[*BCM*] BOSTON BIKE RALLY! MONDAY MAY 12 @ 2 PM SHARP.

[Jeffrey Rosenblum]

BOSTON BIKE RALLY! MONDAY MAY 12 @ 2 PM SHARP
* ATTENDANCE IS CRITICAL! *

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons kick-
off Bay State Bike Week with a mini-bike ride and speeches! Depart
City Hall Plaza by bicycle @ 2 PM SHARP, Bike to Post Office Square,
Rally 2:15 - 2:30pm.

Free T-shirts and/or water bottles provided to first 100 attendees.

LivableStreets Alliance strongly urges you and your friends and
acquaintances to attend-- a strong show of support is critical to the
success of the new Boston Bikes program. We know it is short notice,
and the weather is questionable for Monday, but we need as many
cyclists to attend as possible. It's only a HALF HOUR COMMITMENT of
time but is so important. If you know any cyclists who work downtown,
please forward this announcement to them.

PLEASE RSVP TO:
"Freedman, Nicole" <Nicole.Freedman.bra at cityofboston.gov>,
PLEASE CC:
info at livablestreets.info


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EDITORIAL: MAYOR MENINO'S NEW BICYCLE INITIATIVE
by Jeff Rosenblum, co-founder LivableStreets Alliance
October 19, 2007

For many decades, bicycle advocates have been asking for the City of
Boston to take leadership in making our city a better place to
bicycle. Yes, in the past there have been false starts, the City's own
recommendations unheeded, and commitments broken. Why, then, do I
think things are different now with this latest bicycling initiative
from Mayor Menino?

For over three years, in laying the groundwork for and then launching
LivableStreets Alliance, I have been talking with advocates,
government staffers, transportation professionals, political-types,
business owners (past and present) from around the Boston area, the
US, and the world, about how to make social change happen in the realm
of urban transportation. All roads, so to speak, point to an alignment
of two "stars": (1) leadership and (2) grassroots support.

The just-announced "Boston Bikes" program is an initiative of the
Mayors office, with solid support from his Chief of Policy. And the
Mayor has just started biking regularly! A staff person (Nicole
Freedman) dedicated to this program has been hired and initial funds
have been allocated to her program. This could only have happened with
the groundwork of advocacy networks and support already in place from
organizations like MassBike, LivableStreets Alliance, BikesNotBombs,
Adaptive Environments, WalkBoston, and many others.

Chicago and Cambridge, for example, both started the same way-- an
initiative at the highest level of government, skepticism by the
transportation staff, but high level of community support and previous
years of advocacy groundwork.

The City of Boston has reached out to the League of American Cyclists
to organize a Summit, and they have asked LivableStreets and MassBike
to help guide the process. The Summit is next week (sorry for the
short notice, but when Mayor Menino decides to move on something, he
wants it fast). While there is certainly no assurance that this will
turn into a full-fledged bicycle program, it is certainly extremely
promising.

I URGE YOU TO PARTICIPATE AND CONTINUE TO SHOW THE CITY OF BOSTON WHAT
A HUGE DEMAND THERE IS FOR BETTER BIKING IN BOSTON AND OUR REGION.

On behalf of LivableStreets Alliance, I would like to personally thank
the countless bicycle and urban planning advocates, both working
outside and inside City Hall, who have been working so diligently over
the past several decades to help bring us to this point in time.