What a cracking poster for one of the most interesting events here in Copenhagen during the Climate Conference. The Climate Summit for Mayors. Classic Cycle Chic in play in the logo.From what I gather from journalist friends and the media is that the Climate Summit for Mayors is a conference that seems to contain real words of action and real visions for transforming cities. In contrast to the national leaders out at Bella Center.A whole slough of mayors are in town. NY's Bloomberg is here and he recieved an award from the cycling embassy for his efforts towards making NY more bicycle friendly.
Mayor Bloomberg and Lord Mayor of Copenhagen Ritt Bjerregaard.
"We're just copying Copenhagen so it's really us who should be giving the Danes an award and not the other way around", said Michael Bloomberg when recieving the award.
London's Boris is here and even the Guvernator, Arnold. No, he's not a mayor. No, I don't know why he's here either. But he's here.
The mayor of Mexico City [dapper chap in suit] is here, as is the Mexican environment minister [charming lady at right]. I went for a bike ride with them around the city. Biomega provided the bikes. Okay, it wasn't just me.
There was a huge group cycling around to see the highlights, including half of the Mexican press, as well as Gehl Architects, who are working on a Master Plan for Mexico City and who acted as hosts.We ended up at Gehl's offices afterwards for some refreshments. Brilliant people.
Photo: Troels Heien.
Ah, life's ironies. The Danish Cyclists' Federation wanted helmets available on the ride and they ended up unused and, well, somebody had to carry them and, well, I had a cargo bike [with Bike Helmet Free Zone stickers on it]. You can bet that we all had a laugh about that irony. Which is nice that we can laugh about it, despite our differences.
