SPOKESPEOPLE ride March 7, and other news

Hi SPOKESPEOPLE!

Next Saturday, March 7 at 2PM, SPOKESPEOPLE will be riding around Lake Union! The weather will be beautiful again!

The Lake Union ride was our favorite SPOKESPEOPLE ride last year. It is a fun family outing.

We’ll start, as usual, at the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Ave N at 2PM. If this is your first Spokespeople ride and you are new to riding on the road, please come at 1:45 so we can make sure your helmet and bike are adjusted to fit and you can review road-riding skills with our commuting experts. You can buy a good helmet from us for $10. Expert cyclists, we welcome you to help inspire new on-street riders. We’ll finish the ride at 4PM.

When we get to Lake Union, we’ll first pass the small parks and floating homes of Eastlake. We’ll stop at the Center for Wooden Boats and South Lake Union Park, then head up the west side of the lake, past marine shops and more floating homes. After we cross the Fremont Bridge, we’ll stop for a free bite in Fremont, generously sponsored by our PCC community grocery. Then comes the hard climb for new commuters, back up to Wallingford Playfield.

I hope you can join us!

Cathy Tuttle (206)547-9569; (206)713-6269 day of the ride
SPOKESPEOPLE News

This month Seattle hosts the Green Festival http://www.greenfestivals.org/seattle on March 28-29 at Seattle’s Convention Center downtown. The festival has valet bike parking plus you get a discount entry fee with your valet ticket!

Safe Lights 2 School sponsored by SDOT SR2S.

Michael Snyder, our tremendous Spokespeople ride leader, worked with Cathy Tuttle to set up a Safe Lights 2 School light and reflective clothing comparison test at night on February 25 (the night it snowed!) on the playground of John Stanford International School. A huge turnout of about 30 adults and kids enjoyed hot cocoa and biked and walked a course around car headlights and darkened areas. All of us, experts and new cyclists alike, learned something new. Quick notes: Most of us preferred to see bright, steady white headlights, not flashing lights in the front of our bikes. Reflective clothing is great for dusk or low-light situations, but we all need lights. Lights on the back of a bike are easily covered up by panniers, clothing, backpacks or hair. There are bike lights on the market that cost $100s of dollars but any light is better than no light – if you can only afford a $10 light, get it. Almost all the riders in the test needed more side lights. Complete records of the event, including lights we tested, will be posted next weekend on the http://www.spokespeople.us page as well as http://greenwallingford.ning.com/group/spokespeople and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?sid=8e7de459991aadd7233bc9a87d47cf29&eid=45993431383

You can learn even more about Spokespeople from a thoughtful article in last month’s Journal newspaper – with some great photos: http://journal-newspapers.com/articles/2009/01/08/community_news/king_county/doc495e725958fe6214022081.txt

Event: SPOKESPEOPLE ride Dec. 6 to University Village

[REPOST from SPOKESPEOPLE}

Hello SPOKESPEOPLE!
Yes we are riding in the winter and riding in the rain! Next Saturday,
Dec 6, at 2 pm, we’re going to University Village. Ideally, it will be
a lovely, sunny, brisk autumn day. We’ll start as we always do from
the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Avenue North.
We’ll offer $10 helmet sales and bike fitting before the ride from
1:45 to 2.

Riding with SPOKESPEOPLE is a great way for you to have fun and build
your community. We are helping each other become confident, competent
bicyclists as we subtly change how we live on our planet, one pedal,
one person at a time. I’ve been very sick myself for the past 6 weeks
– and I haven’t biked since mid-October. I’m a reluctant biker again,
but I’m eager to get back on the road with you!

SPOKESPEOPLE brings together riders of all skill levels to encourage
new and reluctant bicyclists. We’ve had people as old as 84 and young
as 7 pedal themselves to all of the neighborhoods adjacent to
Wallingford: Phinney, Greenwood, Fremont, Ballard, Green Lake,
University District, Ravenna/Roosevelt and the loop of neighborhoods
surrounding Lake Union. We now have a set of maps on-line that link
these neighborhood centers on the road with the lowest grades and
least car traffic that we’ve been able to figure out.

