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Squid in the Post

March 31, 2008

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New York Bike Dreams - Takuya’s Photography

Next NYBMA meeting

Wednesday April 2nd, 7PM - 470 Flushing @ Spencer (1 block east of Bedford)

Top Floor
indoor Bike parking if you don’t mind the stairs

There will be food, and we’ll be talking about unionization, insurance, and improvements to the website.

Next NYBMA meeting

Tuesday March 18th - 470 Flushing @ Spencer (1 block east of Bedford)

Top Floor
indoor Bike parking if you don’t mind the stairs

Food will be ready shortly after 630. Couscous is on the menu, plus a bunch of other stuff.
The Meeting will begin at 730.
If you came last time, try to bring someone new this week.

Monster Track Main Race Cancelled

Side Events (including VeloCity) to continue as scheduled

The organizers of Monster Track 2008 have decided, after careful consideration, to cancel this year’s main race.

This decision did not come easy and was debated at length. Our reasons are many but the overall factor was that the race has become unmanageable due to the large participation and our concern for the participant’s safety.

As many of you know, Monster Track started as a race held for a small, close group of NYC bike messengers. It has now become an overwhelmingly all-inclusive event. This, on its face, may seem like a positive direction for a race but in the context of a solely track bike alleycat it brings many problems. First and foremost, the safety of the racers is compromised. We believe that this is not a tenable position for race organizers.

Although the main race is canceled, please join us for Gold Sprints on Friday evening, Fixed Gear Competition (track stands, skids, footdown, freestyle, sprints, etc.) on Saturday and the Velo City Tour, at Kissena Velodrome on Sunday.

Schedule of Events:

Friday March 7, 8PM

Goldsprints at Third Ward

195 Morgan Ave. Brooklyn

Saturday March 8, 1PM

Fixed Gear Comp and injured messenger fundraiser at Rocky’s

South 5th St. at Kent Ave. Brooklyn

Sunday March 9, 12PM

Velo City Track Competition at Kissena Velodrome

Booth Memorial Ave near Kissena Blvd. Queens

NYBMA Meetings to begin again

Tuesday, March 4th. 6:30pm. 470 Flushing, Top floor (5)

It’s been over a year, but the NYBMA is going to start having regular meetings again. The emphasis will be on community. There will be food and nametags. It’s going to take some time to get any change accomplished, but your participation is important in making that happen. Make your voice heard. If you’ve got any questions, contact Austin: osmerp [at] gmail.com

Help nybma.com

Are you a designer? Do you have this burning itch to run a website for & about bike messengers? Do you perhaps know CSS and PHP really well, too? Well then you can help the nybma.

This website will be getting revamped really soon, but it needs new people to run it. True, I’ve been talking about doing that for years…but it’s getting to that point where it really needs to happen. If you can help, please contact me, Ken: ken@studionumbernine.net

3rd annual memorial ride & walk for cyclists and pedestrians killed in 2007

Sunday, January 6th, 2008

This year’s annual memorial ride has three starting locations in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. If you can’t make it to a starting location, please feel free to join at any stop along the route posted below. All rides will converge in Williamsburg and then meet with the Walk to Remember Pedestrians Killed in 2007 and we will all enter City Hall to participate in a rally and press conference. See www.ghostbikes.org for more details.

Cranksgiving 9 results

Dave August, Brantley, and Cooper the Boy Wonder took top places for the guys at the largest Cranksgiving ever. Out of the 85 total racers, Kym P., Alyssa Eberle, and Kierie Piccininni came in top 3 for the girls. Check out the rest of the results.

Where do you want a bike rack?

Take the survey at nycbikerackstudy.com from two Hunter grads,
and let them know where you need it most. They’re going to collect all that data and
suggest your locations to the New York City Department of City PlanningÕs Transportation Division as they prepare to install thousands of
new bike racks over the next few years.

Cranksgiving

The 9th annual Cranksgiving charity race takes place this Saturday, November 17th at 2pm. If one day of generosity
isn’t enough for you, and you’re in the mood for some hardcore, there’s a pre-cranksgiving show at the Last Resort Art Space:
8-63 Astoria Boulevard in Queens. Admission is one canned good or $100. Make the right choice.

