Events – Page 9 – Grid Chicago

Voting has begun for Bike Chicago PSA video contest

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The Lakefront Trail features prominently in “Chicago Bike Love”.

Vote on the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special (DCASE) website to select the winning Bike Chicago PSA video. The four finalist videos will be shown on the big screen before a screening of Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure next Tuesday, June 12, at Millennium Park (see all events). Video links below open in a new full-size window.

Bike Chicago – You can dress like a revolutionary soldier and still ride a bike. Features Active Transportation Alliance staffer Rebecca Resman.

And Sometimes I Bike It Everywhere – An interview with three-year-old Amelie about biking in Chicago. Something really funny happens when she rides in the Kinzie Street bike lane at 1:13.

Chicago Better By Bike! – A kind of stop-motion video of many Chicago destinations. It’s amusing because it’s hard to tell if the person in the photo was ever moving in the shoot.

Chicago Bike Love – Boy meets girl on the Lakefront Trail and, after a MySpace-style photoshoot, have a picnic. Not a PSA, though.

There’s another bike movie event that week, on Monday, June 11, at Goose Island Brewpub, 1800 N Clybourn Avenue: Bicycle Film Festival will bring a special screening of “Bike Shorts”. The event is free and starts at 6 PM. Visit the DCASE website for all Bike To Work Week events.

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Contest flyer.

See what bikes can do at the Cargo Bike Roll Call on Saturday at West Town Bikes

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Once again Grid Chicago will be producing the Cargo Bike Roll Call, a social event about what’s possible with bicycling, and how people in Chicago use their bicycles to carry children, dirt for community gardens, or deliver goods.

Saturday, June 9, 2012, from 6 PM to 10 PM
West Town Bikes
2459 W Division Street (same as 1147 N Campbell)

By doing this in June we’ll have more hours of daylight than we did last September!

[flickr]photo:6187991714[/flickr] Continue reading See what bikes can do at the Cargo Bike Roll Call on Saturday at West Town Bikes

Dottie Brackett talks women’s cycling at the Chainlink’s bike education series

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Last night I swung by a Chainlink Biking Semester class on biking tips for women, “The Lady and the Bike,” taught by Let’s Go Ride a Bike blogger Dottie Brackett at next Door Café, 659 W. Diversey in Lincoln Park. The Chainlink, a social networking site for Chicago cyclists, is hosting the bike ed series at the café all summer.

Vanessa Buccella, who we interviewed last winter, is teaching “Racing 101” on Tuesday, June 19, from 6:30-7:30 pm. Future Chainlink classes include “Basics To Keep Your Bike Riding Through Summer” on July 10 and “How To Not Get Your Bike Stolen and What You Can Do to Get It Back” on July 24.

Steven and I are fans of Dottie’s blog, co-written with Trisha Ping, a great source of info, especially for women, about getting around by bike without sacrificing your personal style, including great photography and fun stories of the ladies’ two-wheeled adventures. Last year I interviewed Dottie for Newcity magazine and dubbed her “The Martha Stewart of Chicago Cycling.” She didn’t seem to mind.

Continue reading Dottie Brackett talks women’s cycling at the Chainlink’s bike education series

South Siders check out the draft Streets for Cycling Plan

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Checking out information about the “Four Star Bike Routes” concept at the meeting. All photos in this post courtesy of the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT).

Last Thursday’s Streets for Cycling public meeting was the second of several opportunities for input on the recently revealed draft of the Citywide 2020 Network. The meeting alternated open sessions for reviewing various aspects of the network plan and talking to planners with presentation/Q&A sessions.

It was my first time inside the Gary Comer Youth Center, a very distinctive piece of modern architecture. The meeting was held in a third floor meeting room, adjacent to a beautiful roof garden surrounded by glass-walled interior space. We had a great view of the enormous community garden across the street.

Continue reading South Siders check out the draft Streets for Cycling Plan

Gangster rap: an interview with bike style icon Lorena Cupcake

[This piece also appeared in Checkerboard City, John’s weekly transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets in print on Wednesday evenings.]

In a Midwestern town where folks dress conservatively, bike style icon Lorena Cupcake stands out like a handful of Skittles scattered across the Wall Street Journal. Easily spotted by her candy-colored outfits, rainbow-and-lollipops tattoo and messenger bag emblazoned “Cupcake Gangster,” she’s also an astute commentator on the local cycling, drinking and foodie scenes via her frequently updated, often hilarious Twitter feed.

But Cupcake, 25, is far from just a hipster gadfly. A frequent participant and volunteer at “alleycats,” underground, messenger-style checkpoint races, she runs the bike event Twitter calendar @chicagoholdup and helps stage the annual Bicycle Film Festival. Last year she and a few other petite fixed-gear enthusiasts formed Tiny Fix, a bike gang especially for women under 5’2”, which organizes bar nights, dance parties and now their first alleycat, last weekend’s Tiny Fix Ace Race.

I recently caught up with Cupcake, fresh off her day job as a bank teller, over $3 cheeseburgers at the Blue Frog, a messenger bar at 676 N. LaSalle in River North. She gave me the skinny on Tiny Fix, the upcoming race, and the things she loves and hates about biking in Chicago.

Continue reading Gangster rap: an interview with bike style icon Lorena Cupcake

Upcoming events for May and June

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Photo of Chicagoan bicycling across the Kinzie Street bridge by John Iwanski.

This is your sustainable transportation upcoming events calendar, with 20 events. You can subscribe to our events calendar via Google Calendar.

May

Monday, May 28 is the extended deadline for the Bike Video PSA. The competition, sponsored by Goose Island, Bike Chicago (Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events), Bicycle Film Festival, and The Chainlink, began in early May. Read our earlier post.

Tuesday, May 29 is the Wolf Point skyscraper development meeting, a project that intends to bring over 1,000 car parking spaces to an already congested area. The meeting, while not required by any law or policy, is being called by 42nd Ward Alderman Reilly. “The Hines Development Team will present their proposed plan for the site; discuss their Traffic Study (commissioned at my request); and answer your questions about the Proposal.”

Holiday Inn, Wolf Point Ballroom
350 West Mart Center Drive
Chicago, IL Continue reading Upcoming events for May and June