Benjamin Shepard explains his philosophy that being an effective activist means letting go of any feeling of shame or embarrassment. And how we’d be screwed here in NYC if Indian Point should blow.
Time’s up gathers in front of ABC No Rio on Rivington Street early in the morning, getting ready to go to protest at the Indian Point Nuclear power plant on the sloop Clearwater.
Hell no we won’t glow.
Tense situation at Grand Central. Photo: Time’s Up
Update 8/10 Barbara Ross of Time’s Up reports:
“Here are fantastic photo’s of action that included an evacuation “Shut Down Before the Meltdown bike ride, train ride and “No Fukushima on the Hudson” sail to Indian Point . We couldn’t unfurls our banners, including “You are 35 miles from Indian Point. What would you do in a Melt down” in Grand Central as planned. A massive police force showed up, completely over the top for a couple dozen people voicing their concerns over having a Nuclear Power Plant about 35 miles away. There were over a dozen uniform cops, plain clothed and at least 4 suits. After they threatened to arrest us if we unfolded the banner inside we took our banners to display at the 42nd street entrance of the terminal and the sidewalk.
Then we boarded the train with about 6 officers accompanying us for the train ride. They left us with 2 state trooper cars driving behind the 2 mile bike ride from the train station to the boat, until we safely arrived at the dock to board the Clearwater Sloop for a police free 3-hr sail.
The community of cyclists from the Time’s Up! environmental group and the activists from the Clearwater group formed a close bond on the short sail we had together and vowed to continue to work together until the Indian Point Plant is shut down permanently.”
Also Treehugger.com used my video and a photo in their report:
Clearwater at Indian Point. Photo: Len Tsou
They’ve started on the foundation for whatever is going to be built on this lot on Suffolk and East Houston Streets. The building next-door contains a day-care center. A while back, after they started digging around the foundation, it was briefly declared unsafe. But then they build a massive steel buttress that apparently keeps the building from collapsing.
I’ve been seeing these top-hatted graffiti figures around. It is tagged ‘Almost Famous.’
I saw the biker swooping around from my right, I snapped to get him in the foreground, and add scale and action to an otherwise boring shot.
I think the sanitation department needs to figure out a way to recycle these abandoned bikes. How about photographing and tagging obviously bent-up and abandoned bikes, saying that they will be removed in two weeks if not either repaired or moved. This could be done on a systematic block by block campaign, putting warning signs up informing residents what will happen. As it stands many of the bike racks that the city has installed over the past few years are uselessly clogged up with abandoned bikes.
I arrived too early to the scene for the hipster bike modders, that probably arrived fashionably later.
But the Puerto Rico Schwinn Club dominated Havermeyer and Grand with their chomed, beautifully restored and modded bikes, and gave me plenty to shoot.
Imagine yourself behind the wheel.
Definitely the slickest shave-ice cart I’ve ever seen.
Times-up was there doing bike repairs, but not much other than vending was happening when I arrived. These hand-painted helmets are lovely, and reasonably priced. bellehelmets.com
Adopt don’t shop. Riggs, a male beagle mix, was severely underweight when rescued, but is now fine. Contact earthangelsnyc.org for adoption information. times-up.org