Events & Updates from Sustainable Wallingford

[REPOST from Sustainable Wallingford]

It’s time we met each other!

Many of us have been actively working for the past few months to re-elect our progressive-environmental governor and elect our remarkable new President. Now, together, we can transform our own neighborhood too! www.sustainablewallingford.us

We are gathering this Saturday morning November 8, at 10 am at Mosaic Community Coffee House at 4401 2nd Ave NE, just behind Dick’s Drive-in in lower level of the Seattle First Church of the Nazarene

Sustainable Wallingford is all about you. You are blessed to be part of a community dedicated to learning about the small and large steps we need to take in order to have whole and meaningful lives using the resources the planet is able to contribute to our well-being. You are part of our wheelbarrow organization – holding and moving forward ideas bubbling up in the community about how to live on one planet with joy and grace.

We at Sustainable Wallingford support the sustainable goals and aspirations of all of the wonderful people and institutions that build the Wallingford Community including: 

Event: SPOKESPEOPLE ride Nov. 1

[REPOST from SPOKESPEOPLE]

Hello SPOKESPEOPLE!

Riding with SPOKESPEOPLE is a great way for you to have fun and build your community. Next Saturday, Nov 1, at 2 pm, we’re going to enjoy a lovely fall day on our way to the Greenlake PCC, stopping to admire post-Halloween pumpkin activities on the way. We’ll start as we always do from the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Avenue North. We’ll offer $10 helmet sales and bike fitting before the ride from 2 to 2:30. The PCC http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com has generously donated a piece of fruit or other snack for SPOKESPEOPLE riders – which fits well into our philosophy of providing a low carbon, low waste, local treat to you!

Please see below for information about a bicycle light test this Monday, October 27, and an LCI Bicycle Training opportunity in January.

In the next two weeks I believe our country will undergo a profound shift. It is during these times of change that we have the possibility of creating a new and compassionate future. Part of a desirable future is changing how we get around – more gracefully, and with more care for our planet. I have seen so much hope and so many new bicyclists on the road in the past month. I was so happy last week to see a formerly “reluctant” bicyclist on the road in Wallingford biking to her chiropractor’s appointment. We are shifting and changing one pedal at a time. It is a rare and precious time.

SPOKESPEOPLE brings together riders of all skill levels to encourage new and reluctant bicyclists on the road to ride with us. Our South Lake Union ride in October was a wonderful ride and we have finally completed the SPOKES around our Wallingford hub. We’ve had people as old as 84 and young as 7 pedal themselves to all of the neighborhoods adjacent to Wallingford: Phinney, Greenwood, Fremont, Ballard, Green Lake, University District, Ravenna/Roosevelt and now the loop of neighborhoods surrounding Lake Union. We now have a set of maps on-line that link these neighborhood centers on the road with the lowest grades and slowest car traffic that we’ve been able to figure out.

We’d love to help neighborhood groups start new SPOKESPEOPLE rides! Ballard riders will start a Saturday ride soon and several people in the Central Area have told me they would like to link with their neighbors by bike as well. Please let me know if you would be willing to start a ride from your neighborhood.

For more details about the rides, please check the SPOKESPEOPLE website http://www.spokespeople.us, or call or send email. All SPOKESPEOPLE first Saturday rides begin at 2 pm and end at 4 pm at the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Avenue North.

Thank you for riding with SPOKESPEOPLE!

Cathy Tuttle
http://www.spokespeople.us
info@spokespeople.us

Bike Lights and Reflective Vests

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Headlight-Test Michael Snyder will be leading a slow, flat, very short (less than 2 mile round trip) bicycle ride starting at the Cascade Bicycle Club office 7400 Sand Point Way NE
Building 138 http://www.cascade.org from 8-9pm on October 27th to test, and compare headlights, tail lights, blinkies, reflectors, valve stem lights, reflective sidewall tires, reflective vests, jackets, and any other “see me in the dark” assists that anyone wants to try. Pedestrians are welcome. There will be a car and SUV available to compare how we look in headlights, passing through headlight beams, and from the view of a driver’s seat. We did this last year, had a good time, learned quite a bit, and came away with good ideas from others. Most of us traded bikes, bags, lights, vests, and jackets with each other to see what our own gear looks like. Everyone is invited. You don’t even need to bring a bike if you want to just show up and watch. If you are interested in this type of event but can’t make it, contact Michael and he will schedule another test during the last week of November when we have another moon-free night. Michael Snyder MichaelSnyderInBallard@gmail.com

