Friday, March 15, 2019

Murals, Space Academy, and How to Request a Bike Rack

Before I begin I have two important requests for two friends-of-Cranksgiving: the first is that you make a donation to the Hamman Park Mural Fund because #ArtLiftsCities and it's fun to have murals to ride your bike to. Right now the fund is halfway to its $10,000 goal and I just know we can push this over the top if you donate. 

The second request is that you make another donation so a space-loving little girl can go to NASA Space Academy. Sima, a San Jose yoga teacher at Be The Change Yoga & Wellness, put this GoFundMe together. Many of us talk all the time in the abstract about how we should have more women in STEM and now is our chance to do it. That donation page is here. All I ask. Thanks!



As some of you know I'm building a couple of bike trailers for the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition as an in-kind donation. It's a really fun and interesting build (and I will write about it soon) and it is pretty much done backwards: I've had to figure out how to design the trailers while building one, then - and I mean this literally - reverse engineering the first trailer in order to build the second. Then when I'm done I need to write out the instructions on how to build them.

Because of the first step I've had no idea what kind of materials I've had to stock, which means running out to get more. And because I work full time and can only work on this at night and on the weekends, I've had to make special trips to stores during the day to get what I need.

Last week, for example, I took my City Bike - often called a 'Beater Bike' to the new Ace Hardware store on The Alameda - not far from Diridon Station. I was in a rush and did not see a bike rack in front of the store. With brazen body language but a meek expression, I pushed the bike inside.

The customer service I got was fantastic: the person behind the counter greeted me with a smile. Do you mind if I bring it in? I only need to grab one thing. No problem you can leave it here. Thank you THANK YOU! 

I got several packs of 1/4" #20 bolts and headed back to the register. A minute later the bolts were in my pockets and I was wheeling my bike out the door. It was like a well-planned bank heist even though I didn't break or steal anything. 

In posting the photo above and thanking ACE on Twitter, I got some replies - one of which came from the City of San Jose's Department of Transportation.

The person managing their page - who may be someone I know but I honestly am not sure - deserves just as much credit as ACE because they shared the bicycle page on the City of San Jose site

If you click on that link and scroll directly to the bottom, you can request a bike rack. 

Really. 

The city also mentioned they were installing racks along the street. It  was a nice exchange on social media - which is a pretty rare thing.

A week after (this week) I had to return to Ace to buy something else, so I raced off on a lunch break. The front of the hardware store looked different. 



I knelt down and pinched the dust. Sniffing it, I could tell it was fresh - a Quickrete mix that had been set before the rains.



Okay I may not have sniffed the dust, but yes: new bike racks that are on The Alameda are appearing - and this morning still another showed up. It would be great if a business owner could request an on-street parking space be converted into a bike parking space like in Palo Alto but I'll take what I can get. 


Still, this is a positive and inspiring sign - and I strongly urge San Jose businesses and residents to use the city's resources to request bike racks - and I also suggest you write Letters to the Editor to the San Jose Mercury News asking for more bike infrastructure and more bike acceptance. Thanks to the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition and the city's DOT, a of cool things have come to San Jose and we shouldn't stop. And if your city doesn't make it easy to request bike racks ask leaders why.

That's all I've got - don't forget to donate to the Hamman Mural Fund and send Zhea to NASA Space Academy. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

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