Omnicorpdetroit in Eastern Market is offering a three day bootcamp on bike repair from simple, on-the-road fixes to full assembly.

The dates are April 12th, April 26th, and May 3rd.

All participants must bring their own bike and be prepared to get greasy! This is a full hands-on class.

Tools and bike stands will be provided.

More info and online registration is available on EventBrite.

For more details, visit the Omnicorp web site.

Via Joe Aasim on Facebook

The Complete Streets Community Workshop held on March 31st was an absolute success. While it was hoped to attract perhaps 100 attendees, about 160 showed up. There is a brief write up on the MTGA web site:

Prior to the event, DHWP Director and Public Health Officer Dr. Yvonne E. Anthony said, “With this workshop, we hope to engage the community and garner support to make our streets safer in order to promote healthy lifestyles and activities such as walking, running and biking. We encourage Detroit residents to join in the conversation.

And they did.

After the [Richard] Wooten presentation, the attendees submitted questions ranging from the impact of light rail, truck traffic, and bike lanes.

In speaking with some city officials afterwards, they were very impressed with the turnout and interest in Complete Streets. In many ways this reaffirms their recent efforts.

On the radio

On March 29th, I joined Myra Tetteh from the Detroit Health and Wellness Promotion Department on the WDET’s Craig Fahle Show. If you missed the broadcast, the podcast is on-line. The Complete Streets conversation begins 54 minutes into the podcast.

A new web address

In order to simplify things, a new web address and basic web page has been created for the Complete Streets efforts in Detroit. That address is www.DetroitCompleteStreets.org.

Michigan Municipal League

The Michigan Municipal League has a helpful Complete Streets web page. The page is especially useful for government officials looking to pursue Complete Street policies. The web page includes example ordinances and resolutions from various Michigan governments. And if you’re just a motivated Complete Streets advocate, this is a good link to email to your elected government officials.

— Todd Scott

A new bike collective called the Red Planet Bicycle Collective has opened in Detroit. They are located south of  Seven Mile and Woodward and just down the street from the Innate Healing Arts Center (18700 Woodward).

Our mission is to mobilize the Seven Mile and Woodward area by providing access to donated bikes, tools and parts, and teach bicycle repair. Through hands on workshops the community will learn road safety and how to build and maintain a bicycle.

The collective is seeking donated bikes, parts and tools. Donations can be dropped off at the Healing Center (313.366.2247)

Let’s be frank about walkability.

A large percentage of communities in Southeast Michigan will never be very walkable. That doesn’t mean they can be improved, but it does mean they won’t be competitive.

And it was by choice.

They were purposely designed for low density (e.g. large residential lot sizes) and no mixed use development. In short, most things are too far away to walk to. Putting a sidewalk on one side of a road between a residential area and a shopping district doesn’t make it walkable if they’re separated by a mile or more.

As I told some residents last week, if your community wasn’t designed during the streetcar era, chances are it’s not very walkable.

Some communities are a mixed bag where the older portions are very walkable while the newer areas are not. Royal Oak is a good example of that. The downtown, an area once served by a number streetcar lines, is highly walkable. The northern portions of the city are more car dependent.

This is very apparent in this graphic from the WalkScore web site. The green areas indicate good walkability.

Birmingham: top 20 for walkability?

There is a major bicycle festival being planned for Birmingham this year, which sounds very promising. What caught our eye in the article was the statement that Birmingham was “recognized as one of top 20 most walkable communities in the country.” The Birmingham web site also says the city was named one of the country’s “Top 20 Most Walkable Communities.”

A Google search for the phrase “top 20 most walkable communities” return 47 matches, all of which referred only to Birmingham.

Irregardless, is Birmingham truly in the nation’s top 20 according to the Walk Score web site, arguably the best indicator of walkability? The Walk Score site determined the walkability of the 74 largest cities in Michigan. Birmingham is tied for 14th among these Michigan cities. It apparently has the same issues Royal Oak has: a walkable downtown, but less walkable outlying areas.

So what were the most walkable Michigan cities? Hamtramck, Clawson, and Berkley tied for first. Ferndale and Traverse City weren’t too far behind.

And Detroit?

While the city of Detroit scored lower, it also received scores by neighborhood. New Center was most walkable with Corktown and Midtown tied for second.

The declining Detroit population and the resulting loss of area businesses certainly hurts the walkability of Detroit. And while much has been made about the city potentially moving residents to more dense areas, it seems the draw of greater walkability might be more of a carrot.

USA Today just reported on walkability and how it is attracting young professionals.

Educated 20- and 30-somethings are flocking to live downtown in the USA’s largest cities — even urban centers that are losing population.

In more than two-thirds of the nation’s 51 largest cities, the young, college-educated population in the last decade grew twice as fast within 3 miles of the urban center as in the rest of the metropolitan area — up an average 26% compared with 13% in other parts.

Even in Detroit, where the population shrank by 25% since 2000, downtown added 2,000 young and educated residents during that time, up 59%, according to analysis of Census data by Impresa Inc., an economic consulting firm.

“This is a real glimmer of hope,” says Carol Coletta, head of CEOs for Cities, a non-profit consortium of city leaders that commissioned the research. “Clearly, the next generation of Americans is looking for different kinds of lifestyles — walkable, art, culture, entertainment.”

Yes, even in Detroit.

Today’s Detroit Free Press has a great story about Franciscan friar Brother Al Mascia and his Canticle Cafe bicycle cart. Brother Al rides around Downtown Detroit offering food and warm clothing.

The idea of the cart came from the Franciscan friar’s memories of growing up surrounded by street vendors in New York. The food cart fits over the bicycle’s front end.

The cart, purchased from California with the aid of a benefactor, was outfitted with foldable countertops insulation and a battery for lighting. It holds Thermos bottles of coffee and hot chocolate. Some days, Mascia dispenses muffins and cookies. On really good days, he has hot homemade breakfast sandwiches donated by church groups.

He said he thinks the cart adds a bit of joy to the act of giving. “It’s not just for the food and clothing we can provide,” he said, “but the whimsy, if you will, of the way we can provide it.”

Whimsy is good.

To donate or help, contact Saint Aloysius outreach ministries at 313-237-5810 or contact Mascia at 313-320-0548 or e-mail alofm@hotmail.com.

You can also purchase their coffee at the Canticle Cafe at 1209 Washington Boulevard in Detroit or by calling their coffee order hot line at 313-309-1276.