Help us save the NYC Bike Polo court

A group of dog owners in the Lower East Side is proposing to turn the “pit” at Chrystie & Broome Streets into a dog run.
What they don’t know is that this unique multi-use space is utilized by a number of groups on a regular basis, has been featured
in major media as a multi-use space, and is often left cleaner than it was found by it’s users. If you’ve got the time, download
our petition and gather some signatures. Download petition here (PDF)
Make sure all forms are brought to trackstar by 5pm on Thursday, November 8th.

There is a community board meeting next Thursday, November 8th which we will attend to present our petition.
The dog runners (http://thedogrun.net) have over 500 signatures on their petition already! We need your help now!
Especially if you live in the CB3 area (map), please sign our petition and try to make it to the meeting next Thursday: University Settlement, Speyer Hall
184 Eldridge St (btwn Rivington & Delancey Sts)
Public session is 6:30pm-7:30pm

Hard copies of the petition are at Trackstar: 231 Eldridge St (
http://www.trackstarnyc.com) and you can come by
Chrystie & Broome on Sunday to watch us play and sign our petition. This space is very important to us, and we appreciate
your support.

What’s it like to mess in Alaska?

Find out from Anchorage’s one bike messenger: http://anchoragebikemessenger.blogspot.com

Deck of Cards

Squid is working with Chrome on this project that will benefit the NYBMF in NYC and also
BMA’s/nonprofits in three other cities! A deck of cards, featuring messengers from four cities.
Each city will take a suit. Thirteen from each city will make the cut.
No pay, just your mug in a deck of cards and that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you donate to nonprofits!

Open call photo shoot this coming Saturday, November 3rd
2pm - 4pm @ 1945 Pacific St. btw Ralph and Buffalo in Brooklyn. Nobody in NY is getting paid for this project, Amy Bolger is doing the shoot gratis.

If you really want to be a part of it but can’t make that day, contact Squid for the makeup shoot info.

Goldsprints! 5 Boro Generals!

If you want to know how you fared in the epic, 5-borough urban race series from Getsum this summer (and part of the fall),
Get yourself to East River Bar this Friday, October 26th at 11:30pm. OR, if you want to do Goldsprints instead, get yourself to East
River Bar this Friday, October 26th at 10pm. OR, if you want to do some flatland tricks & things that were cut out of the
Brooklyn race due to time, get yourself to East River Bar this Friday, October 26th at 9pm. East River Bar is located at South 6th St and Berry in Williamsburg. Brooklyn

Messenger Appreciation Day

Friday, 10-05-07 -All day!

Happy Messenger Appreciation Day!
We will be kicking off MAD by giving out free food and water to messengers
at a park. (Park location TBA) From 10am to 6pm.

Our party will kick off at 6:30 at 49 E. Houston St.
More free food, cheap booze, music and dancing!
We will also have a raffle with fabulous prizes and your once in a
lifetime opportunity to *win a date with the NYBMF*! All proceeds go to
your favorite non-profit foundation that grants money to injured
messengers and messenger programs…the New York Bicycle Messenger
Foundation!!!

Please help spread the word to other WORKING MESSENGERS!!! Thank you!

Barack Obama and Independent Contractors

This is not an endorsement of any sort, but we should be aware of this bill that’s been introduced by senators Barack Obama (D-IL),
Dick Durbin (D-IL), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Patty Murray (D-WA). There is a discussion forum available on
The IFBMA Forums (at the bottom, under ” U.S. Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007″),
but so far, not much has been said. Get this discussion started.

The Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007

“This legislation is designed to protect
workers and taxpayers alike from employers misclassifying their employees as independent contractors. This problem costs the
government billions of dollars and denies the misclassified employees such things as overtime pay and worker’s compensation.”

New law might fine your boss if you ride on the sidewalk

Frankly, delivery guys shouldn’t be riding on the sidewalk anyway. This is not necessarily another effort
by the city to put the pinch on “renegade” cyclists, punishing us for anything they want to, at their whim. This is
actually going after the owners of delivery businesses, putting the financial pressure on them to make sure their riders ride safer. Read more…

chron.com
press release
streetsblog.org
gothamist.com

Buy some sweet bikes. Support some good bike charities

Puma and the Bike Film Festival have teamed up with some slick magazines to produce some
really slick bikes. The ebay sales
of these bikes are all going to support nationwide bike charities, including
workingbikes.org, bicyclekitchen,
recycle-a-bicycle,
and the community cycling center.
This is being posted in the wee hours of September 27th and these auctions end at 5pm today!. So there’s barely a day left to bid on these bikes! So do it fast!

