Conrats to our neighbors to the north, as they have been awarded Platinum status by the League of American Bicyclists! They join the likes of Portland and Davis, CA at Platinum, which is pretty good company. Seattle was also awarded Gold status in this round, and Arvada joins Denver at Bronze status (Ft. Collins moved up to Gold, also worthy of congrats). I will refrain from any commentary on the topic, other than to say that we’re looking forward to the day that Denver moves up in the rankings. The DNC bike share effort and other efforts going on (such as establishing a permanent bike share program in Denver and the Living Streets Initiative) point to definite progress, so let’s hope it translates into action.

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I ran into Eleanor at Tour de Fat (a great place to network by the way), and she is working on an initiative called the 1Sky Campaign.  What I like best about 1Sky is that it views cycling as a big part of the solution.  Here are the details from Eleanor regarding the upcoming kickoff event and bike ride, please make it if you can:

The 1Sky campaign (www.1Sky.org) is a new national campaign that pressures the presidential candidates to take bold federal action on global warming. Our goal is to make global warming a priority and get real solutions passed. America needs solutions based on science and justice that match the scale of the problem of climate change. The 1Sky platform includes global warming emission reductions 25-40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, a moratorium on new coal fired power plants and investment in clean and renewable technology, and the creation of 5 million new green jobs as pathways out of poverty. Transportation amounts to almost a third of global warming emissions, and supporting bikes and cyclists to make riding safe and easy is the easiest way to start reducing those emissions!

To jumpstart this campaign, there is a National Day of Action for Green Jobs. As part of the campaign, we’re going to make the National Day of Action for Green Jobs a success. Below are the details for the event. We need everyone to get involved come to these event in order to send a clear message to our leaders in Washington. The Rally starts at 10 and needs to be a visible presence of 100 people from diverse communities in order to get the media’s attention. We’ll have action booths, sign-in photo petitions, and letter writing. At 11 we’ll have three short speakers and media coverage, and at 11:30 we’ll head off to Washington Park on the Cherry Creek path and bike around Washington Park. It’s really important to have people from the ride also at the rally in order to get the visibility of how many people are involved, so please come for both!

*What: Green Jobs Rally and Ride
When: Saturday, September 27th at 10am
Starts: The Alliance Center, 1536 Wynkoop, Denver
To: Washington Park
Who: www.GreenJobsNow.com*

Climate change affects us all in some way, whether it be the health of our communities, the enjoyment of our wilderness, or the simple belief that Americans deserve an equitable and sustainable future. We need Green Jobs in order to transform us into the new green economy. Please RSVP to eleanor@greencorps.org or call at 773-750-7845 so we can know how many to expect. We hope to see you there!

Eleanor
Green Corps Field Organizer
eleanor@greencorps.org
773-750-7845

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This news item comes to us from our fellow Rocky Mountain city of Missoula, Montana.  Junior High School science teacher Jim Litz got a little too friendly with our furry friend, the black bear.  I don’t want to ruin the suspense, so just read all about it here.

If you think that only happens in Montana bear country, just read what happened to Sabrina Oei at the 2006 Boulder Peaks triathlon.

As if you need another reason to wear a helmet.  Ride safe folks, it’s quite a jungle out there, and you never know just when you’ll run into a majestic animal riding around on this part of the globe.

For a real site this month, go riding in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  It is the annual elk rutt, and if you’ve never seen or heard it, do your self a favor and make the day trip.  If you really want to be burley, you can ride there from Boulder and make it back for dinner.

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On Saturday, September 13th from 11:00 until 4:00 at the Tour de Fat in City Park!
New Belgium Brewing Company barters bikes and bottom brackets for beer. Bring bushels, boxes, or baskets of busted bikes from your basement and exchange them for better beer than Bud.

Parts will be re-bicycled on-site by the Derailer Bicycle Collective, resurrecting trashed bikes from the dead since 1965. Your donated bikes and parts will magically transubstantiate into beer-a sacrifice worthy of Salivation.

Come take part and witness the miracle of Cruise-i-FIX-ion and resurrection! City Park, Saturday, September 13th from 11:00 until 4:00!!!”

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Did you see Susan Barnes-Gelt’s column in today’s Denver Post? She wrote a nice little piece about how Denver put its best foot forward for the convention, but that our city has a lot of work to do to become truly livable and sustainable. In particular, she mentioned the Mayor’s goal to reach a 10% mode share for bicycling in 10 years (it’s currently around 1-2%, depending on your source). She says that in order to reach that goal, “our public works engineers must reduce vehicle lanes, dedicating more space to bicycles, on-street parking and people.” Yes, indeed! It’s good to see that someone besides the bike community is paying attention. Let’s keep that DNC momentum going and translate it into long-term improvements for cycling.

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