[Music] What do you think about all these Citi bikes?

Oh, good for the city, not good for Enoch.

Gotta live with it.

[Enoch] The electric bike, which all the delivery people have gone over to, and the Citi bikes.

Nobody needs to own a bike now a days.

They can just rent a Citi bike for an reasonable price.

Everybody was riding in the Citi bike could have been riding in the cab burning fumes.

[phone ringing] Bike shop.

Oh no sir, I'm sorry.

We're closing the store.

No more rentals.

Yeah.

Okay.

Alright, thanks a lot.

Good luck to you too.

Bye.

This is a shortage of bike shops now.

A number of closed over the last year.

[Patricia] The bicycle business it's been off for many years.

There would be electric bikes coming in.

The Citi bikes on the street.

We're not renting, we're not selling.

I do the books and every year you see the sales and the rentals and the repair is going down and I thought what's the point?

You know you have to know when to wrap it up.

So basically he was sitting in the store waiting for people to walk in.

It wasn't like the old days where they were coming in at a regular pace.

They don't like that doorway, man.

Yeah.

So what time are you closing today?

Today, you know, I'm not sure, probably five o'clock, six.

Five or six.

You've not come by with my list.

All right, like I said, I'm not sure I can do any repair for you, but I'll look at it and let you know.

[Patricia] It's the end of a chapter for him.

It's hard for him because it's a social life.

People appreciate the fact that they know he does quality work.

[Costumer] Very long.

[Enoch] Years and years.

A million years.

Since he was over there.

Bye-bye.

I've actually aged out.

If this would have been 20 years ago, I would have found wayto keep going.

[Music] It it was a mistake, you'll find out [Cary] Yup.

It's now officially my turn to figure it out.

That feels good, you know.

Not so many messengers around these days anyway.

You know, I've been thinking a lot about all of the many summers I spent working here.

And yeah, it's this sort of tactile memory.

The thing that stands out was sweeping the floor last night.

I've spent my whole life sweeping the floor of the bike shop.

And yeah, it occurred to me that it might be one of the last times as a bike shop that I do that.

These are cool.

I made these many moons ago.

These old Enoch's bike shop stickers.

[Andre] Oh, I remember them.

They were everywhere.

[Cary] So I took the B. I turned it into an E and I made it the look up for Enoch's bikes.

And I put it on the website and I thought, "Well, you know, I might as well make some stickers and we can put them on the frames that we sell."

You know, I worked at the bike shop when it was at this location several times throughout my life.

You know, most notably I'd say in like 2005 to 15 over that 10-year span I was in here a lot.

Yeah, we had tried to work it out together.

Yeah, you know, there just wasn't enough business.

But it just was no good for him.

There's not enough money for him.

He was like, went out to all the good schools.

He had big dreams, you know, big money.

And this was just never do.

Did the article prompt me?

Yes, it prompted me to make that story.

It's because I've known you for all these years.

In a way we're family, you know.

I remember when you first started telling me about riding a bicycle and you tell them how you made me a messenger or you got me, got me my first job as a messenger.

I don't remember a damn thing about it.

Okay, but do you remember telling me about riding in the wind?

Remember that?

No, but that's something I do say.

I love how he can't remember anything.

[Cars honking] [Patricia] He had driven a cab, got tired of driving and decided he wanted to be a bicycle messenger.

And this was a time in New York when nobody rode a bike.

And so he signed up with a messenger company and he would do runs all day long all year round.

There were days he would come in with icicles in his mustache and hair.

And the worse the weather was, the more he loved it.

Because he would get more runs.

And you know, he just, he liked the freedom.

He liked being on a bike and then having to clock in.

[Enoch] I was a messenger for on and off for 10 years.

And the bike breaks down.

You're not going to take it to a bike shop every time.

You know, you try to learn how to fix it.

A little by little, I got good enough to where I could fix it.

I started fixing my friends' bikes, ran a little repair business out of my fifth floor apartment.

He would store all his parts and accessories in one of the rooms of our apartment.

