Moving Target, Winter 1991
Dear City Cyclist
When I started bike messengering in 1976, I rarely saw messengers treated differently than other building traffic. I only remember one ridiculous place that forced messengers to deposit bags with security before taking the elevator. These days it's not uncommon for messengers to have to sign-in (sometimes also sign-out and show ID), use special entrances and or elevators, or be directed to special ground floor or basement messenger-centres (the latter sometimes turn out to be a time saver for us). Justifications given are that we're "rude , "criminal or take up too much elevator space and time . "The messengers are, by and large, an unruly group , said the management of a SoHo building in a memo announcing the restricting of messengers to the freight elevator. The minutia of possible truth to any of the above in no way justifies singling us out and collectively hassling us. I believe we're victims of the continuing yuppification- gentrification of NYC. With our minority backgrounds or counterculture looks, messengers don't fit into the scheme of the clean-carpeted Trump World of perfectly behaved and manicured Barbies and Kens.
To me it's a simple segregation story: take a look at the skin colours of those who pass freely to the elevators and those who are pulled over and prevented from freely passing: "Hey YOU, sign in. Do you have ID?" Security measures have increased against messengers proportional to our numbers but also proportional to the increasing percentage of minorities among us (in 1976, 50% minority; today, around 80%). In this way, a large portion of the bicycling community is daily degraded. If any bicyclists out there have any pull with their building management and would like to help us, please contact the Independent Courier Association (ICA). Until then, watch out for me dodging security guards, or look me up logged under "Batman", X", "Khrushchev , or similar nom de guerre.
The Enigmatic Emissary, Brooklyn.
Reprinted from City Cyclist(mag of Transportation Alternatives) New York.
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