We have one word to sum up the night: EPIC.
Yet again, more surprises from the democratic community of cyclists that make up Bike Party: Over 2,000 of you showed us you were willing to travel to an (for many folks, at least) inconvenient location, take a 24-mile trek to parts unknown and foreign to us with “San Jose” eyes, and enjoy the snot out of it.
This ride’s successes showed the fruit of the hard organizing that our many volunteers have struggled over for the last month, and at the same time we know that we need much more: MANY more volunteers, MUCH more coordination to help everyone work together, and MUCH more thoughtful communication to keep everyone informed effectively. Rest assured that these ongoing struggles will be major topics of the Hub meeting (the Hub is the group of “spoke” organizers who coordinate all other volunteers) following this ride. Likewise, don’t hesitate to contact one of us to get involved.
A special thanks needs to go to our AMAZING route planners and test riders who work super hard to find all the amazing places to go. We love you (although we all have been grouchy lately), and this ride certainly showed the benefit of amazing route planning. That 3rd “mystery” regroup was killer! Of course, a huge shout-out is also due to the Mountain View police, who not only anticipated our ride and publicized it by their twitter account, but showed incredible tact, courtesy, and good planning as they escorted & policed our ride, and in at least one case responded to an injury.
If you would like to share your experiences, the comment section is open.
Metal Dan
September 19, 2009
No one should judge anyone on this forum, nor should we call eachother names. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, lets just be respectful. You’ll accomplish more, i promise.
Metal Dan
\m/
Rapid Robert
September 19, 2009
Hey Than … Lighten Up!
YOU throw a party for 2500. A few of them are going to piss off the neighbors and damage their lawns with, ahem, discarded beer. Somebody might even break off a neighbor’s sprinkler head with their unlawful behaviour. BIG DEAL.
Rational people have well established mechanisms for such situations. They don’t include expecting a crowd of 2500 to dutifully follow every law on the books. Join us in the real world and everything will be cool.
Bill
September 19, 2009
Final stop should not have been kept secret. I missed it completely. All I know is that I kept following the people in front of me and eventually I realized there were no other riders around except the 6 or 7 of us. We wound up on First Street, which was lucky for me because otherwise I would have been lost.
Also, another accident report. Somewhere near the end I saw a guy going fast try to slip between two others who were riding beside each other. There was not enough room, and one man was knocked over. I hope he came out okay, and I hope the guy who knocked him over payed for any damage.
I, too, was pissed that someone vandalized the exit signs at the garage. That’s just going to provoke backlash against us.
Someone left an empty whisky bottle on the ground at Costco. There were trash cans nearby. Someone accidentally rolled over the bottle and left broken glass. Please, people, when there are trash cans nearby, ther is no reason to litter.
Props to the cops who helped out with traffic, and to the BIRDS who did a great job.
The route included some beautiful locations. I also don’t blame the planners for wanting to explore other cities. But as someone who lives in San Jose, I do hope most future rides will be closer to home. And when not, make sure people know in advance where we’re supposed to end up so we can plan how to get home from there.
All in all, a good ride.
Sam Z
September 19, 2009
i think i would have to say that this was the best bike party yet… i saw a minimum of red light running. the music truck was awesome. the parking garage was brilliant. it was so cool getting to the top and watching the 2 mile long steam of cyclist just pour in. the way the sound echoed inside was amazing. and the way everyone poured out was also pretty cool. mad props to everyone who went all out on the theme. also thank you to all of the police who were incredibly helpful and supportive on this ride. Thanks everyone for making this ride great. Keep it up!
Bruce
September 19, 2009
Ride was awesome.
One thing that really annoyed me though was seeing this jackass wearing a red #32 football jersey bust out a red spray can out of his pocket and tag “JRT” on the utility box just before the overpass of 101 on Great America Parkway.
Dumbass. Moron. Next time stay home. Idiot.
John M
September 19, 2009
@than, I wanted to say thanks for offering a perspective of the ride last night. I invite you to come on a ride and form follow up opinion of what SJBP is about.
