Bike Walk Center News - Grant Awarded to Redeemer Center For Life

Stock Photo and blog post by Nomi Passenger

The Bike Walk Center issue has made news again. The Strib posted an article sharing the decision to award the federal grant money to Redeemer Center For Life. I have always heard great things about everything that Redeemer does down in the Harrison neighborhood, on Glenwood Avenue. I know Redeemer has had some youth bike programming going for a while now and have been pretty successful. I'd love to hear more from readers about what Redeemer has already been doing and more details about the Bike Walk Center plans.

Since I am getting the only info I have from the Strib....



and since Strib links eventually go dead, I will post the link as well as the text from the article here. But hopefully we'll get some commentary here to fill us in and elaborate on the article.

Nonprofit gets approval for a Minneapolis bike-walk facility

After two other nonprofits fought to a draw, a panel recommended that a church-based bike program get $350,000 for a bike-walk center.

A Minneapolis City Council panel has recommended that a church-based nonprofit get $350,000 in federal money to create a bike-walk center on the city's North Side.

Redeemer Center for Life hopes to open by mid-summer a center with refurbished bikes and other bike-walk goods and programming. The objective is to lower the North Side's rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other health problems. It comes before the full council on May 13.

The center would be at 1830 Glenwood Av., on the community's southern edge.

Redeemer has operated youth bike-repair and sales programs for several years. It was earlier part of a team assembled by the Pohlad Family Foundation to compete for the federal health promotion grant. But that group failed to win a city staff recommendation, which went to a team assembled by the Cultural Wellness Center. When some North Siders on the council objected, the council decreed a new competition in a move seen as reflecting the foundation's clout.

Redeemer then assembled a new team. City Health Commissioner Gretchen Musicant said neither the Pohlad foundation nor the wellness center is involved, to her knowledge.

"We're very excited about this," said Don Samuels, the City Council member for the lower North Side. "We've been talking about this for a long time."

The proposed center will occupy 1,700 square feet in an old hardware store on Glenwood. Council members suggested that a name more reflective of the greater North Side than the proposed Bassett Creek Bike-Walk Center be found; a contest may be held.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438
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JNS BLOG EDITORIAL: Wonkish Conflict Over North Minneapolis Bike Walk Center Proposals...

Stock photo, current JACC board, blog post by John Hoff


Somewhere in the dank cubicle-filled caverns far below the surface of neighborhood politics, deep in the dark background bowels where policy wonks grind away all day doing whatever it is policy wonks do, usually in monotonous obscurity, suddenly some kind of intense wonkish conflict has erupted to the surface on the topic of a North Minneapolis Bike Walk Center...who will run it, how will it be funded, what are its chances of success?

And--in what has become the latest twist on the topic--how did a proposal by the Cultural Wellness Center come to the top of the heap (only to kicked back by a City Council committee) when another proposal by a group called TREADS had the backing of seven neighborhood organizations plus (so its supporters would say) much sounder financial backing?

This blog initially broke the story about "hard questions being asked" over a Bike Walk Proposal by the Cultural Wellness Center, a South Minneapolis entity. In order to get the undiluted and unedited story out faster, we actually published all the video of the committee meeting first, click here. The Star Tribune has been much more caught up in the story of an expensive proposal to publicize biking in Minneapolis, with the Bike Walk Center more of an afterthought to that story of the expensive publicity, click here for Star Tribune article.

This blog is much more interested in the TREADS proposal versus the Cultural Wellness proposal, click here for most recent blog post which includes a very informative (though at times anonymous) discussion between backers of the Anthony Taylor/Cultural Wellness proposal versus the TREADS proposal.

Recently, sources forwarded...

...four of the reported seven letters of support from neighborhood organizations backing the TREADS proposal. The seven supporting neighborhoods are reportedly as follows: Cleveland. Victory. McKinley. Folwell. Weber-Camden. Jordan. Harrison. Hawthorne.

No mention is made in these letters of the Cultural Wellness Center proposal because, it appears, North Minneapolis neighborhood councils were simply not consulted by this other group, only by TREADS. Click here for the letters which are on the Johnny Northside PDF support site, though these are certainly not the most EXCITING documents we've ever published. (This obscure wonkish conflict reminds me of the YouTube song "Taters," click here. In this context, I think "taters" clearly stands for FINANCIAL SOUNDNESS)

Also, here is a link to the original Request For Proposal. What's interesting to me is...um, who is on the committee which approved this and sent it up to the city council? That's really not clear from the RFP.

As far as wonkish conflicts go, this one is relatively entertaining. You've got an organization from outside the neighborhood trying to perform an end run around the neighborhood (or so it appears to me and others) plus there is a discussion about who has the more financially sound proposal. Cultural Wellness Center says its proposal is financially sound, but they've had tough financial times. The TREADS proposal seems a lot more solid.

So, policy wonks, riddle me this: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Though Anthony Taylor's group is projecting confidence in the eventual success of their proposal--to the point of having a celebratory gathering on December 27 at the proposed site--even somebody who is a novice at reading political tea leaves can see success is not likely for Anthony Taylor's proposal. Seven neighborhoods backed ANOTHER proposal. Anthony Taylor, et al, are playing catch up at the neighborhood council level and (judging from the meeting in Jordan) it's not going well. Plus there are the original tough questions asked by city council members which are mostly focused on financial soundness. It's obvious Barb Johnson isn't going to back this proposal. Watch the video.

It. Is. Obvious.

But since the TREADS proposal was withdrawn, that only leaves the Anthony Taylor proposal...a proposal which is simply NOT going to fly. How is North Minneapolis going to get a Bike Walk Center or access to these federal dollars which we certainly don't want to leave twisting in the wind?

