air April 18th or 19th.

Plus! Police repression.

Officer Ahole grabbed as many people as he could carry and gave them citations. He threw a cigarette at a young woman in his custody, and called out a K9 Unit, (to the credit of the K9 Handler and others, it seems like it was mostly the first cop who was spazzing)

What next?

Head to Indymedia for more coverage, and plans for the future, including filing CPRB complaints on Monday.

2006-03-29T13:38:00.000-05:00

Pittsburgh Critical Mass Blog welcomes Bikefest 2006 to the "Bog-o-sphere"!

2006-03-28T09:09:00.000-05:00

2006-03-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

The sad fate of all "blogs"

Perhaps this is because blogs lack souls, or have no aura. It is quite hard to keep updating them after the initial novelty wears off.

RIDE THIS FRIDAY!

At least the sworn topic of critical mass gives me the motivation to get a post here like once a month.

Here is a pic, to keep things pretty.

“It’s like a bees’ nest of bikes,” says Tacoma Narrows Constructors expediter Rudy van der Maat, standing to one side as a torrent of bicycles streams past.

2006-03-09T10:30:00.000-05:00

Been a lazy updater. Sorry yinz.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A woman was driving drunk when she killed a downtown pedestrian then left the scene during rush hour Wednesday, police said.

Casandra Gatewood, 43, of McKeesport, was in custody early Thursday, awaiting arraignment on charges of vehicular homicide, drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

2006-02-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

An interview with oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens

Q: An Exxon executive said this week that the United States should stop trying to become “energy independent” and become “energy interdependent.” What do you think of that statement?

A: Well, you can’t become energy independent. That’s out of the question because you’re importing 60 percent of the oil that you use every day. There’s no way you’re going to (become independent). ... If everybody in the United States started riding a bicycle, it’ll work.

All here.

2006-02-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

A few pics from the last ride have surfaced on indypgh.

See the rest of the photos in all their black-and-gold glory here.

2006-02-05T23:41:00.000-05:00

CHICAGO --- At the end of January Critical Mass, 4 bicyclists were detained and then taken to jail while standing on the sidewalk at the memorial of a slain bicyclist. The 4 were cited with blocking traffic and refusing to cease and desist. They were released from the 13th precinct about an hour and a half after being detained. (full story)

2006-02-02T14:29:00.000-05:00

A WORLD MADE OF STEEL
flashdanceparty

Saturday February 11th<<<
424 Gold Way
(warehouse in alley behind filmmakers, just off baum)

8:00---"flashdance" movie by video projection
didja know this amazing dancerific movie takes place and was filmed in pittsburgh? didja know the main character is a bike-ridin' lady welder in the steel mill by day and exotic dancer by night? uh-huh.

10:00---danceparty!!!
with
DJ's Edgar Um
Mary Mack
Aaron & Amy

$5 at door
includes free food and drink and surprises!
>>>thank you to pabst & east end brewing company & the talents of many friends...

>>>dress to impress--->flashdancer or hottt welder and get $2 off door<<<

---this event is a benefit for the big idea bookstore---

2006-01-25T15:27:00.000-05:00

Bike Ride this Friday!

Meet at the Dinosaur, in Oakland, Pittsburgh, PA.
5:30 PM

Black and Gold ride. Because of sports.

2006-01-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

A hit-and-run motorist ignored a red light early Thursday and killed a 26-year-old bicyclist, police said.

The accident happened at 2 a.m. at Polk and Geary streets, said Inspector Pat Tobin of the hit-and-run detail. The cyclist, Sarah Tucker of San Francisco, died at 9:46 a.m. at San Francisco General Hospital, authorities said.

Police said the motorist, a man driving a black Honda CR-V, was going west on Geary and ran the light. Tucker, riding south on Polk, ran into the Honda in the middle of the intersection.

Full story here.

2006-01-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

2006 Hello

I had to take a little break after that last ride. It can sometimes be unfun when Critical Mass is dark and cold and the SUV drivers are dicks. But here is some good news! It cheered me up enough to get another post out of me.