Please realize that we aim to improve our rides every month and welcome feedback that can help us plan more effectively. Someone posted earlier that we try to strike a delicate balance between traffic and neighborhood impact.
To anyone looking to offer feedback constructive criticism is welcome. We hold a public planning meeting monthly.
Spliffer
September 19, 2009
I agree with the right to free speech. But once an opinion is posted on the public square it can be evaluated and debated on it’s merits.
It should past the critical thinking test.
And honestly — mr. than — I tend to refrain from political and religious labels.
Labels are often used to pigeon-hole and marginalize people.
I don’t subscribe to right-leaning-schools nor left-leaning-schools.
I am from KNOW-school.
I simply find it strange that you embrace SJBP but at the same time — in this very SJBP forum — you actually express disavowal of the movement.
Thanks for letting us all know where you stand ‘mr. than’ and thanks for saying it here in the SJBP town-square.
I take it that I will never find you in a Bike Party fox-hole — like the rest of us — fighting to save and improve the movement.
I agree with Rapid Robert, that you’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
History has proven that you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
So, Bike Party just has to keep on forging ahead despite the naysayers.
As I read somewhere yesterday: BIKE PARTY FOREVER!!!!!!
tinywheels
September 19, 2009
That ride was amazing! I came home last night from southern california and I have to say that that was the way I wanted to enjoy my Friday night. People were crazy, and I loved it! Usually my brother goes on the ride, but this month he had other plans, so I jumped on the chance to go anyways and before I knew it I was having a grand old time with others who love to ride. I will try and make it next month and I will spread the word. My parents even want to go next month. Thanks for the good time folks!
Wuss912
September 19, 2009
are we as a bike party offering to pay for the two destroyed exit signs? time to take up a collection?
than
September 19, 2009
This whole situation is similar to motorcycle’s PR situation in the 1970s. Motorists didn’t respect them personally or their safety. This happened with gradual, slow, steady impregnation of motorcycles into everyday life, in popular culture, on the roads in small but increasing numbers and in to the public’s mind. Motorcycles became accepted over time, just as bicycles need to.
They DID NOT do this by holding a Sturgis motorcycle rally or Daytona Bike week every month (look it up if you don’t know) rumbling through town and creating problems. That would have worked against the motorcycle movement and they knew it.
I don’t understand why this is so hard for everyone here to understand. If you really think that inviting a 2500 person street party, with minimal supervision, every month into residential areas to leave a huge mess, disruption of people’s life in the middle of the night, sapping public resources, some (small) number of people engaging in open intoxication, rowdy-herd mentality behavior running red lights (it happens a lot, even with the “rules”)… then I guess I can’t say much more other than that these rides need to be much smaller and more widely distributed.
Ala_Amber
September 19, 2009
If anyone is wondering where the donation money goes, its listed here.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tE3wh1w74wOsf_0DDHpU4kQ&single=true&gid=0&output=html
The people who sell t-shirts donate a portion of the profits to us, but mostly they sell t-shirts because it promotes bike party.
We have spent more money out of pocket for the events then most people realize. We only started keeping track/asking for donations in July so we could buy bullhorns and walkies.
We still spend money out of pocket. It isn’t recorded.
The sound system and other musical acts are completely paid for by volunteers and people who love music.
Cody Brown, aka Barhop, if you want to make claims that we are trying to line our pockets, you should get your facts straight. Once you do that, I will approve your comments.
Amber
September 19, 2009
We have an open planning meeting on October 6th, if any of you would like to attend-you are invited. The location will be announced closer to the date.
admin
September 19, 2009
Spliffer and Than.
Than has good points. Spliffer has good points. People don’t attack each other personally. Discuss the merits of the points.
Riding on residential streets late with litter, noise, and bad behavior is going to make people unhappy.
Building community by throwing a party on the streets is making people happy. It also gets people off their butts and on a bicycle. (which many never knew was so awesome).
The real issue is how to balance those two conflicting problems?
Why don’t you guys give some answers instead of insulting each other.
rocco
September 19, 2009
work sucks i missed another one.. =( next month… birthday ride for me yea!?!?