“Collisions happen when either motorists or cyclists are not paying attention”

Thus begins the $1million road safety campaign advocating the simple message: Look. Citywide cycling groups advised
the advertising agency - Publicis - on this campaign. The NYBMF’s Sarinya Srisakul was quoted a couple of times in these articles:
Am NY,
WNBC.com

LOOK Safety Campaign

The New York Bike Messenger Foundation will be tabling at Union Square South
this Tuesday, September 18 from Noon until 2pm.

We will be handing out NYBMF postcards and also Know Your Rights manuals.

Squid has been working with a lot of different people for two years on this
safety campaign for New York City.

The campaign, called LOOK, was developed to raise awareness among drivers
and bike riders about cyclists’ right to the road and everyone’s
responsibility to drive and ride safely and be aware in traffic. It will run
in English and Spanish on bus shelters, buses, taxi tops and phone kiosks
this fall, and there will be a website, posters, postcards, t-shirts and
other give-aways to promote cyclist safety.

The ads were produced by international ad firm Publicis in consultation with
the NYC Bike Coalition, the City Departments of \
Transportation &
Health, the
NYPD, the
NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission
and the Office of the Public
Advocate.

The DOT will be handing out free helmets and there will be other giveaways
as well!

Please stop by if you can and help us get the word out!

NYC wins Ottawa Bike Polo Tournament

New York City’s exploding Bike Polo scene took home a big win this weekend at Ottawa’s North Side Polo Invitational. The egotistically
ironically named team “Overrated” bested two brutal Ottawa teams during the city’s Capital Punishment weekend. One of the
three team captains, Doug Dalrymple, also came in 10th in the alleycat on his polo bike - geared to a very low ratio, and also
ALMOST won Goldsprints. Turns out a ringer mountainbiker who just moved to the city moments before the party came in & took all
the loot. Too bad, cuz a Doug D / Ken Stanek final would’ve really been something to watch. New New Yorker Corey the Courier also
took home a “thanks for inventing the ESPI” prize from the generous & hospitable Ottawa crew. In related news, the Ottawa newspaper ran an article on the tournament:
Whatever Turns Your Crank

Labor Day weekend!

Dollar Slices

Our wire services report:

“Lasso on kenmare and mott has buck slices during the day. brick oven, super-crispy - the real thing, not ray’s-famous stylee”

A short hiatus

Sorry for not updating the site in a while. I’ve been on vacation. Don’t worry about a thing. NYBMA.com is still there for you.

Ryan Boudreau, Chicago Messenger, Hit & Killed

Chicago messengers to coordinate fund for family

Another tragedy took a great messenger this month. On August 14th, 27 year old Ryan Boudreau was struck & killed by a truck in the mid
afternoon, according to theChicago Sun-Times.
Chicago messengers plan to coordinate a fund for Ryan’s family. NYBMA.com will keep you informed on where & how to donate.

The New York Bike Messenger Association

“The NYBMA is a worker’s alliance of the messenger, by the messenger, and for the messenger. Our mission is to unite, represent and advocate for the bike couriers of New York City.” We organize events, such as rides and parties, designed to be fun
as well as give otherwise lone wolf couriers a chance to be part of a larger pack.

Sometimes we even do some good with our events. Members of the NYBMA have organized various charity bike rides and fundraising parties, as well as volunteering our services after the World Trade Center attack of 9-11.

We want to change the negative perceptions of messengers as well as improve conditions for ourselves. We are not asking for a handout. We are obviously hard workers. We just want the respect we deserve.

The NYBMA has a limited number of its official T-Shirts to sell and we sometimes carry other related merchandise.
If you are a messenger living in New York City join us.

Our logo

The apple represents the “Big Apple”, as in New York City.
The gear represents our bikes, our jobs, and our lives… as messengers. When the two are united together, as in the NYBMA, “WE” take a bite out of the “Big Apple”, receiving our fare share…
in order to feed and sustain ourselves.