And after a while the bikes and parts and frames were filling up the room.

And at one point I actually started fixing bikes in Central Park.

[honk] [Patricia] You know, on the weekend they would take out his stand and parts and tubes and go to Central Park when people were recreationally biking.

[Andre] Yeah, it started in the summertime.

People would be going around the loop.

And he positions himself... Under a nice big oak tree.

[Music] So we were in a program, the housing program, and a storefront became available around the corner from where we lived.

So I ran home and I said to Enoch and I go, look, you know, this might be a great time.

You're setting up in the park.

You're working on people's bikes after work.

You know, this might be the perfect opportunity to open up a shop.

He didn't want to do it.

He said, "I don't want to be tied down to a business."

I just, you know, I want to keep doing what I'm doing.

He wanted to wing it, you know, just... You know, I'm a stickler.

I thought, "If we're going to do it, we've got to do it by the book."

Come on in.

Hey Mike.

>> Hey, how are ya?

My wife tells me, "You're crazy, I say, "Yeah, I know I'm crazy, I'm crazy, Mike."

I do crazy things.

Mike, you wanna make five bucks?

Take the tires off these wheels.

Oh boy, no problem.

He used to be a messenger.

One day I asked him, "If you could give me this part for the bike," and that's how we became friends.

[Enoch] Yeah, you lived down the street.

[Mike] I lived down the street from him on 48th Street.

So he got it for me and I paid him and... ...since then we've been friends.

It was so busy there when he first opened up.

Tough but he was fun.

Fun boss.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

No, he was tough.

[Enoch] Remember, it wasn't always me fixing the bike, so it was always a good crew.

They enjoyed their life.

We would smoke weed and drink beers after work together.

It was pretty much like a family.

Yes, you're going to come for it, so you're going to get a chance.

You're going to pick it up today.

Okay, what time?

What time?

Two o'clock.

Okay, thank you.

Quicksilver messenger service.

Kevin Bacon and the whole crew walked in one day, asked me if I had any track bikes, and I said Yeah.

I showed him the track bike and I taught him how to ride it on the sidewalk.

Man, he got on quick.

He was very clever man.

The film company actually during the beginning of the movie, they showed the front of the shop, which was, you know, I was really proud of that.

New York City couldn't make it without the bicycle messenger.

And this stereotype holds true for a lot of these guys.

But you know, world's made up of all kinds of people.

People like that got a place too and this is it.

Some very smart and enterprising people.

People went on to have their own companies and smart artistic people.

[Andre] Right.

Some of them were going to college as they were being bike messengers.

[Patricia] I just found they wanted that freedom.

They didn't want to be a like their a 9-5 job.

[Sax solo] When I got off at Port Authority all I had was my bag.

I used to sleep in a Penn Station because I was so gung-ho on being this comic book artist.

When I got my bike there I started doing messenger work I was trying to find spare change because I was doing freelance jobs.

And I never really knew him until he finally opened his shop.

So I wandered over there.

I didn't know Enoch that well.

And we got into this discussion about how I needed a helmet.

And I said, no, I don't need a helmet.

I know how to ride a bike.

You know, I'm pretty safe.

He said, no, no, you need a helmet city's dangerous.

And I don't know why he took this type of interest in me.

Yeah, because I told him I don't have money for a helmet.

He says, I'll give you a helmet.

Fifty minutes later, I was on 42nd Street through Times Square and a cab turned.

And I flipped over the front of the cab And I hit my head on the edge of the curb.

And it split the helmet open.

And I looked at the helmet, and I started crying.

You know I was a young kid at the time.

You know, I was like 20, 19, or something.

15 minutes ago, I wouldn't have had a helmet.

Enoch probably doesn't even remember this story.

Then he started telling me, he says, you know, I don't have like a steady job.

for you but why don't you come over and like fix bikes.

He liked me and then he hired me.

You know, I know my place and what I've done and my contributions in the beginning to make it happen.

And I just, I'm his support and I'm his emotional support because I'm always the kind of person, you know, there would be seven of us and the question would be, well, who's gonna do it?

