Slow Sunday Scenes: Turning

The most recent slow Sunday scenes from the Village was somewhat unusual. Typically, or at least typically for the Sunday mornings i opt for for a slower time, there will be a decent mix of bikes and bikers, the recreational riders and the errand riders will be, roughly, a 50/50 to 40/60 mix one way or the other. This Sunday however, the numbers were skewed almost entirely toward the side of recreation. It could be that the Colleges' Fall Break had something to do with that. I sat there long enough to notice repeats in the parade of passers-by, until one dude crossed the street and sat at the other end of the bench. I knew him from the home neighborhood, and as a former racer who had left the sport for some health reasons, but had kept riding. The conversation took a few turns in direction, egged on by the sun hidden one moment, revealed the next by a shifting sea of cloud foam until, at last, he confessed  that he was thinking of selling his road bike. That was something of an unexpected turn. Ah, mountain biking full time then, huh? I suggested. But no, not even much of that was taking place these days. Pressing for an explanation for the seemingly sudden and severe change in direction could become too personal for comfort i thought, and kept quiet. None-the-less, as surely as the sun finally broke free of the surf, so too did the answer to the unasked question - safety, more than anything - a lifetime of constantly battling for that little bit of road space which, by the way, seems to grow smaller each year thanks to motor manufacturers, irresponsibly, building bigger, faster machines.

Who knows where things go from here and, now three days post content collection, I apparently am not especially into creating this post - I will say though, if you have not read them yet, Claremont Streets for People released the responses of City Council candidates Anna Jacobson, Jennifer Stark and Sonia Stump to the questionnaire about transportation policy in the city that was drafted by CSP. If you receive notifications and emails from them, you have probably already read the responses, but if not you can find them at this link: https://www.claremontstreetsforpeople.org/2026-city-council-candidate-responses

one of the sculptures in the courtyard of Pomona College's art studio building