The growth of bikes as basic urban transportation, and the overarching “livable cities” movement, is acknowledged internationally and becoming tangible in many major urban areas in the US.  Mayors like Richard M. Daley and Michael Bloomberg have spearheaded these changes in our biggest cities, and large-scale bike share programs are expanding in Washington DC, New York, Chicago, and later this year, in San Francisco.  The positive trends are unlikely to be reversed.

Poster by Gerardo Gonzalez

Gerardo Gonzalez

Sandi Milford

Less obvious are similar trends in smaller communities that rarely show up on the radar. Take Edinburg, Texas, for example way down in the state’s southernmost tip. I just returned from a trip to the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA), aka “Panam,” where I gave talks to a diverse group of faculty and students with majors in art and design, engineering, and business. These faculty and students are all a part of the same livable cites movement that we see in larger cites, just handled more modestly. I came away optimistic that the progressive alternative transportation movement is definitely not just an elitist phenomenon limited to large urban areas.

UTPA is located in the second poorest county in the US. There is a large immigrant population and for the most part English is a second language. The wide roads are filled with big US trucks and lined with strip malls and fast food joints.  (We ate lunch at Monster Bar & Grill Carwash).  The flat sprawling urban plan is the polar opposite of what we have in San Francisco.  But bike culture is on the rise and highly visible. In my 24-hour stay I saw a bike art exhibition, numerous bike lanes, and a diverse biking crowd. I had many conversations with young art students, senior engineers, department heads, librarians, and architects that reminded me of the conversations I have everyday in San Francisco.  Special shout out to two young artists Sandy Milford and Gerardo Gonzalez whose stylish fashions designed with recycled material and cool graphics made the art show especially compelling.

One of the UTPA staff owns a PUBLIC bike and lent it to me for a half day. I rode for ten miles between UTPA and McAllen, TX where my hotel was located.  I was directed to a winding eight-mile bike path that offered one of the most pleasant and relaxing rides I’ve ever had. Signs along the path educated me about the native birds that raucously serenaded me along the way.

Yerberia Fragrance

On a bike you can easily cruise an entire downtown like McAllen. I pop in and out of the unique retail stores mostly of Mexican heritage. I found cool and quirky products, unique visual compositions, and colorful signage. My favorite store was Yerberia (pictured above) where I scored some amazing candles and some unique oils and fragrances, all with terrific and seductive packaging.

Exploring the streets of South Texas and McAllen on an orange bike made me feel like an ambassador of joy. Bikes help bridge economic and cultural differences and make people smile. This trip was as inspirational as my recent trip to New Orleans.  A bicycle turns out to be the ideal way to get to know a small(ish) town in a short time. And we’ll do more of this.

Details from McAllen and Environs

Rob is the Chief PUBLIC Servant. He founded PUBLIC because of his belief that well-designed PUBLIC spaces are the bedrock of civilization.

We went to New Orleans last week to check out the city and the urban biking scene in general. The story that trumps all other things Creole is that of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

• 4000 homes were destroyed
• Damages reached over $86 Billion
• Over 1000 lives lost in the Lower 9th Ward alone

Armed with a bike and an iphone, you can get the full guided tour. On a bike you feel the contours of the roads, smell the place, talk with locals, and connect on a level where you feel less like a tourist. On foot or in a car this would not have been such a powerful and personal experience, and you  probably would have missed this exhibit that clarifies and contextualizes the disaster. The graph to the left quantifies how many new (red) and old (black) homes exist in the area.

The reconstruction is remarkable, unique, hopeful and still viscerally tragic. I was almost as blown away by the reconstruction efforts as by the overwhelming destruction. This is a  neighborhood and community like no other. Lots of well-deserved credit has to be given to Brad Pitt and Make It Right. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” (Plato) and this organization is a much-needed catalyst that fosters innovation.