And everyone would take a step backwards and I would be left standing.

And I learned at a very early age, I'm a caretaker to take care of things, get things done.

And, you know, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a dancer.

I wanted to take tap dancing, but I had mild cerebral palsy, and my mother would go, "Wow, you can't walk, I don't want you to be basically, I'm not going to waste our money on you."

I had been hitchhiking around the country and I met Russell Gross and he tells me on "Hey man, you want to go to New York?

I know a cute girl there.

We could probably stay with her for a while."

I was sure, man.

Let's go.

Luckily my grandmother was on vacation for the week.

The doorman was not happy.

They came up and I was shocked.

He was kind of hippie with dark, black hair, really suntanned and I thought he was from India.

And then as we got to know each other he said, "Why don't you move in with me?"

So I left my grandmother's we moved in together and we've been together 54 years.

[Andre] It's a Mom and Pop business because your mom was doing the books.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, no, no, she still is.

[Andre] I thought you were leaving.

I thought you were going to lunch.

No, I'm a gonna eat right here.

[Andre] Is this a tradition you bring lunch every... Not done yet.

Well, the first couple of years I was there all the time.

And then after that, after there was a pattern set that, whoever I was having managed a place at the time could do, also do.

And I would take off whenever possible and then my son was born and I spent a lot of time with him.

Pick him up from school.

That sort of thing.

[Patricia]And when we had our child together he was just such a great father.

He's a great father.

I loved that son of his so much.

It was unconditional love.

I haven't told you yet what I'm going to name the coffee shop.

Which is Enoch's coffee shop.

But it's Enoch-Cary.

And also the name of the coffee shop.

Yeah, cool.

Yeah.

You know that may help a little bit.

That's what I thought too.

[both laugh] It's your reputation.

So, tell me what are you going to do?

You know, open up a coffee shop and it's going to occupy that back wall over there.

It's apparent to me when I wake up and I have to walk several blocks into another micro neighborhood to get a cup of coffee.

So you know it's a little bit of a response to the needs of modern Hell's kitchen.

[Andre] Are you really proud of your son?

Well, maybe I'm taking from Brandon, I expect him to do something strong.

[Patricia] He would walk around with Cary in the backpack and he had a little mirror so he could talk to him as he walked.

You know people would come out to them on the street and go "Oh you have a beautiful son."

And he was just so proud because I think he felt very disconnected.

You know being from an only child, you know, his parents were divorced.

Enoch's mom is a big factor in his life.

[Patricia] She grew up in Barcelona and she trained as a classical Flamenco dancer.

And during the years of the Spanish Civil War, her mother, Ocepina, took Lydia and they fled the country and went to Cuba.

[Spanish singing] She, I think, was 14 at the time and when they were on the ship traveling and food was scarce, she would dance for food.

And then they traveled through South America, Central America, Cuba, ended up in Panama, met John's father, Enoch.

She got married, they had John, they lived together six years divorced and then she went back to Havana.

[Enoch] My mother left him for womanizing when I was about four or five years old.

I don't know much about him.

[Patricia] And she was fairly a headstrong, very liberated before her time.

[Enoch] You know, an attractive woman, she'd better be headstrong because men will take advantage.

[Andre] So it was him and her and you know, he was with her through his teenage years.

[Patricia] They took off to Cleveland because it had a nightclub and lived there for years and then relocated to Tampa, Ybor City.

You know, he always felt like an outsider, you know, because he was not perceived as a boy, you know, he was an other person.

And you know, when he moved to Tampa, there was a Hispanic population.

Cuba.

He began to fit in, but he was basically a loner.

He had been beaten down so much by discrimination.

And his mother worked at night, so when he would come home from school, he would go out and wander.

[Andre] And have you ever seen her perform.

[Enoch] A couple of times.

The ads for the nightclub saying, "and this month featuring Lena San Antonio" and they show a picture of her in her Flamenco outfit [Andre] Right.

[Enoch] The comb in her hair.

Castanets raised high above her head, especially the castanets.