JUDGE FINDS NYC PARADE PERMIT LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL:
“CRITICAL MASS” BIKERS’ CHARGES DISMISSED

Yesterday, New York City Criminal Court Judge Gerald Harris decided that the City’s parade permit law is “hopelessly overbroad” and “‘constitutes a burden on free expression that is more than the First Amendment can bear.’”

According to the Verdict, “a person promenading, or two persons racing, . . . a funeral procession, two or three cars displaying political posters traveling one behind the other, caravan style, or a small group of friends biking together” might be required to obtain permits under the law as written.

Full story here.

2005-12-29T14:13:00.000-05:00

Last Mass of 05 Tomorrow!

The voluminous email traffic on the criticalmasspgh list suggests that at least 2 people will ride in the sleet tomorrow. Pittsburgh police have already begun preparing for mayhem.

MEANWHILE, cross country, we like this promotional effort at some San Francisco club.

/// QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT WITH ROY HEAD - NEW YEARS EVE AT THE CIRCLE BAR!!

This night is MOHAWK NIGHT. Anyone with a mohawk gets in free. No fauxhawks. A hair cutting station will be provided at the door. Prove that you mean it. Have a laugh with your mates. Save money. Save New Orleans. Indians unite. See you there......Q

P.S. This show will be sold out at the door for sure, so if you do sport the hawk, you are ensured a place inside......AND you get to pick the person you will replace - girls and children are exempt.

2005-12-26T15:50:00.000-05:00

December Critical Mass is this FRIDAY!

Get hyper.

The first "winter" critical mass bike ride is this Friday. 5:30 PM at the Dinosaur/Main Library on Forbes Ave, Oakland, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, Earth.

2005-12-24T13:48:00.000-05:00

Merry FuckChristmas

Love, Pittsburgh Critical Mass

2005-12-22T15:22:00.000-05:00

NYC Transit workers return to work

The strike ends, the trains run again, the negotiations resume.

Critical Mass Pittsburgh recommends that if the talks go sour then instead of stopping the busses, why not keep them running but not collect fares? That would strike against the MTA the same as a walk-out but the working people of New York would not feel like collateral damage.

That would not work on the subway though, since that cursed technology does all the work collecting fares, and it would just take one manager to make sure train riders weren't been allowed through the handicapped access door or something. Score 1 point for the primitivists, I guess.

2005-12-21T13:17:00.000-05:00

People's Strike in NYC

The New York Transit Workers Union went on strike yesterday. Lot's of folks talking lots of nonsense in the mainstream media. This type of reporting is where indymedia really shines. nyc.indymedia.org

2005-12-15T12:58:00.000-05:00

The Surveillance

NBC reporters obtained access to the Pentagon's secret database of anti-war activities. Apparently these government spooks are writing down everything they can about anyone who opposes George W. Bush's war on terrrrr. And what sort of information is that? Well, today on Democracy Now!, William Arkin said that if you drive a car to protests they're gonna get your license plates all written down. Score another victory for the bicycle, the perfect transportation mode for all those bomb-throwing members of MoveOn.org.

2005-12-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

Robocop 4 real, yo

Put down your weapon. You have 10 seconds to comply.

Is that cool?

2005-12-12T11:09:00.000-05:00

Cops gone wild

Check this anonymous post to Pittsburgh Indymedia.

Last Saturday night, December 3, on Carson Street in the South Side an unmarked police car hit a bicyclist and dragged the individual thirty feet before coming to a stop. The cop got out of the car, and rather than check on the bicyclist and call for medical help, pulled his gun at the individual lying on the ground.

A group of United Electrical Workers organizers walking down the street witnessed the bicyclist being hit and dragged by the cop car, and witnessed the cop pulling his gun on the cyclist. Horrified by what they had witnessed, they ran over and stepped between the bicyclist and the cop. They screamed “fascist pig!” and were also yelling about constitutional rights.

For calling out police misconduct, the witnesses were next to be brutalized. The cop started to arrest people, and tasered one individual three times. When that individual arrived at his holding cell, he was visited by a Federal agent who interrogated him about his background because he has a Middle Eastern-sounding name. Also, while in jail, those arrested learned that their friend hadn’t been the only person tasered in Pittsburgh that night; several people in that holding cell had also been shot with a taser.

