Reunited, And it Feels Soo Good!

For those of you who have ever been riding with me, you know that when the weather is nice and I am going for a long ride, I dust off Giuseppe and head out for a ride.  He can be super temperamental, and switching gears by hand can take some time to get used to again, but he rides like a dream.  Sadly when I  moved to PGH, I did not have the storage space for a second bike, so Alex said that he would take good care of my bike for me (pictured below). 

On Saturday, the dynamic duo headed out my first training ride (we have to complete AT LEAST 500 before we head out).  Alex had never been to the Big Chair so we decided to head across the river and check out what was going on in Anacostia. 

This 19.5 foot tall chair , 400 pound solid mahogany was originally dedicated July 11, 1959.  It was created as a promotional stunt by the Bassett Furniture company; they were hoping to draw crowds from all over to see the chair and stop in their show room.  A year later Rebecca Kirby decided to spend 42 days living in a 10x10 foot box placed on the chair's seat.  After she earned $1,500 from newspapers and radio ads, she decided to return to life on earth. 

 

 In 2005 the chair was taken down for restoration (one of the back legs had started to rot).  It was replaced the next year with an aluminum dublicate.

20 miles down, a whole bunch more to go!

Affordable Housing Stat #2

There is a severe shortage of housing for extremely low-income renters 

(under 30 percent of AMI*)

• In 2001, there were only 78 units affordable for every 100 extremely low-income renters. 
• However, many of the 6.7 million units “affordable” to households at 30 percent of AMI were occupied by higher income renters. 
• Because of this, there were only 42 units both affordable and available for every 100 extremely low- income renters. This represents a deficit of 4.9 million units nationwide.

* AMI or Area Median Income

Citant Vélo de la Semaine #2

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.  

~Albert Einstein

Great Biking Statistic

For Christmas, my super amazing sister remembered a shirt I saw a while back when I went to visit her in Burlington, VT.  We had gone to brunch at Magnolia Bistro, VT's first certified green restaurant and I saw a great t-shirt.  Well she remembered, and the back has a great statistic:

Just think of how green we will be as we trek across the country!

Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to you and yours, from me and mine!

Affordable Housing Stat #1

In 2008, the number of households spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing rose by one third, or 16 percent, to 18.6 million households. That’s 44.2 million Americans.

If the homeless and those living in severely substandard conditions are included, roughly one in six Americans are in need of a decent, affordable place to live. (JCHS 2010).

Citant Vélo de la Semaine #1

This picture is from a ghost bike left locked on a street in the UK.