After I steped off the bus and crossed the street on the way home from work yesterday I saw a guy walking from another bus and then down my street.
He was wearing a navy blue corduroy jacket with elbow patches (that looked as though they weren't needed) over a white t-shirt--he was also a white guy with dreads. He wore a pack over his shoulder and on the pack was a red rear light for bicycling.
These lights are fairly common on bicyclists--I use one as well. They can either be mounted to the back seat post of your bike or you can clip one onto your pack. They are also, aside from their utility as safety devices for the twilight and night time cyclists, a vital component of a particular "look" I'm starting to think has gotten silly.
One of the regulars over on MNSpeak.com has commented that on any given night at the Triple Rock there are about four times as many bike messengers than there are bike messengers in the whole metro area. That alone isn't that onerous bit to me because at least the sort of culture they are reproducing is largely authentic (bottom-up, as opposed to the sort of almost-culture that's fed top-down), but where I start to get annoyed is where this particular cultural accoutrement starts to crop up in other styles. Sure, perhaps the guy was biking, but I'm sure he wasn't.
Our street is home to a particular commuting pattern. People on their way to the University of Minnesota will park in our neighborhood to avoid the steep parking fees on campus and then they will hop on a bus and go down to the U. In this case, the guy got off of the bus and into his car, which he proceeded to drive too quickly through our neighborhood.
Maybe he was driving to his bike or busing from his bike (using a grand total of three modes of transportation) to complete his commute to and from where ever he was going. Or maybe not. I doubt that biking was a part of his regular day and so he probably didn't need to have the red light clipped to his back.
It's cultural appropriation from a guy that appears to already be committed to appropriating as much as he can. How many bits is he going to mix together before he's completely indecipherable?
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