Tag Archives: urban living

An Atlanta Story: Bikes Howling Into the Moon as Cars are Stuck

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The September Full Moon

At midnight on a late summer Saturday night, hip-hop music emanated from the traffic-jammed cars surrounding me as I traveled west along Edgewood Avenue with a bike posse. On my first group bike ride, I was both excited and nervous. This ride was supposed to make it across town and back (over 10 miles). Most car-driving Atlantans would be rightly terrified of biking this route. Car traffic, hills, and potholes are enough to scare the average Atlantan. While I was safely helmeted and well-lit, without the collective courage of this group, I likely would have stayed in the boring bar where I started my night. On my own, I could not have imagined cycling across Atlanta. But for that September Full Moon ride, I could have lived forever in ignorance and boredom in my own hometown.

Our motley crew comprised a ride leader on roller skates followed by cyclists of every race and age. We snaked our way through bumper-to-bumper clubbing traffic on Edgewood as onlookers stared at us. Occasionally, a cheerful drunk would greet us with a smile and a “HEY there!” More often, though, car drivers actively ignored us. They were stuck in gridlock; we cyclists were free to weave between lanes. This small gloat eased some of my tension.

Along with the heat, enthusiasm began climbing out of me. Without the layers of car steel as separation, the bumping music sent electric pulses through my body. My Saturday night fever grew, and I felt part of the night’s clubby scene. My bike and I connected with the groove and felt like I was dancing along with the city.

A Night Ride from M+M

Watch for Plates, Grates, Poles and Assholes

That night, the road hazards that first presented themselves became more apparent. Car drivers seem either distracted, indifferent, or actively vengeful. As we made our way to the west side of town, the occasional smell of Mary Jane and intermittent car honks punctuated our ride. En route, we encountered a sharp left turn and an immediate incline which slowed us all down. A shiny red Dodge Charger got behind the slowest rider (me) and began revving its engine. The car was less than three feet away and intimidating. When I reached the top of the hill, the Dodge and I were waiting at the same red light. As we were stopped together, I told the driver NICELY that his revving was scary. He laughed and told me he was “playing.” Then, the light turned green, and the Charger rolled up his window and sped off. This driver was driving recklessly. I noted the license plate; the other cyclists were unphased. While he was wrong to drive like that, the flow of the evening was so good. The road called us onwards. I let it roll off me as we caught a pleasant downward hill into the west side of town.

 

Summerhill Mural

I recalled my high school prohibition from entering this neighborhood. It was not considered safe when I was growing up. Now, here in the West End, was another happening corner. A few cool venues caused slowed car traffic. A whole line of scantily clad ladies was waiting to get inside a club. Meanwhile, crowds poured from parking lots and meandered along sidewalks to bars and clubs. From my bike, the excitement was palpable. That first ride showed me my old town in a new way. The Beltline has impacted the city incredibly by connecting previously segregated parts of town. Now, there are open public spaces to hang out and chill. Walking paths meet with restaurant patios giving  Atlanta a lively and dynamic vibe. I notice this as I remember my readings about legacy residents being displaced by growing rents, especially in southwest Atlanta.

Full Moon Ride November- L5P

Helpful Humans

After we passed the new westside developments, our group found a monster incline around The Gulch. Here I got a real sense of group ride camaraderie. I was sure my clunker of a vintage Schwinn bike was malfunctioning. I found it lying around in my mother’s garage not too long ago. The bike needed TLC, just as I required instruction for going up hills. Oh my god, the HILLS in this town! As I struggled with matching pace with everyone else, I hopped off my bike to push it up the steep incline. A veteran older rider offered to help me. I dismounted and let him take a look at my gear settings. This form of volunteerism was both refreshing and encouraging for me. As I continued to ride, I noticed that there are many good bike Samaritans among the group rides.

