Bike Rack Issue Needs A Solution Now
Besides being a great way to reuse the meters, it’s also a great way to promote green and city life styles. Newell told me that if four businesses banded together, they would only have to spend around $25 a piece to get a bike rack. If a whole block of businesses, say around 20 total, banded together, they could outfit their whole block with bike racks.
That’s some pretty awesome stuff, but it comes with challenges. Namely, that the meters are being removed every single day as scheduled without an end in sight. The city has called a special meeting this Friday to deal with the matter, but if the removal continues in the meantime, it may be too little too late.
Newell feels an immediate solution is necessary. This is not the time for committee forming and planning. A halt needs to occur if you’re going to try and find a solution, but the problem is, it needs to be a solution for now, not a solution for in a year or two. Transforming the meters into bike racks is a great idea and if you’d like to support it, Newell would love to get an e-mail from you at newell@buffalorising.com.
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Comment Options
berniceheartsyou
what time is the meeting on friday?!?!?! lets get everyone to go there! Horizon Realty will donate 25 dollars!!!
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SUPERbuffalo36
Queenseyes enough with the bike racks. We get it. You ride a bike.
Is this issue really worth 80 columns?!
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buffaloboy14
Eli George must really love his bikes!!! I mean 20 posts about this?! really?!
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sbrof
I would donate $25 dollars as a resident and bike rider to support a bike rack on Elmwood or Hertel.
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JohnMartin
Seems like the bigger issue is the empty holes and ragged metal that is now sticking out of the ground from where the meters were removed.
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allfit
Yep, $100 per block is just out of the reach of the average Buffalo business owner, especially when you can place the installation, liability, security, and maintenance on the City.
Let's have all 100 bike riders converge on City Hall on Friday, I really want to see where they lock up their bikes.
BTW John Martin, don't be too reactionary. The holes have been taken care of across the city, usually on a one to two day delay behind the pole removal.
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needles
I'm with sbrof, I'll donate too ...and I don't even have a bike.
I still think this is an important issue that just may warrant 20 posts. Whatever it takes.
Why wouldn't we want to add a necessary piece to the puzzle encouraging a mode of transportation that is healthier- both for the people and the city?
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orlanmon
If someone can organize a fund raiser for this I will definetly donate $25 or more to this, if these poles are longer needed why not use some of them for bike racks. Everyone is alway talking about reuse well here is a great chance to do it. The bicycling community in WNY is vast and why not make one more minor investment to enitce people from Buffalo and the surronding suburbs to come and enjoy downtown via bikes/cycling. One of the first hurtles/deterrants is where to lock up your wheels when you want to kick back at anyone of the many downtown restaruants and cafes. How about getting Steel Crazy to do some of the Buffalo motif rack tops as suggested by BRO in a previous article? Great idea...
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comptart_lws
It's not just about the strawberries errrrr, bike racks — it's about chronic and recurring lack of forethought Downtown. It's about ignoring input from the people who LIVE here, have businesses here and PAY TAXES here. Someone said the poles started being cut on Saturday. That just adds insult to injury – how many pole-conversions could have been paid for with the overtime? Who cares!? Small business owners can just chip in because NY State, Erie County and the City of Buffalo don't make it expensive enough for them to survive already! {sarcasm off} How about this time, the NFTA "chips in" instead? No doubt, they'd find a way to sell advertising on them, just like on the hideous buses. Oh yeah – could someone consider adding a cigarette-butt depository to each pole, too? It would help reduce the carcinogens littering our streets and sidewalks and leeching into the water system.
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comptart_lws
It's not just about the strawberries errrrr, bike racks — it's about chronic and recurring lack of forethought Downtown. It's about ignoring input from the people who LIVE here, have businesses here and PAY TAXES here. Someone said the poles started being cut on Saturday. That just adds insult to injury – how many pole-conversions could have been paid for with the overtime? Who cares!? Small business owners can just chip in because NY State, Erie County and the City of Buffalo don't make it expensive enough for them to survive already! {sarcasm off} How about this time, the NFTA "chips in" instead? No doubt, they'd find a way to sell advertising on them, just like on the hideous buses. Oh yeah – could someone consider adding a cigarette-butt depository to each pole, too? It would help reduce the carcinogens littering our streets and sidewalks and leeching into the water system.
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RaChaCha
Newell, if the folks at City Hall are skeptical that the meter posts can be reused, feel free to show them recent examples from My Fair City and Syracuse of what can be done with them with a little creativity and cooperation. Illustrations of both are here: http://baswa.org/Totems.htm. We had a cool unveiling party for these *just last week* in a rapidly revitalizing neighborhood near me. The business association in the neighborhood, through a design competition - and cooperation of all parties - got the posts turned into public art doubling as bike parking. And did I mention the cool unveiling party--? Politicians love those. Again, the project in Syracuse we borrowed the idea from is also pictured at the same web link.
So the idea leapfrogged from Syracuse to My Fair City, and perhaps your City Hall can be persuaded to let it leapfrog to Your Fair City. All of our upstate cities need to be smarter about learning from each other - or even shamelessly stealing cool ideas from each other - rather than foolishly cutting off opportunities (literally) at the root.
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RaChaCha
RaChaChaHeartsYouBernice! Great attitude, and I agree about the meeting - many of us will be around for Buffalo Homecoming Friday, and may be able to pop over to the meeting as backup: "Mayor Brown, we refuse to relocate to Buffalo if you lop off one more meter post!"
So when will the meeting be, where, and with whom--?
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comptart_lws
Rachacha: you supply the most interesting links! First the 100,000 Islands (and exclamation points) now, the totem one! My sponsorship would go to the "tree" one — so very nice! So (it seems) a strategically-placed screw, bolt or rivet goes thru the sculpture, into the former parking meter pole and VOILA! — instant street art / bicycle (and dog leash) pole! For being such a "creative class" community, we sure are behind the curve on public art such as this!
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comptart_lws
OOPS!!!!! 1.000 Islands not, 100X that!!!!!
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RaChaCha
No problem, lws - what's a couple of decimal places between friends--?
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ablejack
A meter was witnessed being removed on Elmwood Ave. while a citizen's bike was attached to it. No regard for the property was afforded.
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BuffaloRitz
Newell, The 877 Club would be happy to dotate the money for 4 Elmwood posts. You know how to get in touch with me. Rock
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driz716
I would donate $25+ for a bike rack in my community. Tell me where to be when and I will come with cash in hand!!
Why not have an artistic event similar to Herd About Buffalo or Art on Wheels to give us a chance to design our own artsy meter/rack/leash holder contraptions!?!?
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artichoke
Just throwing this out there: As an expat who now lives in a city that harbors a LOT more bikers than Buffalo (Boston), I see very few bike racks here. At the end of the day, as long as there are parking meters and street signs, I fail to see the need for a bike rack except for at point of huge congregation (schools, etc.) I've been locking my bike to a street sign outside of my building for years without issue.
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