A roving block party connects neighbors to Druid Hill Park

A key part of our mission at Bikemore is improving connectivity to our public parks - a core piece of building a safer, healthier, and more livable city. Back at our October Bike Leaders Breakfast, our long-time friend and public artist Graham Coreil-Allen brought flyers and shared the goals of Arches & Access, an event he co-organized, to illuminate the connections between West Baltimore neighborhoods and Druid Hill Park.

We showed up in West Baltimore on the night of Sunday, November 3rd, joining over three hundred residents from the neighborhoods surrounding Druid Hill Park who came together to create a space for a roving block party and parade on Druid Park Lake Drive. People danced, marched, performed, and celebrated access to public green space. 

The event was first conceived by artist Jessy DeSantis and advocate Courtney Bettle, both Reservoir Hill residents, as an idea based off DeSantis’ colorful painting of the historic arch on Madison Avenue and Druid Park Lake Drive. Later teaming up with Coreil-Allen, who lives on Auchentoroly Terrace, they organized a light exhibit through the Neighborhood Lights initiative of the Brilliant Baltimore/Festival of Light and Literature. Together, they expanded their original vision of lighting up the arch to include a parade of solar-powered lights leading into the park and ending at an equally vibrant Rawlings Conservatory.

“Collectively they expanded the vision to include solar powered lights leading into the park, activated by a joyful community parade showing what life could be like without highways hindering pedestrian access to Druid Hill Park.”

A parade studded with a marching band, Benevolent Bubbles’ lighted bikes, and speeches from neighborhood leaders, including 7th District Councilperson Leon Pinkett, created a welcoming, exciting environment that attracted many who joined from side streets and through the Big Jump.  

The organizers shared that by the end of the night, residents were already looking forward to making Arches & Access an annual event to unite communities of West Baltimore with Druid Hill Park. Through a lively parade, they truly accomplished their goal of “show[ing] what life could be like without highways hindering pedestrian access to Druid Hill Park.”

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This need for safe access for people who bike, walk, and use mobility devices is why we’ve been building relationships in the neighborhoods surrounding Druid Hill Park for years. When the Druid Hill Expressway was built, the five-lane highway separated neighbors from safely and comfortably accessing a vital greenspace in the city. When we installed the Big Jump along 28th St and Druid Park Lake Drive, it created access for people to travel between West and Central Baltimore. It decreased the speed of traffic and shortened crosswalks to make it easier for neighbors to walk to Druid Hill Park. 

The liveliness of the celebration that neighbors created reinforced that the work we do at Bikemore is not to reinvent the wheel. Communities have always known what they want: streets for people. 

We are constantly seeking to uplift the strength, creativity, and power that residents already have.

This is why we spent more of our capacity in 2019 than ever on community building. We don’t need to be the center of work for transportation change. In creating an equitable transit system, the process is just as important as the deliverable. That means that we have to center the voices of people who have been advocating for safer streets that have also been historically and structurally ignored.

In 2020, we want to support more of our neighbors - so that they can create spaces that prioritize connectivity and accessibility to parks in our city; so that they can activate their community; so that they can be the leaders of political change in Baltimore. 

Help us support changemakers across Baltimore by donating to Bikemore today. We can build Complete Streets together.

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Read more about Arches & Access at the blog post from TAP Druid Hill. 

Afghan Cycles screening brings together neighbors, riders, and local advocates

Bikemore focuses on making Baltimore a safer, more connected and accessible place for people who bike and walk, and that’s often thought of as ensuring that there are places to ride without fear of getting hit by a car. But we know that personal safety is way more complex than that. What determines if someone feels safe on our streets and in our public space involves a lot of complex layers of race, class, gender, and culture — and we know that’s especially true here in Baltimore. And that’s why we were excited to bring a screening of Afghan Cycles, a documentary about the challenges and victories women cycling in Afghanistan face, to Baltimore.

We were proud to work with the Creative Alliance, Asylee Women's Enterprise, Southeast CDC, and the Patterson Park Girls Mountain Biking Team to host a neighborhood bike ride and show this film that speaks to the importance and intersection of what safety means and feels like on the road for people biking.

