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Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:08 - 00:00:25:01
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
I mean, the number of people bicycling has just shot up in this neighborhood. Having a corridor like this that is now linked up through another neighborhood, through Sunnyside, they have protected bike lanes. I mean, my family and I that picture you showed the three of us before we were headed down. You know, our lovely open street, which is 1.3 miles long to a Broadway protected bike lane.
00:00:25:01 - 00:00:38:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
The protected bike lanes, sunny side all the way to the waterfront of Long Island City. We can basically go the entire six and a half mile route with really never riding alongside of the car.
00:00:38:13 - 00:01:05:21
John Simmerman
Hey everyone, welcome to the Active Towns channel. My name is John Simon and that is Clarence Akerson Jr. And this is an edited version of our live streaming event that we did on Friday, June 12th, 2026 to talk about his new documentary that he just filmed about the 34th Avenue there in Jackson Heights in Queens. And hey, before we dive into that, if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an active town's ambassador.
00:01:05:22 - 00:01:33:13
John Simmerman
Hey, super easy to do. Just click on the join button right here on YouTube or navigate over to Active Towns. Click on the sport tab at the top of the page, and there's several different options, including becoming a Patreon supporter. Patrons duke it early and ad free access to all of this video content. So let's get right to this edited version of the live streaming event with Clarence Akerson Jr.
00:01:33:15 - 00:01:34:01
John Simmerman
We are.
00:01:34:01 - 00:01:35:25
John Simmerman
Live, live, live.
00:01:35:27 - 00:01:40:02
John Simmerman
Mr. Clarence and Jr, how are you today?
00:01:40:04 - 00:01:53:20
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
I'm good. I'm very exciting because I had my shoulder replaced, you know, four and a half months ago, and today was the first day I hit 20 miles on a continuous bike ride with, you know, 1 or 2 stops for water.
00:01:53:20 - 00:02:19:16
John Simmerman
Congratulations on the new shoulder. That's pretty amazing. I think we said something to the effect of, you know, you're sort of like the $6 million man. We can rebuild him a clearance really quickly. Before we dive into the documentary for those folks, there's actually three people who are tuning in that don't know who you are. I know who you are out there.
00:02:19:16 - 00:02:27:10
John Simmerman
Three people. I know who you are. You don't know who Clarence is. So, Clarence, who are you? Who is Clarence Akerson Jr.
00:02:27:13 - 00:02:59:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, I've been around for a while, so I've been doing sort of documentation since the late 90s about bicycling. Mostly then, but as it progressed into about the mid 2000, I've just been a documentary filmmaker, mostly making very film shorts, very short shorts under the Street Films banner. And those films are all about bicycling, walking, transit, open space, outdoor dining, green issues, water reclamation issues.
00:02:59:26 - 00:03:35:16
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So there's a, you know, a lot of stuff that goes under that urbanism banner. And I have made almost 1200 films now over the past 25 plus years. That's the at least the official, official, unofficial count. And so I work under the banner of Open Plans, which includes, strangely, you'll think, open plans, streets blog and street films. So Open Plan just Inc. is like, you know, the overall the nonprofit organization.
00:03:35:16 - 00:03:47:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And then there's three groups of us under that. So I've been doing these films for a long time, and this is the first time I decided to make a full documentary. And there's reasons for that. That will probably talk about.
00:03:47:27 - 00:04:09:01
John Simmerman
Yeah, we'll talk about that a little bit. And I know you've been excited about doing something a little bit different. And and I wasn't surprised to hear that you were working on a full length documentary. And I wasn't surprised that it would be 34th Avenue. And we'll talk a little bit about why that is so important and special to you.
00:04:09:01 - 00:04:18:03
John Simmerman
But before we do that, you did mention open plans. We just had Sarah Linde on the podcast talking about open plans. Yeah. Thank you, thank you.
00:04:18:03 - 00:04:23:10
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I learned things about her and even a few things about open plans that I didn't even know.
00:04:23:12 - 00:04:48:07
John Simmerman
You mentioned that. Yeah, yeah. As as we're doing this. I'd love for you to talk a little bit about how important that is for you to have that background structure of open plans as an organization, sort of back stopping you at street films as well as Streets Blog. I mean, that's essential. I think, you know, for you to be able to continue doing this as long as you have been doing it.
00:04:48:09 - 00:05:18:13
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, about 4 or 5 years ago, they decided that, you know, open plans would grow as a, as a, as an advocacy kind of nonprofit. And so, you know, there are now over a dozen people strong, and they're always pushing for the next thing, whether it be school, streets, low traffic neighborhoods, which is a new one, at least in the United States, outdoor dining, wider bike lanes, all these things are always doing that.
00:05:18:13 - 00:05:42:12
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So we kind of have an inside knowledge that, you know, these are things that are going on and things that we should support, things we also should look into, and how are ways that we can support that mission. And, you know, for New York City and for the United States and for the world. So it works out really well for all of us that, you know, we're all kind of under the same banner.
00:05:42:14 - 00:06:05:16
John Simmerman
Right? Right. Yeah. Fantastic. And I'm going to pop over to your website here real quick. You've got some really cool stuff going on. And this is a in some ways this is a landing spot, a landing page for people to, you know, connect to all things street films, talk a little bit about your your website and how people can engage with street films.
00:06:05:16 - 00:06:25:08
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, we had to during the pandemic. Our old website kind of collapsed and died. And, you know, we decided to remake it. And really what it is, is, is now I've have the YouTube, I have a Vimeo site, but it a place where, you know, if you go in and put street films, this comes up and it'll have a way to contact me.
00:06:25:09 - 00:06:49:12
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It'll get to see some collections of films and blog posts I've done. What films are very current and active? What? What would we just put up? And it will drive most people to the YouTube site to be able to see that that material and those products and those great little films. Until now. Now there's a great big film that's going to eventually be up there.
00:06:49:14 - 00:07:13:13
John Simmerman
Yeah, I've been teasing you a little bit because, you know, we all, in this space of creating video content in the realm of urbanism and active mobility and safer streets and all of that, we've all sort of found our own little niches, and mine has been the long form content. A short video for me is is an hour long.
00:07:13:14 - 00:07:17:20
John Simmerman
This is your first foray into an hour plus.
00:07:17:22 - 00:07:59:14
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. I mean, you know, it's kind of funny back in, back in the early 2000. You know, I really wanted to get into urbanism documentaries. You know, this was the time of Inconvenient Truth, and many other films were making a big difference and smashing box office records. So my idea was I wanted to get into documentary film, but somehow I fell into this world where doing these shorter bits were really activating people and teaching them about the city and teaching them about bicycling and walking and, you know, having open space and having plazas and all that importance that, you know, we see so much in European cities.
00:07:59:14 - 00:08:30:24
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So I kind of was like, I'm good at this. I'm starting to make money at this, and I am needed. So I kind of gave up the dream of being a documentary filmmaker, a full length documentary filmmaker. And just so you don't have to ask the question, here's what happened. I decided to get my shoulder replaced at the beginning of the year, and I knew, obviously a few months beforehand I was going to have to do that.
00:08:30:26 - 00:08:52:24
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
A lot of that was because of my filming style. I would film by holding on my left arm to my handlebars and film with my right hand. And of course, these days it's much easier because you have all kinds of devices that way, ounces. To do that, I would have a 3 pound camera in my hand and I'd have to, you know, there was no steady shot.
00:08:52:24 - 00:09:24:00
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
There was no gimbals. Which way? Nothing. And steady the image. So I eventually my shoulder finally wore down. I had to have it done. But I knew that, you know, there was going to be a time of recovery at a time where I couldn't use my shoulder quite a bit. So what I did was I've lived alongside very close to 100 couple hundred feet from 34th Avenue, this famous open street that got created because of the pandemic and because of the lack of open space here in Queens and Jackson Heights.
00:09:24:02 - 00:09:46:22
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's 26 blocks long, so 1.3 miles each way. And I had been covering it. I'd been doing short films to support it, to keep it going, to let people know about it all over the world. I mean, there have been hundreds of people from different cities and countries who've been here. It's crazy how many people have been here to see it.
00:09:46:25 - 00:09:55:27
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And even he had, you know, gentleman from Barcelona say it's better than the Ramblas because the Ramblas are I think the rambles are great.
