There are few things that pair better with a nice bike ride than food. What better excuse to ride your bike than the opportunity to dine on a sunny patio at your destination? We rolled with this notion last Saturday, when we partnered with Dishcrawl to organize the first ever Bikecrawl, a two-wheeled tour of Downtown San José eateries.
It was a fantastic Bike to Work Day this year! Counts of people on bikes in both Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties were up this year: counts at 80 Energizer Stations in Santa Clara showed a 19% increase in butts on bikes on Thursday morning, while at the 36 Energizer Stations organized by our friends at Commute.org in San Mateo County, cycle sightings were up a whopping 30%! That means a combined Bike to Work Day participation boost of 23% in the two counties! Check out the photos to the right to see what the morning looked like.
With help from the Mayor, City Council, the Department of Transportation, and our friends at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, we kicked off Bike Month in San José yesterday. Councilmembers joined together to pilot a seven-person conference bike and then joined the Mayor to pose for the cameras at Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, bikes at the ready, to show their support for Bike Month and Bike to Work Day.
We all had a lovely time last night at our first-ever Volunteer Party and Chili Cook-off. There was chili (which was exceptional), there was cornbread (which was fantastic), and there was a gaggle of SVBC volunteers (who are also exceptional and fantastic). We staff members did our best to emulate our volunteers' typical grace under fire as we parked bikes and took on tabling duties.
Thank you to everybody who joined SVBC and Stanford Hospital & Clinics for our Third Annual Silicon Valley Bike Summit! At 146 attendees, this was our most well-attended Summit yet. We're so lucky to have a a co-host and community partners who share our vision, an army of skilled volunteers, and an amazing group of elected officials, agency staff, law enforcement, ride leaders, and business insiders who are willing to put themselves in the spotlight to talk about bike safety, what's lacking, and what can be done.
Well, it finally happened. Following a lifelong trend of unsavory persons easily violating my poor security measures, my bicycle, a rare and highly treasured Gary Fisher Artemis, has been stolen. Why, you ask? Why would such a vile act befall a kindhearted spirit such as me? Mostly, because I was my usual dumb self and put my bike out on my back patio without a lock on Saturday night.
Every year the NCAA basketball "March Madness" tournament captivates the nation with underdogs and buzzer beaters. Last year, leveraging this excitement, Sports Basement unveiled their "Charity Madness" tournament and raised over $34K for charities through revenue sharing at their stores - see last year's results [HERE](http://community.sportsbasement.com/archives/and-the-ymca-wins/). This year, Sports Basement is organizing a bigger tournament and has invited SVBC to participate!
Holy rusted sprocket, readers - it's been weeks since last I blogged! My apologies to the nine of you keeping tabs on my adventures (hi Mom!). Let me fill you in on some of what this humble Deputy has been up to:
Yesterday morning, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors agenda included a "Budget Workshop." For some time, SVBC has wanted to see the hiring of a countywide bicycle coordinator, so I went to the meeting to make this request. Here is what I said to the Board:
Good Morning President Horsley and members of the Board.
Thanks to Alexei Koseff of Peninsula Press for this excellent piece on efforts to get East Palo Alto youth walking and biking safely.
Janet LaFleur, a member of the committee that planned our awesome Winter Member Party, posted some great pics of the party to her blog. She also followed up on a game she led at the party, called "Those Awkward [Bike] Moments":
Party! Bicycleadvocacyorganizationmembership party!
Well, that was fun! Last night, SVBC hosted the biggest and most festive Winter Member Party I've seen in my four years here. There was food, beer, an auction, an awesome raffle, music, and tons of people! There was even mulled wine, which we mulled over at length. It was very fancy!
As soon as we learned of Ellen Fletcher's passing on November 7, we sent a request to friends and acquaintances of hers, asking them to share their personal memories of Ellen. We'll be posting them here as they come in, and we encourage you to contribute in the comments section below.
I don't know if it was the irony of giving chocolate bars in the shape of California to visitors from the land that gave us Coenraad Johannes van Houten, or the psychedelic treatment one of the project teams proposed for the corner of Balbach and Market, but something about my circumstance on Tuesday night made me realize that I had spent the previous two days as a part of something strange and special.
Our friends at Greenbelt Alliance are once again coordinating a Park(ing) Day event in downtown San José. Come join us and several of our community partners this Friday, September 21, as we reclaim public space!
We'll be set up at 25 West San Fernando Street, if front of Mezcal Restaurant. Park your bike with us and stick around to let us know what you think about all the new bike infrastructure in San José, and what you'd like to see in the future. Then, take a tour of all the temporary parks set up on San Fernando.
