Whether out of preoccupation with the acquittal in the Sean Bell trial or some other reason, the New York Police Department decided to totally skip out on harassing the April Critical Mass ride.

Recently two new videos have emerged online documenting police harassment of photographers, and acts of violence against riders , but there is hope that April might set a precedent for lighter policing of the event in the future, particularly for the Bike Month ride in May.

Bikeblog has a full report on the ride.

Even among the old New York holdouts to gentrification, 49 E. Houston was a little strange. Not only did the one-story storefront stick out next to nearby remodeled walkups and rising glass facades, but until recently, the grassroots environmental non-profit Times Up! hosted bike repair workshops, political rides and activist meet-ups out of the aging building. The new 49 Houston should be strange too, but in a very different way. The product of real estate maneuvering and architectural ambition, the building will stand 14-stories high, with a cantilevered upper half that will suspend seven of its stories 25-feet above an adjacent walkup.

The ambitious new building provides a visually striking example of the effort to maximize floor space with minimal ground floor space. Hanging seven stories of condo a full 25 feet over an adjacent building has never been tried in New York, and the new building has already stirred controversy at the real estate porn blog Curbed. According to city documents, 49 and 51 Houston are part of the same zoning lot, and an agreement between the owners of the two lots will allow #49 to over flow to the east with its cantilever design.

Amid all the depressing tales of New York City gentrification, just how 49 Houston Street went from community organizing space to condos is a story all of its own.

Gotta make room for....you guessed it!.... more condos.

The clock is ticking away once again for Times Up! Less than one month after losing their long-time headquarters at 49 Houston St., a hot real estate market is forcing the grassroots alternative transportation and environmental group to move again. Rent will double next month for the space Times Up! shares with The Hub bike shop in the West Village, which means the group is back in the hunt for space to house their myriad workshops, actions and offices.

“We know it was a month-to-month lease, but not even three weeks after we get there, they tell us the rent has been doubled” said Bill Dipaloa, Director of Times Up! and space manager for the shop. “We haven’t even unpacked half the boxes.”

photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr

New York City protests might lose a little of their cattle-drive feel after a legal agreement between the New York City Police Department and the a New York Civil Liberties Union. For years the department has used barricades and mounted officers to control access to political demonstrations, but today agreed to change course on the use of these herding tactics.