Day 44--

I had a bike "date" a couple weeks ago. It was a set up/blind date. He's a friend of a friend and saw my blog. He's been wanting to ride his bike to work more so he suggested we ride our bikes in to work together in the morning before work. Pretty cool idea--and what a good sport. I warned him that I would be wearing athletic gear on the top (sports bra and t-shirt) and work gear on the bottom (dress pants or jeans). He predicted I'd look like a mullet. Party on the top--work on the bottom. He was right. We met at 7 AM on our bikes. He wore his work attire too--dress pants, dress shirt--you know--he looked like a morman cruising around town in dress clothes trying to convert people while on his bike sans The Book of Morman. We had coffee, chatted a bit then rode into work. It was a nice ride. I had to mellow out my kamikaze bike riding style a bit--you know--stop at all the stop signs--not rush through the red lights--and wag my finger at unaware drivers....for fear I'd appear like a crazy bike bandit. He did point out a very cool piece of art that is being erected on a new apartment building downtown on Island Street. It's done by a local artist and it's a big brown tree on the corner of the building. It's the prettiest brown tree I've ever seen...Every time I ride past it, one more block of the tree trunks are put up. I am excited for the finished product. He was a real looker, really smart/nice....He did ask me if I wanted to go hiking sometime at the end of the "date" but...we haven't heard from him yet. We'll chalk it up to a good bike/date story for the blog...

In other news.....I need to do some sales calls in Long Beach/LA on December 1st. I am going to visit the very first BIKE STATION which is location in LONG BEACH. Can you believe it's 3 minutes from my lunch appt. with my client? My colleague is driving and doesn't know about our Bike Station mission yet--but--I'll brief her on the ride up. Also---as far as we know right now--the biggest obstacles to getting a Bike Station in San Diego are funding and location.

If someone wanted to do this privately--any store front down town will work. Unfortunately for the former vendors and fortunately for Bike Station--there are many vacant store fronts in down town SD right now. If not private--and if looking for funding---apparently there is a renovation planned for Horton Plaza area, and a new development in motion where Sante Fe Depot is. If I had it my way, it would be over near the Hilton Bay front--I think they have open spaces there. When I go see the gang at Bike Station in Long Beach, I am going to ask him questions about funding, operating costs, etc. I am curious to see how they do it up there. Is it all privately funded? Do they get any rebates, abatement's, grants, help from local gov? Who goes there? What's the biggest challenge they face? Is membership really only $20.00 a year? It seems like a steal. In downtown San Diego, monthly parking is $65.00 per month for limited 6 - 6 p parking, and $180.00 per month for 24 hour access. All you get is a parking spot--you don't get a locker, or refresh station or bike repair, etc.... I want to see how they price it out and what they get with it. I am also curious about the square footage they have and the hours they actually staff it.... More to follow----on the Bike Station Mission...stay tuned!