No Bike Racks at Hartford High Schools - Say What?

Hartford is a city with entrenched poverty in many neighborhoods and a low car ownership rate.  The city is densely populated.  Schools, housing, activities, and parks are all within easy biking distance. One would think that with these factors, it would make sense to have bicycle racks at the public high schools, right?  Teens definitely ride bikes around our city, but they don't have a secure place to park their bikes at school.  Providing that secure bike parking and encouraging active transportation improves the mobility and health of our city's youth.  Imagine trying to get across the city for an after school program, and having to rely on CT Transit.  Going by bicycle regularly takes half the time, and the student doesn't have to worry about the sparse bus frequency after 6:30pm for getting home from an evening program.  With youth programs at the Center for Latino Progress, mobility and transportation issues are a major challenge for teen program attendance.  Active transportation, such as riding a bicycle, can also improve student performance at school.

Great spot for it, but no bike parking in sight.

There is a lack of bike parking at Hartford schools, but we can change that.  In conjunction with the BiCi Co. kickoff membership and fundraising campaign, there is a donation level that will place a bike corral (parking for 10 bikes) at a Hartford high school.  Specifically we are working with Levey Kardulis, Head Custodian at Bulkeley High School on Wethersfield Avenue.  This school has a very high Latino student population and is a natural connection for Center for Latino Progress and the BiCi Co. project.  Wethersfield Avenue was just repaved with new bicycle lanes reaching from Jefferson (Barnard Park) all the way to the high school.  Bulkeley High School is an ideal placement for these first BiCi Co. bike corrals.  The bike corral will also include five (5) bicycles, upcycled or new, and Bulkeley can use those bicycles as rewards for student attendance or achievement.

New bike lanes on Wethersfield Ave go right by Bulkeley High School!

The next step is for a donor, individual or corporate, to step up at that $7,000 donation level.  BiCi Co. will then work with Bulkeley high school to place and install the bike racks by Spring 2016.  This is a great opportunity, and it starts with our Hartford youth.  Making change starts with Hartford's future leaders.  Help us provide them with sustainable transportation, mobility, and a welcoming bike rack at their high school.  Thanks for your support of the BiCi Co. project.

Seven bicis on a tree.  Summer BiCi Co. participants.

BiCi Co. ordered one of these custom bike corrals  with room for up to 10 bikes for our location at 95 Park Street, and it will be delivered this Fall.  After seeing how many teens rode to the summer youth employment BiCi Co. program, and our own lack of bike parking, we looked into bike parking improvements.  Hartford Hospital generously sponsored the bike corral. The bike parking at 95 Park Street will serve BiCi Co., the Center for Latino Progress, and the Spanish American Merchants Association (SAMA).  Bicycle riders visiting other nearby businesses and services on Park Street will also have a secure parking option.

Visit the CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN.  
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Reminder - We hope to see a bunch of bike riders out this Saturday at the Hooker Day Parade.  Bring your bikes out on Saturday, 10/24, and join up with BiCi Co. in the Hartford Hooker Day parade. You'll want to get there early to line up. The parade steps off (rolls out) at 1pm. Get there between 11:30am - 12:00pm (at High Street & Allyn Street). You'll go sign a waiver and check in at the tent first. Then come find us.  We'll be the crew on bikes.  Here is the Facebook event for the parade.  Not riding - get out there an enjoy as a spectator.  It's a wonderfully playful parade.

This is what the rack would look like.  

They deserve secure bike racks at Hartford schools

A pretty set of angles on this external stairwell.

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It Begins – Hartford to the Taconic Valley

Update - For those looking to follow BiCi Co., there is a Facebook group to Like and Share.  The Fall Build-a-Bike / Earn-a-Bike program is starting October 6th, and the membership campaign for the teaching bike shop will be unveiled shortly.

Some bulls at one of those angsty CT prep schools.

There is a Cherolis reunion on September 5^th in Santa Claus, Indiana.  I haven’t seen the family in a while and I decided to make the trek – by bicycle.  A bit absurd, I know.  Many reasonable persons have asked, “Why?  Wouldn’t flying make more sense?”   Of course flying would be faster, but it wouldn’t fulfill the triangular route bike tour I’d been building in my head.  Here’s the overall outline for those with a short attention span.  It came to me in a dream.

