Back in the summer of 2010, a unique feature was added to
the downtown Bemidji landscape. . .a bicycle rack. But this wasn’t your run of
the mill boring, utilitarian bike rack. Two things made this one stand out: it
was designed and built by an artist and it was placed on the street, not on the
sidewalk. Everyone seems to appreciate the aesthetic value of the colorful
rack, but its location -- on the street – has created a controversy that has
surprised everyone. And downtown merchants are having a difficult time coming
up with a solution that makes them all happy.
It started out with the best of intentions. Local bicyclist
and BSU Human Performance, Sport and Health Prof. Mur Gilman wanted to
create a memorial for her brother, who died in two thousand six from ALS,
also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“My
brother was a biker," she said. "He loved coffee shops. He rode his bike to work. He liked
to drink coffee and he liked to talk with his friends at the coffee shop.”
She said she was inspired when she saw that the best parking
spots in Rochester, Minn., were given over to bicycle racks and by her
experience visiting Jackson Hole, Wyo., where they actually plow bicycle
trails so residents can ride their bikes during the winter months.
She commissioned local sculptor Al Belleveau to design a
creative bike rack and eventually asked Noemi Aylesworth, the owner of the
Cabin Coffeehouse on Third Street between Beltrami and Minnesota avenues, if
she would be interested in hosting the rack.
“Noemi
said, 'Ya, that’s a great idea,'" said Gilman.
The on-street bike rack, or “corral,” isn’t hard to
describe. Picture two Paul-Bunyan sized clown bikes, one blue and one yellow --
on each end of eight stalls for parked bicycles.
Aylesworth cleared the idea with the Downtown Development
Authority and the corral was installed with much fanfare. The next day, a
front-page photo of Gilman perched on the seat of one of the clown bikes
appeared in The Pioneer and all seemed well. It became a conversation piece in
the community and was set out again last summer.
But all that changed over the past winter. There appears to
be some opposition to the corral and the DDA has told Aylesworth that the
corral cannot be set out on the street again until there is a consensus among
all 70 DDA members that it’s okay. Thus far that hasn’t happened.
Six proponents of the bike corral spoke at the May meeting
of the Bemidji City Council, led by Gilman. Diane Pittman, area physician and a
self-described “utilitarian cyclist,” said on-street parking for
cyclists is “good for everybody.”
“I
think on-street bicycle parking is the cutting edge thing to do," she said. "There’s
always some resistance to change. . .But I also know we’ve seen huge changes
and an increase in cycling in Bemidji that has been beneficial to everyone.”
Belleveau thinks the corral should go back where it was. .
.in front of the Cabin.
“What
upsets me about this -- and I try not to get upset because I’m not very good at
it – is that this has caused Noemi so much heartache because people have been
fighting her," he said. "I consider this a silly little situation where people can’t
recognize the strength it gives to our city – the uniqueness that it gives to
our city. The fact that it makes us look kind of progressive, not like the
hicks that we act like sometimes.”
The city council pointed out that they have vested the DDA
with the authority to make the decision. Councilor Rita Albrecht did point out
that citizens don’t really have standing with the DDA, so it was up to the
council to hear them out. However, the meeting ended with no clear answer for
the advocates.
The DDA held its monthly meeting two days later, at which
time a subcommittee reported on its efforts to find a solution. Three other
alternate sites on other blocks would be considered for the bike corral’s home.
That decision would be determined by getting everyone on the block to agree to
it being there. In the meantime, the corral would remain disassembled behind
the Cabin Coffeehouse. No date was set for a final decision.
Kenn Cobb, the owner of Pine Country Insurance 2nd
and Beltrami Avenue and president of the DDA, would like to see the bike
corral on the street. “I
think the bike rack is very important," he said. "Not only does it serve a very functional
purpose, but it’s also a symbol of our downtown’s interest in being bike
friendly, of promoting biking, of promoting active living, a symbol of the fact
that maybe you can bike downtown, and that we’re open for bikes and interested
in biking. And I think there’s an argument to be made that that may actually
free up parking downtown if more people bike.”
A program called Active Living, which is funded Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Minnesota and administered by the Headwaters Regional
Development Commission, is also in support of the bike corral on the street. Development
specialist Josh Pearson has a master’s degree in urban planning.
“Active
living is in support of the bike rack," he said, "because it’s becoming a best practice in
multi-modal transportation planning to have these on-street bicycle corrals in
place of one parking spot. . .Ten people can use it at one time.”
The bike corral issue seems to have become conflated with
the issue of parking in front of the senior citizen center, located on the
south side of the Cabin Coffeehouse. Director Diane Engel declined to be
interviewed for this story and did not speak at the city council meeting nor at
the DDA meeting, although she did attend both. Her concern is adequate parking
and drop-off and pick-up areas for seniors attending lunches and other events
at the center.
The DDA has been granted authority from the city of
Bemidji to regulate downtown parking, and they did agree to grant two 15-minute
parking spots, in addition to the existing handicapped parking spot in front of
the senior center. But it’s unclear if this decision will gain Engel’s support
for the bike corral being restored to the one parking spot in front of the
Cabin. Everyone who spoke at recent public meetings and in interviews voiced their strong support for becoming a bike-friendly community, but consensus
about the details seems to be an ambitious goal.
Muriel Keaveny, an 80-year-old Bemidji resident who worked
at the senior center for about ten years, pointed out that there is another
option. “There is a back door and there is a nice approach ramp there,” she said.
Noemi Aylesworth, the owner of The Cabin Coffeehouse and a
member of the DDA board, declined to be recorded for this story, but she did
offer some thoughts. She points out that the bike corral requires routine
maintenance and repair, which she is willing to do, along with Belleveau. She
says it hurts her heart to think some Third Street merchants feel she’s
hurt their business and she thinks the corral makes a statement about the
bike-friendly nature of our downtown.
She’s also concerned about adequately serving the
ever-increasing number of bicyclists expected to ride through the Bemidji area.
A group of 50 bicyclists are expected to come through May 23rd. Most likely the
bike corral won’t be out by then, although the DDA points out that there are ten
public bike racks situated in other places in Bemidji.
Gilman, whose idea started the entire chain of events, is
not discouraged. “I
think it’s really great," she said. "It’s a really great conversation to have as we begin
to build expensive bridges or overpasses over one-97 and we expand our trail
system and we add more bikeways on streets and so on, and it’s an important
thing to think of if we want to encourage bicycling. . .okay. . .where are they
going to park their bikes?”
And after the city council meeting, artist Belleveau said he
is ready to move forward. “I’ve got the bolts with me right now," he said. I’d put them in right now if someone
told me to. I might have to wait until the fifteenth, so I hope it goes right
back to where I’ve been putting it.”
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