No club, dive bar, or café could meet the zest of cycling through Atlanta’s entertainment district on a Saturday night. After the ride, I felt electric. Every cell in my body demanded I dance, move, groove. Thanks to this ride, I felt thoroughly connected and immersed in the city for the first time since my repatriation. While I developed my passion for bike riding in Tokyo, riding where I grew up is a whole new beast. Since that Saturday night, I haven’t seen the city the same way. Since then, I have been hooked.

Get out the Vote Ride (Midweek Roll)

Bikes with the Final Word

Atlanta does not immediately pose herself as a bike-friendly town. The tenor of car driving is aggressive and irreverent towards human life. The public infrastructure is entirely car-based. For the tiny bit of bike infrastructure, there is very little enforcement. Cyclists are left to fend for their own safety. While mutual aid and camaraderie are the natural results of being relegated by the car culture, the future is increasingly anti-car. Cars are pollutants, dangerous to pedestrian safety, and cost us a time tax. They increase the cost of street maintenance, take up too much parking space, and are expensive to maintain. As the city embraces more progressive demands from its residents, the gospel of bike life is spreading. Until then, Atlanta is a car town with an addictive bike habit.

 

On Boulevard NE and Edgewood Avenue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Do Not Cook In Tokyo

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In Tokyo, where both time and space are in short supply, eating out is a necessary luxury. The average apartment in Tokyo is small. Relative to comparable city dwellers, Tokyoites have the lowest square footage of any large city. The kitchens, then, are even smaller. Lack of counter space makes prep work itself an elaborate exercise. Usually, a single medium cutting board could fit over the top of a sink. Very rarely do average apartments have dishwashers or ovens. Multiple burners can be a rarity. Cramped cooking creates more trouble than just kitchen clutter. Smells quickly waft into living and sleeping spaces. In my former 200-square foot apartment, I used to plug in a slow-cooker and open the windows to vent. When comparing tiny apartment kitchens versus the world of dining options, homemade is no longer a pragmatic choice for working people.

Beautiful plating is standard.

Even if you have the time and disposition to cook, many choice ingredients are far-flung across Tokyo. Searching for a Marsala wine, for example, can quickly require an hour journey to a shop with irregular hours that may have just run out of their 3rd bottle of sweet Italian wine. Fruit is a sore spot for many ex-pats. If you find some appetizing fruit, the sticker shock will give you another surprise. A single mango can cost you $8 on a good day! So much for that little bit of garnish, you needed. The hustle and bustle of Tokyo is home to a great many fantastic ingredients. Making sure you can snag them when you need them is a different story. Add that to the time and energy and yen output, you may be looking at a long run about the city. Leave the cooking to the professionals in Tokyo.

The Japanese love Indian food

Dining out is really an elevated art in Japan. Tokyoites eat with their stomach and their eyes. Though it is hard to find foreign language skills, the palate is much easier to internationalize. Obsessed foodies can find pretty plates of high cuisine in nearly all city nooks. In addition to stupendously good Japanese options, Tokyo is an epicures delight of global foods. Popular options include Italian and Indian food. Looking for dinner in a well-developed, lively neighborhood often feels like searching through a treasure map. Hidden in dark alleys, specialist Burmese or German cuisine ask to be found. Ever trend-conscious, or even trendsetting, bubble tea joints are nearly as ubiquitous as Starbucks. Whether you desire fugu, mutton curry, or creamy gelato, some Tokyo shop has it.

Instead of spending your precious time cleaning for cutting space, collecting twelve different spices for murgh makhani, do the practical thing. Call your neighborhood Indian restaurant and make a reservation. Then, take a quick walk down the street, eat well, and return home. Your kitchen will be undisturbed. The rest of your home will smell like your funky vanilla spice candle instead of a Delhi-dhaba, and you can return to luxuriating, Tokyo-style.

Dessert Indulgence, anyone?