00:09:56:00 - 00:09:57:25
John Simmerman
Yeah. I think that was Jordi. Right.
00:09:57:25 - 00:09:59:08
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
That mentioned. That was Jordi.
00:09:59:09 - 00:10:03:01
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's been on the, he's been on the channel too so. Yeah.
00:10:03:02 - 00:10:21:16
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. And he talked about how like we don't have the traffic along the sides. Yeah. Yeah. Which is they push it like we don't even have that. So he's like in a way these are better. So yeah I decided that I needed to have something to do while I was recovering. So I shot 50 interviews with people that were involved with it.
00:10:21:19 - 00:10:22:27
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I decided, you know.
00:10:22:28 - 00:10:53:25
John Simmerman
Yeah. And that doesn't sound like you're recovering it kind of. But it is recovering because you're not doing the same. You know, back in the day, I mean, I've, I've been with you several times where we've shot videos together and you've interviewed me before. You're bringing your big camera and and shooting. So it's only been recently that you and also bicycle Dutch Marc has been, you know, shooting with, you know, a gimbal, a smaller, much lighter equipment like you just mentioned.
00:10:53:25 - 00:11:07:03
John Simmerman
And Marc just reminded me to let's pull his comment and put it up on screen here. Yeah. Back in the day, YouTube had a cap of only ten minutes in the early days. Yeah, yeah.
00:11:07:07 - 00:11:14:19
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, there's a lot of things. I mean, you know, Twitter didn't exist for the first 4 or 5 years I was doing this.
00:11:14:20 - 00:11:29:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he and Marc also Marc also wanted to say that. Yeah. He he was there. He went and viewed it and he, he got to be have the best tour guide Mr. Clarence Akerson Jr.
00:11:29:07 - 00:11:45:01
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And he got to see it. And it was like a little damp that day. So I'm glad he got his. Got to get to see it here. And he's already seen the film. So but you know essentially I decided in the lead up to the surgery I would I have so much footage of it. I know the whole history.
00:11:45:01 - 00:12:05:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
I'll interview all these people and I will put together. At that point it was like, oh, 20, 25 minute celebration of the street. While my left arm is in a sling. I could still edit with the right hand. So I that's what I spent doing and it ended up being a full hour plus. And it's not boring at all.
00:12:05:09 - 00:12:18:20
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Somebody at the screening that we just recently said said, if you if somebody thinks that watching the same open street for an entire hour will be boring, they're like by the end of the film, I wanted to keep going.
00:12:18:21 - 00:12:24:19
John Simmerman
I love this comment that just came in from random stuff. He's like ten minutes.
00:12:24:20 - 00:12:25:15
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Geez.
00:12:25:16 - 00:12:27:03
John Simmerman
He's.
00:12:27:06 - 00:12:30:12
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine.
00:12:30:12 - 00:12:57:22
John Simmerman
Well, hey, let's do this. Let's do this. Clarence. Let's play the first four minutes of your documentary for everybody. This is a sneak peek test. Taste of the video. We've got some very special stuff that will also share with everybody later, including some deleted scenes and some stuff. Why? You know, that, you know, weren't able to get into the into the film.
00:12:57:22 - 00:13:01:12
John Simmerman
So we've got some really special stuff. So let's click on over here.
00:13:01:13 - 00:13:29:00
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's a really good introduction to 34th Avenue. I mean everything you'll see. We'll try to stay. Why?
00:13:29:02 - 00:13:41:27
Video clip audio
Here on 34th Avenue as a matter of your three year old, 30 years old or 90 years old. It allows people to move around at their speed. Whether you want to just slowly walk down the street, bring your family, or push grandma down the street.
00:13:41:28 - 00:14:04:01
Video clip audio
It is the single longest open street in the entire city. It spans 26 blocks between the BQE on one side, Junction Boulevard on the other side. And I think because of that, it just catches so many people. Sometimes there's music, sometimes there's festivals. It's just really incredible what has happened. It has become the hub, the center of the Jackson Heights community.
00:14:04:02 - 00:14:31:10
Video clip audio
We're able to again use this road as a sacred space to gather, to get healthy, to work out, we started doing Zumba classes and art classes and Spanish classes, so it really became a community space. Everyone is so inspired by this incredible organic, round of community based demand to completely reimagine the streets into a linear park.
00:14:31:12 - 00:14:38:24
Video clip audio
The kids, they have more freedom to walk in the street. We're very lucky in Jackson Heights because not many places have what we have in.
00:14:38:26 - 00:15:03:24
Video clip audio
My North Star. In all of this, how I knew how successful it would be. It's just coming out here and seeing the thousands of people who use Paseo Park and walk down it every single day of the year.
00:15:03:26 - 00:15:17:08
Video clip audio
I want safety for pedestrians and cyclists. And so when it was just car elimination, I was pretty happy. But then it's gone so much farther beyond that, into a recreational space and a multi-purpose space in a place for activities in sports.
00:15:17:08 - 00:15:30:07
Video clip audio
I am a driver. I drive a lot less these days because I just love using the open street to get around. It's kind of like the community commons, right? You run into people you know, you stop and have a chat, you figure out what's going on in the neighborhood.
00:15:30:08 - 00:15:44:02
Video clip audio
Our most social walk is like 6:00, 630 because everybody's home and cat has to say hello to everybody. You get to talk to people from all different shapes, all different cultures, and, you know, you get to learn a lot.
00:15:44:03 - 00:15:56:18
Video clip audio
Communities coming together and doing different events, having festivals, waking up every day and moving the barricades before the city started doing it. So a lot of the community strength that's that's been so inspirational.
00:15:56:22 - 00:16:08:01
Video clip audio
34th Avenue allowed us to rehearse any dance or presentation without having to pay Studios charges $100 per hour.
00:16:08:02 - 00:16:20:06
Video clip audio
Last summer I saw a little kid biking on a little bike in front of mom, and I was like, this is what it is like. Kids can walk here or bike here. People can just run. And it's like a breaking, cause.
00:16:20:07 - 00:16:20:24
Video clip audio
We had a.
00:16:20:24 - 00:16:21:06
Video clip audio
Number.
00:16:21:06 - 00:16:22:03
Video clip audio
Of mothers.
00:16:22:03 - 00:16:24:07
Video clip audio
That expressed.
00:16:24:12 - 00:16:30:28
Video clip audio
The need to give their kids something to do, rather than be on the iPad or their cell phone.
00:16:31:01 - 00:16:39:25
Video clip audio
I know my neighbors from 34th out. I've gone to see the same people running and get to introduce myself, and I love having the community space. I love having a place to sit and read my book.
00:16:39:26 - 00:16:41:16
Video clip audio
Painting Paseo 26.
00:16:41:16 - 00:16:43:24
Video clip audio
Blocks of Joy is.
00:16:43:25 - 00:16:46:10
Video clip audio
As far as I know, the longest, largest.
00:16:46:10 - 00:16:49:08
Video clip audio
Outdoor art installation in New York City.
00:16:49:09 - 00:17:37:08
Video clip audio
Five and six years is a very long time in the life of a child. There are many people who have grown up here. Can't imagine Jackson Heights without an open street. Well, we see here is something to be so proud of, not only here in Jackson Heights, but across the country.
00:17:37:10 - 00:17:59:12
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So I only, you know, obviously I didn't want to show too much, but I wanted to show that this is what the street is like now. This is all the things that have happened. But what really happens that's very sad is that in the beginning of the film, we learn about the Covid epidemic and why the street was created.
00:17:59:12 - 00:18:24:12
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
But, you know, we have to go through about 5 or 6 pretty sad moments where, you know, people did die. People were desperate for open space, and the city created this kind of an emergency. And then you'll find out if you when you watch the film, there was a fight to keep it. We had to fight really hard to keep it when they wanted to take it away.
00:18:24:12 - 00:18:26:25
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And there's numerous rounds of that.
00:18:26:26 - 00:19:04:08
John Simmerman
Numerous rounds of that. And, you know, Mark says he had goosebumps when I remember that time because, yeah, I mean, this this points back to many attempts by cities around the globe to create safer places for people transforming, you know, the streets back into places for people. And this one just kept sticking around. And during the intro that we had here, we had some really, really interesting things, said the length of it, 26, 27 blocks.
