A couple of weeks ago, I shared a link to Shane MacRhodes' excellent coverage of neighborhood and school groups' efforts to put bike lanes on 24th Avenue. This road is an important route for kids walking and bicycling to Arts and Technology Academy, Adams Elementary, and Family School.
You have one last chance to meet with city staff to voice your support for this project! Please speak up in favor of bike lanes on 24th Avenue tonight, from 7-9 pm at the Washington Park Cottage (2025 Washington Street), at the Friendly Area Neighbors Meeting. That's the little building at the cheese park, to you turophiles out there. If you can't make it, please consider writing to Mayor Piercy and the city council to give your input about the need for safe, family-friendly bikeways along this school route.
Eugene Mayor and City Council: mayorandcc@ci.eugene.or.us
If you live in Eugene and find yourself bicycling or walking near Adams Elementary or ATA/Family School, please consider attending this evening's open house for the street rehabilitation project on West 24th Avenue! I understand that the City of Eugene is planning to repaint the striping on this street this year, and that even very simple bike and pedestrian improvements could fall by the wayside if there isn't strong citizen support for walking and biking in this area.
I hope to join the conversation, but I'm still not completely healthy and may not make it. I'll be sending a brief letter of support to the city if I can't be there. If you have a couple of minutes to do the same, or to give your feedback to the city in person, please do! This is an important street for people walking and biking in this neighborhood (especially to the schools nearby), and some simple improvements could go a long way.
Location: Adams Elementary School (Cafeteria/Multipurpose Room) 950 West 22nd Avenue, Eugene Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 7:00 to 8:30 pm Questions? Please contact Reed Dunbar at reed.c.dunbar@ci.eugene.or.us or (541) 682-5727
By the way...Hello again! I have been enjoying an unplanned hiatus from blogging.
The time away has been lovely and relaxing (especially while my
grad-student husband was on his summer break), but I've missed writing
for this blog. And I've missed hearing from you, all the friendly
people I've met here. If you've written me an email while I was on unofficial hiatus, please know that I was not checking that account while I was away. I'll be composing my replies over the next few weeks -- thanks for your patience.
In the meantime, if you're in Eugene, we'd love to see you tomorrow at Kidical Mass! I'm helping to organize and bake pie for the ride, and it would be gratifying to see some familiar and some new faces at Cesar Chavez Elementary tomorrow. Here's the official blurb:
The weather is just right for cozy
mittens, warm drinks, and delicious pie! Join us for a short and sweet
afternoon bike ride from Cesar Chavez Elementary to the Whiteaker
Community Center, where we can play outdoors or nosh on homemade pies
and hot chai tea inside (decaf rooibos version will be available for the
kids, of course). Along the way we'll stop to admire some fabulous new
improvements to our bikeways, and create a simple thank you to our city
for making it safer for families to walk and bike through our
neighborhoods.
We always ride safe and legal, and all kinds of family bikes are
welcome! Remember your mittens and hats for the coziest possible ride.
Bring lights in case we'll be out after dark. Questions? Find more info at www.kidicalmass.org. Hope to see you tomorrow!
My kids just continue to grow up lately. Isn't it funny how that happens? You think that you've got age 2 1/2 all figured out -- just how to finesse a reluctant visit to the potty chair, or how to help someone take a deep breath at the end of a tantrum...and then everything changes again.
We are thinking about kindergarten for Big next fall, since he'll turn five in June. (Five! I can't believe it.) Transportation has figured heavily into our discussions. As I map out some of the possible routes to school and consider the conditions we might be cycling in (dark, early mornings, with impatient auto traffic), I find myself wishing for little improvements. I'd like to see our gold-rated cycling city transformed into the kind of place where I'll feel comfortable letting my sons ride their bikes around town on their own once they are a little older.
What if our bike boulevards looked a little more like Portland's neighborhood greenways? I'm sure that anyone who has ridden a bike down 15th Ave has wished that the city would change the orientation of a few stop signs so that it's easier to get across some of those busy north-south streets. And some serious traffic calming efforts would make places like Monroe friendlier for kids and families on bikes. (I occasionally see one of my former students, now a teenager, riding his bike along the sidewalk on Monroe. We can teach people over and over that it's safer to ride in the streets, but younger and less confident cyclists will continue to ride on sidewalks until we offer them alternatives that really feel safe.)
Cycle tracks, pedestrian refuge islands, path connections -- I want the city to know how I think Eugene could help families like mine get around better on bikes or on foot. And I want to learn more about what my neighbors in other parts of the city need, too. If you'd like to help Eugene grow up a little, join us at the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan Open House tonight. It's a drop-in event at Saint Mary's Catholic Church, downtown by the library and the transit center. See you there, sometime between 4-7 pm.
