The Riff Raff Ride to San Marino July 5th

I have written about my bike riding in this blog.

I ride alone and with various groups.

One group The Eastside Bike Club based out of El Sereno and headed by Carlos Morales is organizing a ride to San Marino because apparently San Marino thinks its neighbors are sketchy or riff raff.

The story broke in the Pasadena Star News. San Marino residents were kind of upset about proposed bike lanes running through their barrio. They figured it would give more access to undesirables. This pissed off my homie Carlos Morales and so he organized the Riff Raff Ride. “I just found it kind of racist. I found it discriminatory that here we’re in the 21st century and people still think this way,” said Morales, 54. “Our bike rides … it crosses all ethnic barriers as well as financial barriers. We have people who are maybe homeless or students, and we have people who are professionals — they are entrepreneurs.”

San Marino, apparently trying to stay off the radar, had also began pulling back on their Farmer's Market because that also attracted outsiders that can't afford to live there. 

Dennis Romero at the L.A. Weekly posted this today. Good summary of the pedo.

I'm tripping on it all. I want to ride, but this Mercury Retrograde also has me thinking about that other bike ride that was coming from that god forsaken side of the river over to my beloved Boyle Heights.

Of course that bike ride was put together by parasitic real estate developers that want to come, show and take our homes so they can still make it to game night at Wolf and Crane, without the ludicrous downtown rents.

The Riff Raff Ride is to show San Marino "We have people who are maybe homeless or students, and we have people who are professionals — they are entrepreneurs." and this I don't get.

I want to ride to San Marino to tell them:
"You can't hide muthafrakers!!
You can't make 3rd Borders!!!
I can ride and kick it wherever the frack I want!!!"

I don't want to ride to say:
"Hey I'm just like you, I just don't have your amount of money, but I would like to.
Let me show how nice we are and how you should let us kick it with you fine folk."
NO. I really hope this is NOT the intention of this ride.

It is time we stopped trying to prove worthiness or acceptability and address xenophobia, racism, classism and white supremacy. Stop talking about how good enough WE are and start talking about how scared, stupid and fucked up the TYPE OF THINKING that assumes you can buy your way away from other humans you think are less than you.

Chris Rock says it best in this interview:


I will be at this ride Saturday July 5th at 8am. Check here for more details.  I hope to see you there.