In The Cage (or, Empire State Plaza by bicycle) (Comments: 1)

I’m a union organizer for UNITE HERE. At the moment, I do internal organizing — helping existing members strengthen their union and enforce their contract. One of the places where I do that work is Empire State Plaza, where UNITE HERE represents the food service workers.

As I wrote on Kent’s Veloquent blog, I’m trying to do as much of my job as possible by bike, even though I have a company car. Why not fight for environmental justice at the same time as I’m fighting for economic justice?

I’d seen an underground bike parking area at Empire State Plaza, so I called today to find out how to get to it from the surface. (Much of the plaza is made up of a huge underground concourse full of shops, banks, offices and restaurants.) Turns out you can pay $2 and get a key to the locked bike cage. If you’re interested, here’s the number to call:

Your $2 is a security deposit. You can keep the key for as long as you like, and when you return it, they give you the money back.

The next trick, though, is finding the cage. I felt like Rael as I rode from one street to the next, trying to find the entrance to the catacombs. The OGS folks told me to use the bus turnaround, but the outside turnaround had a sign saying no bicycles allowed in the tunnels that run under the plaza. So I rode back up the hill and looked for an entrance on the street. As far as I can tell, the only way to get to where you need to be from the Madison Avenue side is to enter at the security gate (if you’re going downhill, it’s on the left about halfway down the hill). You’ll know you’re at the right entrance because there are two big signs that say DO NOT ENTER. Trust me, that’s the place. It’s got a guard station and a lift gate.

In I went. I asked a surly guard (not a Surly guard), who more-or-less directed me down a ramp between Agency 2 and Agency 3. As you can see, they really want you to go this way:

I scooted around the gate using a well-worn mud patch beside it, and entered the tunnel.

A sidewalk runs alongside the tunnel, and despite what I learned yesterday about riding on Albany sidewalks, it seemed the easiest way to get in. Once inside, you’re riding in the semi-darkness toward another bus turnaround. The glass walls of the concourse are in front of you, and the cage is off to the left.

Once you’re inside the plaza, they give you some helpful directions about all the rules you’ve already had to break to get there:

My key worked, and I locked the Packet Boat up to one of the several racks. There were probably a dozen bikes parked there, some of which looked like they’d been there a while.

Among the bikes in the cage was this cool homemade cargo bike, which I’ve seen around town several times:

After my meeting at the plaza, it was back to the sunlight, like one of the Mole Men emerging from the underground kingdom…

…then back up to the surface, where The Egg awaits.

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