The 2nd Annual Colin Hubbell Memorial Bike Ride takes place this Saturday, June 19th. It starts at 10 AM at Traffic Jam on Canfield at Second Avenue in Detroit’s Midtown area.
Ride organizer Brian Hubbell notes, “It’s a leisurely jaunt (about 13 miles) through Midtown, Wayne, Woodbridge, Riverfront (a Wheelhouse stop), Dequindre Cut, and then back through the Market and Med Center. Food and beverages (Yes, beer!) afterwards at the Traffic Jam.”
This is a fundraiser which in the past has benefited the Hub of Detroit and paid for new bike racks in Midtown.
There are also a couple photos of Colin (wearing a “Got Love” T-shirt) at a July 2004 Detroit Synergy coffee talk that discussed the future of biking in Detroit.
This summer is already here at the HUB. We are BUSY! This week is the last week for kids in Detroit Public Schools which means we are going to get even more kids around the shop than we already have. This is great! Also, we have news of a shop in Southwest that some kids are starting up and getting underway along with some schools on the north side that want to start bike clubs. With this much going on we need to hire a youth educator.
This job will include working with youth off site at their schools to help start up shops and educating kids on how to fix up their bikes, working with our Mechanics in Training at our shop and being around on Saturdays for our Youth Earn-a-Bike sessions.
So if you have bike mechanical knowledge, experience with youth and like doing both together then send a resume as quick as you can to jack(at)thehubofdetroit.org
BOBKOFF: Dan Kildee of the national nonprofit Center for Community Progress is an expert on revitalizing vacant and abandoned properties. He says city leaders tend to ignore the little projects like a mountain bike park or an urban garden, instead focusing on huge, splashy plans.
Mr. DAN KILDEE (Center for Community Progress): Build a great big casino complex. Build a great big convention center.
BOBKOFF: Cleveland has advanced plans to build one of each.But Kildee says cities need lots of little projects to turn around former manufacturing capitals like Cleveland and Detroit. Some ideas will fail, others will take off.
We made a suggestion to the Russell Industrial Center folks. They have plenty of space for an indoor mountain bike park — far more than Ray’s — and on-site food and super convenient highway access (I-75 at I-94). With a little grant money for capital investment, this seems like a good bet.
Dorais Velodrome
The web site DetoritUrbex has a little history, including some recent photos of the old Dorais Velodrome near E. Outer Drive and Mound Road. A great deal of cycling history was made at Dorais, much of it was captured in the Mike Walden/Wolverine Sports Club documentary, Catch the Wind.
The Detroit Free Press has some nice behind-the-scenes coverage of Faye Alexander Nelson, CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy — the group responsible for the Detroit RiverWalk and Dequindre Cut.
Nelson speaks with pride and pleasure as she points out various attractions — the RiverWalk’s patio-pretty pavement dotted with parks, pavilions, play spaces and gardens; docking space for boats at Michigan’s first urban state park, and a paved trail that officially opened Thursday that allows people to go by foot, bike or Rollerblade from near the river to the Dequindre Cut, a former railroad track transformed into a nonmotorized trail.
It’s fitting that Nelson is at the helm of that bridge-to-bridge development. People who know her say she is indeed a bridge builder, uniting a diverse group of people behind the $300-million-plus project that is an undeniable bright spot in the issues-saddled city of Detroit.
“She has been a forceful and integral part of transforming Detroit’s riverfront into something spectacular,” said Hugh McDiarmid Jr., spokesman for the Michigan Environmental Council, which awarded Nelson the William and Helen Milliken Award for Distinguished Service on Wednesday.
And speaking of the RiverWalk, it’s home once again to the 2010 Detroit River Days event, which begins this Friday and runs through Sunday. River Days includes the Green Path (presented by Bank of America), which is numerous of environmental groups at Milliken State Park. The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance (MTGA) has a booth where you can get the latest information on Detroit biking and walking news. You will also be able to register your support for a Complete Streets policy in the city of Detroit.
And River Days wraps up with one of the world’s largest fireworks displays at 10:06pm on Monday. Afterwards, vehicular traffic is at a standstill which means it’s a perfect to bike to. It seems many more Detroiters are biking to the fireworks each year, not only because it’s fun, but because it’s faster.
The Let’s Save Michigan web site has a great video of Phil Cooley talking about making Michigan Avenue a Complete Street in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.
We received this video with an accompanying email, which included the following:
Michigan’s local economies are struggling. Listen to the perspective of one small business owner in Detroit explain the biggest obstacle his business is currently facing — it may surprise you:
The exciting news is that Michigan is poised to overcome these obstacles right now. Creating more livable communities where businesses can thrive does not have to take the money or resources Michigan is lacking — it just takes some smart planning.
When planners and engineers design neighborhood streets with bicyclists, pedestrians, and public transportation in mind, the need for complex intersections is reduced and infrastructure costs can be cut by as much as 35 to 40 percent.
Even property values have been proven to get a boost from Complete Streets. Studies show that the value of homes in walk-able communities is $4,000 to $34,000 more than the same homes in regular neighborhoods.
This section of Michigan Avenue is being repaved with federal stimulus funding. MTGA and other organizations are working with MDOT to get bike lanes added. It seems MDOT would like to add the lanes but may be constrained by Michigan state law regarding trunklines. We’re hoping to have that resolved before the road lines are painted.
Construction season is upon us and there are many trail- or bike-related projects in the works. Here are some brief updates:
Construction on the Clinton River Trail bridge over Telegraph in Pontiac is expected to begin in a month and be completed this year.
The bridge construction which is causing weekday closures of the Dequindre Cut is apparently on schedule and should be completed by September.
Atwater Street is also under construction between Rivard and Orleans in Detroit. When completed, we heard it will have bike lanes from the Ren Cen to Jos Campau.
The city of Detroit is updating the bike lanes on Belle Isle and adding more on some of the internal roads thanks to some unexpected, but much welcomed grant funding.
The contract for Wayne State University’s bike lane/streetscape project on Anthony Wayne Drive shows the project being completed by November.
MTGA and others are still working with MDOT to try and get bike lanes on Michigan Avenue from Livernois to Rosa Parks in Corktown.
Construction of the new MDOT trail along M-5 between 13 Mile and 14 Mile is underway — and it looks like the trail will be an awesome ride once completed.
And some non-construction updates:
The city of Royal Oak has received their federal funding for their non-motorized planning efforts. We can expect them to start soon.
The city of Novi has issued a Request for Proposals to develop a non-motorized plan.
Wayne County has submitted an MDOT grant application which would extend the Conner Creek Greenway from the Mt. Olivet Cemetery to Eight Mile. This project is a mix of shared-use path and bike lanes.
The 2nd Annual Colin Hubbell Memorial Bike Ride takes place this Saturday, June 19th. It starts at 10 AM at Traffic Jam on Canfield at Second Avenue in Detroit’s Midtown area.