Slope Stroller Overabundance Making One Guy a Shut-In
Longtime New York Press columnist Jim Knipfel has a new rant about Park Slope stroller culture that sets the bar high for future diatribes on the subject. This is how it begins: This morning as I was leaving the bank, a woman recklessly pushing her armor-plated double stroller down the sidewalk veered sharply and unexpectedly…
Longtime New York Press columnist Jim Knipfel has a new rant about Park Slope stroller culture that sets the bar high for future diatribes on the subject. This is how it begins:
This morning as I was leaving the bank, a woman recklessly pushing her armor-plated double stroller down the sidewalk veered sharply and unexpectedly into an elderly man walking with a cane. He, in turn, fell into me. I was able to catch him and hold him upright and he seemed to be okay. Just a little flustered. The woman, of course, had said nothing, apparently considering an apology or even a simple excuse me unnecessary under the circumstances. She was a mother after all, and therefore privileged, so she simply continued careening on her way.
Knipfel says that the number of strollers in the Slope, as well as the neighborhood’s dog breed preferences (it’s really mostly the strollers, though) mean he can only leave his apartment for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time, because he finds the situation out on the streets too harrowing and exhausting. The writer says that for the past year he’s been counting the number of strollers he sees in the Slope (“I’m averaging 1.45 strollers per block. Think about it—there has been at least one stroller, and usually more, for every block I’ve walked. It’s insanity.“) Knipfel takes issue with the air of entitlement that he sees a lot of the neighborhood’s parents displaying and notes that he sees a good number of kids being pushed around who look too old for strollers. Also, he says, it’s not a subject that can be broached in polite, public Slope discourse: “The child-free adults in the neighborhood mutter and complain about the problem, but only behind closed doors, and usually in whispers. They don’t dare say a negative word when they’re outside, for the simple reason that they’re terrified, most of them. Indulgent, affluent parents are too powerful a lobby (and what’s more, those strollers can really hurt when you get rammed).”
The Statistics of Contempt [Slackjaw]
Photo from dailyheights.com
11:04, 10:44 here.
I have found that people are accepting of elderly and handicapped people who are moving slower. Often I see people who get a little frustrated with someone, not knowing that there is a reason for them being slow, and when they realize that they are elderly, injured, they immediately lose their frustration and are sometimes even embarrassed.
If you are first in line at a red light, and you see the light blinking don’t walk, you should put your car in gear, and start easing off the break. Let the people walking know that the light is about to change, and those who think they are going to run across the light after it has changed, halt immediately on the curb. If you don’t do this, people keep on walking.
If you are further back in the line, you should be itching to go once the light turns so everyong can make it through the light.
If you are making a turn through pedestrians, you should try to move over so the other cars can pass you while you wait.
These are the things that make the city work.
Nobody would mind if stroller moms walked slower and took up more room, if they acknowledged to the world that they were slowing down the flow, and did their best to keep things mooving, but instead, they act like everyone else is in their way. I don’t really care if they were up all night with a crying baby.
11:04 – Maybe you are right, I am an idiot, we really shouldn’t shoot them. I thought it was a good idea at the time though.
Where has Mr. B gotten this new crop of posters??? Seems we’ve hit bottom here…just like the housing market in Brooklyn!!
Where’s The What???
In New York, people live on top of each other, and public spaces are a great equalizer. No one person is entitled to it more than anyone else. Of course there is common sense to have some sidewalk courtesy, of which I am seeing less and less of the more “affluent” the city becomes. And yes, I was born and raised here, and have had my share of aggressive stroller-driving experiences, the kind where families form phalanxes and people must move out of their way, and where I’ve been nipped in the ankles. I will tolerate this as much as I tolerate any other annoyance in the city (there are 8 million of us, plus the tourists and out of town visitors!), but YES, there is the air of entitlement. It is a choice for ALL of us to live here, so PLEASE let’s respect each other, and try to extend courtesies to everyone, not expect it for yourselves.
Jim Knipfel is blind!? – ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .
Stay the fuck out of my way you blind bastard – you better not slow me down – and if you get a cane and touch me with it, be prepared for me to shove it up your ass!
Let’s stop bashing moms and babies. Let’s make a more useful list. Old people should be at the top. For example, Mr Knipel would not have had to catch an old man if the old man could walk faster and keep better balance. Old people suck. They use lots of resources and contribute nothing. Next let’s hate the nearly 50,000,000 voters who elected George Bush to a second term!!! Let’s try a new Bstoner rule one Bush rant for each stroller mom rant. I hear Mr Knipel is nearly blind. Well right now I’m not to fond of blind people. Mr Knipel and Gov Patterson lead the list. I’m not to fond of cops who shoot 50 times!! And I’m even less fond of “family advisors” like Al Sharpton who live in Jersey drive Jaguars and agitate in New York and Brooklyn!!! People who gamble and support horseracing suck. People who go to the circus suck worse. People who consume food and energy are f***king up the planet. Using their sense of entitlement to breath and eat and defecate!! And don’t get me started on 3 billion Chinese!! If you really want to feel tired and exhausted try learning Chinese. While you’re busy whining about strollers the world is drowning in people and garbage. I’m off to the park now to breathe some fresh air before all the rest of you people breathe it and turn in into toxic waste.
10:58.. it’s hate-the-slope Daver again!
Hey, Biff Champion:
Knipfel, I have a night light for you since you’re likely also scared of the dark.
I’m guessing not, as he’s legally blind.
“a sixteen block round trip to the bank yielded thirty-one stroller encounters (that tops the previous record of twenty-five), or an average of 1.94 per block. And one casualty.”
1 out 31 gives you a 3.2% chance of becoming a casualty when you see a stroller. I’ll take my chances.
I’m surprised the author doesn’t have a problem with the teenagers attending the school by the Rite-Aid. By far, these teenagers are the biggest threat to 7th ave pedestrians. They walk down the sidewalks in packs of a dozen or more; acting as if they own the Slope.
ZING
its on