Snapshot of a Saturday Detroit

So this snapshot actually begins on Friday night.  My bike's bottom bracket, which had been making funny noises for a couple days, finally gives out.  What this means is that the pedals all but stop turning.  I'm most of the way home from a great book and clothing exchange in Woodbridge, I'm in Corktown, almost back to Mexicantown where I live.  It is a bummer, but not a desperate situation.  I walk my bike up the pedestrian overpass and then ride it down.  Eventually my bike finally slows and it makes more sense to walk than coast.

Then suddenly DOGS ATTACK!  Or not really attack, but three roaming street dogs start barking at me in a way that makes me really unhappy.  This sort of thing occasionally happens while I'm on my bike, but it is way less scary when you can get your vehicle up to 20 mph, rather than having it weigh you down.  I figure if all else fails I can throw my steel behemoth at them, but first try what my coworkers have told me to do at Romanowski which is to say "NO" in a loud deep voice, and what do ya know, it works.

The next day I leave my house around 10 to take my disabled bike to the Hub Bike Shop.  As I may have mentioned before, they are an awesome bike collective that does lots of bike programming with kids.  They also are the nearest bike shop that I know of to my house.  As I walked over I got "Good Morning" and "How do you do" several times.  I passed a really trashy empty lot on MLK Blvd where a street ministry group was passing out food and clothing and blasting praise movement out of some speakers. 

Shortly after that a city bus pulled up beside me and the driver shouted out that I should throw my bike on the front and get a ride.  I pointed out to him that my extra long frame wouldn't fit on the rack.  Very shortly after that a white guy in a winter coast riding a Schwinn rode up beside me and tried to diagnose the problem with my bike, which of course I already had.  He was very friendly though and was the first of three people today to point out the value of having a back up bike.

Finally I arrive at the Hub.  Darrin recognizes me from both the Progressive Dinner ride and the fact that we often cross paths on our ways to work.  He quickly agrees with me that my bottom bracket is totally dead, and unsurprisingly doesn't stock the fancy pants one that I use (that while fancy pants actually holds up decently to the amount of abuse I put it through).  He orders one though and makes sure that I have a bike to ride.  I just want to point out how amazing this is.  I loved/love the guys at Allegro Cyclery in Walla Walla, but they never seemed very sensitive to the fact that my bike was the ONLY way I had to get around.  They never offered to rent me a bike for a week and often seemed pretty casual about delaying getting my bike back to me by a day or more.  I have no doubt that if I had told Darrin I was bike-less while my bike was out of commission he would have given me one of the refurbished bikes for sale in the shop to use for the week, no questions asked.  That is awesome.

Afterwards I walked the rest of the way to Eastern Market.  Picked up milk, oats, stew beef, flour, granola, onions, apple cider, and probably some other things that I forgot.  Found out my cow is giving out plenty of milk and looked at a lot of wreaths.  I think I could make better ones, definitely going to try next year, will just need to find a source of boughs.

On my walk back from Eastern Market I ran into the friendly bus driver again.  This time I was all too happy to grab a ride.  He insisted that I didn't need to pay fare (I'm not sure DDOT would be that happy about that).  He then asked me about my bike and then whether I went to church.  "Well...sometimes." "What's the name of your God?" "er...depends on the day of the week" "Well I'm a minister and Jesus is my God...." and then he went on to tell me about how if I accepted Jesus as my Saviour and was washed in the baptismal waters all my sins would be washed away and I would speak in tongues.  Minister Greg the kindly bus driver, who would have known.  He wasn't giving any sort of hard sell, just wanted to let me know about Jesus.  Then we talked about trees and gardens.

Finally I got let off at the corner of Grand and MLK Blvd and walked the rest of the way home.

Photos from Occupy Detroit Sunday night

I haven't made any signs yet because people keep making signs like this that perfectly sum up my feelings and so I just use them

Lots of people dancing around the center fountain last night.  Some to a bongo drummer, some to a boom box, some to a trombone and trumpet

Folks just chilling out on a Sunday night.  Behind them you can see the new food/comfort/medical tarp all set up.

Here's the inside of the new services tent, looking towards the food side.  Used a fire line to move all this stuff across the park earlier in the day.  Great example of cooperation and many hands make light work.  The new area still needs to be organized, but should be a lot better.

Lots of kids out in the park on Sunday.  Perhaps celebrating the freedom to draw on the sidewalk with chalk?