Green Urban Life: Pluralistic, Sustainable Cities

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Today, most of Earth’s population lives in a city. The trend towards urbanization dramatically impacts our planet. While cities provide economic opportunities and social interaction, they also create unique challenges. American cities, for example, are full of avoidable problems. Car-centric American cities suffer from sprawling low-density suburbs with traffic-related fatalities, remnants of historically segregated zoning, and ongoing ecological damage. In some of the same sprawling cities, portions of the population lack access to fresh produce, healthcare, social services, and parks for recreation. The pandemic has exacerbated the problems of poor planning.  A burgeoning tiny house movement and the van life culture are rebukes to contemporary American urbanization.

Globally, progressive thinkers are searching for new models of city development. Multi-disciplinary thinking can blend research from the siloed insights of engineering and social sciences to improve city life. Well-planned, sustainable cities can proactively address the challenges of urban life: traffic congestion, issues of access and equity, and environmental degradation. Moreover, urban life can become more socially, politically, and ecologically sustainable through innovative design and responsible uses of technology.

American planners can improve city life by studying examples abroad and applying local solutions. By marrying data and social sciences, complex systems science can shed insight into better traffic flows. Participatory governance can work to rectify the history of racialized zoning. Ecologically sound design can address environmental degradation and waste management. While American cities are newer than their European counterparts, global insights can make sustainable cities economically and socially vibrant. Consider these problems:

 

(1) Car-Based Planning

Car-focused city planning has shortened lifespans and increased noise pollution. In addition, current city design often isolates individual communities and stratifies economic isolation. Abroad, when China adopted a car-focused city, it backfired. Urban towers on streets without sidewalks created dense air pollution and more social isolation.

 

American car-dependent cities leave people in the suburbs surrounded by similarly-minded individuals. Enclaves of like-minded congregate to create NIMBY-ism and social isolation. Furthermore, car-based design is economically unsustainable for certain cities. The case of public transport and infrastructure is now a wake-up call to cash-poor cities.

(2) Impacts of Historical Segregation

Historically, American city planning marginalized communities along racial lines. Consequently, even today, we have inequitable use of city resources within neighborhoods and communities. Yet, access to housing, health services, and reliable transportation encourages a full blossoming of human potential. To begin to remedy the problem, urban planners must be aware of zoning history and actively work to improve the well-being consequences of these past injustices.

Collaborative approaches to place-making are a start. Readily available technology can improve citizen involvement with consultative democratic participation. Collaborative governance projects are ongoing in Spain, Germany, and Brazil. They bring new approaches to city planning, integrating information from the citizenry to identify utility service needs, the location of pollution emissions, and problematic traffic patterns. In American cities, the intelligent and socially responsible use of data can empower transformative zoning changes. As citizens work towards creating better cities, their participation and dialogue can diminish social problems rooted in xenophobia and ‘othering.’  By bringing in the voices of community stakeholders, participatory governance can channel city resources to the public good.

 

(3) Ecological Concerns

Metropolitan areas invariably effect the surrounding natural world in a variety of ways. Two-thirds of global carbon emissions come from city dwellers. Urban transportation infrastructure and waste management require precious city space. All of this can strain local flora and fauna. On the other hand, ecologically sustainable planning can make city life more desirable. In Denmark, for example, pro-cycling city planning helped reduce Copenhagen’s carbon emissions while attracting new residents.

 

So we can reduce, reuse and recycle that?

While the United States sends most urban residential waste to landfills, governments must use resourceful and imaginative solutions in countries with smaller land masses. Separating inorganic and organic waste allows many countries to divert substantial waste from landfills. Waste management centers and better public education can help bring organic waste into community gardens. In Japan, some appliance retailers are responsible for processing various metals in their products. Through different progressive policies, the rural spaces around cities need not turn into landfills.

 

Conclusion

Urban centers are here to stay. The traditional and reactive style of dealing with growth has created too many unsavory results. A world of city-design style and experiments is ongoing. Insights from research and applications can help improve our American urban centers. Bringing new ideas together can help improve the urban experience.  Modern city design can bring together urban planners, communities, and environmentalists. Innovative design and socially-responsible data can help build healthier cities through transparency and collaboration.

 

What are your thoughts on city-dwelling? Please comment below!