Showing posts with label Bike Pittsburgh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bike Pittsburgh. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Cleveland Narrowly Defeats Pittsburgh in Rust Belt Cup Bike Challenge

Almost as coveted as Lord Stanley's Cup. After 50 years- Cleveland has won something! (Actually ranked 13th in the country)
"Bike Cleveland bested Bike PGH of Pittsburgh in competition as part of the National Bike Challenge.
The National Bike Challenge is a five-month effort to get people to cycle. Nationally, more than 47,000 riders logged 23 million miles.
As a way to be inclusive to all skill levels of riders, a point system encourages more trips than miles."
Read all about the gloating.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

New Documentary about Kraynick's Bike Shop being shot. Do you have a story to tell?

More Than Two Hands from Jennifer Caple on Vimeo.



Wow, an awesome project indeed. If you/yinz know and love Kraynicks, it's history or just a lot about the Pittsburgh bike scene? Perhaps you should contact the filmmakers.

"'This is Your Bicycle' is a documentary that is currently being filmed in Pittsburgh. As we continue interviews and filming on location at the bikeshop,
we are looking for photos, interviews, and personal stories for the film. Email films@jennifercaple.com or join our RSS feed for updates on screenings and events."


Follow the project at thisisyourbicycle.com

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Cleveland Admires Pittsburgh's Growing Bike Culture

Given the childish rivalry, it might be bad to say Cleveland's new version of POP City has a story looking enviously at Pittsburgh's increasingly pro cycling culture.

"A critical mass of bicyclists -- activists or not -- is one ingredient that Pittsburgh needs to become the kind of hip place that attracts talented young workers now and in the future," the Post-Gazette posited almost prophetically in 2003, at a time when even many in the cycling community considered the city a dangerous place to ride.

Fast forward to present day and you'll find a vastly different bike culture has taken flight. Pittsburgh recently won the honor of being named a Bronze-level "Bicycle Friendly Community" by the League of American Bicyclists, putting them on par with regional leaders like Columbus and Indianapolis. With support of its mayor, Pittsburgh is aiming even higher, hoping to join cities like Denver, Austin and Minneapolis in the Silver class."


It's kind of funny in a way, because Pittsburgh actually has a pretty challenging geography that while attracting avid cyclists, doesn't make it easy to ride here.

Fight the good fight Cleveland, as the article shows, none of the progress made here has been easy.

Hat Tip to Rust Wire.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Density is the Dream

Last night I dreamt that Pittsburgh was giving out incentive money (they’d gotten a grant, of course) to anyone in the metro area who would move closer to the city center. There was a bonus amount for crossing into the city limits, but that wasn't a requirement--the idea was just to dense up the whole area. If everyone could move a little closer in (closer to the city that is the reason for the metro area), it would make a noticeable difference in population.

I woke up thinking that there could be a separate incentive for moving close enough to your job to walk or ride your bike. Just think how great these movements would be: shops, grocery stores, and restaurants would thrive; streets would be safer in at least two ways: less desolate and fewer killer-cars; city services like libraries, schools, snow removal, public transit, and police coverage could expand through adequate tax funding; the long-discussed city-county merger might finally happen. The city would attract more tourists and transplants because we'd have a new light rail running through the center of town and we'd be voted Most Walkable City.

What else do you imagine could be the impact of more density in Pittsburgh and the immediate area?

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

New Grocery Solution Points to Larger City Woes (Or, Our Right to Grocery Stores at the Center of Sustainable Communities)

Yesterday, I read the surprising news that the Strip District grocery store, Right By Nature, has started a delivery service in order to address the lack of grocery stores available to Downtown and Hill District residents. Don't get me wrong, I find the action by Right By Nature very kind, in a very Pittsburgh way--they're stepping up to provide a service to help their neighbors. But as a city, aren't we all sufficiently ashamed of the Hill District's situation (as Vanessa German quipped in her show "Testify," "If you live in a black neighborhood in Pittsburgh, you have to get on a bus to find a grocery store"), and as a city, isn't this a very outdated solution to an embarrassingly long-running problem (the Hill has gone decades without a real grocery store)?

When I say outdated, I'm talking about delivery service. I'm talking about individual cars on the road, and the oil we use to power those vehicles, and how that oil is getting more and more costly. I believe, and I'm not the only one, that the writing is on the wall for the car. No amount of electric power or corn oil is going to do; the car thing is just not sustainable for too much longer. We've got to start turning our cities into places of walkers and bikers and public transit riders.

The humane and green solution to this grocery problem is to provide grocery stores in neighborhoods. Period. Places we can each get to on foot, if we choose. But for that, we need to create and sustain neighborhoods that can support grocery stores, which brings me to my real fear for Pittsburgh: density. Will the city of Pittsburgh ever re-acquire enough density to do what cities do best--concentrate living and working and services in areas connected by real sidewalks, safe bike paths, and viable public transit? Just because we lost population in the steel industry downturn, doesn't mean we can afford to turn our city into a suburban carland indefinitely. Paul Krugman writes of a middle-class Berlin full of trains, bikes, and close local shopping, versus an "America stranded in suburbia — utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas." What would it take to fill many more of Pittsburgh's beautiful old houses with residents, to make frequent, appealing light rail service reach many more outlying areas, to convince Southwestern Pa. to put less effort into maintaining the lifestyle of its suburbs and spend more effort to populate the energetic city those 'burbs revolve around?

