Tales from the Trike: A Street Level Perspective on Boston

Check out my awesome ride...and the beautiful view I get to see on my way to work every morning.

"Imagine I had to make you believe that's a painting of a terrorist. What kind of country would we live in? ...It's just like your cart- I can see it as a convenience, a threat, something funny....It's all about interpretation "

-Tom, a classic New Englander, who works for the T, giving what I think is one of the more eloquent defenses of freedom of expression that I've heard in a while, in response to the furor in Dewey Square over Brazilian Muralists Os Gemeos' new painting

"Business is not too good. Some of the fruit is too big, I lose money. I give the fruit for free to the single ladies, I lose money."

-Costas, (sort of illegal) fruit vendor

For more on this classic David and Goliath tale 

One week before graduation, I thought I was (f)unemployed for the foreseeable future and moving back home to Jersey. In a surprise twist, I am still living in Boston, working at a nonprofit part time and working as a "trike rider"  part-time. Yes, you read that correctly. Essentially, my job consists of pedaling a giant tricycle café around and selling people coffee at early hours of the morning and at farmer's markets.

Maybe it's just because it's a completely insane thing to do, maybe because I get to commute when no- one is on the road (ie 4:30 am), because I have to smile and be friendly to people, or maybe just because I get to drink gallons of ridiculous good coffee on a regular basis, but I genuinely love my job. Or rather, one of my jobs. I'll write about my internship at a really cool conflict resolution/etc. nonprofit type of place sooner or later, but honestly much of what I do there is vaguely confidential so the stories (that I can tell) are less interesting. So I'm going to stick with writing about my tricycle riding work at Equal Exchange for now.

Equal Exchange is a fair trade company that has been around since 1986. They have stayed very true to the values of the movement, emphasizing the role of small farmer cooperatives in driving social & economic change. Their 100 person company (of awesome people) is also run as a cooperative. Basically, working for them gives me hope that other economic models than straight up capitalism are tenable in modern day America. Also their coffee is the tastiest thing that has ever happened to my caffeine addiction.  Check em out!

Part of the reason I think I like the job so much is that I needed a break from school-esque things.
On the good days though, there are still plenty of analytical/critical issues raised by the cart's interaction with the urban environment, or simply the things I see while hanging out in public spaces for hours on end, such as: sexism (see below), racism, clascism, urban citizenship, borgeousie aesthetics, the economic and social dimension of human rights, LeFebrevre's "right to the city", urban transportation, the romantic risks of bike culture, local foods, what makes a revolution, is it possible to "massify" movements for social/economic/environmental change without losing their character (fair trade, organic) etc, etc etc.

In other words, despite my brief attempts to be more relatable to people in the "real world", I am still a gigantic nerd. What I love though is that I get to draw on all these stores of books and journal articles to make very real decisions. How should I interact with the homeless? To human suffering and elation? How do I respond to unwanted attention? How can I be entrepreneurial and make profits effectively within the zoning restrictions set by the local government? And the all important: how do I navigate these streets?

Mainly I sell coffee outside MGH (Mass General Hospital) and in Dewey Square, although at the beginning of the summer I also occasionally worked at Copley Square, which was terrible because I always got the tourists lost when they asked me for directions because I really only know directions in Boston in an intuitive way and have no idea what the streets are actually called.

People tend to respond to the trike in strikingly similar ways. I feel bad for putting people in a box and being reductionist...but it's almost scary how patterned responses to the trike are.

Hipsters and small children: "Wow, that's so cool!"
Women: "Wow, that must be great exercise."
Men (especially anyone packing a beer belly): "Wow, you're getting a workout. You should put a motor on that!"
Men in groups riding in trucks: some variation on "HEY GIRLLLLLLL."Apparently, the sight of a woman sweating while pulling a 500 pound tricycle cafe is very alluring. I wish I had learned this earlier to more fully capitalize on this discovery [horrible horrible joke]

Here is a brief highlight reel of some of the more memorable experiences:
-On 4th of July when three (still)  drunk tourists came out from the hospital and tried to ask where they could buy Uncle Sam costumes
-The time a homeless man referred to me as a "nice piece of Irish ass."While technically true, this was quites
-The day the police tried to evict the quasi illegal fruit man (see above) and he responded with a giant wood sign with neon orange tape blaming them for kicking him out, as well as yelling out accusations of corruption directed at city hall and practically everyone else
-The time a homeless man tried to give me money for no reason as I was driving away from him and then he threw it at me
-Every time some I-banker tells me they don't like the "A-rab" mural
-The day I was filmed for a documentary about how an awesome company called Metro Pedal Power is revolutionizing urban transport
-Bartering iced coffee for ice pops at the Farmer's Markets
-Everytime I inadvertently get tourists more lost

Sure has been an interesting summer. 2 interesting weeks left!