Police and their taser-crazed ways have got to change!

2005-12-05T09:41:00.000-05:00

Yo, I posted before about cops building bikes for poor kids for christmas, and how that's great, but, for real, why is it that this is generating story after story in the local papers, and never do these stories mention Free Ride?? Poor kids, rich kids, poor non-kids, whatever, can get a bike for no money all year round at Free Ride.

It is not just for christmas. And plenty of hardy souls are out on bikes in this winter weather, but, you must agree, it is easier to start riding in the spring and summer months. And Free Ride just had a build-a-thon where they put together hundreds of kids bikes themselves to give away for the holidays. Free Ride gets no props. Maybe they need a better publicist. Then next May there can have a string of articles in the local papers about bike punx giving away bikes to kids. And, if they want, the cops can help out then, too.

2005-12-02T10:27:00.000-05:00

Car company pays employees not to drive

Dog bites man, not news...

A spokesman for the Japanese car company [Mazda] said on Friday that those meeting a set of requirements by going to the office on foot, rather than by car, are eligible to receive US$12 a month.

(full story)

2005-12-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

Been gone a while, but now I'm back. Email if you want to help post.

Should have biked!

2005-11-22T12:30:00.000-05:00

Critical Mass on Buy-Nothing Day

Friday, November 25th. Once called "Black Friday" because it was the first time all year that retail stores made a profit (which old-timey accountants would record in black ink, instead of the red ink used when the business was, as they say, in the red). This festival of consumption is still fostered by hyper-sales at all the hyper-markets, but there is no way the share-holders would allow a corporation to become profitable only in the final 2 months of the year these days. What do you say? A free bike ride around the city for fun, or fighting the other shoppers for that appliance marked down so low you can't afford not to buy?

2005-11-21T12:29:00.000-05:00

Transit Strike Averted

Following a 23 hour bargaining session, representatives of the port authority and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85 reached an agreement this weekend. The agreement was ratified by the union membership Sunday night. Now it must be approved by the port authority board of directors. The contract increases union member wages by 3% a year for the next 3 years but in exchange employees will contribute 1 % of their base pay towards their health plan. Though these agreements combine to a 2% increase in wages for the next 3 years, they set the precedent for workers salary being diverted into health care payments, and the size of these payments could increase in future contracts. This agreement follows the threat of a transit strike, which would have begun Friday, Nov. 25th on buy-nothing-day, the busiest shopping day of the year.

2005-11-15T23:07:00.000-05:00

Some nutty bike-hating democrat from Montana who loves freedom is getting all gushy over Still We Ride. Dig it.

I’m not going to have warm fuzzies when after I round a curve I have to go into the ditch as an alternative to head ending a semi or killing a trio of cyclists riding abreast (yeah, it happened), but I am going to stand up for anyone who is given a hard time for what they do or what they stand for, and if those guys happen to be cyclists, I’ll be there for them both as a neighbor and as a Montana state senator.

2005-11-14T14:43:00.000-05:00

Here is a bizarro-world article about how bikes are ruining Zimbabwae. Up is down, man.

The price of a bike in October was almost twenty times what it was a year earlier, as Zimbabweans frustrated by chronic fuel shortages opted increasingly for pedal power.

The 1,838 percent inflation in the two-wheeler market pushed overall annual inflation last month to 411 percent, the Central Statistics Office said on Thursday.

The rise from 359.8 percent in September dashed any hope that the government would succeed in its aim of reducing inflation to 300 percent by year-end.

2005-11-14T12:42:00.000-05:00

Our city officials want to do some good

The city and the police are planning separate efforts to fix up bikes and give them to needy kids for Christmas. Isn't that nice of them? (Newspaper version.)

It would be nice to say the police attitude towards bikes has come a long way. Who's feeling nice?

2005-11-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

Hey, is that the route from the October ride?

Here.

2005-11-09T23:05:00.000-05:00

Yo, there is some ugly all-caps email about an upcoming alleycat. Mark your calenders, study your maps.