Coaches Becky Redett and Cathy Witt along with two youth riders from the Patterson Park Girls Mountain Bike Team led us through Patterson Park, where they practice regularly. They showed us the grassy hill next to the Pagoda where they learned to descend and rode down a few stairs to show off the bike handling skills they’ve learned. The riders shared that learning how to mountain bike — in Patterson Park, on trails outside of the city, and at races — has provided them a whole lot of confidence and fun, and the coaches shared what it takes to start a youth bike team. (They’re always looking for volunteer helpers and coaches — get in touch!)

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Molly McCullagh, Director of Neighborhood Revitalization from Southeast Community Development led us through the Patterson Park neighborhood. She highlighted a mural at Fayette and Milton by artists Shawn James and Charles Lawrence, along with an adjacent artistic bus stop bench by sculptors Tim Scofield and Kyle Miller. She also showed us the community led art and greening efforts at Library Square. Along with the BUS sculptural bus stop next to the Creative Alliance, Molly pointed out creative placemaking projects that connect transportation to art and local culture, providing respite and beauty for transit riders and neighbors alike.

Our hope is that the ride and screening it inspired participants to think more intentionally about how we can create acceptance and safety for bicyclists in our community: both in the broader world and in Baltimore.

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Want to make more free events like this possible?

Nov 1st - 10th: Neighborhood Lights demonstrate neighbor led placemaking

When you think about how to make streets safer for all the people who use them, you might think about a bike lane or a crosswalk, or the speed that cars travel. While these undoubtedly make streets safer for people who bike and walk, it’s aspects like lighting, trees and plants, artwork, reflections of the culture of neighbors — these are the things that really bring life to streets, the things that make people enjoy their time in public space, encourage people to hang out and develop relationships with their neighbors. These are the things that build stronger, connected neighborhoods.

As part of BOPA’s Light City festival, they award grants to install light installations in neighborhoods throughout Baltimore through their Neighborhood Lights program. And there are two we supported that we’re particularly excited about — check them out November 1st though 10th!

Oliver Light, Oliver Bright

We first met Celena Owens when she was recommended to come on our study trip to Memphis. She is very active in her Oliver neighborhood, and helps take care of and improve neighborhood green spaces and play spaces through the Oliver Beautification Alliance (OBA). The Oliver Light, Oliver Bright project is lighting up three greenspaces in the community to encourage neighbors as well as visitors to explore Oliver in a different way, and to create welcoming and activated community spaces for neighbors to use in the evenings.

We were excited to be able to support Oliver Beautification Alliance’s Neighborhood Lights Grant by being their fiscal sponsor.

>> Read more about Oliver and their Neighborhood Lights project here.

Arches & Access in Reservoir Hill

For the past few years we have been partnering with Graham Coreil-Allen, Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, and neighbors on a variety of community art and traffic calming projects in Reservoir Hill, including a footprint crosswalk project and way finding for the Big Jump. Graham, along with Courtney Conner Bettle, Jessy DeSantis, Graham Coreil-Allen, and Kate Jennings, Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, TAP Druid Hill, and the Rawlings Conservatory developed the Arches and Access Neighborhood Lights project as a continuation of their neighborhood work to make it easier and safer for neighbors to access Druid Hill Park. The Arches and Access project will illuminate and activate the landmark Druid Hill Park Gate at Madison Avenue with colorful lights, as well as a community parade, and public walking tour.

>> Read more about the Arches and Access Neighborhood Lights project.

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Click here to find out where the rest of the Neighborhood Lights installations are, and make a bike ride out of it!

Reflecting on Bikemore IRL

All smiles after our mechanic Josh got this bike up and running!

Liz joined Runners4Justice on a Streetscape Run along new infrastructure in Hamilton. (Photo: Runners4Justice)

Our new Mobile Bike Shop Coordinator Menelik helped make sure her bike fit properly after we made repairs.

