This Art Project Slows Down Citi Bikes to Make NYC’s Rent Crisis Feel Real
Justin Blinder lost his job two weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. To pay his rent, he turned to delivery services, riding his bicycle across New York City to deliver food. As he went, he noticed the disparities in where the food items went. Which order of Nomé sushi went where and how much people tipped.
“The city started to feel much more economically and psychologically disparate,” Blinder tells WIRED. “It really changed so much on a block-by-block level. These inequalities and demographic differences were happening in such close proximity.”
That experience has morphed into an art-project gadget called Ground Truth that Blinder hopes will raise awareness about the housing affordability crisis in New York City and beyond by making a Citi Bike—one of the ever-present ebike rental options across the city—harder to ride through places where it’s harder to live.
Blinder, a Brooklyn artist and contractor...
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