Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Tourists Juice the Ball Drop

Citibank bikes have been parked in Times Square and hooked up to 12-volt "deep cycle batteries." Stationary riders (mostly tourists, one assumes) are pedaling like crazy to charge the batteries. The energy they produce will then be dumped into the city's power grid to "offset the demands" of the Waterford crystal ball's midnight drop.



“With the year’s biggest party being powered by Citi Bike pedals," said Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, "the world is in for an even more electrifying experience when the ball drops."

After filling the city's veins with Bloomberg Administration-approved tourist juice, riders can then go to the Times Square Applebee's for a $375 New Year's Eve "ton of food" dinner.

It seems a perfect send-off for Bloomberg's last moments in office. I'll be counting the seconds.



But I prefer this version of New Year's Eve in Times Square.

3 comments:

  1. More traditional celebrations forked over to corporate logos. How festive.
    I know some may be counting seconds down to the exit of Bloomberg, but I'm not holding my breath on the real New York City returning anytime soon...or ever.

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  2. “With the year’s biggest party being powered by Citi Bike pedals," said Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan,

    The czarina, shilling for CitiBank down to the last few seconds of her and the emperor's Reign of Terror.

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  3. Happy New Year, Jeremiah! Back from the Bronx, without pictures because I'm thinking people and family while there, and regret on return that I haven't documented for you the liveliness of the world I've just been to (including neon signs and diners, amidst a few surviving clapboard houses). When did midtown Manhattan become the center of NYC in the public imagination? Interesting question, I think, as I research my own family's NYC history (which runs from the New Amsterdam NYC up along the East River to East Harlem and the Bronx over a couple of centuries). Great warm conversation on Harrison Ave. (where my mother was raised) with current next-door resident, a retired cop -- black, a long world from my mother's, but from another perspective, the same world. Anyway and again, happy new year!

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