Red Hook is a neighborhood that I moved to when I first moved to New York six years ago.
My uncle has a wood shop here and when I arrived to New York I just had literally no money
so I lived in his wood shop for a year. Just, you know, I didn't know anyone. The neighborhood
was really kind of empty six years ago. There wasn't a lot of things happening here. So just,
you know, being introduced to New York City through Red Hook, I just stayed around.
You have to take the transport mode by cycling seriously compared to other modes of transport.
It's not just a hobby, it's a serious transport mode. You have to take it seriously just as well
as you take the car and the public transport seriously. You get a different mental map
of your city when you cycle. If you spend your time driving, then you spend your time
stuck in traffic jams and probably navigating underground car parks and remembering what
letter and what color car park you parked on and you're completely disoriented. None
of us have the luxury of flying, but cycling brings us pretty close to it and you've got
all of it to yourself. You know, you can navigate the whole lot and move in this way. The whole
city gets shrunk to roughly the size of a big building when you're on a bicycle.
Not everyone fits in the Red Hook because especially in the winter, it's really hard
to get to unless you're on a bicycle. The only public transportation is the bus and
that makes a million stops and takes hours to get anywhere. When I ride my bike, I can
be in Lower Manhattan in 15 minutes. The neighborhood has really embraced the race.
For the first couple of years, I wasn't able to promote it heavily in the neighborhood
just because I was doing it without permission. It's easier to ask for forgiveness and permission,
so I just kind of made it happen. But this year, we really got the neighborhood involved.
We solicited local sponsors. We organized a Made in Red Hook pop-up store at the race,
so local artists and artisans and shops had goods for sale at the race. And yeah, we
tried to make it a big community event more than anything.
Thank you.
