Is there anything this city won't do for renaissance man David Byrne? The former Talking Head has been helping out with the DOT's search for new bike rack designs, and recently got inspired to sketch some imaginary bike racks named for New York neighborhoods and locations. Then, voila; David's dream is manifest, as he explains on his blog: "To my surprise, [the DOT] responded by saying, 'If you make these we'll put them up.' Holy Moses! I was over the moon — what happened to the legendary red tape and years of bureaucratic haggling I was supposed to go through?"
Byrne, an avid cyclist who's admitted to eating pavement while biking under the influence, says the locations the DOT chose were perfect: "Wall Street for the dollar sign! And Bergdorf Goodman for the giant high heel!" The whimsical yet functional racks, which were fabricated with money from PaceWildenstein Gallery, will be up eleven months, after which the gallery will sell them off. The Times ran a long profile on Byrne the biker recently, and here are the finalists for the city's design competition for the next generation of permanent bike racks.
