critical mass,

If I've ever witnessed martial law, it was Friday evening at the Critical Mass. The last friday of every month there is a gathering in cities all over the world of bicyclists. The idea is to promote awareness for alternative transportation and as a way of saying, bicycling is traffic too. We met in Union Square only to face confrontation by forty to fifty police squad cars, some motorcycles, trucks, etc. Asking one officer, they occasionally perform anti-terrorism formation drills, mostly at a lot out in Brooklyn. This month's just happened to land at the Critical Mass in Midtown Manhattan gathering. Either it was a lucky coincidence, or cyclist are terrorists. To avoid arrest / ticketing, I was warned that I needed to be in strict compliance with all new york city bike laws. (Rear / front lights and a bell). So I now have a bell for my bike, it zings. To further avoid arrest, we walked our bikes on the sidewalk to the local precinct where the police chief of thirty-three years was retiring. We figured, they can't arrest us if we're walking on the sidewalk. We weren't impeding traffic on the street. We arrived at the precinct and presented a peace offering to the retiring chief, a cruiser! Sources from within the precinct say they all found the event pretty humorous. There was a call to disperse or be arrested, so we set off. Riding from the West Village down Broadway to the Brooklyn Bridge and back up to the East Village. There were some 200+ cyclists that night, so it was a pretty good turnout for a cold night. Back to Time's Up (bike co-op) and hanging out there for a while, living, loving, sharing beautiful stories with beautiful people. By far, the most fun I've had since this summer.