The silver lining to this disaster, a glimmer of hope, is that it demonstrates that the old and new can coexist given the right forces. Katrina and its aftermath wake us up to the value of community, urban planning, and architecture. Seeing those who endured the tragedy now living in new homes, designed around modern principles, gives us hope. The Make it Right ethic insists on water conservation, energy efficiency, healthy building materials, and storm resistant features.  The elements of aesthetic beauty and creativity offer a glimpse into a more functional future, such as trellises that provide structure for shade plants, elevated porches with elegant screens, and unique residences of varying style, structure and color (i.e. quite the opposite of anonymous suburban development). This neighborhood communicates a sense of viability, success, and pride both to the residents and to those who visit. Design does make a difference.

Our self guided tour of New Orleans and the Ninth was made easy thanks to the concierge at the International Hotel who recommended us to Bicycle Michael’s for a rental bike. I stopped in, met Michael and his gang, and in 10 minutes we were out on the road. “You can get just about anywhere in New Orleans in twenty minutes on bike,” was Michael’s advice, and this proved true.

There is no better way to see this area and all of New Orleans than on a bike. Bicycle Michael’s is a cool bike shop, so is Gerken’s Bike Shop. There are numerous other bike resources in New Orleans, like Bike Tours by Confederacy of Cruisers and Bike Easy is a helpful resource.

Rob is the Chief PUBLIC Servant. He founded PUBLIC because of his belief that well-designed PUBLIC spaces are the bedrock of civilization.

Our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, rarely elevates issues of design and architecture to the front page. But last week (December 29th), that’s where you could find Urban Design Critic John King’s Streetscapes column (photos above). Billed as “a mini tour of tiny parks” around the city, the article is more than just a guide – it even gives information on how to get your own parklet approved and built in San Francisco. Our friend Deep pioneered the first residential parklet on Valencia Street in the Mission District.

John King is probably best known for his book Cityscapes, a compact guide to 49 buildings in San Francisco, many of which are eclectic and unique and not to be found in standard tourist guides. King delights in the unexpected, which we think is a pretty good way to approach buildings, streets, people, food, and life in general.

You would expect to see coverage of this topic here in our newsletter, PUBLIC Opinion, where we have featured parklets in the past. But the fact that King is getting front-page attention is not only a tribute to his journalistic chops but also proof that the question of how to make our cities more livable and sustainable has become a mainstream issue. The Chronicle and the many activists, like Deep, that expose the broader public to these “pedestrian” issues deserve a thank you for educating us about issues relevant to a city’s modernity, civility, and sustainability. It got us thinking about this issue:

What is the greenest city in the US and what makes it so?
San Francisco, like many US cities, likes to toot its green horn and would love to be considered the most sustainable city in the US. We might be the recognized national leader in “parklets,” but parklets alone do not make a city green. What does make a city sustainable? How do we measure it? That’s a heated and somewhat elusive question, and there are lots of opinions. We’d like to hear yours.  A $100 merchandise credit will go to the best response.

P.S. Congratulations to Deep & Kimberly, who graced our catalog as a PUBLIC model, on their New Year’s Eve engagement. We wish them many years of happiness together on and off a bicycle.

P.P.S. John King has numerous excellent articles on urban design that are archived on SFGate.  He occasionally lectures around town and you can follow him on Twitter.

Rob is the Chief PUBLIC Servant. He founded PUBLIC because of his belief that well-designed PUBLIC spaces are the bedrock of civilization.

Our culture greatly values ‘space.’ We nest in our remodeled homes on our porches and decks, relax in our landscaped gardens, and work in our organized offices.  We enjoy public spaces too ­– parks, promenades, squares, stadiums, beaches. Our National Parks are cultural treasures. We care about these ‘spaces’ and take pride in their condition and appearance.

But when it comes to our street spaces ­– where we all spend so much of our time ­– we share a collective blind spot. Our aesthetics break down completely. Why do we settle for ugly, car-impacted streets as our means to get from our well-tended homes to our well-tended offices?  Every time we drive into town and park our car (SUV or Prius) on the street, we are perpetuating a situation that one would think we would all find intolerable. Why does this persist?

Here are some of the usual explanations:

• Most modern cities were designed and laid out to serve the needs of cars, not people.
• Gas and parking are cheap.
• Our love for convenience trumps all else.
• Many of us are stuck without other options.
• We are creatures of habit and changing behavior is painful.

