Al Sharpton: Politician. Gadfly. Cyclist? Tonight’s monthly Critical Mass bike ride and rally will have some additional cachet thanks to the outspoken activist, as he joins the cyclists to highlight a “common pattern of NYPD harassment experienced by diverse groups of law-abiding citizens,” according to the press release from the Time’s Up! group. You’ll recall that before the Republican convention came to town in 2004, the NYPD tended to cooperate with the Critical Mass rides......

Yay for dog days! Over the weekend, Times's Up! held its first annual Doggie Pedal Parade, highlighting bicycles adapted to transport pets and the benefits of adopting homeless animals. Bicyclists learned how to pimp their bikes for their pups pets and then humans and canines alike celebrated with a Pupnic at Washington Square Park's dog run.......

The orange bicycle DKNY.Com Guerilla marketing scheme, by Rollingrck at Flickr. DKNY is usurping a grassroots campaign to memorialize cyclists killed in New York City's traffic, with a guerrilla marketing campaign to push their product. Above is a picture of several orange-painted DKNY bikes, first widely noted at BikeBlog. DKNY, Donna Karan's more mid-priced clothing line, is behind the campaign. Its web site features ridiculously good looking people frolicking about lower Manhattan, sometimes on......

If you thought noticed a group of bicyclists playing dead on 6th Avenue near 33rd Street, your eyes weren't fooling you. Time's Up led a Bike Lane Action to "dramatize the fatal last moments of David Smith’s ride up 6th Avenue." Smith was killed when a passenger in a truck, parked in the bike lane, opened a door; Smith was knocked off his bike and into the path of a truck. A Time's Up......

Today, all over the city, ordinary parking spaces will be transformed into temporary public "parks." The Trust for Public Land has organized a nationwide Park(ing) Day, and there are a number of these Park(ing) projects all over the city - Open Plans has the details on the NYC locations. For instance, Colin Beaven, "No Impact Man," will be sponsoring a Park(ing) Lot at 7th Ave, between 24th and 26th Sts.; Times Up & Green......

The failure of congestion pricing (at least for this legislative session) has cast a pall on NYC-Albany relations. Not least because Mayor Bloomberg spent some time yesterday slamming state lawmakers. He said:New York City is today poorer because of Albany's inaction yesterday, and I think, sadly, it appears that we jeopardized, at best, and probably lost, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something with someone else's money. "And [we] demonstrated once again that Albany just......

Yesterday, activists attempted to block the construction crews from razing a community garden in Harlem. The city has been planning to remove the Nueva Esperanza Garden at 110th and Fifth Avenue and replace it with a new building for the Museum of African Art. But critics question whether it's really a museum or a guise for new condominiums. There are supposed to be 115 luxury units in the building, and Times Up writes the......

Though not necessarily together. The Mayor believes in zeppole and fair games, telling reporters: "I understand the frustration of the community, who has their streets blocked and a lot of noise at night. On the other hand, it is part of New York." But yesterday the Mayor also spent some time defending the spying the NYPD did prior the Republican National Convention, chalking it up to "a fundamental responsibility to learn whether groups might......

Monitoring the city's job postings can pay off! Luckily, Streetsblog has been doing just that and pieces together how the city is serious about developing "comprehensive transportation and land use strategy for New York City."The first signal came at the beginning of Mayor Bloomberg's second term when DOT Commissioner Iris Weinhall was knocked one rung down the Administration's org chart. She is now reporting directly to Doctoroff. Next, DOT's creative, competent Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner,......

As June draws to a close with three bicyclist fatalities and one bicyclist injury, there will also be a Critical Mass ride tonight. The ride will start at 7PM at Union Square tonight, and Times Up points out that at last month's ride, two police vehicles swerved in front of a group of riders and an officer 'doored' a cyclist who was riding in the bike lane along Broadway, breaking her collarbone." And then......

Times Up is organizing a memorial ride tomorrow night, in memory of Dr. Carl Nacht and Derek Lake. The ride will begin at 6:30PM at the West Side Greenway at 42nd Street (in front of the Intrepid). The ride will stop at West 38th Street, where Nacht was hit by an NYPD tow truck, and then make it way to West Houston and Laguardia Place, where Lake was killed near a construction site. Bring flowers.......

Yesterday we mentioned the big Times Up memorial rally that was going on yesterday-- JibbaJabba already has some pictures up on Flickr. BikeBlog wrote: We ride to HONOR those who have been injured or killed. We ride to RAISE AWARENESS that we are here. We ride to ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD. In the US, cars kill more children and young adults than anything else. 10 cyclists per day are reported hit......

Gothamist was supposed to spend the evening on a rooftop with friends and free drinks. Thank you rain for ruining the start to our weekend! We usually don't take a negative tone around here, but it needs to be said: Gothamist hates weather. It's also going to ruin at least one of the below events, see if you can pick which one. When you're done with that, grab your umbrella and rain boots and find......

Another sign spring is coming: This past Friday, the police arrestd 37 Critical Mass bikers. The city has been demanding permits for the more-bikes-less-cars advocacy groups to gather and ride through the city during their last Friday of the month rides. The city's argument is that the mass ride causes traffic issues, and permits would be necessary at Union Square (where the ride starts) and other city streets. Plus, participants would not be able......

Last Friday's Critical Mass bike ride resulted in over a thousand bike riders and 33 arrests. Naturally, the riders are saying the police weer "hostile" and overzealous. Things were fine when riders rode together in a huge cycling mass, but police starting to arrest riders that "spontaneously broke up into smaller packs." A Times Up/Critical Mass organizer who was arrested told reporters, "There was an air of intimidation. There was a van projecting a recorded......

Tomorrow night will be the first staredown between bicyclists and the NYPD since the Critical Mass bike protest right before the Republican National Convention. The late August ride turned into an anti-Bush ride, and though it was generally peaceful, police arrested over 200 cyclists for blocking the streets. Now, bikers are claiming they will continue their effort to reclaim the streets from cars while the police will continue to crack down on riders. The Daily......