Category: Chicago

What would it take for Chicago’s messenger bag companies to go nationwide?

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A Chicago flag-inspired messenger bag by New York’s Vaya Bags – all photos in this post courtesy of Vaya Bags

I believe that one sign that you’re in a great city for cycling is a proliferation of successful bike-related businesses. For example, a study done Mia Birk when she was bike coordinator of Portland, Oregon, found that the local bike industry has contributed $100 million and 1,500 jobs to that city’s economy in recent years.

There are a currently a handful of folks here in Chicago making great handmade bike products. You can find their bags, caps and other accessories listed in our gift guide. But it bothers me our city doesn’t have its fair share of independent bike-oriented businesses, and I’m not exactly sure why we don’t. It probably has something to do with the fact that, while we who live here know this is a great city for urban riding, the cold winters and lack of easy access to country roads and mountain bike trails prevent this town from being a magnet for bicycle entrepreneurs.

Back in the Nineties when I was a cycle courier, it always bugged me that every bike culture Mecca worth its bearing grease was represented by at least one well-known messenger bag company, except for Chicago. It was like that article in Vibe magazine during our pre-Kanye/Common hip-hop drought calling this “a city of three million [individuals] who can’t rap.” Was Chicago really that lame?

Continue reading What would it take for Chicago’s messenger bag companies to go nationwide?

A secular Chicago cycling Christmas

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The Chicago Cycling Club’s Bagel Ride – photo courtesy of Kathy Schubert

[This piece also runs in Newcity magazine.]

Christmas is a great time to be in Chicago, even if you’re not a Christian. As a mostly nonobservant Jewish person, I usually make a point of staying in town during the holiday because I always have a blast. It’s the best of both worlds. I get to enjoy the spirit of brotherhood and good cheer that prevails, and pedal the nearly traffic-free streets, but there’s no pressure to gather with relatives (Thanksgiving is when we do that) or exchange gifts. For me Christmas is a chance to spend quality time with members of my family of choice, my longtime friends from the local bicycling community.

Continue reading A secular Chicago cycling Christmas

Parking meter lease: 72 years more to go

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Bike Walk Lincoln Park in their latest post gives a summary of how the parking meter lease was devised and approved in 2008. Then they point out how a majority if the revenue has been spent, including over half of a “rainy day fund” (as former Mayor Daley called it). But Bike Walk Lincoln Park mentions a report issued by the same company the Daley administration hired to advise it through the parking meter privatization process: Continue reading Parking meter lease: 72 years more to go

Gettin’ down at the I-GO Car Sharing members’ holiday party

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Even though I don’t use car sharing often, I’m very glad it exists. I live a block away from an I-GO Car Sharing location and I have a membership, but I can easily do almost all my commuting and errands by walking, biking and transit, carrying groceries and such in my bike’s saddlebags. Even if I need to move furniture or large items from the home improvement store I can haul most of these things with my large bike trailer.

So if I check out an I-GO vehicle it’s usually because I’m too lazy to hook up my trailer. As I wrote last week, other than road trips and transporting other people, the main reason I would use a car is to move fragile music gear to gigs. The by-the-hour pay scheme of car sharing makes it impractical for a trip where the car just sits outside the club for three hours while I rock out. (Any I-GO staffers reading this, please reply to this post to let me know if you guys actually offer a plan that makes sense for this kind of trip).

Continue reading Gettin’ down at the I-GO Car Sharing members’ holiday party

An update on the Chicago Velo Campus from Emanuele Bianchi

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Bianchi coaches Robert, a teen who lives near the temporary velodrome – photo courtesy of Chicago Velo Campus

Last winter I wrote about the Chicago Velo Campus proposal for a Newcity cover story. The organizers were originally hoping to build a $45 million multisport complex, featuring a velodrome stadium nearly as large as the United Center, by 2013 on the former site of U. S. Steel’s South Works mill, a hump of land on the lakefront between 79th and 92nd.

Although they recently changed their target for construction to 2014, and even that may be an optimistic deadline for this ambitious project, much has already been accomplished. This summer volunteers installed a 166-meter temporary velodrome, made of marine-grade plywood, and an indoor space called the Lakeside Velo Works, containing a bike workshop, indoor training area, bike storage and office space, on U.S. Steel land at 8615 S. Burley.

Continue reading An update on the Chicago Velo Campus from Emanuele Bianchi

Bike lane distribution and equity in regards to the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020

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Residents of the 35th Ward leave their comments on where the bikeway network needs help at a public meeting in September 2011. Alderman Rey Colón attended the meeting, operated by Active Transportation Alliance and Sam Schwartz Engineering. 

The first meeting to give city staff input on where to implement bikeways and bikeway fixes arrives in two Saturdays on December 10, 2011, at 23 E Madison (from 10 AM to 4 PM). The open house represents the launch of the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020, what the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) has been talking about since June 2011.

What is the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020?

Continue reading Bike lane distribution and equity in regards to the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020