Anderkoo

A week ago I attended a Mass Highway presentation on restoration of the Longfellow Bridge, which I attended representing the Metro-Boston chapter of MassBike.
The Longfellow Bridge is a vital connector in Greater Boston’s bicycle
infrastructure: back in July we had done a petition drive on the
Boston-bound side of the bridge during the morning rushhour and
collected 81 signatures in 90 minutes for infrastructure improvements
on the bridge for cyclists (we counted double that number pedaling in
from the Cambridge side of the bridge, many from farther away than
Cambridge or Somerville).

At
the presentation, bicycle advocates were, I daresay, strongly
represented in the audience. Many who were commenting on behalf of
other interests, including environmental and artistic causes, also
threw in a good word for bicycles. (The other main interest group in
attendance were comprised of Beacon Hill / Back Bay abutters who were
primarily interested in boosting their land value). At one point I had
asked a question of the chief engineer of the project, who made an
unequivocally strong statement in support of planning for bicycles on
the Longfellow Bridge.

I suddenly realized that I should have brought my iRiver, which
based on my research seemed to be the best balance between price and
recording quality (particularly for podcasting).
I had used it the week before to record part of a training session
using just the built-in speaker, which was acceptable in quality but
not great, so the next day I immediately bought this lapel microphone, with the thought that although a more professional journalist’s mike
might be better in quality, I would never bother to haul it around. I
don’t plan on switching to podcast format (heck, it’s hard enough to
remember to blog more than once monthly!) but I’ve been thinking more
about podcasting as a tool for activists. (Not a new idea, I know!)