Mona
September 19, 2009
I LOVED the ride last night. It was only my third one, but by far the best organized and nicest. I didn’t see as many fights or other ugliness on the ride as in the past. I really like riding through the residential areas, seeing the families out on the sidewalks (especially the kids) is such a kick! The police were great, I thanked them as often as I could. Their presence really helped keep everything together, and as long as everyone was being cool, it worked very well.
We need to remind people to please use the trash bins, that does seem to be an issue. And not clog the driveways at regroups or even other little stores/stops along the way.
Overall, though, great ride!!! Keep it up!
Stephagal
September 19, 2009
Thanks to Lawrence, who like me, was riding his folding bike and helped me with a loose chain and a shifting problem. Kudos to another guy who just rode up because he saw everyone on their bikes so he grabbed his to ride along.
It was my 2nd Bike Party last night and it’s confirmed – I LOVE Bike Party! It’s great to see everyone band together and helping strangers have a great time. I could go with less drunken idiots riding on the sidewalk and stopping in the middle of the road, but such is life.
My only recommendation for the HUB would be to pre-post signs for tricky turns. My group and I got lost and missed the 3rd meet up (the one everyone is calling epic) because of a missed turn.
In the film biz, we print a brightly colored sign on foam core with an arrow and intiials of the production (SJBP) right side up and upside down. You can staple the sign to telephone poles pointing the direction of the turn and it would be really helpful. Then, one person drives the route afterwards and removes the signs. Simple, cheap, effective.
than
September 19, 2009
I’m upset because I’m an avid bicyclist who commutes every day by bicycle but also a resident of Mountain View. I didn’t even know about SJBP until yesterday when you all woke me up.
The flippant attitude of “oh well it’s fun, who cares, it’s only MV, one town of many, it’s only one day out of the year,” infuriates me even more. Why do the rights of people living here in MV trying to get peace somehow become subordinate to your desire to “have fun” and the very loose word of “make people happy”?! I certainly wasn’t happy last night and neither were a lot of my fellow MV-ians.
I’m trying to restrain my rhetoric as much as possible but I’m finding everyone’s dismissive attitude making that hard.
It’s even more infuriating that the loud crowd of 2000+ people disturbing MV for an hour is hiding behind words like “community” and “democratic” and “low impact” as well as “good will”.
This organization failed last night at trying to leave good will towards bikers despite your anecdotes about renters standing out and cheering you on.
DON’T COME BACK. MOUNTAIN VIEW DOESN’T WANT YOU.
Wuss912
September 19, 2009
Than, Come ride with us next month. give bike party a try…. then you can help us to fix our problems. we would appreciate the help.
Brendan
September 19, 2009
I’m an avid cyclist and bike commuter. I think the ride was fun and brought my wife for the first time and she had a blast!
Here’s a few things to add; shorten the ride to about 20 miles. Also try to pick regroup areas without liqour stores to stop. I know this is “Bike Party” but people be buying hard alcohol at these stops to try and get drunk faster. I bought beer but all I got was a headache, yet I had seen some truely unruly people. I think the “Birds” did a good job, but could be more vocal.
I love that we have gotten big…but it was a little suspect that Walt’s cycle was at start point and we rode past their shop…..then I see “Birds” asking for donations. It’s okay for these companies to want to tap into this “market” but please don’t let this get out of hand.
Kevin
September 19, 2009
Took this video of everyone leaving the parking garage. I started after the crowd started to leave and stopped before everyone left. Over 10 minutes of steady stream of bikes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeZB__KB4tM
Epic moment at the garage. Too bad for the damage to the signs.
The organizers should look to start a ride at Leigh HS and head out to Calero Reservoir in Almaden Ride is flat and low potential for damage and very little traffic.
Mountain View
September 19, 2009
Than,
You don’t speak for Mountain View. I do and I want the San Jose Bike Party back in the future. You could always move to Fresno.
