Nevertheless, I thought mountain biking could be fun, so my next task was to figure out how to get there. Cunningham Park is in a far corner of Queens, not far from the Nassau County border, but, thankfully, it’s also not too far from the F-Train’s terminus at 179th Street and Hillside Avenue.

Jamaica Estates

Once you exit this huge station closer to the 180th Street side of it (there’s even an elevator), you’ll be facing a large residential boulevard called “Midland Parkway”. This is the most official-looking entrance to a neighborhood called Jamaica Estates. In fact, Donald Trump grew up on this “parkway”[*].

Midland Parkway doesn’t have a bike lane, but honestly, it doesn’t really need it. It has one very wide lane in each direction and on-street parking that’s barely used. You’ll pass some grand houses including one that even has a sizable waterfall trickling down the front yard. Midland Parkway will take you to 188th Street, which, while not as nice to ride on, didn’t appear to have too much traffic on the Sunday that I tried it out. Taking a left and heading north, you’ll quickly reach 73rd Avenue, which has bike lanes in each direction.

Vanderbilt Parkway over 73rd Avenue

I love the streets in Queens. They’re ridiculously wide, often with medians, an indicator they were built with traffic in mind. Taking a right on 73rd Avenue, you’ll soon reach an overpass at 199th Street. This is not a railroad or even an active expressway, but rather the world’s first highway built exclusively for motor vehicles. It opened in 1908 but was already severely outdated soon after and closed in 1938. It went by the names Vanderbilt Parkway and Long Island Motor Parkway and stretched from roughly around here to roughly around Ronkonkoma out in the middle of Long Island.

All this is relevant because the portion that remains in Queens is essentially a limited-access bikeway (ok, pedestrians are allowed too). You could even call it Queens’ version of Manhattan’s High Line… except with bikes, less landscaping, and forest.

Vanderbilt Parkway continues no more...

You can enter this bikeway half a block south in a patch of Cunningham Park and you can use it to head east towards the mountain bike trail. You’ll head over some overpasses,  weave through some sections of woods, and cross under the Clearview Expressway in a tunnel. Then you reach a straightaway that can take you two miles east to Alley Pond Park before abruptly ending at a missing bridge (there is a way out through the park there though).

I did this slight extra trip and it was rather fun heading over overpasses, under expressways, and through long stretches of forest. I then U-turned and bike back to an intersection close to the Clearview, which is an unlabeled 210th Street (you can see the street sign at a nearby road intersection if your eyes are good enough)

210th Street is another ridiculously wide residential street that will take you over to the trailhead of the mountain bike run (intersection of 67th Avenue).

Follow the rules... (Trail Map)

You’ll see a sign for the trails that has all sorts of warnings, rules and etiquette on it. It also has a map. Glance at it and then get going into the woods.

The trails are decently marked, but it’s easy to miss a marker. I had originally intended to do the “less difficult” loop through the park, but sometime after cross the Clearview Expressway I found myself on a “more difficult” trail. At first some of the obstacles seemed a little daunting, but I quickly got used to them. In fact, there weren’t many. The route I took was mostly about winding around trees, climbing small hills, dropping into small valleys and then repeating again. I had some difficulties with some of the steeper hills since the tuning has been off on my bike and I can’t even get into the lowest gears.

Trail - "More Difficult"

Overall it was a lot of fun and I was exhausted much quicker than I thought I would. After less than three miles of actual mountain biking (the course has around seven miles), I found myself back at the exit and searching my phone for the nearest deli to obtain some Gatorade. Luckily, there’s a little business district not far away, at the corner of 215th Street and 73rd Avenue.

After picking up a Gatorade at a tiny stationary store (there’s also a CVS and a kosher deli), I made my way back to the F-Train. I could have actually stayed on 73rd Avenue (that’s the one with the bike lane, remember?), but I decided to give that “motor parkway” one more shot and re-accessed it on 210th Street. Around three miles later I found myself back on the subway, exhausted but satisfied.

Area map (and where I biked)

Sometimes there is even bike-specific signage!

