Self-Defense Event Sunday 3/29 (or iPod? iDefend.)

Council member Letitia James would like to remind everyone that she's presenting a Self-Defense Awareness Event tomorrow (Sunday 3/29).

I wonder if it will include such needed suggests to newcomers as don't accept invitations from strangers on dark streets and learn to operate gadgets from your pockets instead of waving them like a target in Duck Hunt.

Here's the official details provided by Council member James' office:

A Self-Defense Awareness Event will be held on Sunday March 29th, from 3:00 pm until 5:00 pm at Long Island University, in the Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gymnasium (the former Paramount Theater), located on DeKalb Avenue at Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn.

Participants include representatives from the Office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, the 88^th Police Precinct, as well as certified self-defense instructors from Embora Wellness and Movement Studio - www.embora.com, who will lecture and lead the class.

Please come listen, learn, and practice self protection & safety tips, as well as self-defense techniques with the community.

This Event Co-Sponsored by:

Council Member Letitia James

The Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University

Embora Wellness and Movement Studio - www.embora.com

The Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Public Safety Task Force

Contact: Amyre Loomis at (718) 260-9191, and (646) 201-8183

GhostBikes on the movement

I was out in Fort Greene one night last week, sitting in the fortress that is my dude's SUV when suddenly a spectral object rolled by nearly glowing in the darkness. I recognized the shining skeletal bike immediately and went over.



Many of you will recognize the thin ten speed bike painted white from top to tires as part of the GhostBike project. Ghostbikes for those who don't know are created by volunteers and in several cities placed near the scene of a cyclist's death, usually with a plaque or sign detailing the accident. I find them appropriately reverent and spooky.

This text from their site describes the project:

The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in at least 72 cities throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again -- but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed.

I felt all ghoulish asking where the bike was to be placed and the duo (clad all in black, mighty like ninjas) told me that bike was headed to Harlem, (Update: here's the bike installed in Harlem) and that they lived in Inwood. I mentioned I hadn't heard of any accidents around Fort Greene so I was surprised to see the bike at all. They then let me know that unfortunately there had been an fatal cycling accident on Nevins near Livingston (Downtown) and that they intended to place a GhostBike memorial there for a child who was killed while riding his bike with his father. That accident involved a postal truck, and the way the story was told to me it seemed just to be a terrible faultless happenstance. Sad indeed.


There will be a memorial ride on January 4th to raise awareness for cyclist's rights and safety, for details check their site: http://www.ghostbikes.org/node/364