We’ve just received this threat of legal action via email for our post on the Thunderdrome event.

The gist of the email:

While you may have your own motives for trying to interfere with this event, or cause its participants to seek refunds or avoid the event, we take this matter very seriously.  First, your article publishes that the organizers have made false statements to the participants and the public.  No false statements were made.  Also, your post states that the event “serves beer.”  Your statement is factually false.  No beer will be “served” at this event.  You state that the organizers do not have liability insurance for their event.  This is also false.

Your public statements were made to intentionally portray the event organizers as acting irresponsibly, fraudulently and illegally.  Those statements impugn the integrity of their business reputations.   In my opinion, your statements are slanderous per se and could subject you to legal liability.  Our belief is that your posting was intentionally made to attempt to cause participants, registered and still considering arriving at the event on event day, to avoid this event and look with impunity upon future events to be held by these organizers.

What is truly unfortunate here is that you have attempted to interfere with, and have denigrated, an event that was organized, planned and paid for by people who acted solely to hold an event to benefit Detroit and provide some fun to its participants.

This message is a formal demand to immediately remove your defamatory posting and publish an equivalent retraction.  If you choose not to do so, legal action may be taken against you.

Govern yourself accordingly.

What’s interesting about this email is they claim we’re “trying to interfere” with the event when in fact we helped. As we mentioned, we provided them with the Recreation Department contact and some tips on where to look for insurance. We passed along information from the Wolverine Cycling Club about their structural concerns regarding the track.

We have the emails from both the organizers and recreation department. We reported the facts.

Apparently now we need to seek legal counsel ourselves.

The Hit — Mad Anthony Cyclocross

October 23rd is the second annual Mad Anthony Cyclcross race at historic Fort Wayne on the Detroit River.

The course features the usual cyclocross mix of grass, dirt and pavement,BUT there are also “150-year old cobblestones as well as the famous ‘TUNNEL OF TORTURE’, a 25 meter tunnel thru the walls of the old fort.” Sounds painful.

Last year’s race was super successful as this video shows.

The Miss — Thunderdrome

This was a great idea — bring some racing back to the city of Detroit’s famous Dorais velodrome. The promoters and Mower Gang have put in some serious effort to repair the old concrete track.

Unfortunately they didn’t put that same effort into getting approval from the city’s Recreation Department. The event is a “no go” according to the Recreation Department.

We thought it was odd to read about this event in the Detroit News when the promoters hadn’t yet spoken with the city about having it — and the event was less than three weeks away. Also, their claims of not being able to “reach the Detroit parks department” rang hollow. Detroit’s mayor, directors, and city staff had never been more available during the previous couple weeks with the Detroit Strategic Framework public meetings.

We tried helping out by emailing our Recreation Department contact information to the promoters. We also sent them some leads on event insurance since they didn’t have any.

As it turned out, Alicia Minter, Director of the Recreation Department had read the same Detroit News article and contacted the promoters to “assist them on event requirements.”

Yesterday, we sent another email to the promoter to make sure they’d gotten everything worked out with the city. Their response: “Yes, we met the city’s event insurance policies and we are all set.”

Not true.

According to the Recreation Department, “They have not met the requirements.” And the deadline for those were yesterday.

Minter responded, “It’s a no go. Did not receive any information.”

UPDATE, 10/15/2010 at 12:18pm: We just got an email from the Recreation Department saying that the event is now a go.

It’s really a shame the event promoters didn’t plan this properly from the beginning, work with the city, and have a successful event like Mad Anthony. They tried building and hyping an event before building a good foundation — ironically one of the problems with the velodrome, too.

Someone mentioned that it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission, but this isn’t about being right or wrong. It’s really about liability, which is pretty significant for motorized competitive racing that charges fees and serves beer.

In a city that is self-insured, the money to defend lawsuits and pay settlements comes from the same fund that pays for police and fire. This city — actually any city — is in no position to increase their risk.

People don’t sue for forgiveness.

UPDATE, 10/15/2010 at 12:18pm: We just got an email from the Recreation Department saying that the event is now a go.

We recently received this press release:

BICYCLISTS, PEDESTRIANS TO ASSEMBLE AT RICK SNYDER CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS, SEEKING CLARIFICATION ON BIKE/PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

This Friday, Oct. 15, at 1 pm, bicyclists and pedestrians are gathering at Republican governor candidate Rick Snyder’s downtown Ann Arbor campaign office to ask for clarification regarding his criticism of a local bicycle and pedestrian bridge project in last Sunday’s debate.