On several occasions each year I uncover my mammoth chrome mountain bike and go for a ride. My destination is generally the Howard Beach – JFK subway station in Queens. After mentioning this to people I’m often asked for details. I think that my mention of such a trip conjures up images of me biking through heavy traffic for dozens of miles. But actually, it’s a very serene ride. Here’s how it’s done:

The first thing you’ll want to do is check out the latest version of the NYC Bike Map. Besides a giant PDF, there is also a route finder feature on the site. New York City has added hundreds of miles of bike lanes over the last couple years and they fall into three categories:

1. Bike route – Simple markings on a normal driving lane. These are generally used when adding a full lane would take up too much space. They might put drivers into the mindset that they might encounter bicyclists, and they can help you get back to the nearest full bike lane, but they don’t offer much more than that.
2. Bike lane – A designated lane that motor vehicle drivers are not supposed to drive or park on. This is pretty much ignored, particularly for parking. However, riding in one of these does give you an extra feeling of safety. Some even feature buffer zones between the bike and driving lanes.
3. Protected bike lane (aka Greenway) – A bike lane that’s physically separated from motor vehicle traffic. Often this is done with parked cars or by allowing bikes on extra wide sidewalks.

The more you stick to categories two and (particularly) three, the more enjoyable your ride will be.

My preferred route

I’m up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, close to McCarren Park. A couple of blocks over is Leonard Avenue, which has a bike lane. After Broadway, where Leonard ends, there is some signage and pavement markings to direct me over to Tompkins Avenue, which I follow to Dekalb Avenue, which has nice bike lane with buffer area.

Due to the street grid in this part of Brooklyn, I actually go quite a bit out of my way to use these bike lanes. Similar to the G-Train it’s a southeast route that shifts to a southwest route to essentially get to a point south of where I started.

Dekalb Avenue is easy to ride. It’s rather flat and the traffic isn’t that noticeable. I continue on Dekalb until Vanderbilt Avenue, where I take a left and start heading south. This section of Vanderbilt is only one of those “bike routes” (#1 in the list above), so it’s not as nice to ride on, but this is a short stretch. After Fulton Street a bike lane develops and this takes you all the way up a gradual hill to Grand Army Plaza in front of Prospect Park. The bike lane takes you around the outer circle and guide you into the park. Note that it’s also possible to use a completely separated bike lane along Prospect Park West. But the park is a little bit more fun in my opinion.

Heading south in the park, the route is mostly downhill. This is generally the fastest portion of my trip. It’s easy to miss the exit to Machate Circle, which you’ll want to use to get over to Ocean Parkway.

The routing here can be a little confusing. You want to cross Prospect Park Southwest and then Ocean Parkway (so essentially diagonally across from where you exit the park). There you’re allowed to ride on the sidewalk. This section is already called Ocean Parkway, which is confusing, since it’s a little street. You’ll ride along a couple of blocks high above the Prospect Expressway until that ends and you’re on Ocean Parkway proper. You need to cross over Ocean Parkway using the Church Avenue intersection to get to the bike path (riding is only allowed on that side). The bike path doesn’t actually officially start until a couple yards south (where the railing begins).

The start of the Ocean Parkway Greenway

The Ocean Parkway ride is pretty nice. The railing separates pedestrians from bicycles, and most people obey this. The only annoyance is that you’re still crossing every intersection and will frequently need to stop. When you do have a green light (technically you’re using the pedestrian light) you still could encounter turning vehicles, however, for some reason, I seldomly see any vehicles doing this, except, notably, at Bay Parkway which diagonally starts out of Ocean Parkway at an intersection that does not have a traffic light.

Ocean Parkway will take you all the way down to Coney Island, where you can either stop at the Boardwalk or take a left on Neptune Avenue and continue eastward to Sheepshead Bay. This, once again, is just a bike route and the traffic can be a little annoying. But luckily  this section is less than two miles. You pass a fishing marina and the southern end of Bedford Avenue, the longest street in Brooklyn. Right before you get to the Belt Parkway, there is a deli on the opposite side of the street. I have recent begun to use this as it’s the last chance to get some Gatorade or water before your journey outside of civilization.

The entrance to the Belt Parkway Greenway is a little hidden. You want to make to not head up the onramp onto the Belt Parkway. Instead, you take a right on Brigham Street and then enter from there.

