bikes of the rust belt

Hello, friends, from Pittsburgh, where you're always biking in the door-zone... and usually up or down a hill, around a pothole, whatever!  Be thankful for C-U's complete lack of topography and calm roads!

One thing that drew me here was the sense that Pittsburgh's made itself into a laboratory for innovation, both entrepreneurial and social.  Pittsburgh's early de-industrialization may have given the city a quicker start, but it turns out that other rust belt cities are now making a virtue of necessity, giving birth to many innovative undertakings to fill the gaps left by disappearing heavy industry and declining populations.

If you haven't seen it, this documentary about Detroit (presented by Johnny Knoxville) offers an introduction to such enterprise in the Motor City -- and a great counterpoint to the ruin-porn that's too often the media face of places like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and other rust belt cities.  Numerous great rust belt blogs present similar positive counterpoints: Rust Wire's a favorite.

Bikes repeatedly play a prominent role in these new rust belt enterprises.  For instance, detroitblog featured a great article about a new custom cycle club, the East Side Riders.  Closer to (my!) home, Pittsburgh just hosted an instance of Park(ing) Day, a worldwide holiday in which inventive people occupy and decorate parking spots around town.  Park(ing) Day in Pittsburgh included a slow-paced tour of all 25 spots throughout the city and showed off how older, denser cities can enable sustainable -- dare I say "green"? -- transit.

Eco Tour this Saturday!

Fellow bike lovers - Don't miss your chance to get in a good ride and tour some unique, environmentally friendly spots in Chambana this Saturday with the EcoTour.

Follow the link above for details, including information on pre-registration. Registering in advance will gets you a printed guide with additional information on the sites and their environmental benefits.

Don't miss out on this self-paced, informational and interesting ride through Champaign and Urbana.

EcoTour 2010.

We have our work cut out for us

Here's a photo from Carl of the bikes at the U of I Parking storage building. We're starting to transport bikes from this building to each of our locations to fix up as shop builds and build-a-bikes.

New Volunteer Orientations offered

The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign will be holding two Volunteer Orientation sessions next week:

• Tuesday, September 14 from 7-8 p.m. @ the Campus Bike Project (608 E. Pennsylvania, Champaign)
• Wednesday, September 15 from 8-9 p.m. @ the Bike Project shop in the IMC basement (202 S. Broadway, Urbana)

If you're interested in volunteering, this is a great opportunity to:

• learn about the history, mission, and values of the Bike Project
• find out about the exciting volunteer opportunities that exist at TBP
• learn the ins and outs of how the shop operates on a daily basis
• meet some of the other volunteers and find out why they enjoy volunteering at TBP
• eat some free food

Email joel.gillespie(at)gmail.com to RSVP by Monday, September 13 if you're planning to attend.

Saying goodbye to several awesome volunteers

If you're wondering why things have been a little quiet on the blogging front lately, we're smack-dab in the middle of our busiest time of year, and we've had several dedicated Bike Project volunteers move away recently. Such is life in a college town, we guess, but that doesn't mean they won't all be sorely missed. In fact, the founder and editor of this very blog has moved along to his next challenge. So, things have been at loose ends a bit. We thank you for your patience as we figure out who's doing what.

 

Thanks very much to them for their hard work, and we wish them the best of luck in their new endeavors:

• Tony Cherolis: Tony was a steering committee member and an integral part of everything that TBP accomplished in the last several years. He's relocating back to Connecticut for his job.
• Emma Barnes: Emma was our AmeriCorps volunteer for the past year, and she was very helpful in getting Womens and Trans Night, Learn-A-Bike, and Earn-A-Bike off the ground. She's in Oregon starting grad school.
• Kelly Innes: Kelly started the Bike Project's blog and was a key volunteer in the first few months of the Campus Bike Project. Kelly's in Pittsburgh.