Another New York Story from Mid-September, 2001.

Somewhere I heard about bike messengers who were running goods to Ground Zero on their bikes. This didn't surprise me. Last year, a million years ago, in August, 2000, I had the privilege of hanging out with bike messengers from all over the world who had gathered in New York for Metropoloco, a week of fun, games, and various races and competitions only bike messengers would attempt prior to the Worlds in Philadelphia.

What I discovered was a tribe of incredibly cool, generally really smart, unbelievably generous free spirits with unique personal styles that included lots o' tats, unnaturally colored and manipulated hair, and usually a tee shirt from some exotic source. Ages ranged, countries of origin were all over the map, an amazing collection of bikes congregated.

The week of events had been organized by a few New York messengers on a completely grass roots level with lots of love and hard work and not much else beyond a few donations by sympathetic souls. No big corporate sponsors, no big prize purses, no fancy carbo-loading feasts the night before. What fun! Every time I see a familiar face riding down Avenue A, Fifth Avenue, or where ever, I remember that week all over again.

So, when I heard about those messengers, I knew it had to be my "friends." I asked around, dropped by BikeWorks on the Lower Eastside (it was closed), and sent out some emails. And, scored!

kT answered my email with some info. I picked up the phone right away and caught her at home and not on line. kT is a great woman messenger (who rides a fixte bike through New York traffic as well as to and up Bear Mountain, a 100-mile round trip) I had originally chatted up at a red light on Houston. It was kT who told me about Metropoloco and it was kT again who provided the intro to Tone.

Even though Tone gave me names and numbers of other messengers to contact, I didn't. I think you'll agree that he tells the story well and, in his own words...



Be sure to take a couple of moments to check out all of Tone's photos at Moonshine Graffix.

"It might be helpful to mention my name, Tone, and the fact that you know KT and participated in Metropoloco. I'm sure messengers are tired of speaking to media representatives, but since you've been around before that might give you an edge."

So, I decided to give them their space, but here's Tone's email which tells another kind of story about New York, its people, and how we've come together more than ever in this terrible time.

--

Yes. I think I do remember you from Metropoloco. I was the one who took everyone's ID photos the day/night of the Goldsprints.

I got the call about possibly volunteering by carrying medical supplies and such from Hermes. He had heard it from Mike Dee and a few others who had been doing it the day before. When Hermes told me, I thought we should call as many others as possible.

As the treasurer of the NYBMA (New York Bike Messengers Association) I had a number of messengers' phone numbers. I gave Hermes a bunch of the numbers to call and I called the rest. Basically the plan was to meet on 23rd and West Street by the north end of Chelsea Piers at 9:00am Thursday. 30 messengers as well as other bicyclists gathered and signed up to volunteer. Nate, another messenger had volunteered the day before and had become the coordinator for any possibly needed messenger services.

Most of the time we formed human chains and loaded piles of trash bags containing donated clothing and supplies into Salvation Army trucks. By that time security had tightened downtown so people weren't able to go down to help directly. After loading up numerous truckloads of stuff there wasn't much else to do. I stuck around and volunteered, not doing much honestly but making myself available, until 9pm.

The next day I went down to Chelsea Piers around 7pm and started to volunteer by sorting, boxing, and loading piles of donated supplies onto Police boats which were bringing stuff down to Ground Zero. It was Friday night and Chelsea Piers had to be emptied out in order to get back to normal operations by Monday. At around 5am we had emptied out an entire indoor parking lot that had piles of sorted supplies, clothing, and tons of other stuff.

I took some photos on the first day I volunteered. You can check them out at Moonshine Graffix.

Good luck, and Ride Safe,

_TONE_