• Hartford, CT to Albany, and West across New York on the Erie Canal path.  
• Then down into Ohio and Indiana to visit family.  
• After the reunion, turn east and follow the Ohio River valley all the way to West Virginia.  
• North to Pittsburgh and a relaxing 340 miles on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal into Washington DC - no cars!  
• Turn north and follow the East Coast Greenway all the way back to Hartford.  

The highlight of the first day riding northwest out of Connecticut was stumbling across the John Brown birthplace.  After reading a book on his life, Man on Fire, I have found his approach to injustice admirable.  I you don’t know who he is, you may remember a sidelight from a US history course long ago – Harper’s Ferry.  John Brown’s culminating project was a takeover of the armory and the spark for a massive and growing slave revolution.  Unfortunately, the raid was a bust and the revolution never happened.  But the raid put the South on notice and sparked the debate on abolishing the evil institution.  Unlike many of the established Northern business interests, many directly profiting from the slave fueled agricultural and textile industries, John Brown called it as it was and wasn’t afraid to make a mess getting his point across.  

John Brown's birthplace!

Another thing one finds while traveling, particularly if one likes to hang out along rail tracks and under bridges, is graffiti.  While checking out the Farmington River I noticed some of the worst “angsty” graffiti I’ve ever seen.  Suburban Connecticut graffiti art often leaves much to be desired.  I think it may be that the best art comes from struggle and hardship.  Existential crises don't count as struggle.  Not much struggle in the suburbs, and more than is deserved in our cities.  

Craptastic Suburban Graffiti

It was a hot and hilly day and at one point I collapsed under a tree until my core temperature became manageable.  Ending in the beautiful Taconic Valley was a treat.  The view from my stealth camp at the edge of a field was … well.  You can see for yourself.   If you're familiar with stealth camping, its difficult to combine a view with the stealthiness required to not get rousted

Stealth camp with a view.  

Riding with Purpose – Rather than riding for my lonesome self, this ride is dedicated to the BiCi Co. teaching, bike shop that is starting at the Center for Latino Progress.  If you’re a cyclist, you know the magic of a bicycle.  Bicycles are key in urban areas for cost effective mobility and jobs access.  The youth and teens in Hartford already ride, but they deserve working brakes, helmets, lights, and a place to fix their bicycles.   Hartford’s last bike shop closed last year, and it’s time to bring this resource back to the community.  The shop will have a membership component for those looking to repair their own bicycles.

The BiCi Co. program starts with a youth program.  The teens will be learning about bike safety, handling, and mechanics, and sundry other bicycle and transportation related topics.  It's amazing that our Hartford youth don't realize that the Columbia bicycle was the most common in the world in the 1890's.  The teens will Build-a-Bike for a local charitable cause, and by doing so Earn-a-Bike for themselves.  Stay tuned for the crowd funding and membership campaign.  In the meantime you can check out photos of the Summer Youth BiCi Co. program on the Center’s Facebook page (Like it!).  We built up the 1st floor bike shop for the summer program and want to continue that program in both the Fall and the Spring - but we need financial and volunteer support.

Where Rt 44 crosses over into New York

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It Feels Like Mode Shift

Before - Dead?

Yesterday was a fabulous Summer Saturday in Hartford.  I spent most of the day transforming my crushed touring bike back into an everyday rig.  A little over a month ago the bicycle was underneath a Nissan Maxima on the Park Street sidewalk.  It was 9:00am on a quiet Saturday morning and I was on the second floor preparing for the school year end celebration.  A loud crash gave me time to look out the window and watch a car roll onto my parked bike after slamming into a parked car.  The replacement parts all came in last week, and I've been contacted by the driver (no insurance) who agreed to pay me back in $50 installments for the damage.  I never expected to hear back from the driver, and that makes me feel a little better about humanity.

