Year: 2011

“One Pioneer, a Thousand Riders” by Oboi Reed

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Oboi Reed at the new wooden velodrome at 8615 S. Burley – photo courtesy of Reed

In September John interviewed Oluntunji Oboi (“O-bye-ee”) Reed about his efforts to launch The Pioneers Bicycle Club as a way to get more South Siders and African Americans involved with cycling. Last month, Oboi did his first Chicago Critical Mass ride. We invited him to submit the following write-up of his experience for Grid Chicago:

In the words of The Notorious B.I.G., “It was all a dream.”
I dreamed of cycling as a form of healing.
I dreamed of cycling consistently with family and friends.
I dreamed of forming The Pioneers Bicycle Club.
Dreams came true, then I kept dreaming.
I dreamed of riding in Chicago Critical Mass.
I dreamed of riding in Chicago Critical Mass through some parts of the South Side.
The dream of riding in the mass came to life on Friday, October 28th, 2011.
The dream of riding through parts of the South Side, well, that dream is a bit more complicated.

Continue reading “One Pioneer, a Thousand Riders” by Oboi Reed

Grid Shots: Bicycle Film Festival

What a busy weekend! One that I was mostly sick for, but I still made it out to 3 of the 5 screenings, a few minutes of Goldsprints (John stayed longer), and the BMX BBQ JAM.

The Bicycle Film Festival was held at the Logan Square Auditorium (2539 N Kedzie Blvd) and the BMX BBQ JAM (with free veggie burgers from River Valley Kitchens) was held at the Logan Square skate park (2430 W Logan Blvd). I’ll be writing reviews of some of the films in a couple weeks.

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Alexis Finch (left) and pinup girl Jana Kinsman (right) talk to filmgoers about the Thought you Knew (TyK) project and sell calendars. Continue reading Grid Shots: Bicycle Film Festival

Introducing the holiday gift guide

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Po Campo bags are made by Emily and Maria in Chicago. Photo by Umberto Brayj. 

Grid Chicago promotes sustainable transportation in Chicagoland and now we want to promote locally-made products and local businesses related to sustainable transportation in the 2011 Holiday gift guide.

John and I have started building a list of products and businesses, but we’d like your input on completing the list. Leave a comment below or on the gift guide page.

Alderman Solis goes to Amsterdam

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Alderman Solis in Zolle, Netherlands – all photos courtesy of Bikes Belong

[Background info for this post came from a write-up of the trip by Washington D.C. Department of Transportation Bicycle Program Specialist Mike Goodno.]

Earlier this month when I interviewed 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis about sustainable transportation projects in his ward, he mentioned that he would be taking a trip to the Netherlands from October 1 – 8 to study bike facilities. The bike industry-funded advocacy group Bikes Belong sponsored this fact-finding mission for transportation officials from Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Miami, and Solis says that staffers from Working Bikes Cooperative recommended him to Bikes Belong as a bike-friendly politician. Joining him from Chicago were former Active Transportation Alliance executive director and current SRAM Cycling Fund director Randy Neufeld, as well as Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) bike program staffers David Gleason and Mike Amsden. Continue reading Alderman Solis goes to Amsterdam

Bicycle Film Festival starts tomorrow and an interview with event producer Terry Bloom

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Photo of Bicycle Film Festival in Chicago in 2007 by Steven Wade. 

I was thinking about the Bicycle Film Festival on Tuesday when I realized it started Friday and neither John nor I wrote anything about it (except on this fall events page). I contacted Terry Bloom, who I ran into a few weeks ago, and quickly setup a video interview for Wednesday. We met at the Logan Square monument, across the circle from the film fest’s venue: the Logan Square Auditorium (2539 N Kedzie Blvd).

Watch the video below to hear Terry, the show’s Chicago producer, tell you how it’ll be fun and unique. He also describes Goldsprints (I’ve never been) and that Chicago is one of the select cities to get “Bill Cunningham New York” (watch the trailer on Chicago Street Style). Continue reading Bicycle Film Festival starts tomorrow and an interview with event producer Terry Bloom

Latent demand for CTA to be on Twitter, and CTA’s other tools

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The Chicago Transit Authority tweeted for the first time yesterday morning at 10:59 AM. They said, “This is an official announcement from CTA: Hello”. They had 1 follower at the time of the tweet (it was me). 25 minutes later they had 49 new followers.

7 hours and 31 minutes later (I checked at random times), they had 1,338 followers. That’s fast.

36 hours later, they have 1,928 followers.

They also launched a page on Facebook and an updates service delivered via email or SMS (text messaging). We’re glad CTA is now on social media (it took awhile). But these are just a few tools out of many that the CTA has for its customers to get information. Let me list them all for you:

Read my story about the state of Chicago transit trackers. Also, you can follow Grid Chicago on Facebook and Twitter, or via email updates.