The DV Digest is the premiere destination for irregular dispatches from Daniel Varghese, a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. I say this because many of you have subscribed to this feed since this last time I sent out a newsletter, which was a post about how I’d no longer be posting regular updates here. I also say this because I think this font looks really nice in italics. Should I keep going? Probably not.
One year ago, I was laid off from my job as the Gear and Gadgets editor of The Wall Street Journal. It happened very suddenly—my annual review was literally scheduled for the next day—but honestly not in a way that was all that traumatic. My bosses laid me off in person, paid me my full salary through the end of the fiscal year, then gave me a decent amount of severance. Once they left the room, I was in good enough spirits to ask the HR person who stuck around to answer my remaining questions whether she realized that my 29th birthday was only two days away. She had not.
After quickly checking whether my editor expected me to finish the story I was working on for next week’s paper (he did not), I walked to the elevators to leave the building. I thought better of it and went back to my desk. Not to do any more work, but rather to pack up my stuff so that I wouldn’t have to come back.
There were so many things I loved about working at the Journal, mostly my colleagues. And yet, the moment I found out I had been laid off, I felt a weight fall off my shoulders1. I could just leave! I was free!
The uncertainty crept in a bit later. I have certainly had my ups and downs in the past twelve months. I’ve struggled to find motivation to hustle for assignments, to generate new ideas, to stay on top of my invoices. I watched the amount of money in my savings account slowly drip away, like someone had jabbed a hole into its side. Somehow, I also felt like I was drowning in rote administrative tasks. Have you ever tried to certify your unemployment status from your phone?
And yet, when I look back on the last year, all I can remember is the good times. I remember laying out in my community garden with my partner, as the sun warms our picnic blanket. I remember laughing with my family members in Peru when my dad’s guinea pig order was delivered wearing a knitted hat. I remember standing around with my friends in parks and kitchens, on balconies and roofs, at protests and coffee shops.
Even when it comes to work, I feel proud of what I have accomplished. I have enjoyed working with Field Mag. Even if I remain unconvinced I’d enjoy backpacking, it has been fun to work with a bunch of different writers on stories about cool GORP-y brands, why thru hikers are obsessed with SmartWater, unsanctioned desert relay races, and the dark side of fitness tracking. I have also been writing there. My biggest swing so far has been about trail running in New York, which is actually possible if you know where to look!
I have still been freelancing! My old pal Yang Yi-Goh let me talk to Nicolas from Husbands Paris about why some men refuse to wear shorts. My friend Nick Guy let me write about finally finding a more consistent over-the-board Chess partner. And YJ Lee got me to go back to my tech writer roots and blog about this February’s Apple event.
I have also been doing some journalism adjacent activities. I’ve stared helping my friend Anna Perling manage the in-person mattress at Forbes Vetted. Wilder still, a brand reached out asking me to do some editorial product consulting. At any of my last jobs, I would have had to say no to all these opportunities. But right now, I don’t have to worry about who or what I am representing2. I have the freedom to go to everything as myself!
Freedom is both an opportunity and a responsibility. So far, I am happy with how I have navigated it. I have said yes to a lot including press trips to Washington, Germany, Jackson Hole, Birmingham, Vermont and a free suit from Alex Mill (above).
But I have said no to a lot too. I removed myself from the running for a job before doing the edit test3. I turned down assignments that I didn’t have time to complete. I told plenty of companies I did not want to “test” their wack clothes and products.
All of this was really in service of Leg Day, my newsletter about city cycling. Even though I haven’t managed to publish as consistently as I once hoped I could, nor have I seen the subscriber numbers balloon to the point where I can justify spending all my time working on it, I am extremely proud of everything I’ve published there since its launch last August. If you follow this feed, but aren’t familiar with Leg Day, please read the story I just did about Bad Pony Racing and trans athletes. It’s good, if I do say so myself.
With Leg Day, I have found something I can’t yet imagine myself getting tired of. I keep having new ideas for features, formats, events, merch, projects. The newsletter is more creatively engaging than anything I’ve ever tried to do.
I suppose part of it is because it’s about biking. I just love to bike. I love puttering around the city by myself on my slow vintage bike. I love ripping it around the Prospect Park loop with my friends on the road bike kindly loaned to me by BMC. I even love spinning myself on the indoor trainer in my basement. Something about moving my legs up and down helps me access a different, calmer version of myself.
That’s even true in New York City, often imagined as a very dangerous place. I had a very funny conversation with another cyclist I was riding with in Alabama, where they were shocked to learn I felt safe riding both in Brooklyn and in Manhattan. Nationally, New York City streets are imagined as a war zone—where crime is constant, traffic is suffocating, and accidents are frequent. When I told him the traffic and accidents had actually gone down a lot thanks to congestion pricing, I was surprised to hear that he was vehemently against it. “It just seems unfair,” he said.