What can get us to think and behave differently?
We posted the photo above on Facebook and it generated a lot of feedback. We’d like more. To keep the conversation going, we’re soliciting more comments and offering a $100 merchandise credit for the best response. You are welcome to respond either on Facebook or on our blog.

Elect Visionary Leaders
One way to get us to think and behave differently is to elect visionary leaders in our cities who have the courage to oppose short sighted urban developments.  Mayors have been shown to have significant effect on public space, both here and abroad.  Our heroes range from Enrique Peñalosa (Bogota) to Kramer Mikkelsen (Copenhagen) and Joe Riley (Charleston). We send a special shout out to former San Francisco mayor, Art Agnos who opposed the rebuilding of the Embarcadero Freeway in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake.  Thus our popular Ferry Plaza and waterfront were reborn, and Agnos lost his re-election bid at least in part for his courage.

Public space is the one place where all members of society are welcome and equal. It is the essence of democracy. Below are a few “street space” shots taken from a recent trip to Cartagena, Colombia. The city was built before the advent of the car and is now preserved by UNESCO decree. The life of the city is all in the streets – day and night – and it feels right.  There is some space for cars, but always subordinated to humans.

Driving through a city is great if your goal is to get to the other side. If, on the other hand, you want to learn about, notice, savor, discover what’s actually there, a slower pace is recommended. Detail and interest emerge when we give our senses a little time to take things in. That’s why we sip whiskey, lick ice cream, and kiss slowly. That’s why we read the book, not just the outline. And that’s why a walk or a bike ride through a city is so much more compelling and pleasurable than a car ride.

Take Cartagena, Colombia for example. To be appreciated, this steamy, walled port city demands attention. The occasional distracted glance through a car window just won’t get it done. That’s probably part of the reason its been designated a UNESCO site – to preserve the pedestrian friendly historic streets and allow visitors and locals to drink in the color and detail, like these windows we found in two days of wandering around on bike and on foot last week.

Cartagena is no longer about drugs and muggings. It’s about a diverse Caribbean culture and history. You can bike there, but Bogota is the most bike friendly Colombian city with its Ciclovia program – now respected and widely imitated around the world.

Last week I wrote about the inspiring handmade bike design contest held in Portland: the Oregon Manifest Design Challenge. Portland leads the nation in the percentage of people who commute or ride a bike everyday. What is less known is the fact that Portland might be the most progressive public transit city in the US. You almost feel that you are in Europe. It forces some unfavorable comparisons with our transit system in San Francisco.

TriMet, Portland, OR

TriMet, Portland, OR

BART, San Francisco, CA

Pacific Electric Railway, CA

Food Trucks, Portland, OR

Parklet, San Francisco, CA

When you arrive at the airport in Portland you are greeted by the Light Rail, which is part of the TriMet system. It delivers you into the city for about $3.00 – an average price for many European trains. The price is kept low to encourage people not to drive to the airport. BART, San Francisco’s public transportation to the airport, costs about $8.00.

Aside from the cost, productive comparisons can be drawn from the design. Portland’s rail cars are colorful and modern on the interior and exterior, with places to store bikes, ramps to make it easy to enter, and a generally cheerful ambience. The seating is an easy to clean, modern vinyl. Our BART cars have an aging institutional feel, with scary signage. The upholstery is unhygienic to such a degree that it got written up in the New York Times. Apparently help is on the way and San Francisco will be spending $2 Million for a remake.

When you get to Portland’s city center you find more modern streetcars and it feels very much like the trams in Zurich or Amsterdam. It’s easy to get almost anywhere in the city as the transit systems are connected. For most of us in SF, when we arrive downtown from BART, getting home or to work is often complicated, time consuming, or expensive.

Portland is billed as the “first modern streetcar system in the US,” but this may be an exaggeration. There were many modern electric streetcar systems throughout the US in the early 20^th century. These rail lines were torn and replaced by buses and cars – often billed as a conspiracy led by GM. We believe more rails, more bikes, and less cars will beautify our cities and attract healthier lifestyles. That’s why we support efforts to reduce private auto trips along Market Street, one of San Francisco’s major thoroughfares.