Asked whether he supported an increase in the Michigan gas tax, Snyder cited a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge over US-23 at Geddes, near his Ann Arbor home, as an example of inefficient state transportation spending.

“They just built a bike and pedestrian bridge across US-23 at the cost of millions of dollars,” Snyder said. “What they didn’t bother to tell us is a quarter mile south that there’s a bridge over the Huron River and there’s a bike and pedestrian path there. So let’s get efficient about where we’re deploying these dollars.”

Bicycling and walking advocates found Snyder’s comments perplexing, given the candidate’s previously stated support for “walkable cities” and “green infrastructure.” Led by the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition, University of Michigan Bicycle Coalition, League of Michigan Bicyclists, and Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, they are assembling to seek answers to the apparent discrepancy.

“The statement was surprising more than anything else,” said the U-M Bicycle Coalition’s Joel Batterman, a first-year urban planning student from Ann Arbor. “Snyder’s platform makes it clear that he favors improving the quality of life in Michigan cities, and he specifically mentions walkability in his policy statement on retaining young people. We’re confused on how the statement in the debate relates to that position. We hope it’s just a misunderstanding about the bridge’s location and funding.” While an existing bicycle and pedestrian path passes under US-23 on the south side of the Huron River, no crossing exists to the north between the river and Earhart Road, isolating Concordia College and northeast Ann Arbor from that path system.

In an attempt to clarify Snyder’s position, area pedestrians and bicyclists will gather on the U-M Diag this Friday, October 15, starting at 12:30 pm. At 12:45, they will depart for Snyder’s downtown office, arriving at 1 pm to present a letter inviting Snyder to tour the new bridge by bike and attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony next week. As a matter of fairness, or “bike-partisanship,” the groups will also extend an invitation to Democratic candidate Virg Bernero.

“No matter who’s elected,” Batterman said, “a safe bicycle and pedestrian network will set us on the path towards a more sustainable, prosperous future, one that’s healthy for all Michiganders.”

At last nights Detroit Light Rail public workshop, we crossed paths with Steve Baker, a Berkley City Commissioner.

His good news?

The city of Berkley passed a Complete Streets resolution just last week.

“This is not a requirement for us to rip up existing roads and start over,” Baker said. “A Complete Streets policy, and our upcoming Master Plan amendments, is a win-win for Berkley. This better positions Berkley to compete for scarce funding resources and grants, and it helps to further enhance the quality of life for our residents, businesses, and visitors.”

The Michigan Complete Streets Coalition web site also has the resolution and the very nice, localized presentation on Complete Streets.

Congratulations, Berkley!

SCA Detroit's Schcari Wade says making a difference for Detroit is "important because I live here." / Photo: Digging Detroit

The new hiking/biking trails at Rouge Park on Detroit’s west side began in 2004. Michigan Mountain Biking Association (MMBA) members Harvey Santana (who just won the state representative Democratic primary for the 10th district) and Todd Scott (myself) helped kick off the project. REI gave a generous grant to the project and volunteers helped build the trail.

It wasn’t completed, and after a change in project leadership, everything stalled.

Detroiters Chris Frey and Jason Friedmann re-started this project and by partnering with the Student Conservation Association (SCA), have really taken this to the next level.

Digging Detroit posted an excerpt from the SCA’s Conservation Quarterly, The Green Way. It’s called SCA Crews Drive Motor City Makeover and here’s a portion of it.

Many SCA stories are about changing a student’s life.  Others focus on changing the fortunes of a national park.  This one is about changing the mindset of an entire city.

It’s August.  A blazing sun stokes the temperature into the 90s.  The heat index is well into the triple figures.  The mosquitoes are omnipresent and voracious.

Welcome to Detroit, where a crew of local high school students is cutting a new trail through Rouge Park.  The soil is dry and hard as a half dozen teens spread out, Pulaskis in hand, to grade a stretch they cleared the day before.

…

SCA Detroit is part of a nationwide, community-based SCA program that provides outdoor summer jobs to underrepresented youth.  Some 80 students participate in the Motor City alone, and they have much in common.   The majority are in their second or even third summer with SCA.  They constantly refer to the camaraderie spawned by their diligent teamwork.  And a common theme runs through their reasons for being there.

This is a clearly a great story on so many fronts.

It’s more than just building a trail.