Bikemore has always had a strong voice on social media. It is an important way for us to drive direct action, to shape discourse, and to promote our programs and events that build community. When it comes to bikes and bike advocacy if you spend too much time on social media, the online chatter can get pretty noisy and even contentious. Bikemore IRL (in real life) was a way for us to turn down the volume and see what else there is to hear. We were curious what our work would look like if we went offline and instead focused on creating more opportunities to meet people in person. 

It is an exciting time for Bikemore. We have added two new staff and adopted our three year strategic plan that has us growing exponentially. It was a really good time to ask ourselves “who do we want to be when we grow up?”. Social media has been integral in growing our base of supporters. But if we are going to meet our mission of safe streets for all, we needed to listen and connect to people that represent all of Baltimore, people we were not reaching on social media. 

Social media only tells a partial story. And if that’s the only one you read you would think that no one in the whole city wants a bike lane, or a trail, or a safer cross walk that might take out a parking space in their neighborhood. But when you go to a community meeting or a block party and you start asking people what would they change about their street, we have yet to meet anyone that doesn’t want cars to drive slower through their neighborhood. When you start by listening to the values people hold, and then work together to develop potential solutions to uphold them, that is good advocacy. 

Throughout August we served coffee along bike lanes, fixed bikes at our Mobile Bike Shop, and talked to dozens of people about how to create streets that are for people, not just cars. From Edmondson Village to Lake Montebello to Druid Hill Park the message was clear. Bikes are fun and people want more safe places to ride. People want places to walk to in their neighborhood, they want to feel safe crossing the street. They want to be able to ride the bus to work without wondering if they will get there on time. They want to go to parks and events that are currently inaccessible unless you are in a car. They want what Bikemore works to build. They want a City for People.

We know that in every neighborhood in the City there is someone ready to fight for safer streets, equitable development, and improved public transit. We are ready to pour everything we have into making that happen. But in order to be successful we need as many people as we can working toward that common goal. Bringing people together will take more than likes and shares. It will require we form meaningful relationships with people across the entire city. The type of relationships that can only be made in real life. 

Photo: @md_ave_cycletrack

What’s next?

During Bikemore IRL we learned a lot, we forged new connections and partnerships by being present, and we reflected on how we communicate and for what purpose — all of which will be helping to inform our work in the coming months. We’re now back on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram providing our regular updates on what we’re working on and how you can get involved, but we’ll view it with more direction and purpose.

We also decided to revamp a monthly get together we used to host called Bike Leaders Breakfast. Bike Leaders Breakfast started because we realized there were people working on a variety of bike programming and advocacy throughout the city, but it felt like we weren’t connecting. We invited those folks over for breakfast and started to share resources and ideas more freely. Now we’re revamping the monthly breakfast and inviting all to join. So mark your calendars for the first Friday of the month. This month will be at our office at 2209 Maryland Ave, in the future check our calendar for the location.

Fighting City Hall is not enough

By Liz Cornish, Executive Director

Last Friday, when a portion of the Monument Street cycle track was removed to restore 12 parking spaces, we were all dealt a loss. But the next morning Bikemore was out with neighbors at the Boundary Block Party between Upton and Sandtown-Winchester fixing bikes. Beyond City Hall, off social media, people love talking about bikes. 

I spoke to a man living in Sandtown-Winchester. He lost his son to violence in January and wants to organize a ride for peace. We fixed a bike for a mother who wants to open a wellness center that works to address trauma in her community. I talked to a city employee who uses a motorized wheelchair and wants more bike lanes, because that is where she feels comfortable and safe using the street. 

A week before a public art project that Bikemore commissioned went up along the Big Jump. For a year and a half, neighbors and artists worked to conceptualize and create something that would cause people to slow down and look. 

One of the pieces says “Trust Yourself.” 

In the coming months we will be adding two new staff members so that we can fix more bikes and talk to more neighbors. We’re taking a risk growing our staff, but if the past week taught me anything it’s that fighting City Hall is not enough. We must do more, and for that we need your help.

If you were moved to take action last week, consider donating to Bikemore today.

Our work is about imagining a city where streets are built for people, not cars. We have a long way to go, but I have no doubt we are on the right path. Help us get there.