Juan's awesome cargo bike with a motor.

Another cook bike with industrial strength trailer.

Dancing in the evening light.

Chilling in the park with their kid.

Trombone!

Guy with tie and sweater helping homeless guy to get the fire started.

Screen printing more Occupy Detroit patches and other arts and crafts projects.

A fiddler and some other folks look at the map of Detroit where people are putting dots for where they are from.

Right on.

I assume this sign is leftover from the "International" rally Saturday.  Occupiers from Detroit marched down to Hart Plaza and waved across the river at some Windsor Occupiers.

New welcome banner.

The statue near one of the entrances to the park. Turns out this guy is AWESOME.  He was the mayor of Detroit that gave out land and seeds to poor folks during the depression of the late 19th century, basically the first proponent of urban agriculture.  He fought monopolists and land speculators (Matty Maroun anybody?) I can't find the quote of his that is now written in front of the statue in chalk, but here's another in the same vein: "Unfortunately the laws are generally on the side of the trusts and corporations laws made or purchased by them for just such occasions and so are most often the decisions of courts."  Things apparently haven't changed much in the past 100+ years.

A little union support.  Heard there were lots of UAW folks at the BoA protest Friday.

While I was holding a sign on Friday night a guy pulled his car over to ask where folks were.  I explained that since it was late many folks were hanging out either near the food tent or around some of the little campfire stoves that were going in the park.  He asked why we were there and I told him that we were there because we thought connection between corporations and the government had grown to tight and that the vast majority of people no longer had a voice.  He then asked why were protesting banks instead of the government then and I told him we'd probably do some protests at government offices too, but that this week we'd been protesting at BoA because of all the foreclosures in Detroit.  He said it seemed pretty silly to camp in a park if we were upset with the government.  I said that money talks with our current system but since we don't have any money we have to do this instead, and hey, it had worked since he and I were talking.  Then we said good night.

Saturday night before I talked to the skeptic I talked with a guy on his way to work at Ford Field for a long time.  He works for a cleaning company and would be working from about 10 PM to 6 AM to clean up after the Lions game.  Even though he has a job he can't afford a place to live so is homeless.  He's not without hope though, he got a Pell grant and will be starting a degree in Social Work in January.  He worries that he won't be able to finish his degree though because Pell grants are often under attack by the Republicans.  Having to shelter hop also makes things difficult.  If he loses his Pell grant he said he'd probably go into the military because that is his last option.  We talked for a long time about the state of politics and protest and Detroit and the wisdom of investing in people like him where such a little money can go such a long way

Imagining a city

The reality of any city, but perhaps Detroit in particular, is profoundly reliant on fossil fuels.  It is all cars and trucks.  It is people in boxes made of concrete, brick and glass.  The boxes are lit, cooled and heated by fossil fuels and inside the work involves consuming resources from elsewhere and transforming them.  There are lots of environmental reasons to want to change this reality, but I think the psychic reasons are more compelling.

Thursday this past week we were planting trees in a neighborhood called Cody/Rouge with the Green Infrastructure department at Greening.  There are lots of good environmental reasons to want to plant trees.  In this particular neighborhood we were actually there under contract from the Water Treatment people because that area is very low lying and when it rains there is so much runoff that goes into the storm drain area that it causes the water treatment facilities to overflow, forcing them to send some untreated sewage water into the river system.  Thousands of street trees will help to fix that.

More compelling than all that though is how excited people in the neighborhood (for the most part) were to see some trees going in.  The neighborhood isn't real burnt out, but about one house per block there is abandoned.  The folks in the neighborhood that day wanted to talk to us, to find out what sort of tree they were getting and the ones that were home also wanted to talk to us about their yards and what else is going on there.  One guy said "I think that tree is supposed to have pink flower.  That'll be nice, think it will attract the ladies?"  That same guy brought us ice cream a little later.

Yesterday I was part of a great big bike ride called the Tour de Troit.  Most of the riders I talked to were from the suburbs or other nearby areas.  Some of those were folks who worked in the city but lived outside.  The folks who hadn't been there (or biked there) in the past few months were impressed with all the bike lanes that had recently been painted in the city.  The ride was not a race and most folks were just wearing ordinary athletic clothes and riding ordinary bikes.  Even so, the sight of thousands of bikers riding down the streets of Detroit, even when we were blocking their way, seemed to make most people we passed really happy.  Lots waved or had brought their kids out to watch.  Many expressed a desire to join in if they had their bike around.  And in general that has been my experience of biking in the motor city.  People just think it is cool that you are biking and they want to chat.  Meeting folks is one of the best things about biking here, I'd never have as many interesting conversations if I was locked up in steel and glass.

