I asked about this issue back in November, and since then we've gotten slightly more involved in infrastructure issues than in the past. Working with the Santa Ana Parks Dept. (who did most of the work), we helped coordinate a trip for Orange County residents out to Long Beach to take a biking and walking tour of the impressive improvements to bike/ped infrastructure they've implemented there. We have flyered and electronically announced a few community meetings relating to a circulation element update and the county bikeways master plan. We have also commented publicly on a specific bike trail extension. This was mostly pretty easy stuff to do (a facebook post takes a minute or two).
From my beginner's perspective I'd say there's sort of two sides to advocacy. There's community outreach and then there's communicating with various politicians, city engineers and staff, consultants, etc. I'd say the former is mostly about distributing news about how people can be involved in implementing infrastructure and sharing information and dialogue about available options, and the latter is about providing expertise and putting pressure on various 'decision makers' as the public's representative, and trying to tie people together. There's a lot of middle ground where cleverness and understanding come in. I just read Mia Birk's book
Joyride about getting stuff going in Portland, Oregon, and one of her standout strengths, aside from persistence, was effective communication. She put a lot of effort into understanding people and helping different groups understand each other and work together.
I'd say from my limited experience that most community bike shops are strong in aspects of community outreach that many advocacy coalitions are not, while advocacy coalitions are often made up of people who by virtue of their political persuasion, personalities, and professional standing are better able to connect with the "higher-ups". I think community bike shops can connect people with their coalition and definitely broaden the base of the advocacy movement.
-Paul
The Bicycle Tree
P.O. Box 11293
Santa Ana, CA 92711
http://www.thebicycletree.orginfo@thebicycletree.org
Date: Sat, 4 May 2013 12:57:36 -0700
From: jamesbleds0e@yahoo.com
To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Question - Role of Community Bike Shops in Bike Advocacy
In Los Angeles, The los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition does the heavy lifting in this department. leaving us at the Bicycle Kitchen to focus on wrenching and empowering more regular folks to just ride their bicycles. This creates a larger pool of potential allies and advocates increasing the chances that the more politically minded among us will
meet and the necessary magic will transpire.
Like build it and they will come,
wrench and they will roll!!
jim
--- On Sat, 5/4/13, Jason Tanzman <jason.tanzman@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Jason Tanzman <jason.tanzman@gmail.com>
Subject: [TheThinkTank]
Question - Role of Community Bike Shops in Bike Advocacy
To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Date: Saturday, May 4, 2013, 12:37 PM
Hey all,
I'd love to hear stories of community bike shops explicitly involved in bike advocacy. I interpret "bike advocacy" pretty broadly but am thinking along the lines of fighting for bike lanes, changing bike-negative laws, pushing for complete streets
policies, etc.
I'm spending some time thinking about the role of community bike shops in the bike advocacy movement. One theme I've been reflecting on - and I welcome people's thoughts, comments, push-back, etc - is this. The bicycle advocacy movement is limited in its potential in part because of the lack of diverse community leadership and participation from traditionally under-represented communities (we/they are a bunch of old white men). Community bike shops have an incredible diversity of experiences and connections to traditionally under-represented communities, but a lack of intentional engagement in policy work limits community bike shops' ability to have a broad-reaching and long-term impact. I'm trying to understand how really grassroots organizations can have a more broad-reaching impact - and where community bike shops have succeeded (or failed) in using our networks to involve people in influencing legislation or government investments.
I welcome any stories that in any way touch on the relationship between community bike shops to advocacy initiatives! Jason Tanzman Cycles for Change -- Development and Outreach Director
612-232-2737 (cell) 651-222-2080 (shop) www.cyclesforchange.orgThe mission of Cycles for Change is to be an open, accessible space to educate and empower people to use bicycles as transportation, helping to build a sustainable environment and community. Volunteer with us to help build a bicycling movement in the Twin Cities!
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