00:19:04:09 - 00:19:06:22
John Simmerman
I mean, this is just an immense, you know.
00:19:06:24 - 00:19:14:27
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's annoying thing. It's really is. That's what sets it apart from ones in New York City. And to, to be honest, many in the world.
00:19:15:04 - 00:19:39:10
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And the, the other thing that that is just, you know, amazing about all of this too, is just the some of the wording that was used here, a sacred place, a linear park, a place for joy. I don't think the words were used at the time, but, you know, this is this is like a place for kids.
00:19:39:15 - 00:19:45:21
John Simmerman
I mean, there were just there's what is it, 6 or 7 schools along this stretch?
00:19:45:24 - 00:20:11:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
There are six schools directly on it, but there are a few that are not too far. And as you find out in the film, and it's true every single day during dismissal and arrival, the street is packed with I don't know what the actual numbers are, but it could be 7 or 800 people plus just during, you know, a 15 20 minute period.
00:20:11:28 - 00:20:14:25
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
If you were to count every block. I don't think they've ever done that.
00:20:14:25 - 00:20:39:26
John Simmerman
But yeah, yeah, it's fantastic. And I want to pull this comment up from Mark Bicycle Dutch as well. Very cool to see how Clarence, you know, filmed this on many different types of days of the year across the years. I mean, this was you've been documenting this year after year after year through all types of weather, including, you know, in the snow and in the cold.
00:20:39:26 - 00:20:48:14
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, when you decide to make a big film or even a long short, you really lock out when you live there.
00:20:48:16 - 00:20:55:08
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
I'm just going to say that, I mean, here's the family right here. Yeah, here's the family. When you live here, you can you.
00:20:55:08 - 00:21:10:10
John Simmerman
Can certainly do that. I mean, there was a little bit of just luck in being so close and, you know, and, and having, you know, clearance the third, you know, going to school very close by and being able to take advantage of this.
00:21:10:12 - 00:21:35:15
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. There was so much luck about what happened and how fortunate we were to have this space because, you know, in actually the size of it was number one. But the density, the diversity, the volunteer power, the fact that there was a median down the middle. So there was a natural place for people to be able to sit and gather.
00:21:35:15 - 00:21:57:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
We have a lot of blocks that have a lot of old trees. So, you know, we had, you know, there was relief from the sun. There was a lot of children. There's a lot of schools alongside of it. I mean, my thought and I do have a friend who's working on a book right now, Donovan Finn, who's actually featured in the film, but.
00:21:58:01 - 00:22:23:04
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
You could write a book or an entire chapter. Practice on probably 100 things about why this worked so well. And then, you know, I was fortunate to be able to live here and be the, you know, one of the biggest film documentarians of this stuff going on. And the fact that my son was starting school at that time and, you know, the age.
00:22:23:06 - 00:22:43:04
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So it was very cool. I mean, you know, there were a lot of elements in the film. A lot of moments were totally by chance. Totally by chance. I mean, sometimes I had my regular film camera, but sometimes I had my iPhone, sometimes I had the gym and sometimes some I had nothing and somebody was there and I was like, can you film just that for me?
00:22:43:04 - 00:23:07:14
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
I'd like to get one shot. And it was really funny that I, I decided I was going to make this because I was like 34,000 has been in quite a few short films already from other people and long form. They've had, you know, little visits and they've been in hundreds of articles and I'm like, someday somebody's going to make this film and it should be me, because I have all the footage and I know everything that happened.
00:23:07:14 - 00:23:10:01
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And so it all kind of, you know, luck together.
00:23:10:08 - 00:23:36:15
John Simmerman
And it also, you know, in Sarah and I talked a little bit about this in the episode about Open plans is that this becomes like a, a platform for learning for other cities as well as other, you know, areas and neighborhoods around New York City. To be able to say, well, if this can happen here in Jackson Heights on 34th Avenue, why not in my neighborhood?
00:23:36:16 - 00:23:59:03
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. And and, you know, it stretches like, you know, it's almost every part of what open plans and street films and streets blog and transportation alternatives here in New York and and other organizations believe in, you know, there's lessons about traffic calming. There's lessons about plazas. We had all these schools. There's that was the first year, I think.
00:23:59:04 - 00:24:25:02
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
No, maybe the second year they did the Halloween celebration on the Avenue. So there's just so much that you can learn by being there. And also there's also the fact that this was a major road and we took it out and there's been, you know, a little bit of traffic issues here and there. But we're six years in and the neighborhood has learned to realize that you can get everywhere you need to.
00:24:25:03 - 00:24:44:04
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
The the street is designed. So if you have a place you need to go, you can get there. It's not direct anymore, but you may have to go around a few one way streets, or you may have to enter your driveway from a slightly different way that you're used to. But Dot made sure that everything would be preserved.
00:24:44:06 - 00:25:12:03
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And we've got, you know, you posed up here on top of one of these blocks, these granite blocks end up becoming a little subtheme in the movie. I won't spoil the entire thing about it, but that's the other part that is really, I think, came out within the the little teaser there the first four minutes is that there's so much beauty and so much art and so much joy that's happening.
00:25:12:03 - 00:25:41:20
John Simmerman
There's opportunities for, you know, putting some green infrastructure in there to. And so this really is a massive success story. And hopefully a blueprint is to how we can, you know, transform our streets into much more inviting places for, for more people to be able to live. And you mentioned cars and car access and everything. And it's it came up in my conversation with Sarah to that.
00:25:41:21 - 00:26:05:13
John Simmerman
Oh yeah. Well, the data shows that, you know, the, the number of pedestrians, the number of people who don't addicted to driving a car every day. You know, I mean, these people far outnumber the people who have to drive every day and the number of cars. And so there's just been this arrogance of space that's been ceded over to the automobile.
00:26:05:13 - 00:26:20:02
John Simmerman
And we're just clawing a little bit back and finding a way to get along. And that's one of the things that I love about this example is it's it's finding a way to shift traffic patterns and finding a way to get along.
00:26:20:04 - 00:26:51:25
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. Here out. You know, Jackson Heights, we're not Central Queens. We're a little bit closer to the Western Queens, but we're not super close to the city. And, you know, the household car ownership is probably just below 50%. And the people have just I mean, the number of people bicycling has just shot up in this neighborhood, having a corridor like this that is now linked up through another neighborhood, through Sunnyside, they have protected bike lanes.
00:26:51:26 - 00:27:17:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
I mean, my family and I that picture you showed the three of us before we were headed down, you know, our lovely open street, which is 1.3 miles long, to a Broadway protected bike lane, through protected bike lanes, through Sunnyside, all the way to the waterfront of Long Island City. We can basically go the entire six and a half mile route with really never riding alongside of a car.
00:27:18:01 - 00:27:29:03
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And, you know, that's that really starts to change the conversation and the number of people who really want to ride bikes and know that it's possible.
00:27:29:04 - 00:27:54:24
John Simmerman
And I wanted to pause on this particular image here because, you know, it's also not just about bikes. It's about just kids and mobility and all ages and all abilities. We see a whole bunch of little old fashioned push scooters here lined up. Is this in front of a school? This reminds me of some places in Germany where I've seen all of these little push scooters in front of a school.
00:27:54:25 - 00:28:12:14
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, this is a school. I think they go up to third grade. I'm not sure. I think third grade kindergarten to third grade. And, you know, since they're in, the kids are in the middle of the street and there's no problem when you're not on the crappy sidewalk, but it goes. Do you know when you go over bumps or or it's not wide enough.
00:28:12:15 - 00:28:28:21
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
There's like, you know, you see probably at the school, sometimes 40 of those scooters just locked up. It's really cute. I love to I take a picture of that, like all the time. I walk past it so well. Were you ready for another clip, do you think?
00:28:28:21 - 00:28:52:12
John Simmerman
Well, you know, I speaking of of of schools, I wanted to to kind of spring something on you. This is actually a video that you haven't seen and is some and is was sent by a fan of the channel. Who knew that I was going to be interviewing you and said that he shot some video of what it's like?
00:28:52:14 - 00:29:18:08
John Simmerman
Again, I can't emphasize this enough. This has become a de facto school street installation, similar to what we have documented you and I in Ghent, in Paris and other locations. And this is this is really tremendous. I mean, this is it's it's neat to be able to see just what it's like with the kids. You know, they're just out.