Regards,
Mountain View
than
September 19, 2009
Wuss: You’ll understand if I don’t want to spend time with people who have in the immediate past told me to “grow a pair” or called me a “geezer”.
chain_n_cogs
September 19, 2009
Than,
I understand that you are upset with the negativity that SJ Bike Party draws. In fact, every month we always have one or two people complain about SJ Bike Party and how it ruins their neighborhood for one horrendous night that they could not tolerate, ONE night. You have every reason to be upset if this is a weekly of monthly occurrence. However, it’s not. It’s a one time deal and we move on to a different route next month and the month thereafter.
I don’t think the business owners of Mt.V will agree with you that SJ Bike Party is not welcome to your town. I’m sure with the 2500+ cyclists out there last night has brought good business to them. In fact, it was well publicized to support local businesses in the area where we rode.
Before you can rebut anything I mentioned above, I personally apologize for your misfortunes last night and a groggy day from not being able to sleep. Until further adieu, we’ll try to keep the peace.
A SJ Bike Party participant.
drew
September 19, 2009
my first bike party!!!!! sooooo awesome…thanks to all who put it on and the cops for letting us do it and be so chill about it!!!!! cant wait till next month!!
Spliffer
September 19, 2009
Than, please be reasonable. You are the only person in MT View who expresses disdain for Bike Party.
We received so much love from hundreds of M.V. residents while rolling through your town. Even your police officers where quite affable and friendly chaps. Oh, but you want us to:
“DON’T COME BACK. MOUNTAIN VIEW DOESN’T WANT YOU.”
It is sad that you came on Bike Party’s town-square cloaked in a facade of empathy only to show your real intent in your second to last post, (comment #67).
We have finally smoked you out. And we see that you would like for us to just permanently disappear.
Thanks for strengthening our resolve. You have contributed immensely to making Bike Party stronger today.
You cannot tarnish the love and support we received from 99.99% of the wonderful residents of Mt View.
We hold no malice towards you and we would love for you to join us to smoke the peace pipe on a future ride.
After all, even Ebenezer Scrooge came around upon discovering the error of his ways.
b5125125
September 19, 2009
Like to give a shout out to my lady going 2 for 2 both in riding from start to finish and for eating some pavement. Also like to thanks the dude who help me get her bike out of the way on the overpass, she said that sucka was steep and had jelly legs (I think she was just tired) heh heh. So the couple pulling the couch do they actually sit on it. Can’t wait for next months BIKE PARTAAY!!!! it’s like crack can’t get enough of it. Oh one more thang like to holla at dude with the train horn… that sh!@# is crazy…love it
PS: since there’s a mobile DJ can we get a mobile recycling collector.
Rapid Robert
September 19, 2009
We must have been out of Mountain View by 11:00. One complaint from a resident being awakened by us there, then, is doin’ pretty good, in my opinion, despite his presumption to speak for all of Mountain View.
Next ……..
b5125125
September 19, 2009
maybe the proceeds can go the the Bike Party budget…like killing two birds with one stone heh heh
Jake
September 19, 2009
This really was one of the best rides yet. The route was a good combination of high visibility areas that provide a parade feel and some straightaways to thin the crowd out. The vibe was a lot more positive than some of the other rides. I think an overall super success!!
A few suggestions:
1) GET LIGHTS!!! People… You can buy lights at Target for like $10-$15. They are so essential for having a safe bike party and it’s also the law. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL!
2) Nobody “owns” bike party(and this really goes to one tall older guy who was directing traffic) He was a total dick to one kid. The kid asked him a question and the guy flipped out calling him an idiot and telling him “if he can’t handle the rules he can stay home”. The kid had done nothing. When I told him to chill out he started pacing back and forth yelling about how “this is HIS bike party” blah blah blah. All this does is create an antagonistic relationship where people are going to be more likely to act out.
3) For the organizers, I would really recommend that we start emphasizing the “Bike” more than the “Party”. Really start to include in communications, themes, tshirts, etc that this IS a community building event and now just a party. I think “Than” has some good points. If we leave trash, don’t ride safe, vandalize, and generally don’t hold ourselves accountable, we are going to deserve to be shut down. Just one small example, I saw a group of folks who were talking shit to the cops when those cops were AWESOME (I hope everyone emails them). We’ll always have a few bad apples but if the culture of bike party is focused more on the community aspect, it will reflect in folks’ attitudes as well.