Now you’ve reached easy riding… Oh, well I did forget about the beach erosion. Shortly after you enter the greenway you’ll get to Plumb Beach, which is essentially a highway rest stop (with no facilities) that allows access to small beach (no swimming, too polluted). Shortly before this exit a small section of the beach and the greenway washed away around 2010, so you have to bike on the grass to the left of the path. This is only for maybe 200 feet and then you reach the parking lot and from there you can get back on the greenway.

From here you will quickly reach the Flatbush Avenue exit. Here is where you can take a detour via the Rockaways (and add about five miles to your trip) or continue on the Belt Parkway Greenway.

An old bridge (top) with narrow sidewalk and a new bridge (bottom) with a full-sized sidewalk

If you continue on the Belt Parkway Greenway, you will pass over a series of bridges. Some have tiny sidewalks that can only realistic be ridden in one direction at a time (so you’ll have to co-ordinate with fellow bicyclists). The newer ones, however, have full width bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. Eventually you’ll reach Queens and can then take a right on 84th Street (the end of the greenway). At the next intersection you take a left and then follow the bike bath and signs to the Howard Beach – JFK subway station.

The detour to the Rockaways is a little more scenic and I recommend taking it if you have time. You cross the Marine Parkway Bridge and ride through Jacob Riis Beach (bicycling is always allowed on that Boardwalk, presumably since it doesn’t get much use).

Jacob Riis Beach

At the end of Jacob Riis Beach you take Rockaway Beach Boulevard for 33 blocks. This is a quiet residential artery street with very generous bike paths. Since you’re on the primary road and there is very little cross traffic and there are very little traffic lights, this section is very enjoyable. At Beach 116th Street, the main business street in Rockaway Park, I generally take a right and head down to the boardwalk. This is a city boardwalk and it doesn’t allow bike riding after 10am May – September, so during this time it’s advisable to continue on Rockaway Beach Boulevard until Beach 108th Street and then take a right to the Shore Front Parkway, which parallels the boardwalk and has very generous bike lanes. A fun fact is that this was built to be part of an intended actual highway, which luckily never happened.

At Beach 94th Street you can take a left and head across the peninsula to the Cross Bay Bridge which will take you over to a nature preserve. For more than three miles this bike path passes through nothingness! It can actually get kind of boring.

You eventually cross the Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge and return to civilization, where you’re actually faced with a mile or so of sharing the road with traffic. There aren’t even bike route markings. Luckily the boulevard is very wide here and you can use the parking lane to avoid much interaction with motorists. At 157th Avenue, a right turn will guide you on your way to the Howard Beach – JFK station.

Waiting for the subway at the end of a long bike ride

The Howard Beach – JFK station is a modern station that’s ADA (and bike) accessible. An elevator will take you to the fare control area, where, after turning the turnstile with your hand, the station agent will electronically open the service gate for you. You then take another elevator down to the platform. In the summer it is advisable to go to the front of the platform as the rear cars of the A-train tend to be packed with beachgoers returning from the beach.

And that’s how you get 25-30 miles of biking in Brooklyn (and Queens) without dealing with too much traffic.

This year there was one event I was interested in that didn’t require a reservation: The TWA Flight Center Open House at JFK Airport.

This building has been closed since 2001, when American bought the struggling TWA. Much of the complex (concourses and gates) was torn down to make room for the new JetBlue Terminal 5, which now sits behind the historic building, also known as the Eero Saarinen Head House.

Unlike all other classic JFK terminals such as the Pan Am Worldport and the National Airlines Sundrome, this building has landmark status and will stick around. But there currently isn’t a clear plan on what to do with it. The building’s famous passenger tubes now connect (in an awkward way) to the the JetBlue terminal’s arrival area. Occasionally it is mentioned that this terminal could be used as an optional check-in facility for JetBlue, but that plan seems to have gone nowhere in the three years the new Terminal 5 has been open. Interestingly enough, there are two out-of-service self-check-in machines sitting in the historic building’s lobby.

The other plan the has been surfacing as of late is to construct a hotel behind the building. I am no architect, but I fail to see how this would work without destroying the already limited view out of the back of the terminal. I would love to see the building used as an aviation museum, however, the location isn’t exactly the most accessible in the city.

