On Orange 20's blog this week I celebrate how cyclists are filling Every Little Corner of the region….

While at Flying Pigeon LA I fret over Beverly Hills's inability to see the wealth of Wasted Space on its streets—which could hold heaps of bike racks. If they dared to think of it….

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 29 Apr 2015 23:59:43 -0800 [link]  

Welcome to this week's blogging roundup!

At Orange 20 we note that We Are Not Baseballs, and that on the road, running after you hit is definitely foul.

While at Flying Pigeon LA, we're just glad that The Beat Goes On, with ridership rising even despite the slow pace of infrastructure buildout.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 22 Apr 2015 18:24:16 -0800 [link]  

May Day is coming, and, though you might not have heard of it in today's Ammurrica, it's one of the oldest holidays in the northern hemisphere—and one of the newest.

It began in the Roman days as a spring festival, and even then it was probably an older holiday absorbed into the dominant culture of the time. As Europe changed, so did May Day, the most common image of which is the Maypole and May Queen of English country habit—reflected in the structures of Renaissance Faires to this day. In any case, the holiday persisted even as Europe devolved into a rigid theocracy, and was still often celebrated with drunkenness and sexual abandon.

More recently, the holiday became associated with workers' solidarity movements, which is why it is studiously ignored in Ammurrica, Central HQ of the Global War on Labor…and which is one reason we're holding my little book signing at Flying Pigeon LA on that date.

Yes, as you may know, I have gathered a number of the essays I've written over the last seventeen years into a book called Our Own Day Here, which explores the meanings and functions of community, transportation, work, love, and neighborhood in the modern city, and which does not disdain making statements about government, the economy, the corporate world, and how it all relates to the ways we get around on our streets and sidewalks, and, in LA's case, how we treat our river.

I'll be reading from this book, and signing copies (which you can buy at Flying Pigeon LA) for anyone who wishes to increase the value of their purchase by the value of the ink deposited in the signature.

I'll also be signing copies of, and possibly reading from, my urban noir mystery novel, The Dust Will Answer, which is set among the homeless camps and abandoned warehouses of the LA River where it passes through downtown, an area huddled under the shadow of creeping gentrification at the time of the story.

I've even figured out a clever way to "sign" e-book copies of either work, which you'll be able to order through your smartphones right there if you wish. (I'll sign little gallery-quality cards with the cover image.)

However, if you want a signed material copy of the mystery, which is not part of Flying Pigeon's inventory, you have just enough time to order the paperback if you, as the radio ads like to shout, "act now!"

You have your choice of corporate behemoth Amazon or cozy family-run print-on-demand publisher Lulu; same price at either venue. Lulu gives your poverty-stricken author a bigger cut.

So come on down to the legendary Flying Pigeon LA on May 1st at 6:30PM, indulge in some old May Day wine and some new May Day comradeship, listen to some urban yammer, and maybe buy a book to get autographed.

It's spring, and time to renew the world yet again.

Richard Risemberg Book Signing
Flying Pigeon LA
3404 N. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90065
May 1, 2015, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Wine & nibbles

I plan to lead a bike ride to the Pigeon from Union Station that night; details later.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 15 Apr 2015 23:18:18 -0800 [link]  

On Orange 20's blog this week, I ponder why Pasadena is Shorting the Glory by allowing only three and a half miles of streets to be opened for that city's first-ever CicLAvia.

And I exploit Flying Pigeon LA's website to advertise my book signing, telling readers to Save the Date: May 1st! for the event. Which will take place at…Flying Pigeon LA!

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 15 Apr 2015 22:54:56 -0800 [link]  

At Orange 20's blog this week, we say Well, Hallelujah Already, as the Miracle Mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard's bus/bike lanes officially opens.

While at Flying Pigeon LA we deprecate those times When the Force Isn't with You, and is in fact breaking its own rules by parking squad cars in bike lanes. Aren't they supposed to protect and to serve us too?

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:56:00 -0800 [link]  

Orange 20 Bikes looks at wheelie bins Trashing the Bike Lane all over LA, while Flying Pigeon LA advises you to Forget Jake…It's Chinatown, as bike racks bloom in front of a building housing popular markets and restaurants in central LA's oldest remaining ethnic enclave.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 01 Apr 2015 22:38:50 -0800 [link]  

BikeLoveJones
BikeSnobNYC
CycloCulture
Kent Peterson
LADOT Bike Blog
Lovely Bicycle!
Saddle Americana
Streetsblog
Velobakery