There’s a version of me that might have exploded in that moment. Unfair?! When drivers make up less than 15% of the commuters to the congestion pricing zone each day? And those who do tend to be among the richest who live in New York and its exurbs?
But in that moment, I was able to calmly explain how I had seen New York City change thanks to congestion pricing. The data indicates that the toll has everyone’s commutes faster, made the city less loud, and, most importantly, has significantly reduced the volume of injuries due to car crashes throughout the entire city. I also shared my anecdotal evidence: riding in Manhattan just feels more chill than it used to. With fewer cars to keep track of, I’ve found myself in fewer situations where I’ve had to navigate around a driver doing some unpredictable nonsense. It’s been great!
I don’t know if I convinced him, but I appreciated the conversation. And anyway, I don’t think congestion pricing is top of mind for New York cyclists at the moment. At the end of last month, the NYPD has started aggressively going after cyclists who commit minor traffic violations. If a cop sees a cyclist run a red light, they can now force them to come to court with a criminal summons. If a cop sees a driver run the same red light, they can only give them a ticket4.
NYPD Jessica Tisch says the policy is mainly intended to crack down on reckless e-bikers. In testimony to our city council’s committee on Public Safety and Finance, she said “people on e-bikes generally felt like they lived in a consequence-free environment, we were all seeing widespread mass flouting of the very basic rules that we have in New York City around transportation safety.”
Fair enough, except that an investigation from Streetsblog has revealed there was literally one pedestrian death caused by an e-bike in the first four months of this year. One! The Mayor himself announced that there were 41 total traffic deaths in the first three months of the year. If we assume that the one e-bike caused death happened in the first three months, that would mean that e-bikes were only responsible for 2% of deaths in the city during the time when Tisch decided we really needed a bike crackdown5. How does that make sense?
I view this crackdown as a regressive attempt by politicians to paint cyclists and cycling as an obstacle to public safety. Since we represent a vast minority of road users, cyclists are a convenient scapegoat for people who are unwilling to take action against the dangerous status quo (car culture) but need to be seen as doing something. It is not lost on me that e-bikes, and specifically e-bikes ridden by people making deliveries, are the ones especially being highlighted as the problem. These drivers are almost always non-white, and often immigrants.
“This is a direct attack on immigrant workers,” said Ligia Guallpa, the executive director of Los Deliveristas UnidosGuallpa that represents delivery workers in an interview with The New York Times. “The intent is to criminalize workers and to create a situation where our communities could be targets for deportation.”
I bring all this up because I believe the attack on cyclists who are just doing their jobs—which has, of course, not come with a similar regulatory effort on the apps that profit off forcing delivery drivers to consider risky behavior to earn a living—has a trickle down effect on people like me, who just want to ride. I worry that the NYPD effort will discourage people from getting out on two wheels, especially people whose identity makes them more likely to face harassment from police officers in any situation.
Biking has meant so much to me in this year. It has given me the means to develop a deeper relationship to my city. It has been the means through which I have met a lot of wonderful people, but also something that has helped me connect further with people I already knew. It has made me so much more comfortable in my body, but also helped me take on new challenges and explore my capabilities.
If I had been laid off three years ago, I cannot imagine I would have had the mental fortitude to handle it as well as I have. I am not sure I could have found a path through the boundless possibilies that come with freelancing. I do not think I would have had the confidence to finish the New York City Marathon last November.
This weekend, I turn 30. I feel almost none of the personal uncertainty I felt this time last year. I have made lots of plans and am really excited to just to spend quality time with great people. When I think about what I want for myself in the next year, I really just want to stay the course. I want to deepen my relationships, find more work that excites me, and remain open to new experiences.
But most of all, I just want to be able to ride my bike. And if you’re reading this, I want to do it with you! If the weather holds, I’ll be going on a long ride Saturday, May 31. We’ll start from Winner in the Park and pass through my favorite parts of the city. Here’s the RSVP link. See you there : )
This is the last image I ever took from The Wall Street Journal office.
When I started, there was a gigantic photo of Tucker Carlson in the same spot. I still shudder to think about it.
The job was with the team at a major economics and politics publication that was looking for a new editor on their “Explainers” team, which seemed to be tailoring its strategy to finding traffic via Google. Given Google’s recent announcement that it doesn’t view referrals to publishers as important—it would rather provide AI-generated answers and keep people on its own platform (even when those answers are maddeningly incorrect)—I feel pretty good about my choices.
They rarely do. Here’s a video from before the policy was enacted about how cops often setup traps to catch cyclists who run reds, but often ignore the same behavior from drivers.
Last year, 121 pedestrians were killed in New York in traffic violence. Only one was hit by an electric bike.