Fashion Over Biking by Áine Pennello
Joined by bike lanes, hipster and Hasidic Williamsburg fight over biker fashion in Mayor Bloomberg’s gentrified New York.
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Transcript :If anybody’s ever biked, you know it’s freedom.
Some people have biking in their roots and some people didn’t have that.
Here we have the Williamsburg bike community, which is going great and they’re biking everywhere and they think it’s the hippest thing. But right next to them is the Hasidic community that dresses a certain way. And the way people dressed when they rode a bike through their neighbourhood, was a little too sexy for their religion.
So, originally when we got here, we tried to put a lot of language on the building and stars. We had a loaner bike program where they could borrow bikes just to get the feel of them for free.
And their kids were coming here a little bit. And to get the kids in the workshop — it was difficult for me because when I was working with the Hasidic kids, I would try to talk to them about Superman or Batman and they had no idea what I was talking about.
And then it kind of went bad because the city went in front of us and just threw done a bike lane, I think without really doing the proper research.
There’s different ideas that people have in different neighborhoods.
Some people are against bikes because they think it makes them look poor. Some people are against bikes because they don’t want to lose parking spaces. Some people are against bikes because it’s a change and they’re not used to it. But to be against bikes because of the way people dress who ride bikes, that was something we were unprepared to deal with.
I mean I’m not religious at all. So I think religion is a huge problem but I understand that people are religious and if I want them to ride a bike so there can be cleaner air, I’m going to have to work with them I guess.
It’s a very difficult situation.
Some people have biking in their roots and some people didn’t have that.
Here we have the Williamsburg bike community, which is going great and they’re biking everywhere and they think it’s the hippest thing. But right next to them is the Hasidic community that dresses a certain way. And the way people dressed when they rode a bike through their neighbourhood, was a little too sexy for their religion.
So, originally when we got here, we tried to put a lot of language on the building and stars. We had a loaner bike program where they could borrow bikes just to get the feel of them for free.
And their kids were coming here a little bit. And to get the kids in the workshop — it was difficult for me because when I was working with the Hasidic kids, I would try to talk to them about Superman or Batman and they had no idea what I was talking about.
And then it kind of went bad because the city went in front of us and just threw done a bike lane, I think without really doing the proper research.
There’s different ideas that people have in different neighborhoods.
Some people are against bikes because they think it makes them look poor. Some people are against bikes because they don’t want to lose parking spaces. Some people are against bikes because it’s a change and they’re not used to it. But to be against bikes because of the way people dress who ride bikes, that was something we were unprepared to deal with.
I mean I’m not religious at all. So I think religion is a huge problem but I understand that people are religious and if I want them to ride a bike so there can be cleaner air, I’m going to have to work with them I guess.
It’s a very difficult situation.
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more info:Bike shop owner Bill Di Paola tries to bring together two of Williamsburg’s most distinct communities: hipsters and Hassidic Jews. Now joined by Mayor Bloomberg’s bike lanes, the communities are divided over fashion. While hipsters cycle through Hasidic Williamsburg in skinny jeans and playful skirts and dresses, Orthodox Jews adhere to a strict uniform of long black skirts for women and two-piece suits for men. Fedoras and beards are where the similarities start and end.
At Times Up bike shop on South 6th Avenue, owner Bill Di Paola has tried to bridge their differences by offering free bike loans to Hassidic Jews. Although the scheme was successful at the start, the Rebbe – the Jewish leader of Williamsburg’s Hasidic community – voted against the use of bikes which has since caused the number of Di Paola’s Hasidic customers to plummet.
At Times Up bike shop on South 6th Avenue, owner Bill Di Paola has tried to bridge their differences by offering free bike loans to Hassidic Jews. Although the scheme was successful at the start, the Rebbe – the Jewish leader of Williamsburg’s Hasidic community – voted against the use of bikes which has since caused the number of Di Paola’s Hasidic customers to plummet.
