Modern Vespa

From Motorious:
https://www.motorious.com/articles/features-3/motorcycle-bans-increasing/

Of all the real or imagined anxieties one could have about government overreach...

"They're Coming For Your Vespa"?

First thought was something about cold dead hands.

oh ffs. my wife is immuno compromised, the bare minimum thing i can do safely is go for a ride to destress.... just give me that..

This quote is part of the issue I have with this type of anxiety-mongering "journalism":

"New York City took a heavy-handed approach to the use of illegal dirt bikes in the Big Apple"

So.... illegal dirt bikes on the streets of NYC were... illegal? I'm sorry, I'm just not connecting that to someone wresting my vespa out from under my cold, dead balls.

Because the best way to get someone to stop doing illegal things is to make those things more illegal. Somehow.

It's why I have stickers on the windows of my house saying, "Please don't break into my house and steal my stuff. It's illegal."

I'm sure it's stopped many a miscreant.

I am sorry to hear they are dead but your girlfriend is probably happy about it.

Sort of similar to the London motorscooter thieves, in NYC as well as Baltimore DC etc. Gangs of thieves go out in trucks in "safe" neighboring towns, back the truck/van through the front door, window or wall and steal as many dirt bikes as they can load.

This makes them illegal as well as non street approved and registered motorcycles. These gangs then go out in groups of dozens terrorizing their neighborhoods. They use four wheel off road machines too. While this is all covered by numerous laws, politicians feel compelled to pass more laws at specific behaviors. This makes them able to say they did something.

Deadballs? Like Deadpool only more testy.

Not much of a connection, but Gotham's relationship with two-wheelers of all stripes has been angst-ridden for decades: over a decade-and-change ago, the city proposed expanding dedicated bike lanes, including one along Prospect Park West in Brooklyn. There was a small but shrill resistance to this, leading to a protest rally against the lane, which was met by a much-larger, pro-bike-lane rally (which I was part of). There's still a portion of the city's population that looks at an adult on a bicycle as a peon who can't afford to drive. (If your pair of wheels has an engine? Don't ask.) Mix this with a jigger of NIMBYism and you've got yourself a pretty caustic cocktail.

I've had my share of run-ins over the last decade with e-bike delivery dudes while riding a bicycle and my Vespa. I don't like reckless riding any more than the next person, but my request has always been not to waste time creating new laws, just try enforcing the laws already on the books that my beloved-and-allegedly-beleaguered NYPD can't seem to be too bothered with.

Half the calories, twice the chocolately flavor.

Are those mimes being detained for excessive bell-bottom width? I imagine they got a really warm welcome in The Tombs.

I'm pretty sure those mimes are in trouble for being part of the mime street gang from the 1979 film The Warriors. Or they are helping the cops figure out who killed Cyrus. Can you dig it?