Meta Local is the collaborative practice of Elizabeth Hamby and Hatuey Ramos-Fermín.  Meta Local investigates the dynamics of urban space; exploring the histories of buildings and neighborhoods, and tracing the flows of people, ideas and products. The artists combine documentary strategies with performance and fine art to  articulate concepts of origin, and the sense of place.

Boogie Down Rides is a bicycling and art project, produced by Meta Local Collaborative. Boogie Down Rides celebrates bicycling in the Bronx as a form of transportation, recreation, and cultural interaction. The project emerged from the exhibition, This Side of Paradise, organized by No Longer Empty, and engages a broad community of participants from the Bronx and beyond.

Project Description

It is often said that water is New York City’s “sixth borough.” Historically, the working waterfront was a site for commerce and development that shaped the character of the city forever. Today, much of New York City has shifted away from shipping and manufacturing on the waters edge as the city grapples with the tension between economic development and the pressing issues of climate change and rising sea levels. The waterfront has become a site for dialogue and debate. How is the waterfront used? Who has access to it? Who doesn’t?

The Sixth Borough Bike Tour is a bike ride presented by Boogie Down Rides, a Bronx-based bicycling and art project produced by Meta Local Collaborative. The ride will explore New York City’s waterfronts, discuss the ways that they are used (or unused) and consider how these spaces might shape the future city.

Participants will visit contested spaces along the shoreline including the site of a proposed Marine Transfer Station on the Upper East Side, 96 acres along the Bronx Kill where Fresh Direct has met with community opposition over it’s proposal to build a warehouse and distribution center, and the Bronx River, the city’s only fresh water river, which has been reclaimed by its surrounding community. The ride will follow a meandering route, tracing the shoreline and the paths of hidden streams that flow just beneath the city’s surface.

The Sixth Borough Bike Tour is a participatory performance. Cyclists will be both performers and audience in the project, articulating the relationship between the city and the waterfront. The tour will use bicycles as a tool for engagement, and a vehicle for traveling through the spaces in between the city’s past, present, and future.

The tour will take place on Saturday, November 9, 2013. It  will start at 10:00 AM at the East 180^th Street train station (2, 5 trains) and will travel from the Bronx to Manhattan. The ride will end in Manhattan, at the 86^th Street station (4, 5, and 6 trains), approximately 4 hours later. The ride will be moderately paced, and accessible to cyclists with some experience riding in a group, in traffic. Cyclists are encouraged to wear helmets, and must wear closed-toed shoes, as well as appropriate clothing for the weather.

Stops will include: Starlight Park, Bronx; Concrete Plant Park, Bronx; Brook Park, Bronx; Randall’s Island; Harlem Creek; and East 91^st Street, as well as others to be determined.

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Links:

Boogie Down Rides: boogiedownrides.org

Meta Local Collaborative: www.metalocal.net/

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