Although there are still plenty of cars in downtown Portland, the city has done some clever things to keep them at bay. For example, there is an unsightly central parking lot that has now been surrounded by a perimeter of colorful and friendly food trucks that offer a great selection of affordable ethnic foods. These food trucks lend a vibrant touch to the city and turn an asphalt parking lot into a community asset and destination.

Converting asphalt into food courts is one area where San Francisco holds its own. Our numerous parklets, food trucks, farmers markets, and street vendors are world class and growing in number. An SF based organization, Off the Grid, brings together the eclectic community of local food trucks. SF Pavement to Parks makes it accessible for small businesses to transform the parking spaces outside of their business into mini parks. The best part is that our local government generally supports these efforts. We’d like to see more government-subsidized projects that directly benefit environment and community.

. . . being a juror at the Oregon Manifest.

I just returned from a weekend in Portland where I was a juror for the Oregon Manifest Constructors Design Challenge (OMCDC), a utility bike design competition. It was not a normal jury assignment. We reviewed the bikes for a full day indoors before the contestants set out on a 51-mile, challenging road and trail course.  At several check points along the way we judged criteria such as load carrying capacity, lighting systems, fender durability, and more. The day was a perfect sunny 80-degree day through the bucolic countryside north of Portland.  It was one of the most enjoyable work assignments I have ever experienced.

It seemed like the bikes held up better than many of the riders. But to their credit, all of the riders finished. Leading the pack was Tony Pereira on an electric assist bike with a built-in music system.  This iconoclastic magenta bike was a sign of what the future of utility bikes might be and what type of bike might realistically convince many people to swap in their car for a bike.  My shout out was Diana Rempe, on a Quixote bike, who covered the course in a dress and flip-flops with her daughter as a passenger. Be sure to check out all the entries and winners or follow us on Twitter where we will be featuring a bike a day for the next month with my comments.

Thanks to the other Jurors
It was a special pleasure to work and learn from the other jurors – Legendary bike icon Joe Breeze, Biking magazine editor Bill Strickland, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, and UBI leader Ron Sutphin.

Rob is the Chief PUBLIC Servant. He founded PUBLIC because of his belief that well-designed PUBLIC spaces are the bedrock of civilization.

Learn about trend-spotting, branding, and how one serial entrpreneur has used rapid innovation to overcome the challenges facing his startups. Network over drinks with creative, business, and technology professionals to expand your horizons and your contacts at this engaging and informative event.

On September 21st, come and listen to Rob Forbes, founder of PUBLIC Bikes and Design Within Reach, and former executive of Williams-Sonoma, Nature Company, and Smith & Hawken, in conversation with Tony Wessling, Founder of ChromiumForum and President of The Wessling Group.

They will talk about putting creativity and innovation at the center of a business plan, and how leveraging new technology such as social media in tandem with real-life social activity has contributed significantly to PUBLIC Bikes’ success. They will also discuss how bicycles are changing the face of our communities for the better, and why such ‘old technology’ is being so readily adopted by the creators of our new technologies, the urban creative class. See Rob speaking at the TED Conference.

Tickets: $15 at Eventbrite

PROGRAM

5:30 PM Check-in and networking. Refreshments will be served.

6:45 – 7:45 PM Conversation with Rob Forbes

7:45-9:00 PM Networking and check-out

More info: http://www.chromiumforum.org

The best thing about this business is getting to know our customers and hearing their stories. Our customers come in all different shapes and sizes and from a variety of professions and locations. They keep in touch with us in any manner of ways.   Some come by our South Park headquarters, some meet us on the road when we visit cities for urban transportation events, some share photos on our Flickr group, and some send us nice notes like these:

“Today I rode 24 miles on my 7-speed PUBLIC step-thru bike and the bike did great – 12 bike path miles and 12 hilly Cape Cod roads around the ocean and through the ponds. I tackled each hill and stayed comfortable. Very pleased with my PUBLIC bike.” – Vanessa Allen, Newton, MA

“Nearly a year since purchasing my PUBLIC D3, I have logged more than a thousand miles on it commuting to and from work in Columbus Ohio – even in 15 degree weather. I am on my original tires and have only done light preventative maintenance. If you’re on the fence as to whether to buy one, trust me you won’t regret it.”  – Shane Neff