LCI Training

Michael is also working with SPOKESPEOPLE to organize a League of American Bicyclists (LCI) training early in 2009 http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/education/seminars.php. SPOKESPEOPLE wants to have the best ride leaders it can. All SPOKESPEOPLE ride leaders are Cascade Bike Club certified Ride Leaders and LCI training will make us even better able to help you on the road. If you would like to learn more about teaching safe cycling at the highest levels contact Michael and sign up! MichaelSnyderInBallard@gmail.com

Event: Sustainable Wallingford meeting and other events

[REPOST from Sustainable Wallingford]

I’m writing because there is a lot going on in Wallingford in the next week and I wanted to let you know about it. You are busy people, you belong to other organizations, you are worried about the economy, and you barely make time to see your friends and family. So why should you care about what is going on in Sustainable Wallingford?

Well, the whole idea behind Sustainable Wallingford is to slow down, to get to know your amazing neighbors, to figure out how to create a local economy, and to learn more about how to live on our one planet with joy and grace.

So far, I’ve only sent out one email a month, reminding you about the next full meeting of Sustainable Wallingford and catching you up on what sustainable activities I’ve heard about that Wallingford has been up to and is planning in the coming month. There is a SW website, that has information at www.sustainablewallingford.us. And yes, it should be a social networking site but so far no one has stepped up to make the site anything more than what it is. But I guarantee, you will do social networking with real people, not virtual people, if you go to a couple of meetings and guilds. And that’s good.

There is actually ANOTHER Sustainable Wallingford, in the UK, atwww.sustainablewallingford.org. We love our “sister” organization, and we are currently doing a 2-page climate survey together that I encourage you to take, and pass along to your community  http://www.sustainablewallingford.org/Questionnaire

Sustainable Wallingford has lots of little guilds — transportation, energy, gardens, emergency prep, and climate discussions are the most active so far — and we are totally member driven so if there are issues you want to build or build on, please go for it! – that is how we grow. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJGyAce9_dE for some of the groups involved.

We meet as a whole group once a month at the Mosaic Coffee Shop at 4401 2nd Ave NE (behind Dick’s) on the second Saturday of the month from 10 am to noon (actually Mosaic is staying closed for a while on Saturday, so we’ll meet in the church above it until Mosaic reopens on weekends).

I’ll be sending out the monthly meeting reminder for the October 11 meeting next week, but here are the activities you might want to know about before then (note that many of us are working on elections this month so there is less activity than usual):

· Oct 1. Wednesday, Diana Vinh from King County Public Health will share her apple sauce-making knowledge at the Wallingford Senior Center. Susan Ernsdorff is bringing several boxes of apples from the Fruit Tree Harvest in Wallingford.  If you plan to attend, please let Abby abbyklingbeil@yahoo.com know so we can have an idea of how many people will be there. Please bring canning jars (such as Ball) and feel free to bring additional apples for making sauce. What: Applesauce making When: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 1 Where: Wallingford Senior Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. North Suite 140 (lower level of the Good Shepherd Center) http://growingfoodgrowingcommunity.org

· Oct 1. Wallingford Art Walk. http://wallingfordartwalk.org 6-9 pm all over Wallingford on the first Wednesday of every month.

· Oct 2. Seattle Green Schools Network Meeting 3:45-4:45  (Wallingford’s John Stanford International School is a member). This all-school network will meet at the main School Headquarters in SODO at 2445 3rd AVE S Contact Peter Hubbard for more info: 252-2166 http://seattlegreenschools.org

· Oct 3. Meaningful Movies http://meaningfulmovies.org/ screens socially relevant films every Friday night from 7-9 pm at Keystone Congregational Church 5019 Keystone Place N. This Friday’s movie is Black Gold, about the coffee trade.