After - New fork, wheels, handlebar, brake levers, cranks, front rack

Steel is real!  The bike was operational just in time to zip over to the Youth Play Institute production at Hartbeat Ensemble's Carriage House Theater on Farmington Ave.  YPI takes a team of fifteen diverse teens and young adults and starts with a relevant social justice question.  The team researches the issue and interviews local experts.  From that research they create an originally written play, with lighting, set design, and costuming.  The play is performed in three shows to a live audience, and all of this goes down in a short five weeks.  I'm always stunned by the process and product.  What blows my mind the most is that the team operates using consensus decision making, which I've never seen result in quick decision making.  Both of the facilitators, Hannah Simms and Vanessa Butler, must be wizards.  (Side note - Vanessa is Juliet in the outdoor production of Romeo and Juliet at St. Joe's.  This is their last week and it is amazing! Not to be missed.)

Over the last three years, I have seen a noticeable uptick in those using bicycles to commute.  The low 0.8% bike mode share in Hartford never made sense to me, with greater than 35% of households not owning a car.  One of the issues is paltry support.  The only bike shop in the city, Taskar's on Franklin, closed last year due to retirement.  Many note that the shop didn't observe typical business hours.  Absent a legal way to obtain bike parts and quality bicycle service, there is an extra hurdle for those that would like to use a bike in our city.  On top of that, Hartford's transportation planning is non-existent.  The city really doesn't have a traffic planner, ridiculous in a city of our size.  Bike lanes are segmented, and there isn't a network of connected bike routes.  The Department of Public Works Director looked at me like I was speaking French when I asked if they were using Sharrows on the recently repaved Park Street.  Park Street is popular for utility cyclists.  Sharrows would send a positive message to both motorists and the cyclists.

Posting (finally) for a Traffic Engineer in Hartford.

Behind the wave of rising bike use by residents, there is some painfully slow change coming at the government level.  The Department of Development just started a Complete Streets Challenge Team, which is working a list of bike and pedestrian improvements.  The city also has a posting up for a Transportation Designer.  Now all we need are some bike, walk, transit users at the Department of Public Works.  For a department that is focused on road issues and infrastructure, it's telling that there isn't a bicycle rack out front of their offices.

Special delivery to BiCi Co.  Donation from Tom Brown of the Wethersfield Bike Swap.

Since we collectively can't stand the snail pace of government, we're taking a lot into our own hands at the grass roots level.  Center for Latino Progress is kicking off BiCi Co., a teaching bike shop with members and volunteers.  Right now BiCi Co is working with thirty Hartford teens in a Summer program.  The teens are learning about bike safety, Hartford's rich bike history, science and engineering, and bicycle mechanic skills.  The group is tuning up bikes that will be donated to grandchildren in CRT's Generations Program.  Stay tuned for the BiCi Co. membership drive and crowd funding campaign to support the larger project.  It starts with our youth, and it changes the whole community.  A group at Aetna with David Hildebrand just partnered with the Hartford Police and donated 150 bikes to youth and teens.  Those youth will need somewhere to get replacement parts, locks, helmets, and lights.  Cue Bici Co!

Trying to figure out where the noise is coming from.

Proud team finishing their first tuned up donation bicycle.

Hartford Slow Roll is this afternoon, 8/2 at 3pm - 1429 Park Street, (1st and 3rd Sundays of each month) and we'll be stopping at Wethersfield Avenue.  The Wethersfield Ave stop was supposed to mark the recent completion of the bicycle lanes that were added to the paving job at the last minute.  Unfortunately, snails pace government strikes again.  The "No Parking" cones have been up all week, but no lanes.  Leaving "No Parking" signs up all week is particularly dysfunctional.  Rather than postpone again, the show will go on and we'll ride the bike lanes in spirit.  The Slow Roll events are being organized by Breakfast Lunch and Dinner (BL&D), another grass roots effort connecting new friends (and bike lovers) in Hartford.

Future bike lanes - Wethersfield Ave

Winds of change.  The bike lanes coming to Wethersfield Ave were the product of a scramble by multiple neighborhood groups (NRZ's) when they realized the city hadn't planned any Complete Streets improvements on this corridor. When the MDC multi-year sewer separation project was done and the road was finally paved, no thought had gone into this important connection  Hartford needs to capitalize on all the paving happening across the city to pivot towards sustainable transportation and Complete Streets.  Unfortunately, there is dysfunction and car-centric thought among those in leadership positions.  In the meantime, our citizen groups and grass roots efforts will have to do a lot of change making.

Interested in being part of the conversation?  Tune in to and participate in the discussions on Transport Hartford.  

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