00:29:18:14 - 00:29:56:16
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
We the reason that this street is so important is because the I mean dismissal is amazing. Arrival is really fun and it's longer, but dismissal, you just have this crush of children. They just come out on the street and they, you know, see they play ball. They, they they they talk, they, they do a little rough in housing sometimes, you know, wrestling with each other or they sit down now and this, this street now has a plaza, I think one block though, this the street on the left, the side, the left side of the street now is a full plaza with no cars, has a protected bike lane.
00:29:56:16 - 00:30:18:25
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And it you know, we love the fact that we were in love with school streets. We wanted to push them. And then they just decided that, you know, the this we've got many plazas now, 6 or 7 plazas. So some of them are more than one block long too. And it's proven that we can do school streets in New York.
00:30:18:26 - 00:30:39:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I don't think that was, you know, the goal when they started to have this as an open street. So this is another school coming up ahead of us right there on the right. And this is you can see they they actually fence it off in the morning. So you can't even bike through. Well this is cool. I don't get to see West 149 in the morning very often.
00:30:39:27 - 00:30:40:14
John Simmerman
Yeah.
00:30:40:14 - 00:30:44:16
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah I'm heading to as well. You know I see you in the afternoon.
00:30:44:19 - 00:31:06:18
John Simmerman
This video is courtesy of Jim Sayer, the former executive director of the Adventure Cycling Organization in Missoula, Montana. And yeah, so I was interviewing him yesterday. We'll have a future episode coming up from Jim, and he's like, oh, I've got some video clips. He was out riding around with John Orcutt and said, you know.
00:31:06:20 - 00:31:07:06
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Hey.
00:31:07:08 - 00:31:31:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, need to share this. And he wanted to say extend his greetings to you to say hi. But yeah. And folks, hey, if you're if you're tuning in. If you're enjoying this again please remember to give it a thumbs up right now. It really does help even as we're having this conversation. And yeah, let us know if you have any questions for Clarence about the filming of this documentary or anything else.
00:31:31:13 - 00:31:52:26
John Simmerman
Any other life questions that you might have. But yeah, let's let's queue up another one of these fun little video clips that you prepared for us. Because again, as I mentioned, I sort of alluded, you gave us access to some stuff that you won't necessarily see in in the full length documentary.
00:31:53:00 - 00:31:56:00
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. Which one we see next is this.
00:31:56:02 - 00:31:58:09
John Simmerman
Is the longest table. It just happened right.
00:31:58:10 - 00:32:09:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Oh the longest table. Yeah. The longest table. This just happened last weekend. I mean it's just an example. Yeah. That the street is always. The street is always active.
00:32:09:28 - 00:32:11:27
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it.
00:32:12:00 - 00:32:13:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Let's let's.
00:32:13:12 - 00:32:14:27
John Simmerman
Reshoot this. Let's do.
00:32:14:28 - 00:32:21:07
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Let's go. Yeah. So this just happened and I only I just put a few shots in the movie of it.
00:32:21:09 - 00:32:26:12
Video clip audio
So it's longest table Jackson Heights, two blocks of potluck and community.
00:32:26:14 - 00:32:44:24
Video clip audio
You know what's really amazing? All we had to do is help with the permitting and the background stuff. And this wonderful, beautiful couple had it by Junko, did all the work. And it's so fun to see more and more people come in and do wonderful things on 34th Avenue.
00:32:44:25 - 00:32:55:01
Video clip audio
The Queens Distance Runners. We're here to celebrate a birthday for Victor. We love you so much. Happy birthday. It's a it's the big five. Oh, only in Jackson Heights. Thank you. Love you.
00:32:55:03 - 00:32:59:19
Video clip audio
In time for the rest of your life.
00:32:59:21 - 00:33:03:02
Video clip audio
Get closer. What's the favorite food.
00:33:03:02 - 00:33:03:08
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
That.
00:33:03:08 - 00:33:05:19
Video clip audio
You guys brought out? That very popular.
00:33:05:20 - 00:33:07:24
Video clip audio
We got the tofu right there.
00:33:07:28 - 00:33:09:02
Video clip audio
There's pasta.
00:33:09:03 - 00:33:10:18
Video clip audio
There's brownies.
00:33:10:18 - 00:33:12:01
Video clip audio
There's cookies.
00:33:12:04 - 00:33:12:25
Video clip audio
Cookies.
00:33:12:27 - 00:33:14:27
Video clip audio
That's cookies. Okay.
00:33:15:03 - 00:33:15:16
Video clip audio
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:15:18 - 00:33:16:04
Video clip audio
That's good.
00:33:16:06 - 00:33:26:03
Video clip audio
I should have on this new green space. Shouldn't I be wearing flowers and celebrate?
00:33:26:06 - 00:33:27:26
Video clip audio
Who made them.
00:33:27:28 - 00:33:30:04
Video clip audio
A day here right now? Do you want.
00:33:30:07 - 00:33:30:18
Video clip audio
They're kind of.
00:33:30:18 - 00:33:38:06
Video clip audio
Melted underneath umbrella. I wanted to document that. That some people brought umbrellas and are very smart.
00:33:38:08 - 00:33:38:15
Video clip audio
Great.
00:33:38:15 - 00:33:40:06
Video clip audio
A little.
00:33:40:08 - 00:33:42:15
Video clip audio
Riseborough Danish. I'm taking one for the team.
00:33:42:16 - 00:33:44:13
Video clip audio
Eat that. Yeah. Take a bite.
00:33:44:14 - 00:33:45:06
Video clip audio
It's a food.
00:33:45:07 - 00:33:48:24
Video clip audio
Come on. If I see this. Look at that.
00:33:48:26 - 00:33:49:20
Video clip audio
Composting.
00:33:49:21 - 00:33:53:04
Video clip audio
So we're composting everything that we can. Yeah. Wow.
00:33:53:06 - 00:33:56:04
Video clip audio
Look at that. Very scraps.
00:33:56:06 - 00:34:01:14
Video clip audio
Oh. Very nice. That's dedication. Thank you.
00:34:01:16 - 00:34:23:15
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So, yeah, I, you know, I'm always filming stuff. Always. And I knew that was happening. And that's something that happens around New York and other places in the world where a couple created this movement called The Longest Table. And they will come and set up tables and chairs, you know, in the middle of Broadway, and people come out with potlucks and they share it.
00:34:23:15 - 00:34:32:12
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So they came out to 34th Avenue, and it was a big hit. I only put like, I think two shots of that in the film because after the film was done. So I inserted some stuff.
00:34:32:13 - 00:34:33:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:34:33:22 - 00:34:47:19
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's a good example of like the community here is incredible. It's just incredible. You can't go if you're going to go out for a walk on the open street and, you know, I'll tell my wife I'll be back in a half an hour or an hour, you might as well double the time because.
00:34:47:20 - 00:34:48:27
John Simmerman
Yeah, it's not going to happen.
00:34:49:01 - 00:34:50:22
Video clip audio
Everybody.
00:34:50:24 - 00:34:52:04
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
That's my son with his friend.
00:34:52:09 - 00:34:53:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:34:53:22 - 00:34:54:21
Video clip audio
Well and that's, that's.
00:34:54:28 - 00:35:23:28
John Simmerman
Part of the point too, right. We in Mark just said this. You know, community is the key word in the film. And I had mentioned earlier I said it sort of, sort of unfortunately talking over a little bit on the film, the sociability, this type of facility, a street for people, builds community, builds sociability. It's huge.
00:35:24:01 - 00:35:29:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, and I do at one point in the film talk about Donald Appleyard work where he studied.
00:35:29:10 - 00:35:29:19
Video clip audio
Yes.
00:35:29:19 - 00:35:30:18
John Simmerman
That's right.
00:35:30:19 - 00:35:34:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, yeah. In California and San Francisco area.
00:35:34:28 - 00:36:01:00
John Simmerman
Yeah. Folks, if you're not familiar with Donald Appleyard, the late, great Donald Appleyard, he did a study back in the early 80s, 70s, going into the early 80s there in San Francisco. He was a professor there at UC Berkeley, and unfortunately, he was tragically killed not long after that in a car crash, I believe, with a drunk driver.
