Introduction
When the fire alarm went off, nobody moved. Probably false. At work in Times Square, I was scrambling to meet a deadline. I didn’t have time for drills.
A screaming fire truck pulled up outside. My coworkers at Red Carpet Events peered out the window and then went back to their desks. More sirens. The sound grew louder. Seven months’ pregnant, an event operations manager called it a day just in case this wasn’t a false alarm. Our graphic designer followed suit, but she didn’t do much anyway. Rachel, the sales director, went out to investigate. Theclick-clack of high heels echoed down the hall. She returned a few minutes later, saying she smelled a little smoke. My fellow event developers began packing their bags, but not me. I couldn’t go. My proposal wasn’t done.
“Jeffrey, you’re going to get Bianca everything she needs today, right?” Rachel asked, raising her voice above the noise and drumming her nails on the metal filing cabinet.
Yes, I needed to email the client by five. I couldn’t evacuate now and come back later. I’d miss the Amtrak train for my dad’s birthday upstate. We didn’t use laptops or cloud software (still new in 2011), which made remote work impossible.
The building was on fire, but I was panicked about the time of day. The event planning agency was on the fourth floor. Worst case scenario, I could probably survive by jumping if they put a bouncy mat on the sidewalk.
Stop getting distracted, Jeffrey, I told myself. Everyone had bailed and I needed to focus on pricing out meeting space at the Metropolitan Club, down to bottles of mineral water. I locked the door so the flames and firefighters wouldn’t reach me and stared at the spreadsheet with a clenched jaw and ringing ears.
This was my dreamjob.
Corporate event planning was stressful, but one thing made it bearable. My bike commute. After burning out at Red Carpet (which, fortunately, did not burn down), I worked for another company under similar pressure, but with none of the Times Square views. In fact, there weren’t any windows at Elite 1 Events. Riding a Citi Bike to and from my new job was sometimes the only time of day I felt sunlight on my skin.
Citi Bikes are named after Citibank, which paid $41 million to brand NYC’s bike sharing. The system launched in 2013 with 6,000 rental bikes that could get New Yorkers where they’re going cheaper than a taxi and faster than the subway orbus.
Five thousand founding memberships sold out on the first day. I was #1387. Theninety-five-dollar yearly cost was less than a monthly pass on the subway. Annual users like me hadforty-five minutes per trip before overtime fees kicked in. Returning the bike to any docking station reset the clock.One-way rides on equipment that you don’t own, maintain, or store in a tiny apartment made bike share convenient and easy.
Most large American cities and colleges have
