It's Friday. We'll look at something that a lot of us have been doing more of — biking — and how demand during the pandemic has put pressure on Citi Bike. We'll also look at a statue that was designed in Brooklyn for installation at the Kennedy Center in Washington. |
 | | Christopher Lee for The New York Times |
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It seems clear that New York will emerge from the pandemic as a place where biking is more important than ever. Advocates say the trend needs to be encouraged to keep cars off the streets, which would help ease climate change. |
But Citi Bike, the bicycle-share program operated by Lyft, has struggled to meet the surge in demand. My colleague Ana Ley writes that some riders in high-traffic neighborhoods only find empty docks when they are rushing to get somewhere. Others complain about docking stations that are full, making it difficult to return bikes. One Citi Bike regular, Christiane Bussgen, tried six full stations before giving up and taking her bike to the office. (The fruitless search made her late to work.) |
Citi Bike has said that unpredictable commuting patterns and the increase in ridership made it hard to distribute bikes and docks evenly during the pandemic. Now the company and the city's Transportation Department plan to add 8,000 docks and 4,000 bikes by the end of next year — largely in Manhattan, but also in parts of Queens and Brooklyn — on the way to a total of 75,000 docks and 40,000 bikes by the end of 2024. |
Still, more than four million people — nearly half the city's population — live outside Citi Bike's Manhattan-centric service area, prompting frequent criticism of the privately funded program. In a report released on Wednesday, the Transportation Department suggested the city should consider a government subsidy to help Citi Bike reach underserved neighborhoods. A similar idea has been mentioned by Eric Adams, the incoming mayor, who traveled to at least one campaign news conference via Citi Bike. |
Motorists and some elected officials complain that the increase in bike sharing has made parking and driving tougher. Residents of some parts of the city say reckless cyclists run red lights or thread their way along sidewalks. And, in a year when traffic deaths have increased significantly, cycling advocates say the city must find ways to make the streets safer. |
Jeffrey LeFrancois, the executive director of a business improvement group in Manhattan's Meatpacking district, said the pandemic had given the city a chance to be more ambitious about making cycling essential. "I think that we are sort of at a real moment of exciting opportunity to be bold as it relates to bike infrastructure," he said. |
Some riders wish the infrastructure were more efficient now. |
Dina Vovsi, a theater director who lives in Brooklyn, is among those who have had to return Citi Bikes far from home when no docks were available nearby. |
"I've had those nights where it's so cold and late and I just want to be inside with my dog eating ice cream," she said, "and I've had to park more than a mile away." |
Enjoy a sunny but somewhat windy day with temps in the mid-40s. It will be a partly cloudy evening in the mid-30s. |
In effect until Dec. 8 (Immaculate Conception). |
A new vaccine requirement |
The city expanded its push for vaccination, requiring employees at Catholic schools, yeshivas and other private schools to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Officials said the directive would cover roughly 930 schools and 56,000 employees who must show that they have received a first dose by Dec. 20. |
The new rule could face opposition at yeshivas, ultra-Orthodox Jewish private schools. |
Designed in Brooklyn, delivered to Washington |
 | | StudioEIS |
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Today? A John F. Kennedy that had its stride lengthened and its hair smoothed down in Brooklyn, where it also got a bit of what one of its creators called Kennedyesque "optimism." All this was before it went to Washington, where it will be dedicated tomorrow. |
It was commissioned for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which opened 50 years ago. It is to be unveiled on Saturday at a ceremony where the cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform. As a 7-year-old in 1962, he played at a "pageant of the arts" fund-raiser when what became the Kennedy Center was known as the National Cultural Center. |
The statue was created at StudioEIS (pronounced "studio ice"), which prides itself on historically accurate figures like the statues of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln that it made for the New-York Historical Society. |
"Kennedy represented for me a different kind of challenge," said Ivan Schwartz, who founded StudioEIS with his brother Elliot in 1976, "because I was a kid at the time and we all experienced the assassination. So when we were asked to do this, it meant traveling back down that road." |
His team studied photographs and videotape. Along the way, Schwartz decided to make the statue a walking figure. That sets it apart from the craggy bust of Kennedy that has stood in the Grand Foyer since the Kennedy Center opened. The StudioEIS statue will go outside, where Schwartz said it would complement the "dynamism" of the Reach, an expansion project completed in 2019. |
The conversation with Schwartz turned to the where-were-you-when question. On Nov. 22, 1963, he was a seventh-grader at Grand Avenue Junior High School in Merrick, N.Y., on Long Island. |
"The loudspeaker came on and you heard the principal's voice first," he said. "And then we heard Walter Cronkite, and then we were all sent home. The immensity was understood even by us 12-year-old kids." |
- The Nutcracker? A 79-foot tree? Here's a guide to holiday events in the city.
- What we're watching: Nicole Hong, a Metro reporter, and Ginia Bellafante, the "Big City" columnist, will discuss whether outdoor dining should be permanent on "The New York Times Close Up With Sam Roberts." The show airs on Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. [CUNY TV]
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I was hurrying down Third Avenue early one evening at the time of year when it's already pitch dark by then. |
An older woman was shuffling up the street in the opposite direction, one gloved hand tightly clutching the lapels of a bulky coat. As I passed her, I saw a leash attached to an empty collar trailing from her other hand. |
I almost stopped and said something, but mind-my-own-business excuses kept my mouth closed and my feet moving. |
She must know it is empty, I thought to myself. Perhaps this was a ritual, walking the same walk with a dog that could no longer accompany her. I dismissed the encounter from my mind and continued on my way. |
A block and a half later, my eyes landed on something I didn't know I was looking for: a tiny white poodle with no leash and no collar that was wandering timidly among a crowd of people waiting for the light to change. |
"Is this your dog?" I asked generally, already knowing the answer. |
Scooping the poodle into my arms without thinking about whether it was friendly, I began to run back the way I had come. I kept wondering what would I do if the woman had already turned off Third Avenue. As I ran, the dog snuggled against me. |
Near the next corner, I saw the woman again, her coat flapping open as she hurried down the street. |
Her eyes were searching the sidewalk so frantically that she would have passed me if I hadn't stopped her and held out her joyfully wriggling poodle. |
Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B. |
Melissa Guerrero, Rick Martinez and Olivia Parker contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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