Category: Businesses

A Dutch bike store dies, a bicycle café is born

[flickr]photo:6207956624[/flickr]Michael Salvatore, owner of Heritage Bicycles

[This article also appears in Newcity magazine.]

Chicago just lost one of its coolest bike shops, but we’re gaining one that may be even cooler. Last week Dutch Bike Co. abruptly closed its Chicago location, only three months after relocating from Lincoln Park to Wicker Park. Founded in Seattle, the company opened its only satellite store three years ago at 651 W. Armitage in a gallery-like storefront. They offered beautiful, practical European-style city bikes by brands like WorkCycles and Linus, most costing over $1,000.

Continue reading A Dutch bike store dies, a bicycle café is born

Can Saturday’s Open Streets on State Street convince City Hall to fund the next ciclovía?

[flickr]photo:6198220998[/flickr]2009 Open Streets: left-to-right, in orange shirts, Lucy Gomez-Feliciano, Adolfo Hernandez, Rob Sadowsky

[This article also runs in Newcity magazine.]

“On State Street, that great street, I just want to say
They do things they don’t do on Broadway”
– “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” by Fred Fisher

The question is, can Chicago do on State Street what New York City already does successfully, not on Broadway but on Park Avenue; what San Francisco does on Grant Avenue; and what Bogotá, Colombia, does on Calle 11?

Born in Bogotá, “ciclovía” (Spanish for “bike path”) events close streets to motorized traffic, creating safe spaces for citizens to bicycle, jog, stroll, play and mingle, encouraging healthy recreation and social interaction. Ciclovías are now popular around the world, and most of America’s bike-friendly major cities are holding successful events, but the model still hasn’t gained a foothold in Chicago.

This could change after Saturday’s Open Streets on State Street ciclovía, when for five hours the sight, sound and smell of hundreds of automobiles, cabs and buses on the famous thoroughfare will be replaced by thousands of people enjoying a giant block party. The free event takes place from 10 am to 3 pm, with State Street closed to traffic between Lake and Van Buren. Vehicles will be permitted to cross the route at Madison and Monroe.

Continue reading Can Saturday’s Open Streets on State Street convince City Hall to fund the next ciclovía?

Grid Shots: Cargo biking

To help promote the Cargo Bike Roll Call, happening Monday night from 6-9 PM at West Town Bikes, 1147 N Campbell, this weekend’s edition of Grid Shots is all about cargo biking in Chicago (there aren’t any family biking photos in our Flickr group yet).

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Joshua Koonce and I were riding back to my house on California Avenue from Welles Park and we encountered this man carrying several bags of aluminum cans. Here’s another photo of the rider. 

Continue reading Grid Shots: Cargo biking

Cool Minneapolis bike features I’d love to see in Chicago

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The Midtown Greenway, a multi-use rails-to-trails conversion in a sunken railroad viaduct. 

I recently spent a day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, visiting friends en route to Duluth for a bike trip along Lake Superior. Last year Bicycling magazine named Minneapolis the best U.S. city for biking (I guess they couldn’t keep giving the award to Portland, OR, every year) while Chicago dropped down to tenth place. So I was curious to see if the City of Lakes offers any lessons on ways to make cycling better here.

In fairness, the Twin Cities area has a few inherent qualities that have encouraged bike-friendliness. The combined population of the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul is about 667,000, not much larger than Milwaukee and only a quarter the size of the city of Chicago. Minneapolis had ample available railroad right-of-way, which made it relatively easy to create a great network of urban off-street bike paths, 84 miles compared to Chicago’s 50. (We do have almost three times as many miles of streets with bike lanes.)*

Continue reading Cool Minneapolis bike features I’d love to see in Chicago

Interview with Maria Barnes from Uptown Bikes

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[This piece also runs in Momentum magazine.]

Great bicycle shops often feel like community centers and Uptown Bikes definitely fits that mold. It’s located in the ethnically and economically diverse Uptown neighborhood on Chicago’s north lakefront, where Charlie Chaplain once made films at Essanay Studios and Al Capone held court at the still-popular Green Mill jazz club. The store sits on a gritty stretch of Broadway under Chicago Transit Authority elevated tracks. A lit-up cruiser bike mounted on the roof greets train commuters, and an Indonesian pedicab with a volcano painted on it sits outside the front door.

Uptown Bikes focuses on affordable repairs and bikes for practical transportation to keep all community members rolling. The small, scruffy but well-organized shop sells new Raleigh, KHS and Rocky Mountain bikes, plenty of rehabbed rides, Planet Bike accessories, Detours panniers and other useful commuting gear. Collections of old cruiser saddles and rear-wheel “pie plates” line the walls. I talked with owner Maria Barnes about the store’s history and philosophy, and her perspective on the local bike scene.

Continue reading Interview with Maria Barnes from Uptown Bikes

USPS responds to our letter

Last week Grid Chicago received a letter from the United States Postal Service (USPS) in response to our correspondence with them where we advised them of the illegality of parking in bike lanes. I attached photos of two separate USPS vehicles parked in the Kinzie Street protected bike lane sent to me by a Grid Chicago reader.

Then, today, I received a copy of a letter 42nd Ward Alderman Reilly wrote to USPS. As you can tell, he was a bit more stern in asking the organization to respond, saying:

USPS employees have repeatedly been witnessed parking in dedicated bicycle lanes- posing a risk to cyclists who utilize these busy lanes.

Please report back to my office the steps that the USPS will take to address this serious public safety concern.

Our original article on the matter has been the most popular since we began, with over 1,600 views. Please send in your photos of USPS and other delivery vehicles parked in the Kinzie Street bike lane. Our first and only protected bike lane should be that, a protected bike lane, and not another strip of asphalt for people to park in.

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Let us know if USPS is still blocking the bike lane.