Wolf River Greenway Ribbon Cutting

Almost a mere two months after the opening of the Shelby Farms Greenline Memphis is opening another stretch of paved multi-use path. The Wolf River Greenway will connect some of the existing paved trails in Germantown to the Shelby Farms Greenline:

Shelby Farms Greenline to Wolf River Greenway Connection

The Ribbon cutting ceremony is this Wednesday at 11am. Mayor Wharton will be there so you all make sure to say thank you!

Ribbon Cutting Details

If Wednesday is not one of your regular days off then keep this on your calendar:

Broad Avenue Re-Cap

I know you're all expecting lots of pictures but I just have to disappoint you. I was busy working our "shop" so I didn't get to get out and see what everyone was doing. I did get a chance to drop by Odessa and their show was really nice, 2 minutes in there while simultaneously turning up a Pabst can was not nearly long enough.

But even though I didn't get to see everything, my amazing mom got a chance to snap a few shots and she posted them on her blog. Check it.

New Face Volunteers NEEDED!

Livable Memphis NEEDS volunteers for the New Face for an Old Broad event on Nov 19 & 20!

Take a look at the Event Volunteer Shifts and let them know when you can help out:

Friday Nov 19
9am-2pm - Event Set-Up
3pm-7pm, 7pm-11pm - parking attendants, greeters, vendor help, kids activities, etc.

Saturday Nov 20
8am-11am, 11am-2pm, 2pm-5pm, 5pm-8pm, 8pm-11pm - parking attendants, greeters, vendor help, kids activities, etc.

EVENT STAFF T-shirts included if you volunteer a shift!

CONTACT ALICIA DIRECTLY so we can schedule you as an event volunteer: info@livablememphis.org

Otherwise, we still need people to clean, paint, scrub, paint, sweep, paint, mop and paint to get ready for the big event.

Can you help us:

Mon Nov 15 from 3pm to 8pm

Tues Nov 16 from 3pm to 8pm

Wed Nov 17 from 9am-9pm

Thurs Nov 18 from 9am-9pm

Prep DIRECTIONS:

a.. Meet: Corner of Broad and Merton or stop in at T Clifton Art Gallery for direction to the urgent spaces.
b.. Wear: Work clothes and sturdy shoes.
c.. Bring: Any old paint you might have in your basement, cleaning tools, power tools, that can of random screws and nails you might have on a shelf somewhere, masks, gloves, ANYTHING ELSE similar you might want to clear out of your closets!
d.. Bring: A FRIEND - or ten - to join you!

I hope to see you this weekend Saturday and Sunday! Thanks so much!

www.livablememphis.org

Survey Time

Take this Bicycle/Pedestrian survey meow.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BikePedUpdate2010

Head down to Mud Island this Sunday for the TN State Cyclocross Championships

New Face for an Old Broad

You have probably seen Anthony's article from The Commercial Appeal or may have heard about it through the grapevine but on the off-chance that you haven't I thought I'd share:

This is what Broad Street looks like currently:

You've probably ridden it on a Thursday Night Ride (what happened to this?) or gone to an art show, dance party, movie night at Odessa (more on them later) and maybe you've gotten a pie at Broadway Pizza. So you know how desolate the street looks. That's going to change for two days in November: Friday the 19th from 3pm - 10pm and Saturday the 20th from 8am - 10pm. Temporary bike lanes, greenscaping, murals and more businesses will transform Broad in order to show people what a complete street can look like. The Peddler Bike Shop will have a retail space where we will be selling commuting essentials like lights, helmets, rain gear, etc and we will also have some rental bikes available for those who didn't bring their own bikes but who would like to try the bike lanes.

Keep up with all the updated info on the facebook event page.

Spooky Cross Pictures

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. Ours was very relaxing: coffee, doughnuts, and spectating cyclocross in the morning, working in the afternoon, then polo in the evening.

Cyclocrunk made me wet.

Cyclocrunk is over for 2010 but it went out with a bang! After 2 days of rain the course was pretty gross. I didn't smell it on the neutral lap but every other lap it was awful. Here's the start:


Brett and I going over barriers:

And the aftermath:

Notice my clean pedals? I sprayed them with Schwinn pedal lube. Works like magic but apparently you can't get it anymore. If I could find something to keep the mud off the bottom of my shoes so I could actually get my cleat into those clean pedals I'll be in good shape.

More photos on my flickr.

Hot Balls

Anthony threw down on some new polo balls. We play every Wednesday and Sunday at 7pm at Bluff City Sports on Cooper.

Teeny Tiny Bike Racks

After seeing this article in the Flyer Emily and I made an appointment with the Urban Art Commission to view Gadsby Creson's 40 Bike Rack Maquettes. For those of us who slept through Art School Vocabulary 101 a maquette (even my spellcheck doesn't recognize the word!) is "a small model or study in three dimensions for either a sculptural or an architectural project." (dictionary.com)

Now that you've learned something today, let's look at a couple of the racks. Gadsby, who rides a bike only occasionally admits that she approached these racks from an artistic perspective. In some cases the art outweighs the functionality; there is no way to actually secure your bike to a rack like this:

The small portion of Memphians (even Americans) who use our bikes for more than recreation need to know our bike is secure. Bike racks can do this and be artistic at the same time. The best bike rack in Memphis is at the Brooks Museum because it incorporates the environment and is very secure. Gadsby does this in her work as well:

An anchor in front of The Cove: kinda kitschy but it works. It worked for David Byrne on Wall Street and New York's fashion district. But you're still limited with the number of bicycles you can attach without going full on bike-pile. Granted, getting people out on bikes is good but two people? Why not ten or twenty? We've seen the amount of people riding the Greenline. They're out there. But in addition to giving them a place to ride we also need to give them a place to park. Gadsby nails it with this one:

Depending on the space between the bars you could potentially fit twelve bikes on that rack. It doesn't imitate its environment but its got form, color, and functionality going for it. It looks pretty rad but maybe that's just my affinity for orange.

To view the rest of the maquettes make an appointment via urbanartcommission.org. The exhibit runs through January 28th. But don't wait until then: on November 19th and 20th as part of the "New Face for an Old Broad" event the UAC will be projecting the maquettes in their gallery space.