City moves Citi Bike stations from richest areas while letting other contested racks stay
Source: New York Post
It takes a lot of green to get rid of the blue bikes. The city has quietly removed at least 10 Citi Bike stations since May, The Post has learned — including racks at Barry Diller’s IAC Building in Chelsea, a Midtown East condo that’s home to millionaires and a West Soho co-op where a “Mad Men” star lives.
Some stations were moved after legal threats and neighborhood petitions arose, but others were relocated with a simple phone call from a power broker to the right bureaucrat.
“I’ve been disappointed to see Citi Bike stations moved in wealthier neighborhoods,” said attorney Jim Walden. “You would think [the city] would want to avoid even the appearance that struggling artists would be treated differently than highfalutin financiers.”
Walden filed an injunction last week on behalf of community groups that for months have been fighting the city’s most controversial bike-share station at Soho’s Petrosino Square.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/wheelin_dealin_om4Ac5MHi7EJjRsjjOywwJ
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The latest rent a bike is mostly a West Coast (California and Washington for example), Mid West (Chicago, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh for example) and East Coast (New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston for example). Out side of Florida (Apparently only in the Miami area) and Austin Texas, not in the south. Denver seems to be the only city in the west (outside the West Coast) to have such a program:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system#United_States_programs
Philadelphia will get a bike share program in 2014:
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/katie_monroe/Bike_share_program_coming_to_Philadelphia.html
So will Pittsburgh:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pittsburgh-plans-to-debut-bike-share-program-in-2014-678848/
Given that the South had failed to embrace Bike sharing to the same degree as the East Coast, Mid-West and West Coast, it is their fault if these programs fail or succeed (i.e. it is the fault of the south no matter what happens).
Side note" Pittsburgh and Philadephia being in the same state, but two different regions of the country:
Pittsburgh has been called an Mid-Western City in an Eastern State. While you have a lot of trade between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pittsburgh's biggest trading partners are New Orleans, Cleveland and Chicago, NOT Philadelphia and New York City (For that is how the water flows, and heavy transportation goes by water when water transport is available). This mostly due to the Appalachians Mountains. The Appalachians Mountains are NOT a complete barrier between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia but enough of one to make it cheaper and easier to trade with New Orleans and Chicago then the East Coast.
In many ways the Appalachians mountains is what separates the East Coast (Sometimes just referred to as the "East"
from the Mid West. Right in the middle of Pennsylvania sits the Appalachians mountains. "Central Pennsylvania" is further EAST, between Harrisburg and Philadelphia (I do NOT make this up, that is the area of Pennsylvania that refers to itself as "Central Pennsylvania" . In simple terms Western Pennsylvania starts at Blue Mountain, which is just West and North of Harrisburg and the first ridge of the Appalachians mountains. Gettysburg is often confused, it is NOT Central Pennsylvania for it is WEST of Harrisburg, but it is also both south AND east of Blue Mountain and thus NOT "Western Pennsylvania".
Blue Mountain starts at about the half way point across Pennsylvania as it enters Pennsylvania from Maryland, then turns north east to barely be west of Harrisburg and continues to the New Jersey line to be just north of Wikes-Barre AND south of Scranton.
Blue mountain is the division between Western Pennsylvania and the rest of the State till it reaches the Susquehanna River. As a general rule (NOT universally accepted) the border of Western Pennsylvania then runs along the Susquehanna river till that river divides between the West and North branches of the Susquehanna. The general accepted border then along the West Branch till it actual turns west, but the border goes almost straight north. Please note the above is more a guideline between the borders of Western Pennsylvania and Central Pennsylvania. Central Pennsylvania's borders to the north is Blue Mountain. North of Blue Mountain but east of the Susquehanna river you are in the Endless Mountains (Which some people extend to the areas drained by the West Branch of the Susquehanna river, i.e. almost to the Allegheny River that flows to Pittsburgh).
The Endless Mountains are considered to cover over 2/3rds of the Northern half of the State. The Endless Mountains are said to run from the New Jersey Border to north of Johnstown. While Johnstown's rivers flow to Pittsburgh (and thus clearly in Western Pennsylvania), in the same county is the start of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River (Which flows into the Chesapeake Bay). Thus there is a good bit of overlap between the Endless Mountains region of Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania. The border between the two is really undefined for it is hard to pin down (Most efforts end up being someone's opinion more the something universally accepted). On the other hand, Blue Mountain South and West of Harrisburg is an almost universally accepted border between Central and Western Pennsylvania. This is where the Old Main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad ran (and the present Norfolk and Southern still run), the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the original east=West roads ran and the later Portage railway was built to connect the canals built in the 1830s. Thus Blue Mountain is the border between Central and Western Pennsylvania, West of Harrisburg. On the other hand the eastern border of Western Pennsylvania NORTH of Harrisburg, so overlaps the endless Mountains regions of Pennsylvania that anyone drawing a line between the two ends up with a arbitrary and capricious line based on that person's personal opinion then anything generally accepted by the people who live in the area.
On top of this, the Northern Tier Counties (along the Border of New York State, but West of Scranton) some times consider themselves separate from Western Pennsylvania and the Endless Mountains, as do the area around State Collage and its main "industry" Penn State University. Williamsport sometime views itself its own region, especially during the time of the Little League World Series. Compared to Central Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Pennsylvania, these areas all have very small populations and thus often caught between identifying themselves as NOT belonging to one of the larger population areas OR identifying themselves as part of a larger population area. Except for the Scranton area, these areas tends to go with Western Pennsylvania (and Scranton area tends to share more in common with Western Pennsylvania given its Coal History that it shares with Western Pennsylvania as oppose to Philadelphia or New York City, but it is clearly NOT in Western Pennsylvania).
Just a comment on Pennsylvania and its make up, after I made my comment about bike sharing and that Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will each have one in 2014
Blue Mountian:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountain_(Pennsylvania)
More on the Susquehanna River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susquehanna_River
On the endless Mountains:
http://www.endlessmountainsheritage.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Mountains