Again, kudos to Right by Nature for their neighborly action. But in the larger picture, grocery delivery must be seen as a stop-gap solution to a problem of low-density, which threatens the long-term future of our city.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Google Trike Now Mapping Off Road!

Most of are already pretty aware of Google's Street View but what about the world of dirt roads, alley's and bike paths where cars can't go.



"They go on to say that the best part about this new dataset is that we’ve been able to add a lot of new, detailed information to Google Maps - information that helps people better explore and get around the real world. For example, college students will be pleased to see maps of many campuses; and cyclists will now find many more trails and paths to explore. Soon we even plan on providing you with biking directions to take advantage of this new data. Of course, in the true Google spirit of “launch and iterate,” we plan to work with more data sources to add new features in the map.

Although no date is set, this is a much needed, and long over due function that will be a boon to cyclists and cycling. Oftentimes, the best driving directions are not the best roads to take a ride on. Also, since Google currently doesn’t have trail data, if you are looking for biking directions, and click “Walk There,” there is a chance that it will send you up E Carson St instead of the South Side Trail, for instance."

I'm waiting very eagerly for Google Bedroom View!

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Yinz Weekly Links For September 3rd

I't's been less than a week but the stack too full for the gumband. Here's some stuff I found on the the art and Yinzosphere. Also thrown in is a random selection of economic news/opinion from around the web.

This is planned as a weekly thing but as usual-- things will be random and chaotic. Many of these posts are not from today but just freshly discovered.

In The New Yorker

The Hills Are Alive- Catches the buzz of Pittsburgh's small press scene

On Tube City Almanac

Eyesore Hotel Was Work of Celebrated Architect

On Pittsblog

Cities are not computer brands

On Bike Pittsburgh

Planning Commission passes bike parking ordinance

New bike commuting guide

In Post Gazette

Rivers Casino revenues well below projections.

Sales tax drop likely means less RAD money for the arts.

Pirates will have a record 17th straight losing season

Two women artists look @ Braddock

Swine Flue cases piling up at local Universities

Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Farmers markets are hot.

Arts and Crafts Colonial Festival

More reasons we are most livable city

On Rust Wire

Mural In Cleveland

100 days of pain for David Bing, new mayor of Detroit

On Pittsburgh Comet

G20 musings

I Will Shout Youngstown

Polish Day In Youngstown

In Kansas City Star

Mahoning Valley produces football coaches.

On Defend Youngstown

Youngstown State University enrollment of 14,500 is highest in 16 years.

On Outside Erie

Thoughts on the Rehab of Erie's Union Station

On I Heart Pittsburgh

On CNN Money

Workers know times are tough and accept or ask for pay cuts

On Calculated Risk

Personal Bankruptcy filings up 24% since last August

On Cleveland.Com

Small theater company in Cleveland and Akron defaults on loan and closes down

Pay cuts @ Cleveland Orchestra (old news- from March)

In New York Times

Publisher of Orange County Register files for Chapter 11

In NYC, the government runs a money losing bookie operation

On Streetsblog NY

NYC Principles Union sues to protect free parking perks

In Forbes

Steelers ranked #16 in NFL for estimated team value

In Site Selection Magazine

Pittsburgh cover story. Interesting- but looks like an advertorial

On Culture Grrl

More on the Cleveland Museum donor intent mess

Concerns about Obama and the arts as a "tool of the state."

In Buffalo News

Reaction and thoughts about the Cleveland Museum's move and The Albright Knox Gallery

On Two Coats Of Paint

Latest Art Star contest

On The James Kalm Chanel

James checks out the latest fring hood for galleries in NYC-- Sunset Park

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

BikeFest 09 Fundraiser



BikeFest is here! Because I am lazy, almost all of this post was copied from Bike Pittsburgh.



First-- there's a big fundraiser- so they can exist please attend or support them if you can, in any way you can.

Come to our party and help make Pittsburgh a safer place to ride! The BikeFest Fundraiser Party is known as one of the best parties in Pittsburgh — great people, food, drinks, music and fun! Please mark your calendar now and save the date.

When: August 14th // large donor event 6:30pm - 8:00pm // main event from 8:00pm-12am

Where: Pittsburgh Opera // 2425 Liberty Avenue // Pittsburgh, PA 15222 [map]
Why: To raise money for BikePGH (and to have a great time while doing it)
How much: $30 General Admission, $55 Ticket + BikePGH membership, $100 VIP Stimulus ticket, or $10 Recession Special. Click here to purchase



View Larger Map

More about the fundraiser here.