NYC is turning 12,000 old parking meters into bike racks

 
Love this story! I wonder what I can retrofit around the home…
 

 
Via SmartPlanet
 
In 2011, New York City decommissioned its last single-space parking meter. Many of the parking meters were sold, but discontinuing the use of single-space parking meters meant that there were thousands of iron poles sticking out of the sidewalks. Now the city has a plan for them: bike parking.

The city’s department of transportation has signed a $2 million contract to turn 12,000 old parking meter poles into bike racks. But is it worth the money? You bet, the New York Post reports:

Although the $1.9 million contract might seem like a lot, officials say that using existing infrastructure saves money because they don’t have to rip out the poles.

And because they’re made out of sturdy old parking meters, they are more difficult to steal.

The city already has about 200 parking meters that have been retrofit as bike racks. But with this new plan, the city will more than double its current number of bike racks.
 
Photo: Flickr/nycstreets
 

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BEST video ever…Tax the Rich: an animated fairy tale

 

Best video ever! This one is great to share with your family and friends that just don’t get it. This is a keeper! 🙂

 

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President Obama fired the opening salvo on Thursday

 
President Obama fired the opening salvo on Thursday…

 

In negotiations over the so-called “fiscal cliff.” In a plan presented to Republicans by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the President is asking for $1.6 trillion in new revenue by letting the Bush tax cuts expire on the richest 2% of Americans, and by increasing capital gains and estate taxes, which are mostly paid by very wealthy Americans like Mitt Romney. The President’s plan also calls for more stimulus spending on infrastructure and investments to help struggling homeowners refinance their homes. It also completely does away with the pesky debt-ceiling that Republicans have shown a willingness to exploit to force big spending cuts against the working class.

Under the President’s plan, the automatic spending cuts against social programs and the military will be stopped, but the President is putting up $400 billion in cuts to entitlement programs to be negotiated in 2013. Republicans responded to the proposal with outrage. Conservative Fox News talking head Charles Krauthammer called the deal worse than what General Robert E. Lee received at Appomattox after the Civil War.

At its core – this deal makes sure the wealthy pay their fair share again, it helps struggling homeowners, it puts Americans back to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and it doesn’t throw grandma under the bus by destroying Social Security and Medicare…no wonder why Republicans hate it! It looks like the President has finally figured out how to negotiate and he should be willing to stick to his principles and take the nation over the made-up “fiscal cliff” if Republicans don’t want to do what’s best for the American middle class.

~ Thom Hartmann

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