Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

UNITED NATIONS, June 2 -- The CitiBike program, sponsored by bailed-out Citigroup of course, is New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg's subject on 1010 WINS today.

  He gushes about the program, which like some banks' service areas is limited to Manhattan (not including Harlem or Washington Heights) and nearby gentrified parts of Brooklyn.

  But even beyond that, here's Inner City Press' review of a recent night-time ride, since Bloomberg calls it the City's (or Citi's?) 24/7 transportation network.

  The electronic kiosks from which you check out the bikes can barely be seen and operated at night. A badly put on sticker covered up the slot for credit or debit cards. At least on this try, the machine did not spit out a paper receipt with the check-out code on it. The receipts of previous customers had jammed up the machine.

  Still, the ride was nice, if clunky. Like Citi was and is Too Big to Fail, it'd be easy to find their bikes Too Big to Ride.

 Checking it back in was no picnic either: it would be easy to walk away thinking the bike was accept, only to have it taken by another and oneself charged $1,000 dollars. Bloomberg might write that off on his taxes. But it would add substantially to the $95 annual membership fee. (Tellingly, Citi is being allowed to offer discounts to those who use Citibank cards for the purchase.)

These memberships, Citi card or not, are not listed on the kiosks, only 24 hours (for over $10) or one week. Why not a single ride option? Why not docking stations in the redlined zones? Mike? Citi? CitiMike? Watch this site.