00:36:01:00 - 00:36:35:15
John Simmerman
But his son, Bruce Appleyard, has continued on with the work. And I do have an episode with Bruce talking about that work, and he's actually published Livable Streets 2.0, continuing his dad's work. And I think it's really, really fascinating because what that really the work really does is say that if you have a low traffic street, you get more social connections and cohesion, and your relationships with your neighbors is enhanced simply by not having high traffic speed on your street in front of your home.
00:36:35:15 - 00:36:36:22
John Simmerman
It's huge.
00:36:36:25 - 00:36:46:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, the numbers and the study and you know, the graphics, which we have redone for the film that are in his book. Others, Cathy Tuttle and Jim Burke.
00:36:46:28 - 00:36:51:09
John Simmerman
I was just going to say, That's Cathy. Oh my gosh, fantastic.
00:36:51:12 - 00:36:53:20
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
The film to Jim Jim is in the film a lot.
00:36:53:21 - 00:36:53:27
Video clip audio
Yeah.
00:36:53:27 - 00:36:58:10
John Simmerman
We're gonna, we're gonna we're going to queue up Jim's apartment in just a second, but.
00:36:58:12 - 00:37:02:03
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Oh my God, people. That's everybody's favorite part of the film.
00:37:02:04 - 00:37:21:28
John Simmerman
Yeah. But hey huge shout out to Cathy. I got to give a huge shout out to Cathy and say, hey Cathy. Cathy is has been one of my long time supporters of the Active Towns Channel, and she was my home state host in Utrecht when I was there in 2024. Again, Mahalo Cathy, love you so much.
00:37:22:01 - 00:37:25:02
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And in the film she talks about Paris school streets briefly.
00:37:25:03 - 00:37:27:25
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Fantastic.
00:37:27:27 - 00:37:52:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
But yeah, but I wanted to say, like, you know, it's funny because with Appleyard. Yeah, they did all the studies of the high, high speed, middle speed traffic and low speed traffic. And, you know, Donovan Finn, who's in the film, actually has started thinking, you know, our 34th Avenue doesn't even have low traffic. It has none. It'd be an excellent candidate to study to see.
00:37:52:28 - 00:38:14:06
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's beyond like belief when you walk around. And you know, sometimes I think we even are forgetting about we're getting so used to this neighborhood element and component and seeing people, you know, and making instant friends and people running and the dogs, the number of dogs on the street. And, you know, we're getting used to it after six years.
00:38:14:06 - 00:38:31:16
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I have a feeling like, you know, we just went through election. And of course, Mayor Danny fully supports this kind of stuff. But I always think about, like, if Cuomo had won, would our street be gone? And it's kind of scary to think about, you know?
00:38:31:18 - 00:38:32:07
Video clip audio
Yeah.
00:38:32:13 - 00:38:40:18
John Simmerman
Again, elections matter, folks. For sure. For sure. Well, let's queue up the apartment segment okay.
00:38:40:21 - 00:39:11:15
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So we're going to look at. Oh wait this is yes. Yes. So you can start playing it. But these are just the kind of things here as you start playing I could talk over because there's no there's only these are just the kind of things you run into when you're walking around. There's musical performances and stuff. So this all leads into this amazing segment that you're about to see that every time we ask everybody that's seen the film, most everybody says the favorite part, which is about to come up any section any time now.
00:39:11:18 - 00:39:36:15
John Simmerman
Yeah. And we just saw a picture of a doggie. And right on cue, Mark says the dog section is adorable. Yeah. Just wait till you watch the movie, folks. The dog section is amazing.
00:39:36:18 - 00:39:50:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's lovely, triumphant music.
00:39:51:01 - 00:39:53:24
Video clip audio
Look at those turn that great turn. So this guy's great turn.
00:39:53:28 - 00:39:56:15
Video clip audio
Tenemos.
00:39:56:18 - 00:40:11:16
Video clip audio
Para todos Los Domingos de la tarde a cinco de la Tati. Now.
00:40:11:19 - 00:40:22:06
Video clip audio
We've been on and off doing this for our sixth season of teaching people how to bike. And then on one day a week, biking with them, doing our family bike rides.
00:40:22:06 - 00:40:30:06
Video clip audio
My daughter is taking a learn to ride class. He's getting some great practice and learning some new skills.
00:40:30:08 - 00:40:31:14
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
She knows how to ride it.
00:40:31:15 - 00:40:32:07
Video clip audio
We have.
00:40:32:09 - 00:40:39:16
Video clip audio
Five people who completely learned today, which is pretty cool. He's one second from learning the kid back here also learned.
00:40:39:16 - 00:40:52:02
Video clip audio
I have a target to learn, bike and go with their family by credit on Saturday.
00:40:52:04 - 00:40:53:12
Video clip audio
You made it!
00:40:53:14 - 00:40:55:25
Video clip audio
That's my first bike ride.
00:40:55:27 - 00:41:05:02
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
I love that part and that was all chance. Then I caught her the day that happened.
00:41:05:04 - 00:41:08:12
Video clip audio
So it's three generations.
00:41:08:14 - 00:41:10:15
Video clip audio
Practicing how to learn how to ride on 34th.
00:41:10:15 - 00:41:19:06
Video clip audio
Avenue is the port occupation. Del Campo lived in Famiglia Familia.
00:41:19:08 - 00:41:37:02
Video clip audio
I keep all of these bicycles in my living room. So as you can see, our living room is a bit of a disaster. So welcome to our apartment slash 34th Avenue storage bicycle depot. These are all the different sizes that any age that might want to learn.
00:41:37:04 - 00:41:38:10
Video clip audio
His apartment.
00:41:38:10 - 00:41:48:02
Video clip audio
Is just complete opposite and causes like a lot of mental stress for me. I've tried to straighten it sometimes without asking.
00:41:48:03 - 00:42:01:04
Video clip audio
And we have a number of bikes here, and we have these big, seemingly gigantic bags or full of helmets and little kitty bikes and the cones and the jackets. We have about 15 bicycles here, not counting our own.
00:42:01:07 - 00:42:03:07
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And that was his guest room, his.
00:42:03:07 - 00:42:04:16
Video clip audio
Guest room.
00:42:04:19 - 00:42:08:21
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
He says it's still usable, but, you know, they got to move everything out if somebody comes over.
00:42:08:22 - 00:42:09:13
Video clip audio
So.
00:42:09:15 - 00:42:27:19
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
But he and O'Doherty, who are the two major volunteer folks that helped 34th Avenue survive their dedication is something that I could never do. It's they're just a wonderful people.
00:42:27:20 - 00:42:39:21
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. No. That's amazing. It's amazing. And you, you said, you know, from early screenings that was one of the favorite segments. Is that correct? Did I get that right?
00:42:39:28 - 00:43:11:22
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Right by far. Like we asked, we had a screening for 50 people in a bar basement that were mostly in the film. And I'd say about half the people when we said, write down, you know, what you like the most, and Jim's bike classes and apartment were right. Like, you know, I mean, you know, who who really I mean, this whole thing, this whole volunteer effort over the last six years is taking over his apartment, Newlands apartment.
00:43:11:24 - 00:43:38:24
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Rita, who talked about wanting to clean up. She has all these art supplies like these people are giving up their homes. My my hope is that as this film becomes more popular and people see it, and that maybe they could raise some more funds is that somebody drops like a shipping container on the one of the open streets, and it's like, that's where they get to keep everything, and they don't have to haul it out all the time, you know?
00:43:38:25 - 00:43:39:09
Video clip audio
Yeah.
00:43:39:10 - 00:44:05:03
John Simmerman
So this this image right here gives is, is is a great shot. You've got the glowing in the background. You've got the glowing of the lights here. This reminds me a little bit of, you know, the, the image that you sent to me for the thumbnail. Talk a little bit about the naming of the documentary, because you decided to name it Close Encounters.
00:44:05:06 - 00:44:15:14
John Simmerman
I think I know the I think I know the, the inspiration, but explain it for folks who may not know that film, that movie.