Keep the amazing work. I wish there would have been more people with donation cans. I didn’t see one and had a twenty waiting for them! If you post an addy to sent it to I will mail it.
Amber
September 20, 2009
In regards to the comment about Walts,
Walt’s sells lights and helmets at a discount to riders (you all need them!) in addition to tubes and accesories-which people also need. They also provide music, volunteers, and donations to bike party.
We support local bike shops and are happy to have them there. Riding near their shop was a coincidence. They are in downtown Sunnyvale.
Lots of business have been hitting up bike party for various reasons. If they don’t support bicycles and the community, we aren’t interested.
Michael Jackson
September 20, 2009
good ride! bad theme !!just my opinion… but people need to not make fun of people who fall and hurt themselves! my friend crashed and hurt herself and while trying to get up a guy came by and taunted her. this is the last thing someone wants to hear when hurt..it made me wanna ride up and kick his rear tire out !
C
September 20, 2009
I had a headache that night, trying to sleep. You guys kept me up. So me and 2 other friends got our bike and joined. It was amazing.
My friend does those critical mass down in Fullerton, but never have I seen so many bikers. I will be better prepared next time
Love it.
moo
September 20, 2009
I rode in last night’s bike party and I had a blast. I’m already looking forward to next month’s ride, at least after the saddle soreness passes!
I understand the frustration expressed by “than” and believe that we should do what we can to mitigate those issues. It’s true that the SJ Bike Party builds community, and does contribute in some ways to the “greater good”. However, it’s presumptuous to claim that it’s our right to unilaterally decide that those benefits outweigh the inconveniences for others, just as it’s presumptuous for “than” to assume he/she speaks for all of Mountain View. I personally would love to see the Bike Party riding down my street, but at the same time I recognize that I don’t necessarily speak for all my neighbors.
On last night’s ride, most of residential streets were covered in the early part of the ride, and some of the streets that we passed later were on naturally noisy areas (eg. the frontage road of US 101). However, I believe most of the ride left the Costco parking lot around 11pm, which would have put us on Middlefield Road around 11:15pm. Perhaps this is where Sharon (comment #31 above) was awakened by the ride. Should we encourage quieter riding when passing through residential areas after 11pm? Is there a realistic way for this to happen? I’m not sure.
I do think we need more lights and not fewer. The cyclists without lights were a real danger on the darker parts of the ride, especially near Moffett Field. This wass especially true when there are no car headlights to illuminate reflectors.
It should be noted that the organizers do try to minimize the impact to residents by rotating routes, avoiding rush hour, encouraging courteous riding behavior, and reaching out to people who can offer constructive criticism. I do hope that we are able to find ways to make this ride work for everyone, as I would hate to see it go away. Thanks in a large part to the Bike Party, I’ve probably logged more miles on my bicycle in the last month than I have for the last few years combined.
I really enjoyed last night’s route because it passed through such a wide variety of areas. We rode through residential neighborhoods (some of which were lined with people making more noise than the riders), lively commercial areas, two downtown scenes, industrial areas, and a miltary base! I do have a question – was there in fact an actual ending point? We encountered a lot of confused riders at the end, but never happened upon an actual gathering.
GQ
September 20, 2009
right before turning right by moffet, saw this one guy on the ground. Looks like he crashed awhile back but when we helped him up, he was obviously too drunk. Got back on his bike, then down the road he crashed into another biker and got seriously injured. Pls ride sober if you can’t handle the alky. Other than that, keep this bp alive. Its always been fun.
J
September 20, 2009
It was my first time seeing your group and thought it was pretty cool at first, but it disgusted me at how you guys did not follow the laws. Even though you have the laws listed on your site I saw that many of them were broken and caused a lot of trouble for other people out there.
The people that were blatantly breaking the laws are gonna give you guys a bad rep and cause you guys to be unwelcome in many areas. One of the biggest offenses of the night was that many people were running red lights causing traffic to stop. This is extremely dangerous for riders at night.