Progressive Dinner for the Hub of Detroit

Went to a great Progressive Dinner for a local non-profit bike collective called the Hub of Detroit.  It was $25 for an amazing ride all over Detroit in small groups where we ate at 5 different locations (mostly parks).  The food was cooked by a variety of local food people. 

The first stop was for some Black Bean Soup made by some guys from the bike shop.  Just the perfect amount of spiciness.

On our way to the second stop is when we started encountering folks tailgating for the Lions game.  Most of them were nice and just wanted us to honk and ring our bells and cheer when they said "Go Lions", but some were total assholes and had obviously already had way too much to drink.

The second stop was at OmniCorpDetroit, a local creative space, and we ate some pizza made by the Pie-Sci guys. The pizza was a BBQ Chicken Pizza, which was a little weird and too creative, but the fundamentals were strong.  The space was really cool though and I am planning to take some of OmniCorp's classes this fall.

The third stop was a park down by the river where we got to eat some yummy lentil stuff with a really good creamy sauce that I should have asked what it was.  In any event, it was delicious.  Plus it was warm and things had just started to cool off.

The fourth stop was a little pocket park downtown in a kind of busy spot (with lots of bars and Lions fans, GO LIONS).  There we ate some amazing wraps and a little beet salad.  Yum yum.  All that yummy stuff was by a place called Neighborhood Noodle.

The last stop was Clark Park, which is real near our house, and there we had ice cream!  It was winter squash ice cream with some yummy toasted walnuts and it was by Suddenly Sauer, which is the company of a friend of my housemate Laura's named Blair.  It was super delicious.  And Laura was my super bike riding friend and we met a lot of people including a few folks who work with Calvin.  And I forgot almost everyone's name!  But I bet I get to meet them again.  Maybe at Tour de Troit next weekend?

All in all well worth the $25 especially since it is going to some great programs over at the Hub.

Dumb cop

Cop: Hey, what do you think you're doing?
Me: I'm making a left turn
Cop: You need to get out of there
Me: I'm making a left turn (thinking I hadn't been heard)
Cop: Well you can't do it there. You need to get in the cross walk (I'm in the left turn lane)
Me: I was taught you're supposed to bike with the flow of traffic
Cop: Well not here
Me: *Make left turn*

Here is the relevant bit of law:
257.660a Operation of bicycle upon highway or street; riding close to right-hand curb or edge of roadway; exceptions.A person operating a bicycle upon a highway or street at less than the existing speed of traffic shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except as follows:

(a) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or any other vehicle proceeding in the same direction.

(b) When preparing to turn left.


(c) When conditions make the right-hand edge of the roadway unsafe or reasonably unusable by bicycles, including, but not limited to, surface hazards, an uneven roadway surface, drain openings, debris, parked or moving vehicles or bicycles, pedestrians, animals, or other obstacles, or if the lane is too narrow to permit a vehicle to safely overtake and pass a bicycle.

(d) When operating a bicycle in a lane in which the traffic is turning right but the individual intends to go straight through the intersection.

(e) When operating a bicycle upon a 1-way highway or street that has 2 or more marked traffic lanes, in which case the individual may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of that roadway as practicable.

From m-bike.org

Here is the relevant bit of logic:
Bikes should ride with the flow of traffic.  On sidewalks they interfere with pedestrian traffic and if you use the crosswalks you will end up at least temporarily riding against the flow of traffic, which makes everyone nervous.  Out in the left turn lane you are visible and it is clear what you are going to do next make a left turn and as long as you follow traffic laws everyone should be fine.

Just passing this along:

I really liked the last bit of this article:

My nominees for some to-be-agreed-upon principles: cars and trucks are the most dangerous things on the road and should yield to pedestrians and cyclists.
Cyclists are the next most dangerous things on the road, and should yield to pedestrians and watch out for cars and trucks.
Pedestrians are the most vulnerable things and so should be very aware of cyclists, cars and trucks.
To ride a bicycle without brakes is a declaration of reckless indifference for one's own life and so is evidence of reckless indifference for one's fellow citizens' safety.
Everyone should always imagine, while being a pedestrian, cyclist, or driver, what the people doing the other two things are reasonably likely to think/assume/act on, and act accordingly.
We all want to get where we're going in one piece. No one wants to be talking to the cops, the insurance company, or the newspapers. And one fundamental fact of living in cities is having to deal with other people. Lots of them. So, can we all just get along?

