On Sunday, June 5th 2011, the 7th annual Tour de Brooklyn hit the streets with hundreds of bicyclists eager to explore the borough’s neighborhoods.
The annal bike tour is sponsored by transportation alternatives, a not for profit organization that hosts similar bike tours in all five boroughs of New York City and whose mission is to claim the streets back from automobiles for people powered and public forms of transportation.
The 18 mile tour is a family fun biking adventure that took its riders through the following neighborhoods:
- Prospect Heights
- East Flatbush
- Midwood
- Canarsie
- East New York
- Bushwick
- Bedford Stuyvesant
- Clinton Hill
But the BIG turn occurs at Canarsie Piers, where the riders are treated to a view of the Atlantic Ocean before they continued their excursion.
Events like these are exposing visitors and residents of NYC to the outer boroughs in ways that just 10 years ago couldn’t be imagined. For many who attended the ride, it may well have been the first time they saw up close the neighborhoods often the subject where news occurs.
Biking, walking and house tours sponsored by civic organizations are great ways to become familiar with not only the neighborhood street scape, but also the housing, architecture, institutions and residents that make up the community.
Our colleague just listed a home in Canarsie, just off Linden Boulevard that the riders rode past when they were heading north on Pennsylvania Avenue towards Bushwick.
Here’s a video showcase of what the riders missed during their ride.
But if walking isn’t your cup of tea and I know that house tours are rather seasonal events, see the rest of New York City by bike when you join Transportation Initiatives.
The annual fee is reasonable to the level of participation you can commit to and its a great way to involve your family in an event that includes fitness and adventure.
Besides, you’re almost guaranteed to make new friends and expand your social circles beyond the borders of your neighborhood.
(and you might just lose some weight and get fit 
.)