OUTLAWS
COME TO THE
16TH ANNUAL
PUNK BIKE ENDURO
SUNDAY DECEMBER 4TH, 2005
11 AM SHARP
DORSEYVILLE FIRE HALL, SAXONBURG BLVD
AN 8 TO 10 STAGE STAGE RACE FOR FUN AND POINTS
MOST POINTS WINS
NO FEES, NO NORBA, NO RULES
EATS & PARTY AFTER IT'S OVER
WE'LL BUY SOME BEER
YOU BRING THE REST (OR GO HUNGRY) - BRING FOOD!
KITCHEN AVAILABLE
COURSE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
DRESS FOR COLD, WET WEATHER
YOU MIGHT WEAR A HELMET AS THERE IS NO INSURANCE
PLEASE PHONE DIRT RAG: 412-767-9910 TO GET DIRECTIONS
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 27TH
SATURDAY DECEMBER 3RD
TRAIL MAINTENACE PRE-RIDES
BE READY FOR ANYTHING

2005-11-07T18:19:00.000-05:00

Big ups to Pittsburgh author in the Boston Herald

If your Roomba seems more interested in destroying your new shoes than sweeping your floor, then you’d best run out to the local bookstore and buy a copy of “How to Survive a Robot Uprising” - and fast.

Oh, and you might want to take your bike - your car and public transportation probably aren’t safe.

2005-11-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

Some thoughtful assessment of the possible transit strike on the horizon on indymedia.

A strike, should it come will be the fulfillment of a worse case scenario that many SOT members have been chasing out of their heads for some time now. A public transit strike will hurt mostly poor and low income “captive riders” much more than it will “riders of choice” who will simply get their cars out of the garage and drive to work. Should a strike come some people will lose their jobs because they have no way of getting around. Should a strike come it will take years for ridership to recover, if indeed it ever does. Should a strike come politicians and their right wing allies will sit around and slap each other on the back as they wait to see how many transit workers will cross the picket line and tell their union companions to fuck off. Should a strike come many riders will blame the drivers and the mechanics and those who clean the buses. They will join with the politicians in going after “greedy unions.”

Anti-transit actors would love to see a strike turn us all against those greedy unionists. But what's greedy about having basic health care?

2005-11-05T20:28:00.000-05:00

Transit union leaders consider possible strike recommendation

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - Union leaders representing more than two thousand bus and light-rail drivers in Allegheny County plan to meet Monday to discuss whether to recommend a strike.

Local union president Patrick McMahon says the Amalgamated Transit Union and the county's Port Authority aren't close to a deal.

He says the union was very disappointed with the Port Authority's latest offer on Thursday and the two sides remain far apart.

McMahon says the union's executive board will decide Monday what action it should recommend to members later this month.

He says if the Port Authority doesn't change its recent offer, it's very likely union members could hold a strike vote when they meet on November 20th.

Transit workers have been without a contract since July 1st.

2005-11-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

The 31st Street Bridge is trashed. Some now big-time bike activist used to be a big-time runner until she fell through a large unmarked hole in the bridge walkway and injured her leg too much to keep up the running.

But the city has plans to fix it up, starting next year.

But there is no money to follow these plans, according to the Tribune-Review.

There is a big number in the article, 15,000 motorists cross that wobbly bridge every day. Probably in 14,999 cars, since almost nobody can be bothered to carpool to work.

Washington County Commissioner Bracken Burns said "It's all symptomatic of a bigger problem, and the bigger problem is inadequate funding for transportation."

Do you think that is the bigger problem?

2005-11-01T21:17:00.000-05:00

Stop, you're killing me.

When it comes to environmental devistation, bikes are not doing much damage. Cars are doing tons, but it seems like in a minute-to-minute comparison, it is the airplanes are the worst.

Seemingly unrelated, soda pop and strip malls and fast food are gross and threatening to take over the countryside, even more than they already have.

And if they started working together, they could turn the world into a toilet in record time.

But don't think of it that way, think of it as a good deal. You drink 75 giant soda pops, and get a free flight to Disney World
Here's the offer.

2005-10-31T15:21:00.000-05:00

Philly transit workers went on strike today. You can read the same story in every newspaper in existence, here or wherever. The benefit is that all 6,000 newspapers copied the AP line about the way Philly prepared.