00:44:15:16 - 00:44:48:22
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, this is sort of like there's another picture I have that's much more, you know, it looks like the scene when in the film from was it was it? 19 I don't want to say 19 the late 90s, 19 late 1970s. Close of the third kind, which I'm finding, of course, that the youngest people don't get the title because it's the film is a little old for them, but essentially I have an image where it's much brighter, the sun is shining in people's faces, and everybody's in silhouette.
00:44:48:22 - 00:45:13:25
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And in the film, that's like one of the major scenes, the one of the most, you know, shots of the film when the UFO is there and all these shadows and people are looking at all this bright light. So it's funny that one day somebody said, can you send me some of your a couple of years ago, send me some of your favorite photos for some article.
00:45:13:25 - 00:45:33:01
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I sent that. And, and I just found the same sort of image online of what I was talking about. And I said I was like, hey, it looks a little like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Ha ha ha ha. And then and then when it came to like starting to think about what to name this, I was like, oh, I kind of like that.
00:45:33:01 - 00:45:53:08
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
But, you know, Close the Count is the third time I was like, wait, third 34th Avenue kind. And it's all about close encounters and community. And it was funny how like that was my first idea, what to name it. And a lot of times the first idea never even pans out. Or you have to brainstorm like a couple dozen.
00:45:53:13 - 00:46:10:18
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I just couldn't get away from the fact that that like, it made so much sense. And that's how it got named. And of course, Cole and the story of New York City's most popular open street, you know, or open street. So there's a little bit of context of what the film is about.
00:46:10:19 - 00:46:35:18
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it. All right. Cool. Well, and again, just more amazing imagery that is there. Interestingly though, to this is a good, good question from or comment from Jupp James again from Germany. He's he's like it's surprising that they're they're still active. The traffic lights in that one shot.
00:46:35:20 - 00:46:53:18
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Every every single one. The lights are still on because we have cross traffic at almost every block. But here's the most unique thing is and they did this before Covid, there are eyes at almost every one of these 26.
00:46:53:19 - 00:46:54:24
John Simmerman
Leading pedestrian.
00:46:54:24 - 00:46:55:21
Video clip audio
Intervals.
00:46:55:24 - 00:47:15:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Intersection levels. So, you know, it may be a 32nd sequence in either direction that the lights are green, but in actuality you get another 10s. So the crossing cars just get there, crossing through. And then like, you know, pedestrians dominate. Of course, we do have to stop if there's a red light because you don't want to get hit.
00:47:15:09 - 00:47:41:18
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
But, you know, also traffic is down or crashes and injuries are down 75% since they institute the open street. And you know, there were so many negative cranks, I like to call them cranks in New York City and people who are against transportation improvements or fare modes, basically against everything. But a lot of it has to do with bikes and transportation.
00:47:41:18 - 00:48:08:19
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So they all were like injuries and deaths are going to happen, like they're going to go sky high. Kids are not going to know how to cross the street. And we haven't had even one serious incident in six years. And, you know, again, the numbers are 75% plunge in, plunge in injuries and and incidents. So it's been a good thing actually I want you can you go back to the one funny thing with the tire.
00:48:08:21 - 00:48:35:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well there's one of them. There's one before this. But anyway, this is just indicative of the weirdness that happens on the block, the open street. This tire appeared one day just sitting on the median, and it traveled for days all over the blocks. People would be sitting on it. People would be playing it, rolling back and forth. My son and I laughed because there's about it, and we actually played with it for a while and posed.
00:48:35:26 - 00:48:53:21
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
People take pictures with it for about two weeks, and there's a movie called rubber. It was a horror movie about a tire, a killer tire. So we named the tire robber a couple of us and we just roll it around it. But it's like, this is this, you know, none of that's planned. It just everything kind of happens.
00:48:53:25 - 00:49:18:25
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's a lovely place to live. The kids, you know, I keep thinking, what's going to happen to all these kids, some of them who grew up with this street. And it'll continue forever, as far as I can see, when they grow up even further and go and live their lives, go to college, are they going to be like, I got to get open streets and places like this in my city, you know, or fight for them wherever I live.
00:49:18:26 - 00:49:33:15
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I feel like that's almost like a ten year documentary from now, ten years from now, to find out how many of these kids decided to discover or to study this, or fight for it, or join advocacy organizations, you know.
00:49:33:19 - 00:50:01:26
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's absolutely true. And it also kind of emphasizes that even the simplest of things, an old discarded tire can be something fun and engaging. And that kind of, you know, I reinforces a lot of the things that we've been talking about recently, especially when I interviewed Lenore Skinner's and talking about free range kids is just really.
00:50:01:28 - 00:50:03:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Five blocks from me.
00:50:03:12 - 00:50:03:18
Video clip audio
Yeah.
00:50:03:19 - 00:50:33:08
John Simmerman
That's right. She's right there. Yeah. She mentioned that, too. Is that just being able to just have it be safe and inviting for kids to be able to explore their neighborhood. They can find fun and interesting things like this that they can engage with and learn a tremendous amount to, and just the whimsical funniness of this thing traveling up and down the block as somebody rolls it along and then plays with it and leaves it, rolls it along, plays it, and leaves.
00:50:33:09 - 00:50:49:25
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It's great. Neighborhood. Yeah. The neighborhood Facebook group, like, you know, pictures would pop up for those two weeks and somebody had delicately placed it over a very small like, evergreen tree. And they're like, look, look, Robert is protecting this tree.
00:50:49:27 - 00:50:59:21
John Simmerman
I can think nothing better than to do that. I want to go back to this particular image here. What are we looking at here? This is pretty cool. It's a party.
00:50:59:21 - 00:51:30:03
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
This. Yeah. This is a family. Amber. Amber white and her daughter and husband both. That's Amber. They started this thing called Happy New Year. And as many people may know, if they have kids around the world, it's this new movement to like. Instead of waiting till New Year's Eve and the ball dropping in, it's midnight like at noon.
00:51:30:04 - 00:51:48:02
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Happy New Year. We have celebrations at noon and they've been doing it for now. I think it's they just passed their sixth one because it was. No, it must be the fifth one. It's hard to know anymore, but it's I think it's the fifth one because it's started.
00:51:48:06 - 00:51:52:12
John Simmerman
This is the first time hearing of it. This is fantastic. Yeah.
00:51:52:13 - 00:52:13:10
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. And and you know, when you watch a video, you know, they started out with, you know, maybe 100 plus people. Now every year there could be 3 or 400 people there, a lot of kids having fun. And it's again, it was their initiative. It was their daughter Olive, who decided, I'm going to do this. And the parents were like, okay, we'll help you.
00:52:13:10 - 00:52:24:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And now it's, you know, neighborhood institution. It's not just gyms, group making these things happen. People come to, they're like, we're going to do this. And then they'll provide a little bit of assistance or guidance.
00:52:24:10 - 00:52:43:18
John Simmerman
Yeah. And just be clear when I say this is the first time hearing of it. I mean, when I saw it on the, the actual movie, when I, you gave me the opportunity to preview it ahead of time and watch it. And so when I was watching it, I'm going, this is the coolest way to go, Olive.
00:52:43:20 - 00:52:48:04
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah, my wife and I don't even do anything for New Year's Eve anymore. We just go to that.
00:52:48:06 - 00:52:49:26
John Simmerman
Yeah. Happy new year.
00:52:50:01 - 00:52:56:10
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, speaking of another another thing that, you know, I think that last clip we got about Santa Claus.
00:52:56:12 - 00:52:56:25
Video clip audio
I.
00:52:57:00 - 00:53:04:08
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Think, ties in. It's another group of people that decided they were going to have a hold their Santa Claus ride on 34th Avenue.
00:53:04:08 - 00:53:05:25
John Simmerman
And let's watch it.
00:53:05:27 - 00:53:08:00
Video clip audio
Yeah.
00:53:08:02 - 00:53:13:07
Video clip audio
It is fantastic. It makes this neighborhood so much more special. And it's always a highlight of the year.
00:53:13:14 - 00:53:15:20
Video clip audio
Oh, now. How are you? Good morning.
00:53:15:21 - 00:53:23:02
Video clip audio
I'm here to volunteer to see how people are. Kids are happy. And lots of fun and joy. Matt.
00:53:23:04 - 00:53:25:07
Video clip audio
I'm ready to write. I wanted to write.
00:53:25:08 - 00:54:25:14
Video clip audio
That's right.