I know I am going to get comments about this negative post, but this is really for those who decided to break the law. Taking the example of running red lights. I don’t think you would like to be hit by a car….It will hurt you physically and will emotionally scar the person who hit you as well. Even though the car that hits the person would not be at fault because you run a red light and the driver would still feel bad especially if you ended up seriously injured or dead.
All in all to wrap this up. I do like what this group is trying to achieve, but I think you guys need to emphasize the laws of the road for everyone’s safety. BTW it was not just a few people breaking the law. It was a good few hundred people that decided to run red lights (also it was obvious that the people were trying to cause traffic to stop because they were blocking the way of traffic that had green lights i.e. when it was their red light they ran it and when it was their green light they did not move!). Anyways good luck to your group.
Amber
September 20, 2009
More Mountain View opinions: http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=1969#add_comments
Amber
September 20, 2009
J,
We bicyclist can’t go as fast as cars. It takes us longer to get momentum to go at a green light. (like 30 seconds in a group, its annoying for me waiting for them to go)
As for hundreds running red lights, I personally only saw a handful, but I was in the back. The ride is so long its hard to tell whats going on in the front/middle.
If it was 250 out of 2500, that’s only 10% breaking laws. However, I agree with you, we definately need to work on encouraging those 10% to follow the laws. They will ruin the ride for everyone.
Wuss912
September 20, 2009
@Stephagal the signs sound like a great idea. are you volunteering to implement it? Otherwise i don’t really think the volunteers are looking for more work
Rapid Robert
September 20, 2009
Temporary signs are a great idea, but it’s an idea that requires significant work. Someone would have to buy and make them each month, a few days before each ride, as that’s when the route is finally determined.
Then, they’d have to be installed the afternoon of the ride by someone driving the route (probably the one who made them). That’s gonna’ take an hour and a half. Finally, they’d have to be taken down, also by someone driving the route. Probably the same guy.
That’s easily half a day’s work, plus maybe $50 in materials, for one guy (the one motivated to do it) every month. Good idea. I’ll even sign up for a turn, but it’s a job that needs a few willing to do it or it’ll get real old real fast for the one stuck with the duty. Any other volunteers?
KSD
September 20, 2009
I LOVE SJ Bike Party!!!
Thank you so much to the people that help make this possible! I hope I can help out with next month’s ride!
Stephagal
September 20, 2009
@Wuss912 and @Rapid Robert
Well, I’ll do the posting if some folks pitch in for the materials. It’s easier done than you think. I actually signed up as a volunteer, so I’ll be communicating this to the organizers. I’m definitely willing to implement.
Wuss912
September 20, 2009
the signs could even be reused from ride to ride if we do it right…
i think the most of the work is deploying and picking them up
the cleanup could be done pretty easily by someone with a bike trailer riding at the back of the ride.
if we wanted we could make the signs have led’s on them which would make them easier to spot . and would drive up the price but if we reuse them thats not a problem
Rapid Robert
September 20, 2009
I thought of getting cardboard from the local bike shop and using a box cutter. Led’s poked through from behind could be reused. Couple of cans of Day-Glo paint and a few stencils. It’s still really about the drive before and after, or the drive before and dedicated trailer after, and the time to prepare.
Thanks for steppin’ up Stephagal!
kevin
September 20, 2009
BMX not wanted?
Couple thoughts. Over the past couple rides if you wanted to make a case for stereo typing behavior, look no further then the BMX riders. I personally witnessed one rider damaging the signs in the parking garage. Take a look at the beginning of the ride and every stop, Which group is most likely getting high? drinking?
When we pass a liquor store on route, which bike style is most represented outside the store? This isn’t to say that all BMX riders are doing this but it is a heads up to those that aren’t your co riders are giving you a bad rap.
Also after reading the link to the MV website above and the responses from the neighbors, we need to remind them of the many parents and kids lining the streets whom we provided the entertainment for on their Friday night. Didn’t hear a lot of complaining from them. Just a lot of cheering and cameras taking pictures and videos.
