Bloomberg let Citibank alter the color palette of Manhattan. In other words, for chump change to a billionaire, Mr. To put that $41 million in perspective, a co-op at 640 Park Avenue recently sold for $23 million, and Calvin Klein’s Hamptons house reportedly cost around $75 million. They respect the romance that is Paris.Īnd what a bargain Citibank got. But in Paris, the bikes are a silvery gray and the sponsors have discreet small tattoos on the bike frame. We’re told that this bike program is modeled after the one in Paris. With the exception of Times Square, where loud clashing colors are the point, our city is browns, grays, greens and brick red. Our city, if you look around, isn’t a blue city, or wasn’t until the bikes arrived. If you place a love scene in front of, say, a blue bench, the audience will look at the bench and not the actors. Odds are, in your favorite romantic Manhattan movie, you’ll see barely any blue.Īlmost all directors and cinematographers know that, in a movie, the color blue pulls focus. Nobody paints his or her apartment this color. The 6,000 bikes so far rolled out, of a possible 10,000, and their signs are a Day-Glo cobalt blue that you see on banks. The font is the familiar Citibank font and the Citibank signature decoration floats over the “t.” There is no way to see a Citi Bike without thinking Citibank.
To make certain you don’t forget this fact, a Citi Bike sign hangs in front of the handlebars, Citi Bike is printed twice on the frame, and a Citi Bike billboard drapes the rear wheel on both sides. That should be the reason I picked hate, but it isn’t.įor $41 million - what Citibank paid to sponsor the program for five years - our city bikes became Citi Bikes. Bloomberg has created is not necessarily a more livable city, a city with a better-exercised citizenry, but a perfect storm. These days pedestrians should be wearing helmets. These bicycles have made walking around the city much scarier. That is practically the definition of a New Yorker: when walking, ignores lights. When we walk, we don’t pay attention to lights. That’s a problem, but it’s not the problem.Īs it happens, the bike was going the wrong way and I was crossing against the light. It seems as though, every day, I’m almost hit by a bike. The other day I stepped off a curb and a bike coming the wrong way down a one-way street passed so close I could feel its breeze on my back. New York’s a passionate place, I’m passionate about the place, and that’s how the question was posed. Hate is a strong word, and please don’t get sidetracked by it. “BLOOMBERG, love him or hate him?” a friend asked.
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