Friday’s Headlines: Buy a Bike Store in Albany Edition

Let’s face it — you’ve had it with living in this city. You know it. Your partner knows it. Even the Streetsblog house band, Jimmy and the Jaywalkers, know it.

So why not go to Plan B: move to Albany and own a bike shop?

Our friend Robert Fullem, owner of Downtube Bicycle Works in downtown Albany, is ready to retire. But first he wants to sell his shop, which he assures us actually makes money!

“Downtube is notably profitable, even though I’m really an absentee owner, and have been since 1993,” he wrote us in “living-the-dream” fashion. “And given Albany’s cost-of-living, an owner of a small bike store makes enough to become a homeowner, which might be attractive to some cyclist devotees.”

The store is in the urban core of Albany, within walking distance of the state Capitol, the V.A. hospital, Albany Medical Center, and the law and pharmacy schools, he told us. He added that the current staff of four “good folks” are likely to remain, even with an ownership change.

So really, why not make the change? Check out the store’s website and email Fullem directly if you’re interested.

Tell him Streetsblog sent ya.

In other news:

• We and The City covered two lawmakers’ bid to get more funding for MTA buses exactly as it should have been covered, but, of course, the Post turned it into another broadside against congestion pricing.
• Let’s light the sidewalks, says Council Member Lincoln Restler. (NYDN)
• A Safdie brother loves the new C train!

• This story in the West Side Rag about President Biden’s visit is hysterical … in that it focused on lost parking. But it raises an important point: Why does a 20-square-block area need to be turned into a frozen zone to accommodate the president when he wants to visit a fundraiser in his Upper West Side apartment? I’m not suggesting that the Leader of the Free World take a Citi Bike to get around, but a single bullet-plated SUV could have done the job.
• City officials are getting closer to really understanding the illegal battery market. (NY Post, QNS, Gothamist)
• Mayor Adams has made two good appointments to the MTA board. (NYDN)
• What if the city wanted to pay for free transit for low-income seniors and people with disabilities? It’ll only cost $64 million, says the IBO. (Gothamist)
• And, finally, did Streetsblog really get action on Adams Street?