This morning on East 7th Street

Photos by Peter Brownscombe...

NYPD pulls over cyclist this morning on the Bowery

We've reported on cyclists who received tickets for blowing through red lights... (like here)...

This morning, the NYPD pulled over this fellow at First Street on the Bowery... Word is he zipped through the intersection at Houston and the Bowery without stopping for the light...

We stood around awkwardly for an awkwardly long time (how long can you pretend to look at Steven Tyler's clothing line?) to see if the officers would write him a ticket... we left when our cover was blown... Don't look at the camera! Stay in character!

Bike rack that housed iconic blizzard bike is... gone!

Readers continue to keep tabs on Caffe Cotto, currently undergoing a gut renovation on Avenue C at Eighth Street...

[Bobby Williams]

[Dave on 7th, who wonders what the chains will be for...]

Meanwhile! EV Grieve reader AC notes something is missing along the sidewalk here on Eighth Street... something that you attach bicycles to...

Why yes... you remember this iconic photo that became one of the iconic shots of the iconic Blizzard of the iconic Dec. 26, 2010....

Perhaps there was a reason the bike went missing last month. Bikes can sense these things, you know.

So the snow is gone (though I think parts of 11th Street still haven't been plowed). The bike is gone. The bike rack is gone. But we have our memories.

Anyway, people are upset, though not really. Still, someone etched this into the Cotto doorway...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: Q-and-A with the bike that became an iconic symbol of the 2010 Holiday Blizzard

Things that you do when you stop for red lights on your bike

As noted Wednesday, the NYPD pulled over EV Grieve contributor samo on East First Street near Avenue A and issued him a $270 ticket for running a red light on his bike. (You can read that post and the 50-some comments here.)

So yesterday was "day 1 of stopping at red lights for me," he said via email. So while waiting for the lights to change, he sat and counted the number of bikers running reds and how many pedestrians weren't obeying any directional signals whatsoever.

Totals yesterday afternoon after a ride from the Lower East Side to Chelsea:

Bikers Running Red: 7 out of 10
Pedestrians: Innumerable ("I lost count.")

Oh, and here's the back of his ticket...

NYPD slaps $270 ticket on East Village cyclist for running red light

And it happened to our very own contributor samo, who cops pulled over this morning on East First Street near Avenue A...

The bicycle orphans of the East Village

I've always been fascinated by the numerous bicycles chained to just about anything in the neighborhood. Difficult to tell sometimes which ones are still still being used, and which ones are abandoned. Back before I had a camera, I'd pass by this one carcass of a bike on East 10th Street near Second Avenue. Seemed as if every time that I walked by, another piece of the bike was missing. Eventually, the chain was the only thing left. (I kind of figured it was some awful ongoing art project.)

Several years back, there was a woman's vintage bike chained to the light pole in front of Sophie's. It was never touched. Eventually, it was said that the bike belonged to a young woman who did some work at the now defunct Le Tableau a few doors down. She was killed one night after getting hit by an oncoming subway. It was an accident that didn't get much, if any, press. The bike remained there for nearly a year. Then one day it was gone.