The intersection of Mosholu Parkway and East Bainbridge Avenue was transformed into showgrounds for an open air circus, last month, in celebration of Earth Day, as the parkway was cleared of cars as part of a citywide Department of Transportation (DOT) Car Free Day, marking, once again, the annual event which promotes more sustainable living. This year, on Saturday, April 23, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., the Flatbed Follies Bindlestiff Family Cirkus descended upon Bedford Park with a host of spectacular street performances, delighting the community.

 

About 200 people showed up for the event. Some walked, some biked, others used scooters, while some just sat on the grass and enjoyed the beautiful, warm spring weather.

 

E-scooter companies, Lime, Bird and Veo, which are contracted by the City to provide e-scooter services to the public, were also on site on the day. The City’s e-scooter program was piloted in 2020, and was later launched and expanded to more locations, amid some pushback from residents last year, as reported.

 

A day earlier on Friday, April 22, Lime had also hosted a helmet giveaway at the Westchester Square BID’s Earth Day celebration, which was primarily focused on planting new greenery in the neighborhood.

 

On Saturday, Lime joined the Car Free Day celebrations by providing e-scooter and adaptive vehicle demonstrations along the parkway, encouraging residents to check them out.

 

In fact, the only car allowed on the parkway was that of 2-year-old Austin Quintero. Talking to Norwood News, his mom said with the weather being so great, it was nice to be outside and to enjoy a car-free day.

 

Daisy Rodriguez, director of government and community affairs at Bronx zoo, who was manning a stand at the event, told Norwood News, “We’re happy to be here today with my organization, and also as a member of the community, to be here enjoying this day with the community and giving out some freebies.”

 

Her colleague, Christopher Durosinmi, assistant director for government and community affairs at Bronx Zoo, said the zoo has been celebrating Earth Day for the last four years. “You know, it’s always a pleasure to do it again,” he said, adding that a dinosaur exhibit was showing at zoo and encouraging everyone to come by and check it out.

 

Meanwhile, Bronxites, Bassam Kubba and Mendel Romanenko, from the Flatbed Follies Bindlestiff Family Cirkus amazed the crowd with their gymnastic performance, Susan Voyticky performed some impressive acrobatics on a hoop about 20 feet above the ground, while Esther de Monteflores performed her “Pigeon on a Wire” act, as she walked across a thin, tightrope.

 

Circus co-founder, Keith Nelson, told Norwood News, “I’m co-founder of the Bindlestiff family circus, [and have] been making [the] circus happen in New York City for about the past 30 years.” He said because of the pandemic, they decided to take their circus production, put it on parade floats, and take it to the streets of New York, adding that they had received help with this from the mayor’s office and from DOT.

The legendary Unicycle Troupe, comprising Kim Jones, Joe Gary, Mr. Harrison and others, also performed on the day and for the first time as part of the circus, delighting the crowd with their antics, playing a game of basketball and later jumping a rope, all while on unicycles.

 

Ms. Mejias and her daughter said she tried out the scooters and loved them. Mejias said they were just passing by when she saw the event and deciding to stop. She registered her daughter and said she also plans to register herself to use the e-scooters going forward.

 

Also enjoying the day was Sheila Sanchez, president of Northwest Bronx Democrats and a member of Friends of Mosholu Parkland (FOMP). Sanchez was soaking up the atmosphere and watching the activities along with Aesha Vanessa, volunteer and public relations director for FOMP, and Mima. They said they enjoyed the show and the beautiful weather.

 

Lime had invited members of the public to check out what they described as their “industry leading Gen4 e-scooters,” and to learn how to ride them if they hadn’t yet done so. The company also had on display its adaptive vehicles, which through the “Lime Able” program, were available to rent for free for 24 hour periods, and were delivered to the home of those with mobility limitations and who benefited from adaptive electric vehicles.

 

“Break Up With Cars” is Lime’s first global campaign that directly takes on driving in cities, highlighting the many ways they say an over reliance on cars by residents has yielded pollution, congestion, wasted time, and indirectly caused over 1.3 million deaths annually worldwide.

 

Indeed, Norwood News recently reported on the measures being employed by the NYPD and DOT to address speeding / drag racing in efforts to prevent and curtail motor vehicle accidents across the City, and which are a major cause for concern for many Bronxites.

 

 

Throughout April, Lime ran the worldwide campaign centered around Earth Day called “Break Up with Cars,” a global brand campaign to encourage drivers to end what the company said was people’s toxic relationships with cars, all in efforts to live a more healthy lifestyle and protect the planet. As previously reported, not everyone is in favor of the concept however.

Nonetheless, Lime encouraged New Yorkers to ride green this spring and summer, as congestion rates in New York City skyrocket, along with gas prices.

Meanwhile, one of the projects that DOT was highlighting on the day was making the streets safer by constructing sidewalks where there are currently none.

Since launching the Break Up with Cars campaign in April, over 15,000 Lime riders have pledged to break up with cars, most of whom pledged to give up their cars for 30 days.