Construction Maison

The ballad of Mary Bacon. On June 5th, 1969, at the age of 21, just 12 weeks after giving birth to her first child, she rode her first winner as a professional jockey at the Finger Lakes Race Track in upstate New York. No woman had ever won at the venue before. How could they have? Just three months had passed since the pioneering Diane Crump pushed open the door for female jockeys at a race in Florida. If Crump broke down the barrier, Bacon made an immediate mark too. “Why do you wear flowered underwear that everybody can see through your white riding pants ?” asked one journalist. “When I’m on the lead,” Bacon replied, “it gives the boys back there something to look at.” Competing like a woman determined to be more than a secondary footnote in the sport’s history, she became the first female to notch up 100 winners. On the way to that milestone, her legend quickly gathered pace . A five foot four, 94lbs waif, she was photogenic, quick-witted and fed reporters a steady supply of m...

1. If you can make it here… New York has long been the ultimate testing ground for businesses. But the city’s population density also makes it an important laboratory for startups, especially in today’s on-demand economy. Food- delivery pioneer Seamless survived the dot-com crash, paving the way for the arrival of meal-kit services such as Blue Apron and Plated a decade later. Related View this story in its original print layout Density has also been instrumental to the growth of ride-hailing and car-sharing companies. Most of them, including Uber and Lyft first gained their footing in smaller cities, then made New York their biggest market. Via, the on-demand ride-pooling service, launched here in 2013, is the exception: Its founders chose New York, figuring riders packed together on subways and buses wouldn’t need much persuading to share a car with strangers, especially when it cost just $5. article continues below advertisement App- based transportation startups have flocked t...