It was always like rak-a-tak-a-ta I appreciate a bit of it.

I didn't think it was good.

I thought it was a waste of my time.

And I wanted to do something else.

I mean, like this is Enoch's bike shop once now, Enoch's cafe, named Enoch, like myself and my father and his father who abandoned him.

I still don't understand why he would name it Enoch's.

But then I did the same thing.

Anyway, moving on.

It's gonna be you'll have a baby and you'll have a business.

[Cary] Yeah.

Hopefully the business will be several months old, so it'll be like a toddler of a business at that point, you know.

That's the hope.

You're gonna be a grandfather very soon.

Oh yeah, I had almost given up hope.

[Cary] He's been saying that for a long time.

You know, we were thinking about naming our daughter Josephine.

Yeah.

You know, you're going back to tradition.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you're honoring your heritage.

And then when my work ended then the pandemic hit and... he had to do more too... ...to be part of my life because I started to fall.

I started to have injuries.

I developed cancer and so he turned out to be the person who would do the errands.

And I told him the other day you're kind of going back to your messenger days.

He's been great.

And he and her were good friends.

We've been through it all together for 54 years.

And he's put up with me, I put up with him.

And we just really get along.

[Music] [Andre] Tell me since then what has happened?

[Cary] Since then I have deconstructed the entire bike shop which involves donating tons of bicycle parts.

The desire from the start has always been to have a flexible space where living artists can come and make living art.

So there will be some traditional art world things that are very familiar this wall right next to us which is large and white and meticulously sanded by yours truly to be something a kid into a gallery wall will have paintings on it in rotation there's the business side of it and then there's the community side of it which is in line with the arts introducing ourselves to neighbors making sure that they know what we're about and kind of starting to stoke the flames of excitement for bringing real artists, musicians and content community events and people are excited.

I'm still really just focusing on how lucky I feel to be able to do this.

You know, if this had happened a year or two before, I don't know that I would have been able to.

[Andre] I heard that there is something very incredible also happening in your life.

Could you let us know?

[Cary] Oh, yeah, I'm going to have a baby.

Yeah, it's so exciting.

A baby girl, in fact.

Hi, JoJo.

No, I thought throughout my life like, oh my God, what a burden.

How can I be a parent and also be all of the things that I was and those things change and they morph.

I have a totally different perspective on it now.

I just do things.

>> Crazy right?

>>What is all this?

>> Not a bike shop any more, huh?

My wildest dream I've never envisioned.

I thought it would be at this end of coffee shop with people lined up.

Look at this.

This is wonderful.

Yeah, and we've got this amazing event going on.

I wish I were 20 years younger.

I'd hang on there.

Yeah, hey, you better stick around for at least part of it tonight.

That's what the coffee is for.

Don't keep you up.

Ready to go.

I got duties at home man.

I can't.

Come on.

You never want to try an MC battle?

No.

I don't even know what that is.

I still get people coming in all the time.

They're like, will Enoch fix my bike.

I ran into one of those guys that I had a Target the other day.

No, It's a coffee shop now.

No, I'm just.

I was there the other day.

This place has room you could still do some bicycle repairs.

Is mom getting better?

She's at her strongest right now.

We don't know until they do another scan.

I think it's a few like a month after the last infusion.

And then we'll know whether it's in remission or not.

Well, say a prayer and keep your fingers crossed.

How are her spirits right now?

She tries her part is to stay touch with life and still want things and for the most part she does it every now and then she breaks down.

and then it's a train wreck.

I think she's a Cary replica.

I think she's going to have a whole other mom's personality.

That's my feeling.

So my mother's recent diagnosis of stage 4 ovarian cancer has been very difficult on my father mostly.

You know, I've been able to really use all of my experience in life to do a lot of research and help her to make appointments with the right people.

Find second and third opinions.

You made my day.

You made my day.

You're so cute!

Alright... Love you man.

See you, man.

Thanks, see you later.

Thanks for your patience, everybody.

(Jazz music) (Jazz music continues)