C
September 20, 2009
I didn’t see many people run redlight, I picked the group on middlefield road when I got waken up. MTV police actually stopped the traffic so we would pass all major traffic light,
Prop to them.
Wuss912
September 20, 2009
blaming bad behavior on BMXers is just another type of stereotyping… Can’t we all just get along?
SAN JOSE
September 20, 2009
Come back to me Bike Party!
I MISS YOU!
-San Jose
thee ryan
September 20, 2009
October 16th, you’re too far away!
dhug
September 20, 2009
*Direct insults to fellow posters will not be approved. This comment has been edited.*
Hey kevin, my friends ride bmx. Its fuckin bike party and your stereo typing them just because they ride bmx. You think there not wanted. whats wrong with you man, just becuase me and my friends like to smoke, whats is it doing to you? Giving you asthma ha
pat
September 20, 2009
San Jose Bike party organizers need to aquire a more mainstream approach
——————————————————–
Hi,
Having worked with one of the legitimate bike organizations, your bike party looks like potential fun, but organizers need to to at least behind the scenes do a few things. (Acknowledged there is a real spontaneity party appeal here) I hope for their “community building” they are prepared to do so and its not just a marketing feel good label slapped on to state “community building”. It is interesting that everybody that has worked to enable allowing bikes on streets and in our community, (SVBC, comments to Cyclelicious) are very strangely silent pro or con publicly in their forums. (Cyclelicious videos posted both point out its too big now) I sense there is a grave concern that your efforts are terribly misplaced, misdirected and will polarize the community on biking. We all have spent decades building mainstream support making such a bike ride possible, that you may sweep away perhaps overnight.
The organizers are likely to suffer the fate of the similar atmosphere Cinco de Mayo in San Jose, unless they clean up their act real quick. Under huge police presence and wide community support this was shut down. Anyone organizing faces a huge personal civil and criminal liability under the same laws as inciting a riot. Right now its a mob, getting very large and out of control.
The comments in your blog are disturbing. One representative one of “Mike sept 19″ http://www.sjbikeparty.org/archives/978#comments
“Low Lights – biker being hit by a car sucks. Hope he is ok. Trash everywhere. My biggest dissapointment was the damage done at the 5 story parking garage. Some moron thought it was cool to trash two of the hanging lit exit signs, tearing them partially down. Figure a cost of $200 per sign, union labor at another $400 and administrative expenses to deal with it all and I bet that totals out to $800 in damage. Once the big 5 property management companies hear of that sort of thing the security guards will be instructed to call police the instant we show up.”
- Frankly security are no fools, they will follow twitter etc and have the security and police waiting and your event will be made a very ugly scene, a real downer and not a fun “community building” event at all. I sense this will happen real soon.
Now what to do. The folks of most major bike groups of area can give even better advice I am sure. but here is my stab to help you grow as a long term fun event. I hope you work with these “old farts”, they have been there in their younger days.
First. To cities behind scenes make your self legal; Get parade permits or special event permits. (hassle but necessary) You yourself stated Mountain view was extremely tolerant and helpful unofficially. The scope of this ride has grown too big and must change.
Second. I do not see how you can afford this and get any sponsors, but you need liablity insurance coverage. (This may require the event to be invitation, or paid preregisteration only with wrist bands, one way to keep the scoufolds “Mike” speaks of away)
3rd. Remove reference to to organizations (such as SVBC) from your site that have not officially supported your anarchy party approach. If they do not officially support you, show the courtesty of not dragging them into your controversial methods.
4. The leadership has to become accountable. Names and contact in the open or on file with cities for sure. Once something serious happens, being behind the scenes will not allow leaders to escape.
Please, I beg you!!!! For all bikers sakes, do not progress more in this anarchy path! Its not the same as throwing a “Burning Man” party in the middle of the isolated desert. It serves to only to polarize what should be an obvious good way to get around by bikes. Everybody has a right to streets, but all large events, especially non political events, taking control of part of streets require permits, no exceptions. That is the law, upheld by the courts.
Regards
Party responsibly, be responsible.
Pat