00:54:25:16 - 00:54:34:07
Video clip audio
This is one of the best rides, I think. And it's really wonderful to see a lot of bike leaders from around the city join us with their kids and their families. A lot of fun.
00:54:34:09 - 00:54:37:15
Video clip audio
Fantastic. It's my my 10th year. I'm in.
00:54:37:15 - 00:54:37:18
Video clip audio
The.
00:54:37:18 - 00:54:38:00
Video clip audio
Bronx.
00:54:38:00 - 00:54:38:15
Video clip audio
But, you know.
00:54:38:16 - 00:54:39:06
Video clip audio
Always love.
00:54:39:06 - 00:54:40:19
Video clip audio
Supporting the Queens.
00:54:40:19 - 00:54:43:16
Video clip audio
By community. And this is just one of many holidays.
00:54:43:16 - 00:54:45:22
Video clip audio
That are celebrated on 34th Avenue.
00:54:45:24 - 00:54:46:08
Video clip audio
But today.
00:54:46:08 - 00:54:46:13
Video clip audio
Is.
00:54:46:13 - 00:54:46:18
Video clip audio
So.
00:54:46:18 - 00:55:13:07
Video clip audio
Exciting to see everyone covering bikes with all kinds of decorations and bells.
00:55:13:09 - 00:55:20:15
Video clip audio
Nuevo.
00:55:20:18 - 00:55:29:08
Video clip audio
What am I on top?
00:55:29:10 - 00:55:54:20
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So this is basically, I'd say, the longer form version of what appears in the film. It's about it's only about 45 seconds in the film, but it also features. What you did get to see is interviews with Santa Claus himself, Mrs. Claus, and some more participants who talk about the importance of this ride to the community.
00:55:54:21 - 00:56:20:25
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I think it's just it's amazing to, you know, we saw the comments out there in the chat. You know, talking about, hey, this is like the perfect street for the Christmas market. And it's just this is what we're talking about. These are, you know, giving people the opportunity to come together as community in sociable environments.
00:56:21:02 - 00:57:03:15
John Simmerman
We mentioned it before. Just remove all of those stinky high speed cars. And magical things can happen like like these types of gatherings and events, as well as just the mundane every day getting to school and the energy that just kind of comes out. Clarence, talk a little bit about this challenge of you mentally shifting gears and going, okay, no, I'm not scrambling to put out one of my typical street films, videos, whatever it is, 12 minutes or less, or maybe just a little more.
00:57:03:18 - 00:57:23:06
John Simmerman
Talk about that mental shift that you had to be thinking about, of going, you know, oh, I'm not just going to push this out as a short or a normal video. I want to hang on to a little bit of this. Mean this is perfect for the documentary because you had to be thinking about this for several years.
00:57:23:08 - 00:57:24:01
John Simmerman
Talk about that.
00:57:24:02 - 00:57:51:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, it's funny because like, I had to do much more planting planning and oh, there's a little man right there is. You know, it was interesting because I had to write down all the history I could remember, you know, because there's a lot of dates in the film that are very specific. It talks about how the ups and downs and oh, that's the the Jackson Heights Mile, which is another event that somebody else has created.
00:57:52:01 - 00:58:20:07
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
But so it was quite a challenge, but it's also something I always wanted to do. So when I had these 50 or so interviews, some of the interviews were very easy, like just showing up and hey, what's going on at this event or whatever. But then there's a lot of the storytellers and some of the elected officials who I had to write down, like, okay, for example, Gersh from Streets Blog, who had been covering this, I oh, he knows more about what happened politically.
00:58:20:07 - 00:58:44:10
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
He knows what like negotiations happened. He could tell more of the story about this than there are other people like Jim and Nuala, who tell more about the volunteers and how the organization was created. The 34th Avenue Open Streets Coalition, and also about the personal experience of Covid. You know, I mean, Jim, you know, nearly died from Covid early on because he had such a bad case of it.
00:58:44:10 - 00:59:04:08
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And as he points out in the movie, at one point, you know, he had all those symptoms that nobody knew there were symptoms yet, you know, the lack of taste and other things that, you know, they didn't know what the hell is happening to them. So I had to be very careful to make sure I got coverage for each thing I was talking about.
00:59:04:08 - 00:59:30:02
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So whether we were talking about the shift in hours the play street originally went from, or the open street usually originally went from, I get that from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but then Bill de Blasio was when when people went back to school because of Covid, he was convinced to let it start at 7 a.m., which was used in allowing, you know, families to relax and people to have more distance.
00:59:30:02 - 00:59:50:19
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And going back to the school. Here's my this is around the block PS2 12, my son's school. And you know, this is a parade they have for Halloween. Right. And they they they do it. They still do it on the sidewalks. But it used to be hellish. It was like all cars were parked there. People were jammed just trying to find a spot where they could take a picture of the kids.
00:59:50:20 - 01:00:08:12
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And now they just fill the open street and watch them go by. And so, you know, there's a lot of really cool elements here that, you know, I remember what it used to be like, and now it's peaceful and there's no cars and a big thing which a lot of people don't even realize. No noise. You know, there's no noise.
01:00:08:12 - 01:00:25:22
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
You hear the birds. Just like we heard the birds before we started the podcast or the event. You know, they're in Hawaii. We could hear the birds outside. We. That's what you hear all the time on the open street. It's like the birds are singing. I own this street now. And and, you know, there's all kinds of things.
01:00:25:22 - 01:00:53:06
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So like, I had to be really careful of, like, not just getting one person's view of what happened and make sure things were exactly as we thought they happened. You know, you got confirmation or, you know, right now they're in this, this phase of trying to decide there's an $88 million budget to redo the streets and to really make some of these school streets, like real plazas.
01:00:53:06 - 01:01:16:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And there's a real debate on what to do with bicycles, especially though mopeds and fast moving e-bikes. And, you know, there's three camps, there's people who think everything's pretty fair and they're fine with it, and that's fine. And there's other people like, well, design. We could slow down some of these, and then there's other people who also equally believe there should be none of those on the streets.
01:01:16:28 - 01:01:36:20
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It just should become a park, and that we should design other streets for bicycles and especially the higher speed mopeds and e-bikes. So there's a lot going on. And so I had to really make sure I, I didn't just think about what I wanted, I had to think about what everybody has been talking about wanting. And there's gyms.
01:01:36:20 - 01:01:41:21
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Favorite person to ever visit Jackson Heights open Street Jeanette Sadiq Khan.
01:01:41:22 - 01:01:42:03
Video clip audio
Yeah.
01:01:42:04 - 01:02:05:13
John Simmerman
Yeah, it was really special having her part of the film as well. I know that meant a lot to you. Clarence, the final question for me, and I'll pause just a little bit to see if anybody has any last minute questions from the audience. But my final question to you is, how does everybody get to watch this, this film?
01:02:05:13 - 01:02:15:15
John Simmerman
I know that you've done a public screening. I think you had over 100 people at this screening. How does anybody have a chance to watch this?
01:02:15:16 - 01:02:38:21
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, right now, probably sometime next week we'll finalize how we're going to do this. We're trying to have many more screenings in New York. We're aiming to find places that will host, you know, that are outside of New York that want to host the screening. Our hope is that as a free screening, like we don't need to make money off of it.
01:02:38:22 - 01:02:57:10
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
We just want as many people to see as possible. So, you know, I know there's somebody in Seattle, for instance, has been talking, I want to show the film already. And we're like, well, we don't want to charge any admission fee. But if you come up with a cool deal in a cinema and you have to charge money for people to come see, that's fine.
01:02:57:12 - 01:03:27:14
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
You know, there's expenses to do this. So right now we're talking about how we're going to do it. I mean, you know, we're really just started getting the film out there. We had over 150 people at this community college. We call this sneak peak. We still aim to have a very big venue, hopefully a more, you know, shall I say, proper, only because it would be more organized and have some super VIPs at it screening, maybe in Manhattan or Brooklyn or both.
01:03:27:16 - 01:04:01:24
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
But the idea is really to have that idea where, all right, you want to show it in your city, you want to show it in Paris, you want to show it in Boston, you want to show it wherever. Tell us how you're going to do that, and we will let you screen it. And if it's a place that's not too far from New York, say Philadelphia or Boston or DC or somewhere I can get to on mass transportation, how can we raise enough money for me to come visit and say a few words, and maybe be on a panel with local leaders to talk about the film and what's going on and have a big
01:04:01:24 - 01:04:07:07
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
event, you know, to continue that. So right now we're trying to figure out all of that, right?
