Banking on Green
Not all cities have private bike share systems, but New York’s proudly bears the logo of a bank.
Cyclescapes of the Unequal City: Bicycle Infrastructure and Uneven Development by John G. Stehlin. University of Minnesota Press, $27
On a sunny afternoon in early June, I took a long, multi-borough bike ride. At the time, protests after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were filling the streets from dawn until dusk, and the mayor had imposed a curfew. Part of an organized ride led by Black Lives Matter (BLM) organizers, I pedaled with a group of mostly white 20- and 30-year-olds through neighborhoods including Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, and Williamsburg.
We rode through predominantly Black and Hispanic communities, working class sections of Brooklyn experiencing rapid gentrifi cation. Like so many hipsters and yuppies, we chose the bike, the emblem of white and economically privileged newcomers. In fact, the vehicle and its dedicated green lanes point to key political and economic tensions unfolding in the contemporary capitalist city. This is the premise of John G. Stehlin’s 2019 book, Cyclescapes of the Une…
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