“Just got off my Public bike, not 24 hours ago!!!  Love that thing and I get compliments on it all of the time.” – Scott Kerslake, CEO Prana

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT: Alex Bogusky

We like to share interesting customer stories, creations, and photos.  PUBLIC customer and advertising icon Alex Bogusky, his wife Ana, designer John Bielenberg, and creative strategist Rob Schuham launched the fantastic new venture COMMON. “COMMON is a living network of creative people rapidly prototyping dozens or hundreds of progressive businesses designed to solve social problems.” They put together an inspiring video to introduce their mission.

A COMMON STORY from m ss ng p eces on Vimeo.

Last Friday night in Boulder, CO they hosted an event to support and incite a competitive market for socially minded entrepreneurs.  The finalists encourage a business world with educated and empowered consumers.  Read the Washington Post article to find out the winning products.

If you ride a PUBLIC or know someone who does with an inspiring story, share it with us. We’ll feature it in a future customer spotlight.

MEET US IN LAS VEGAS – JOIN US AT BURNING MAN

Dan Nguyen-Tan, our PUBLIC Citizen, brings innovative marketing and customer programs to our business. Dan will be in Las Vegas at the Interbike trade show where we are teaming up with Peterboro Baskets.  You can connect with Dan at Interbike – just drop him a note. If you have a bike shop that would like to carry PUBLIC bikes, this would be a good place to meet us and chat.

Dan will also be at Burning Man next week. If you see a half naked guy riding in the playa, that will not be Dan. For one week, Burning Man’s Black Rock City becomes the bicycle capital of the world with almost everyone riding bicycles to get around. Read more about the bicycle culture of Black Rock City by our friend Matthew Roth.

What do the Sierra Club and Moving Design of Chicago have in common?

City bicycling is getting support from an ever-increasing eclectic list of organizations. Every month it seems we partner with some cool group working to encourage more people to incorporate a bicycle into their daily urban lives.

This month we’re working with two very unique groups, The Sierra Club, one of the largest national environmental advocacy organizations, and Moving Design, a small design-based group in Chicago.  Both groups use their unique skills to encourage people to rethink the way we get around in our communities and to reduce our dependency on cars and fossil fuels.

The Sierra Club
Founded in 1892 by John Muir, The Sierra Club has over a million members and supporters and is one of most influential grassroots organizations in the United States. They literally defined environmental activism for many of us. The Sierra Club is giving away three PUBLIC bikes to encourage more people to leave their cars at home. You can enter to win by going to The Sierra Club website or visiting The Sierra Club Facebook page.

The Sierra Club also created a video, with help from our friends at Agency Charlie, to showcase how someone can move around their community by bicycle instead of a car.

Two Mornings from Sierra Club National on Vimeo.

We all recognize that we need our cities to become more livable and dense in population in order to reduce urban sprawl and protect our environment. We’re happy to team up with The Sierra Club to invite more people to make a difference on city streets.  While our partnership with The Sierra Club may not have the same dramatic effect on our environment as NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s recent $50 million gift to The Sierra Club to reduce coal consumption, we’re happy to do our part.

Moving Design
Founded in 2010 by renowned graphic designer Rick Valicenti, Moving Design is pushing a number of civic-minded community based projects in Chicago. They hosted an event this week in Chicago where City Planner Adolfo Hernandez and PUBLIC Founder Rob Forbes made presentations on urban bicycling and the progress to make Chicago streets more livable.

Chicago has been an international leader in urban architecture dating back a century. In recent years they have again launched themselves into international prominence with the development of Millennium Park, which includes the fantastic Anish Kapoor Cloud Gate (aka “The Bean”), the Jaume Plensa Crown Fountain video sculpture, the Lurie Garden, and the Jay Pritzker Pavillion designed by Frank Gehry in Grant Park.  Former Chicago Mayor Daley and the spirited civic-minded community can be credited for these monumental achievements. We rode by these projects and the lakeshore as we biked around Chicago this week.  See photos.  We hope new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and groups like Moving Design continue to make Chicago an example of a modern livable city with blue bike lanes across the city.