Read the whole thing here.

Welcome to Detroit

After basically abandoning this blog since I returned from Nicaragua I have decided to try to revive it. I just moved to Detroit and already feel like there is lots to say. I envision to be a little bit observations about Detroit, a little urban homesteader, a little food blog and little bike blog.

So let's start with bike. I've been for those of you who may not know, my bike looks like this:
















It is a Surly Big Dummy with an Xtracycle rack system on the rear. It is pretty much the best thing ever. I use it for touring and lots of around town riding. I've been a bike commuter for years, but when I worked on the farm in Walla Walla still had to use a pick up truck often for farm errands. No more though. Now that I am living the city life in Detroit it is a different story though. I have zero car and am riding in a completely different environment.

So far the motor city has been good to my bike and I. There is a nice bike lane on my street and I get to go over a pedestrian bridge on the way to work (and the bridge and its street are named after my last name, obviously they knew I was coming). The drivers have been better than I expected as well. Only got honked at a couple times for riding with traffic and many folks went out of their way to give me extra room.

Of course, with a bike like mine I get a lot of comments. Here are some choice ones:
- Guy on a Harley with his girlfriend on the back rode at 10 mph with me for 2 blocks to talk to me about the bike and the possibilities for carrying people on the back.
- Guy asked me if it was homemade. I said I wished.
- Guy in front of CADILLAC PLACE in the MOTOR CITY told me that my bike was "A Cadillac on 2 wheels"
- Guy at the bus stop jokingly asked me for a ride, I turned around and told him I could take him down the block. He said he had to go farther but said he'd catch me some other time.

Another good reason to deliver flowers by bike

Rather than in the truck:
It is easier for the owner of Graze to shout at you from the sidewalk: "HEY! Are you selling those flowers?"

And of course the answer is "Why yes, yes I am."

"Junk"

I know that it is a little cliche, but I feel as if I am constantly being reminded that one person's trash is another person's treasure.

My friends Dana and Ishai just moved in with me this week to help farm this spring. Being new to town and having moved all their belongings in a total of 8 small to large size suitcases there were of course a few things we had to pick up for them, including bikes. We first hit up the thrift stores, and though we were able to find plenty of things such as pillows and lamps, a good bike still eluded us.

We headed off to the bike shop, to pick up gear and see exactly how expensive a new bike might be, mainly thinking to check Craigslist and/or classified ads later. As Dana and Ishai were finishing looking at bike hemets I was waiting by the door when a guy came in to ask the guy at the front if they were taking bike donations for a local cycling program. When he mentioned that they were just out in the back of the truck I just had to ask "Would you be interested in selling one of those bikes to my friends over there?" So we went out and took a look and one of the bikes was a beautiful (though in poor repair) Schwinn 10 speed from the '70s. In need of new tires and a lot of lube, but otherwise a beautiful machine. Dana and Ishai mulled it over and offered him $50 for that one bike, and he accepted and threw in the mountain bike for free.

Obviously these bikes were worth very little to him at this point, but the Schwinn will get Ishai all over Walla Walla this spring. Just like when I am drowning in Tomatoes in September and do all I can to push some off on friends, or trade laundry services with my neighbors for some Anaheim peppers or applesauce. An item of very small value to one becomes something of great value to another. It is why I love to trade things, every one feels like they have made out better than can be expected, or as if they got the best deal.

New Years Resolution Entry

I fell as if it is fitting to start out the new blog and the new year at the same time. While most of the first bit of content in this blog will be my impending trip to Nicaragua, it will eventually focus more on agrarian and cycling pursuits. It is primarily a personal blog though so below are my resolutions for the coming year:

1. Update new blog at least once a week
2. Fill up my farm's CSA
3. Better fulfill my role as a Walla Walla Democrats PCO
4. Do my bike tour to Oregon Country Fair in July, and plan at least one other over night bike trip.
5. Build better storage for potatoes and winter squash.
6. Learn how to better use my dried flowers.
7. Practice piano at least 1 hour a week
8. Learn more bike maintenance and get the tools to make it happen.