City preparations for the strike included setting up extra bicycle racks, deploying more officers at intersections, urging car pooling and allowing more parking.

Speaking of biking to work, watch this,

2005-10-30T11:35:00.000-05:00

Repost from the NYC bike blog:

As far as the $100 dollar entry fee "All about the Benjamin's," Alley Cat race that also happened last night I do not know who won. I did get a report that famed videographer Lucus Brunelle, who is know for strapping cameras to his helmet and documenting alley cats was injured last night in the race. He was not shooting video and was in it to win it. He flipped over the hood of a car and was hospitalized. He is conscious and in stable condition at NYU Medical downtown. I hope Lucus is ok and recovers quickly. Lucus's Video Page.

2005-10-29T22:24:00.000-05:00

Yay for light rain!

hey that's not pittsburgh

It's been getting hard to follow the news these days, so here is the political update from Counterpunch.

Already the most powerful politician in Washington, House majority leader Tom DeLay, is under indictment and in consequence stripped of his official position.
The future looks grim for Senator Bill Frist, who faces SEC and Justice Department probes for insider trading.

On Capitol Hill there's open warfare between various factions of the Republican Party, which this week climaxed with the conservative faction successfully rejecting Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the US Supreme Court, an incredible humiliation for the President. With midterm elections looming and Bush's public approval ratings tumbling, the collapse of discipline will only accelerate amid the general panic.

The Bush high command is in utter disrepute, openly attacked by Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, as a dictatorial cabal.

Bush's deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, has been distracted and -- so the Miers fiasco showed, offered poor counsel his boss, whose presidency hangs over the precipice of ruin.

Consider the gloomy vista from Bush the Unlucky's Oval Office, where even the birds in the Rose Garden are omens of yet another national crisis (which is scheduled to provide a bonanza to the drug companies, which a US Senate subcommitee just voted to hold free of any liability if their flu vaccines have the same lethal potential as they did in the swine flu panic a generation ago.)

In Iraq the war is faring disastrously and here in the Homeland it's increasingly unpopular. The hurricanes have blown away all remaining public illusions about the venality and incompetence of the President and his cronies. The economy is rickety and a long-feared end to the housing boom may be upon us. Symbolizing the sense that the jig is up, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is heading into retirement just before the roof falls in.

Internationally, the US has rarely been more despised. The armed forces are demoralized and the reserve system in ruins.

Is there any institution not compromised, not held in popular contempt? This crisis has no Woodward or Bernstein to lend it luster. There is no doughty popular hero at hand. The journalist's name on every lip is that of Judith Miller, named coconspirator in the fomentation of a war that has seen the deaths of 2000 Americans thus far. The New York Times is in a state of civil war, just like the Republican Party.

There's no sign that the Democratic Party is gaining any traction from the Republican collapse. With good reason. Never has a party been offered so many opportunities and taken so little advantage from them. So far as the war is concerned, powerful Democrats like Joseph Biden and Hillary Clinton are calling for more troops. Greenspan's long and pock-marked tenure as the bankers' bulwark draws tearful cries of gratitude from Democrats like Senator Paul Sarbanes.

In 2005 it is impossible to link the Democrats with a single courageous stand or even constructive idea. This week the party's top strategists -- mesmerized by the twenty-first century's answer to the Framers, Dr George Lakoff's childish nostrums -- were wrangling over two possible slogans, "Together, we can do better," or "Together, America can do better."

Meanwhile over 100,000 older Americans lined up in mid October to file bankruptcy before the old wipe-the-slate-clean Chapter 7 law expired. More than half of these bankrupts have been ruined by health costs. The new bankruptcy law, written by the banks and credit card companies, made it through the Congress only with the help of Democratic votes in the senate, which were duly forthcoming as they always are.

2005-10-28T09:22:00.000-05:00

October ride is today!! Make sure your costume doesn't get stuck in your spokes, and I'll see you at the dinosaur at 5:30.

2005-10-27T11:18:00.000-05:00

Parking workers in Pittsburgh have been on strike since August. Yesterday 14 of them got arrested.

The Post-Gazette has a just-the-facts news brief here, while the Tribune Review takes the opportunity to explain why kids today don't care about unions.