The participants in this matter...the groups behind the two proposals, the movers and shakers in the neighborhood, the city people, city council people representing North Minneapolis (Barb Johnson, Don Samuels, Diane Hofstede) NEED TO ALL SIT DOWN AND WORK OUT SOME KIND OF POLITICAL COMPROMISE which gives North Minneapolis a financially sound Bike Walk Center.

NoMi Needs Nice Rides!

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman

Not too long ago, Nice Ride Minnesota began a new bicycle-sharing program in Minneapolis. Almost immediately after the program was rolled out, people realized that there were no stations in NoMi - nothing north of Highway 55.

Having north Minneapolis miss out on such an exciting new amenity generated quite a few comments on the Minneapolis Issues Forum and Nice Ride's own Facebook page. The response from Nice Ride was that, basically, there were quite a few neighborhoods that don't have a kiosk, and they had to place stations close enough to each other to make the program work with the limited funds they have to start.

That seemed to make a lot of sense to me. I was okay with their response and strategy, I really was. That is, until...

...last night. While some friends and I were at Good Sports after helping trees find happy new owners, a woman came by riding one of the bikes from a Nice Ride kiosk.

First off, here's basically how the program works: You pay a subscription fee ($60 for a year makes the most sense) and then you pay additional fees depending on how long you have the bike away from the kiosk. Since the first half hour is free, Nice Ride claims that the kiosks are set up to be close enough to each other that riders can get from one kiosk to another without paying fees.

(Also, FYI - a $250 security deposit charge is placed on whatever card is used to check the bike out. So don't use your debit card unless you can afford to wait over a week for your bank to reverse the charge.)

So here we have a young woman who got on a Nice Ride bike, took it to a neighborhood that supposedly was too far away to merit a station, stayed for a few hours, and was brave enough to sing karaoke, give Mike Levey a hug, and then bike back home in the dark. This tells me that there's a market for Nice Ride kiosks in my neighborhood.

When Minneapolis was voted the #1 bicycling city in America, I posited that NoMi was missing out on some of the bicycling benefits that the rest of the city has. My thoughts at that time were largely directed at seemingly trivial aspects of biking. But this is much larger of an issue.

We're probably going to have bike lanes along Emerson and Fremont. With more and more people using bikes to get around, we should be looking into a bike shop as well. Bicycling is an increasingly important aspect of our city's infrastructure, and north Minneapolis deserves to reap the benefits of such amenities just like any other neighborhood.

Minneapolis is #1! (But could do better in NoMi)

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman

By now the news has made its way around the interwebs, but Bicycling Magazine has named Minneapolis the best bicycling city in America. While that's great news for the city as a whole, we still lag behind in NoMi. Heck, we don't even have a bike shop yet. There's a public meeting tonight at 6:30 at the Plymouth Christian Youth Center to discuss just that.

Pictured above is another area in NoMi that should be more biker-friendly. This is the intersection of...

...Plymouth and Girard, down through Emerson/7th. Plymouth overall is a great biking corridor. But this one spot has a dedicated bike lane that just ends. As soon as it ends, we have a bus stop and a turn lane for some major intersections. There are a few other spots like this in Minneapolis and in NoMi, so the design itself isn't an aberration. However, from a biking safety standpoint, this is where a clearly marked bike lane is needed most. Every time I bike through here, I get nervous that I'll be squashed by some idiot who's not paying attention.

There are worse bike lanes, and clearly mistakes sometimes get made. And then there's THE WORST. So this block is like the Keith Retiman of bike lanes; not the best, not the worst.

Another NoMi resident told me about an area by Dowling and Washington where the accumulated sand from the winter near this industrial zone has made the bike lanes unsafe to ride on. I went and confirmed this is indeed the case. I'd put up photos, but there's only so much you can do with a pile of sand to make it look cool. Sweeping the streets over there should be a quick fix though.

So what else in NoMi could be better for bicycling? Have at it, JNS readers.

Who Wants a Bike Shop in NoMi? I Do, I Do!

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

Now that spring is here, I've been doing some biking again. I also did my best to participate in the first "Unofficial Shop Northside First Month." That ended yesterday, so the Facebook link isn't live anymore, but we're sure to have another one soon!

But what if I blow a tire? What if I want to buy an attachment for my water bottle? I can't repair my bike or buy basic accessories here in NoMi. And I'm sure there are others just like me. That's why one week from today there will be a community focus group meeting around the possibilities of a bike shop in NoMi. The meeting will be Thursday, April 8, 6:30 p.m. at the Plymouth Christian Youth Center. A possible site, just off of Penn and Broadway, is pictured above.

Questions to be discussed at the meeting include...

...What would a successful bike shop in the Jordan neighborhood look like? Describe what kinds of merchandise and services would most likely be purchased by those in the community?

How many bikes do you have at your house? How do you use your bikes? How did you acquire your bikes? Approximately how many miles a year do you ride? Who do you ride with?

Do you pay to have your bikes serviced? How often and where? What would be important about this shop for you to change your purchasing patterns? What is missing from other urban bike shops?

What might the bike shop do and/or sell in the winter to make it a year-round business?

If the bike shop was also a community gathering place, what might it also sell, e.g. coffee, ice cream, art, clothes, sandwiches….? What combination would most likely be successful? Why?

How many ways can you think to promote a bike shop in this neighborhood?

How many ways can you think to positively engage youth in the bike shop’s operations?

Three locations are being considered and we will want the community’s input regarding the strengths and concerns regarding each of the potential sites. One is on the north side of Broadway, one on the south side of Lowry and one on the corner of Penn and 26th.

I hope to see you there, and I hope to see a bike shop in our neck of the woods soon!