The NorthSide Bike Path

 

A bike path is more than just a place for imagination and escape; it is a place for communities to connect. It is important to foster relationships between neighborhoods so that they can learn from each other and grow to become more than what society has labeled them as. Access to a bike and a path should not just be a privilege afforded to the upper-middle class. It is a healthy, environmentally friendly option that should be available to all. As we promote social mobility and economic equality in our city, access to green transportation is essential to improving lifestyles of those living in poverty. Throughout the month of February, we have been hosting community clean up days to begin to build our bike path. We have met with representatives from Councilwoman Susan Shepard’s office and have the approval of the city to begin the path. The only concern that the city had was there are drainage issues in the area. We decided to build a bio-filtration system to prevent erosion and toxic runoff from entering our water system as a component of the path. We are working with Parks and Recreation to begin to utilize kids’ library cards to rent bikes from the local recreation centers. We also painted a community mural that is an artistic representation of the poem, The Rose That Grew From Concrete, by Tupac Shakur. The poem symbolizes what it can be like for a child to grow up in poverty and persevere. We anticipate beginning our bike share program in July 2014 and the city paving the path before next year. As of now, the bike path is clean, the bio-filtration layout is complete for a section of the path, our community mural is hanging and the community is actively engaged in the further development of the project. Just this Saturday, as we were weeding and raking, we were happy to see children riding their bikes and their scooters down what is now known as the Northside Bike Path.