"I'm a different generation," said Dan DiPietro, 22, of Mt. Lebanon, who parked at the garage to attend classes at Point Park University. His grandfather worked as an engineer at U.S. Steel, he said, but the strike hardly registered with him.

I’m starting to think the Trib is anti-union.

Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau released its report on how the populations of cities change during the workday. Pittsburgh increases 41.3% Monday to Friday. Pittsburgh has the fourth largest population increase among large cities, after Washington DC, Atlanta, and Tampa.

2005-10-24T00:14:00.000-05:00

[Update: Dr. Simpson says he was totally misquoted in this article! Don't worry, yinz!]

An article on our doctor friend from State College, Paul Simpson, is making some waves around town. According to The Eye-opener, which bills itself as Ryerson's Independent Newspaper, Simpson gave a lecture on transportation issues, and said

FreeRide, a bike co-op in Pittsburgh, was branded as a terrorist organization for promoting bicycle usage instead of cars. The FBI declared another Pittsburgh organization, BikePittsburgh, "a domestic terrorist organization subject to investigation and harassment by the FBI," said Simpson.

Full story here.

2005-10-22T10:54:00.000-05:00

Did you catch the bicycle commuting article last week in the Post-Gazette? I dig it, although the bit about bus ridership increases being caused by rack-and-roll riders is a stretch.

"To take a 4,000-pound piece of metal with you everywhere you go doesn't make a lot of sense," said Fred Clements, head of the National Bicycle Dealers Association. "When it hits people's wallets, they notice."

Bike suppliers are racing to keep up with the demand. By August, year-to-date bicycle shipments had risen 19.5 percent from the same period in 2004, according to the National Bike Suppliers Association.

2005-10-19T21:57:00.000-05:00

email: josh to criticalmasspgh

I havent been on a ride on halloween yet, and before i get all decked out I was curious what kinda route we usually do, a pretty standard one, or a pretty flat one that is costume/goofy bike friendly?

From pghcriticalmass.org: The next ride, on October 28, 2005, is Critical Masquerade! Costume yourself and your bike!

Last halloween was the Yellow-Journalism/Anarchy-on-Wheels ride.

Two years ago was the ride that the media forgot, with a bunch of tall bikes and many costumes like the bad guys from The Karate Kid. And lots of pirates since that movie had just come out.

Three years ago had the best name, Critical Masquerade. It got a few pages on indymedia.

2005-10-19T21:45:00.000-05:00

[Update: Singer's talk is available on indypgh, first half and second half.]

Andy Singer's talking tomorrow (Friday).

Mini-mass to his talk at 5:30 PM from that big metal dinosaur by the Carnegie Library in Oakland.

The main event Friday, October 20th, at SPACE Gallery, 812 Liberty Avenue, Downtown Pittsburgh, at 6:00pm.

More info at ol' bike-pgh.

2005-10-19T10:01:00.000-05:00

Did anyone notice that there was no march for that embarrassing celebration of the "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus this year? It was not the result of some sort of Pittsburgher political correctness, nor the shocking realization that there were already plenty of people in the "new world" when Chris finally bumbled his way here (wait... red people are people?)

No, in this case, social justice was the unintended side-effect of some greedy business man who ripped off the parade organizing committee to the tune of $30,000. For real.

Why mention it here? To laugh at those tools, but because of the interconnectedness of all things. The con-man who stole the piggy bank is Michael A. Tarquinio, who ran over a biker in Oakland last year.

Li-Xia Yang, represented by Downtown attorney Edgar Snyder, claims she was riding her bicycle through the intersection of O'Hara and Parkman streets in Oakland on May 6, 2004, when Tarquinio, driving a truck from King Distribution & Transfer Inc., drove through the intersection and struck her.

It seems like Pgh is coming up on Berkeley, where Columbus Day was abolished long ago, and now they're not even doing Veteran's Day.

Pittsburgh Critical Mass Has a Blog

2005-10-18T12:29:00.000-05:00

Now Pittsburgh Critical Mass isn't only an antonomous monthly celebration of all things bicylce, it's also a blog!

Don't you wish this was still the '90s and it was also a zine?