Full set on Flickr

So maybe I’m due for some travel insanity. I just got on a New York Trailways bus heading to New York City. By the time this gets there around 1:30 a blizzard is supposed to have reached the city.

While the Austrian Airlines plane that I plan to take to Vienna is supposed to land at JFK around this time and will probably have no trouble doing so, the challenge is going to be dealing with the four-hours-worth of snow that will fall before the scheduled return trip to Vienna.

I plan on getting to the airport around 2:30pm. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out before the snow becomes overwhelming.

Austrian Airlines' Press Release: "Pimp your Economy Class Ticket"

As my blog turns ten years old next week and I’m flying over to Vienna on Sunday, I thought it might be nice to give a little fodder to my “Lost in Translation” series of posts, where I present some amusing and ridiculous attempts by companies to translate content from German to English.

Whether it’s Vienna’s public transportation corporation wishing you a happy new jear or an airport restaurant requesting that you order at the eating version, these little amusements make me smile.

With the background on the series out of the way, let’s look at this unique case. This isn’t so much an oversight or bad translation software as it is a cultural phenomena.

I remember being in Austria in the summer of 2005 and Pimp My Ride littered the daily MTV Germany schedule morning, noon and night. To make matters worse multiple localized spin-offs were created that “pimped” everything from bikes to doghouses.

Five years later Austria’s flag carrier, Austrian Airlines, feels it’s perfectly normal to place this phrase in an official press release.

I saw the first smoke around 9:15 while walking on Berry Street along McCarren Park. I quickly walked down to North 10th Street, and that’s when I first saw the flames.

I’ve uploaded several more photos after the jump.

“The New Kai” concept was based on fifteen-to-eighteen-year-old me and simply had to be discarded of. I now work about fifty hours a week, spend six-plus hours in the gym, enjoy nightlife, and sleep most of the weekend to recuperate from the previous three. It was time for me to upgrade to a much simpler content management system.

Any of the worthy content from the old site will be carried over here eventually. You’ll already find a link to my two photo sites in the “pages” section of the main page.

Even maintaining a website in this age of Facebook is a struggle. See my post about this last year.

Here are images I dug up of newkai.com versions 1 & 2:

I’m finally freeing myself of frames on newkai.com. While they improved the site’s appearance back in the day, there’s no use for them in 2008. And last but not least, there’s no more 18-year-old me frozen all over the screen!

1. The city only provides one. (There are also about a dozen in the subway system, but they’re not recommended)
2. There is a Starbucks on virtually every corner and they do not post “restrooms are for customers only” signs.

The “Starbucks law” will help you out a lot. However, if you find yourself in a pedestrian-heavy areas, you might find yourself in a ridiculously long line several times longer than the coffee line.

That’s where the New York City Public Toilet Map comes in… The preview on the site doesn’t show you too many examples, but it does mention the SoHo Apple Store. I’ve been in there at least a dozen times and never even realized it had a public bathroom.

I don’t own this map (yet), but happened to find myself in SoHo on Saturday, when it was packed by European tourists spending the formerly valuable currency known as the dollar. There was a line of about 20 at Starbucks on Spring Street by Lafayette Street. Fortunately I remembered that there’s a Bloomingdales around the corner with three sets of bathrooms. There was no line.

More background on the map

It has finally happened. “The New Starbucks” has come up with a solution to the much-despised (especially by myself) “sippy cup lid.” I can now confirm the availability of of a green plug with a rod that fits somewhat securely on the lid’s opening.

Much in the fashion of Apple’s Mighty Mouse, where the computer manufacturer came up with a two-button mouse that still technically is a one-button mouse, Starbucks obviously hasn’t wanted to admit its lid’s major shortcoming.

From my limited research, limited to one Starbucks location in Manhattan, the plug/rod device is only available upon special request. Upon my proclamation that this invention was long overdue and would have saved me several burns and cleanups had it come out earlier, one barista informed the other that “it’s true, you can find complaints about these lids all over the internet.”

Maybe this “New Starbucks” idea isn’t so bad. They might have killed the breakfast sandwich, but this new lid and the new Pike Place Roast, which doesn’t charcoal your mouth nearly as much, do represent significant improvements.