01:04:07:09 - 01:04:41:04
John Simmerman
Let me pull up. We do have a question from Karen Lorraine. Let me pull this up. She's basically just kind of asking about, you know, the future investments and whether we think that this is going to kind of help, as we are looking at, you know, the permanent infrastructure of what 34th Avenue is going to be, because I know that's part you talk about it in the documentary, in the movie, sort of planting the seeds that, yes, there's the visioning process for what a permanent 34th Avenue is going to look like.
01:04:41:04 - 01:04:55:08
John Simmerman
And, and I think that that's also similar to the question that Bicycle Dutch Marc has is, is, yeah, what's the status, what's going to happen. Because it does feel a little bit temporary in terms of the materials that it has right now.
01:04:55:09 - 01:05:03:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yeah. All that's it's all temporary. It'll be redesigned. And I think she's also asking about 31st Avenue which also has an open street.
01:05:04:00 - 01:05:09:02
John Simmerman
Oh yeah I missed I missed that. Yeah. She, she let me put it back up here. Yeah. She she mentioned 30.
01:05:09:03 - 01:05:35:16
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
First John Rico and a lot of the people over there. They have a great story to tell to. In fact I had an entire part of the film where I was, I had actually interviewed him and some people at the Barry Street Open Street, and I was going to talk to people at Vanderbilt. There's, you know, there's still quite a few of the open streets, have survived the pandemic, wind down and become quite extensive and good.
01:05:35:16 - 01:06:11:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And they just did some great mural painting, beautiful murals over there. They set aside some parts of the streets for seating, even when it's open to traffic on Monday through Friday. And so I think what's going to happen, I mean, you know, we have this new mayor, we have a very amazing new commissioner for the New York City Dot, who I think I mean, if you see all the things they've already announced, I think we see a lot more cool things to come.
01:06:11:09 - 01:06:40:27
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And I think the current open streets we have now will all survive. And some of them may expand, some of them may get bigger. I hopefully we get more funding for new ones. If you've been in New York City and been down Broadway, you'll realize that Broadway is no longer a through street for cards. It's every so few blocks the street has been interrupted, I'll say, by seating and plazas and things.
01:06:40:27 - 01:07:02:18
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And actually, this is really funny. My son loves busses and I recently got him some old bus maps of New York City. So I was looking at the bus map of what it looks like now, and the bus map of like the 90s. And I was like, and I asked him, I said, do you can you see what is really quite different about the bus maps in Manhattan between those two times?
01:07:02:18 - 01:07:25:28
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
And he's such a follower of busses. He picked it out right away. Two busses used to run down Broadway. They don't anymore because there's no through traffic. So you used to see like 4 or 5 lines going down Broadway. Now there's zero. So that shows you things. You know, you can even find traces of how things are changing in unexpected places.
01:07:26:01 - 01:07:26:22
Video clip audio
Right, right.
01:07:26:24 - 01:08:04:07
John Simmerman
And I navigated over to your website. So, folks, you can always go over to street films, street films and and there you go. There's the update. The Street films first full length feature documentary is here. Here's that image that we were referencing earlier that was very much involved of the movie of Close Encounters. I love that that double entendre and that play on words and and it's just so wonderful to see how the street, the Avenue is just creating.
01:08:04:07 - 01:08:09:23
John Simmerman
And we glossed over it. It's now even kind of referred to as a park, a linear park, say, oh.
01:08:09:25 - 01:08:14:22
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Park, a linear park, park which, you know, in the film you watch and that slowly happens.
01:08:14:24 - 01:08:40:09
John Simmerman
That slowly happens. And, and this is about creating these close encounters. It's just it's fantastic and it's beautiful. Clarence, final word from you. What would you like to leave the audience with? And and I do have one more follow up question after you're after you're done with that. So, you know, final question or final points from you. And then I'll give you that final, final follow up.
01:08:40:10 - 01:08:57:13
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Well, I think, you know, probably most of the questions I'm going to get at if this episode is, how can I see this? How can I show it? And I would say, just go to the street org over the next few days, especially next week, we're going to be putting up, you know, how we're going to do that.
01:08:57:18 - 01:09:03:15
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Also, the film at one point sometime probably in the late summer, I'm just going to post it up for free, of course.
01:09:03:21 - 01:09:03:29
John Simmerman
On.
01:09:04:01 - 01:09:05:27
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
On YouTube and YouTube.
01:09:05:28 - 01:09:33:16
John Simmerman
Okay, that was my question. That was my question because one of the as a as a producer of a long form content on YouTube and knowing that YouTube is actually is actually prioritizing some longer content now. And it probably because of the the long conversations that are happening, I could really see this having a wonderful home out on YouTube as well.
01:09:33:16 - 01:09:37:13
John Simmerman
So yeah, that that would be fantastic. I'd love to.
01:09:37:13 - 01:09:50:07
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
See that's where it will end up. People will see it. I mean, there is a chance we could get a deal with a network or one of the streaming services to show it. We don't know. There's a couple people have seen it said it's that that it's that good.
01:09:50:08 - 01:09:50:24
Video clip audio
Well.
01:09:50:26 - 01:09:58:00
John Simmerman
Along those lines, what about film festivals? Are you thinking about submitting it to some of these film festivals? Yeah.
01:09:58:01 - 01:10:23:26
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Yes, I have 3 or 4 that regardless of what happens, we have one pretty big one here in Queens called the Queens World Film Festival. And my they usually are in the middle of the fall. They have their event. And my thought was like, this is a perfect match. And Jim Burke from the, who's very prominent figure in the film yesterday was like, well, they want to see it now.
01:10:23:28 - 01:10:47:14
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
He's like, can you give me a link? They really wanted to come to the sneak peak. And I'm like, you know, the more that happens, it easier for me because, you know, I'm entering this uncharted world of like, how do I get into festivals? How do I pay to get around? How do I get the word out? And, you know, I just, you know, have a bio now and I have, you know, do I need a poster and all these other things.
01:10:47:14 - 01:11:11:27
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
So there's, you know, there's all this stuff happening and it's, it's going to take a lot of my time over the next few months, but it will be available for free. And also, as you have seen, you've watched it. You know, there are probably a good 8 to 10 bits in the film that like have a nice rounded story, like the Apple yard thing that runs about 3.5 minutes.
01:11:11:27 - 01:11:29:09
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
It tells a story. It's very informational. So some of those will probably get up. And then in the coming weeks, we'll probably be putting some of those up just to test the waters and let people know about it. So I want to thank everybody for being a little patient. But, you know, it took me, you know, five months to edit it.
01:11:29:09 - 01:11:30:21
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Four months. Five months.
01:11:30:27 - 01:11:31:15
Video clip audio
Yeah.
01:11:31:19 - 01:11:51:01
John Simmerman
Well, I want to thank you for doing this project. I want to thank you for coming on and doing this live stream here today. And I want to thank everybody out in the audience. Thank you so much for tuning in and joining us for this conversation. If you have the opportunity to watch this documentary in person, jump on it.
01:11:51:02 - 01:12:06:18
John Simmerman
It's going to be amazing. And yes, I totally agree Mark, it has been worth the way it is. An absolutely beautiful film. Again, Clarence, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns Channel here today.
01:12:06:20 - 01:12:10:07
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Thank you. And Mark, we love you.
01:12:10:09 - 01:12:11:19
Video clip audio
Yes, we do.,
01:12:11:21 - 01:12:28:26
John Simmerman
And we love all of you for tuning in here today. Thank you so much for tuning in to this recorded and edited version of our live streaming event with Clarence Akesson, Jr, and if you enjoyed it, please hey, give it a thumbs up! Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, be honored to have you subscribe to the channel.
01:12:28:27 - 01:12:45:04
John Simmerman
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01:12:45:04 - 01:13:07:03
John Simmerman
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01:13:07:04 - 01:13:21:08
John Simmerman
Hey, I simply could not do this without your support. Thank you all so very much. Mahalo. New logo. Well, until next time. This is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers and aloha!