Miami's Best of 2012

1. Pulse Art Fair, Miami Project, Art Asia during Art Basel
2. Critical Mass Bicycle Rides (on the last Friday of every month)
3. Miami Heat becoming NBA Champs and Lebron doing his magnificent dance
4. The Artist being held over for several weeks at the Coral Gables Art Cinema 
5. Marley, 144 minutes of reggae rapture and respect screened at the O Cinema 
6. Black Violin laying low at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
7. Miami Book Fair International: Miami Dade College keeping it literary for 29 years
8. Zak the Baker, Panther Coffee, Lagniappe: art, craft, eating, and drinking
9. ULTRA musicfestival: massive electronic music bacchanal in Bayfront Park
10. Miami Made Festival at the Arsht: free, local, and creative

Critical Mass November

If the best things in life are free, the Critical Mass is the gift that keeps on giving. One good thing about cities like Miami, like LA, and like New York is the idea that anyone -- even the rich and famous, can go about their business without getting mobbed. Perhaps going to the mall may be a bad idea, but I've been driving through Coconut Grove and seen Lebron floating the black, convertible, sports car with the big grin on his face, so it's no surprise that he, Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers, and friends have gotten involved with street culture in the city.

I've been dedicated to Critical Mass since the beginning. It's an international movement, but the MIA has fallen in love with it. Lots of people deserve credit for this here. Rydel Deed deserves big local love.

When I first rode, there were about 150 people. Since then, I have seen nearly 2000. Every month, the same corkers show up, the same leaders, the same announcers of the rules, the same brothers with sound systems blaring, and of course, the usual bunch of nuts. It is, however, an absolutely splendid, transcendent affair.

Critical Mass Miami

The intersection of many of my favorite things occurs during the last Friday of the month’s Critical Mass. There may be no raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but there are a few thousand people, a couple of hours of exercise, fleeting neighborhood visitations, and a number of baddass bikes to accompany the newly restored clunker some may have taken to Andres at the Miami Recycle Bicycle Shop or the good folks at the Magic City Bicycle Collective. 

photo from Jordan Melnick/beachedmiami.com

Every month. the word filters out to more folks looking to get in touch with their inner -- I don’t know -- hipster? The assembly begins shortly after 6:30 at the Metrorail’s Government Center. By the time the ride begins at 7:15, the entire block is festively thronged by colorful participants -- as Q-Tip might say, a vivrant thing. 

To channel another musical theme, in Miami, the Creator has a master plan and it includes bikes. While Miami isn’t Amsterdam, it’s safe to say that there are a fair number of aspiring originators, devisers, inventors, and masterminds adorning wheels with aplomb. Some of these skills extend to rolling sound systems; lots of people like to ride near one of the folks blasting reggae. Another rocks the 80’s. There is a Chinese Jamaican guy with his toddler on the bike seat pumping out straight, parental sticker hip-hop. As I said, it’s a colorful crowd.

The routes change monthly, but there are recurring motifs. From Government Center, everyone goes west, under 95, then over the Miami River. For those of you who like amusement parks and NASCAR crashes, this is the most thrilling part of the route. If you survive this, chances are, the only impending worry newcomers may have is some diaper rash. 

Then, one just pedals through the neighborhoods most have only encountered on the exploitative local newscasts at 11 -- East Little Havana, Overtown, Allapattah, Model City, Little Haiti, and Beverly Terrace. There, the masses outside the public housing, hair salons and fritangas come out to greet you. “Welcome to the hood,” one grandmother shouted last month. Of course, Calle Ocho, Miracle Mile, Brickell, and Biscayne also appear. Here, everyone in high heels seems to be using the iphone to record a video. Corkers politely block the intersections and make apologetic conversation. They are firm and respectful. Occasionally, a driver gets bold -- for a loud, angry moment at least. After a swarm of outraged bicyclists surround him, there is usually peace in numbers. 

From beginning to end, month after month, what one experiences on the ride is the art of the street. Critical Mass gauges the pulse of a city through a mass determined to enjoy the street, to share the street, to breathe the street, and to feel the neighborhoods that explain the streets. For thousands of people who dream of an urban-connected Miami, this is their favorite two hours of the month.

Riding High

From here in Berlin, yesterday I joined the Magic City Bicycle Collective  after having read the Miami Herald and beachedmiami.com articles. Of course, I had to chuckle a bit over the headline in which the beloved Herald pointed out how the group intends to "demystify" the bicycle. I don't know exactly what the mystery is -- two wheels and a bit of terror at age 6 seems to tell it all -- but if my city says it must be demystified, I'm all in. Plus, big respect to blogging Jordan Melnick who has been on his bike along with a hardcore number of us since the beginnings of Critical Mass well over a year ago now. He knows, as I know, that the real mystery in Miami is how messed up it got before the alarms went off. And we have to undignify ourselves by arguing with people who sit in daily traffic on the Palmetto; they tell us what's up. My only beef with bikers is the use of the word sharrows -- wtf?

I've talked often with Andres Barreda from Miami Recycle Bicycle Shop, another founding father (lest we forget to credit Rydel, Dario, EMERGE and the Miami Bike Scene among others please don't be offended if we left you out) moving the Miami movement and caring about it enough to do something more than I am. He returned from Spain, where riding needs not be demystified, and we admiringly talk about the culture in Amsterdam, in Paris, in Copenhagen, and in Berlin, where I road into a mammoth park last Sunday on a path by the autobahn and disappeared into woods with rope courses, lakes, swimming holes, farming plots, and hundreds of people using all of it. In Berlin, everybody seems to be riding, if not walking, and everybody everywhere is using public transportation -- DEEPLY SUPPORTED AND FUNDED BY REASONABLY GOOD GOVERNMENT. Please -- don't get me started.

It's going to take a lot more than the MCBC to change Miami's bicycle scene, but praise the chain and pass the tool kit: thanks for entering the fight. I am among the Critical Mass devoted to continuing to work for a better quality of life.

Critical Mass Miami May 2012

It must have been a year ago when I went on Miami Bike Scene's site and learned a bit about Critical Mass after Teo Castellanos told me about it. They were having something called a bike prom, and a few hundred people got dressed up in "prom clothing" and pedaled around Miami through Brickell with a sound system pumping out the finest 80's music.

Last month, on the final Friday of April, nearly 2000 people rode through Little Havana, Coral Gables, Brickell, and downtown on Critical Mass's latest ride. Tonight, weather permitting, the freaks will come out again, and ride through Little Havana, Allapattah, Wynwood, Midtown, Design District, Buena Vista, Little Haiti, Upper East Side, Edgewater, Omni, and Downtown.

Mostly everyone loves Critical Mass, despite a few outliers who can't control their testosterone -- usually males between 15-40. They unconsciously ride against the grain, hop curbs, seek confrontations, and find one every so often. The other 98% just ride, hoot, holler, and laugh. Drivers of the cars inconvenienced by this monthly event generally suck it up, with a few -- usually males between 15-50 -- attempting to bulldoze whatever is in their way. One against a hundred, even with superior weaponry like a car, is against all odds.