My main way of getting to work over the past decade has been on a bicycle; much of my ride has been on the Jeff Davis bike path. It’s so much less stressful to me than driving a car, and I am so glad I don’t have to start my day in an automobile. Nevertheless, I do encounter obstacles and hazards from time to time. I try not to get annoyed. But as I’ve noted previously, it’s “interesting how much annoyance seems to cluster around transportation. Getting from Point A to Point B is fraught with stress-inducing potential.”
As I often ride with a camera, it’s become an almost involuntary reflex to document problems on the bike path as I run into them. And so, just as I recently realized that I now have a little archive of back to school photos, I also realized I have an archive of bike-path problems. In fact, the fifth photo I posted to Flickr was of a mattress on the path, way back in 2004.
So I’d like to present this set of… …blockages, obstructions and mess (as well as the occasional friendly encounter) on the Jeff Davis bike path in Mid-City New Orleans.
[tylr-slidr userID=”11018968@N00″ groupID=””]http://www.flickr.com/photos/editor/sets/72157627416174614/[/tylr-slidr]
Of course you’ll want to play this slideshow in fullscreen mode for maximum effect.
Speaking of bike-friendly infrastructure, greenway planning meetings are underway, and your participation is critical..
back in day when i was a renter and rode my bike every where that intersection of jeff davis and canal was always a mother to cross. thank god they didnt have earbuds back then.
your picture of the kids on the bike path brought back a memory i havent thought about in years.
back in the late 80’s i worked with a kid who lived with his grandma and mom in the old saint benard project.
we would go there after work and drink some beers on grandma’s porch because she felt if blaine was in her sight he couldn’t get in trouble.
she always told me i was welcome in her house , but as a white boy i shouldn’t get any big ideas and think i could just go hang out in other projects. she advised me that my ass would be grass in fisher ,iberville , lafite , st. thomas etc……..
sometimes in the courtyards there would be these kids playing a game that looked like cricket to me. they had the same set up as in your picture.
i always thought it was strange that the one colony we were never a part of imported a street kids game.
blaine had a name for the game but i cant remember it.
the one way it didnt resemble cricket was that it moved really fast.
in hind sight it might have come from the Caribbean british colony’s
thank’s slave traders.
one of the most fucked up things about our town is how much culture came here by force.
one of the greatest things about our town is how we made it our own over time.
the ying and the yang is how both of those statements are still true today.
when they started bringing folks into the saint benard from the saint thomas it got pretty hairy.
me and blaine had to find a new place to drink after work beers, his two matriarchs had to get out of the saint benard. and eventually we both moved on to other jobs.
after katrina i ran into him at the rite aid , he had taken his fema money and opened a day care and is also the cook. he’s getting paid twice for one job, he’s also working 80 hours a week.
sorry for the ramble but that picture of the kids on the bike path jarred my crazy brain.
Reminds me of my commute, which is also down the Parkway. Despite the obstacles, riding to work is always such a pleasure.
But on the Parkway, there can be some serious obstacles.