· Oct 4. Spokespeople rides. www.spokespeople.us All rides begin at 2 p.m. at the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Ave N. on the first Saturday of every month. The rides are for new and reluctant cyclists to learn road riding skills. This month the ride will go to South Lake Union and back.

· Oct 5. Wallingford Home Tour of great Wallingford houses (it will have a Spokespeople bike/walk map!) 11am-4pm www.wallingford.org/page.aspx?pageid=4229

· Oct 8. Obama Salon with author and simplicity expert Cecile Andrews. Progressives can discuss the current presidential race.  6:30-8:30 pm at Not A Number, 1905 N. 45th Street in Seattle, between I-5 and Hwy 99.  206.784.0965 or www.NotANumberGifts.com Not A Number is also hosting Presidential and VP debate parties from 6-8pm to watch the show together.

· Saturday Oct 11. Sustainable Wallingford meeting. 4401 2nd Ave NE 10-noon.www.sustainablewallingford.us

· Saturday, October 18. 1:00 PM WALLINGFORD WALKS meet at  Tully’s at 45th and Meridian to look at trees, gardens, historic buildings, etc.

SPOKESPEOPLE ride Oct. 4

[REPOST from SPOKESPEOPLE]

Hello SPOKESPEOPLE!

Riding with SPOKESPEOPLE is a great way for you to make your world more healthy one pedal at a time – all while having fun and building community!

Next Saturday, October 4 at 2 pm, we’re going from the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Avenue North to South Lake Union and the Center for Wooden Boats http://www.cwb.org/WhatsHappening.htm If we have time, we’ll stop at the Fremont PCC www.pccnaturalmarkets.com. The PCC has generously donated a piece of fruit for SPOKESPEOPLE riders – which fits well into our philosophy of providing a low carbon, low waste, local snack to you!

LATE BRAKING NEWS!!! SPOKESPEOPLE will lead rides to sustainable green sites as part of the SUSTAINABLE BALLARD FESTIVAL this Saturday and Sunday, Sept 27-28 from 1 to 2 pm www.sustainableballard.org See chickens, solar panels, and bioswales. We’ll offer $10 helmet sales and bike fitting before the ride from 12:30-1. www.cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar_RDetail.cfm?eventID=11280www.cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar_RDetail.cfm?eventID=11281

SPOKESPEOPLE will also provide a self-guided bike map for the Oct 5 Wallingford home tour http://www.wallingford.org/page.aspx?pageid=4229

All SPOKESPEOPLE first Saturday rides begin at 2 pm and end at 4 pm at the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Avenue North. Riders of all skill levels are encouraged to ride with us. For more details about the rides, please check the SPOKESPEOPLE website www.spokespeople.us, or call or send email.

Thank you for riding with SPOKESPEOPLE!

Cathy Tuttle www.spokespeople.us

info@spokespeople.us

(206) 547-9569

(206) 713-6269 (day of ride)

*Our South Lake Union ride will finally complete the SPOKES around our Wallingford hub. We’ve had people as old as 84 and young as 7 pedal themselves to all of the neighborhoods adjacent to Wallingford and north of the Ship Canal: Phinney, Greenwood, Fremont, Ballard, Green Lake, University District, Ravenna/Roosevelt. We now have a set of maps on-line that link these neighborhood centers on the road with the lowest grades and slowest car traffic that we’ve been able to figure out.

*October 4 is the last day to register to vote in King County: www.kingcounty.gov/Elections/Registration.aspx

*If you live or work in or near Wallingford, make sure you take our survey: www.sustainablewallingford.org/Questionnaire

Events: Bike ride Sept. 6 to Tilth Harvest Fair and other SPOKESPEOPLE news

[REPOST from SPOKESPEOPLE]

This Saturday, September 6 at 2pm, we’re going from the south end of Wallingford Playfield, 4219 Wallingford Avenue North to the Tilth Harvest Fair http://www.seattletilth.org and the Green Lake PCC http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com. The PCC has generously donated a piece of fruit for SPOKESPEOPLE riders – which fits well into our philosophy of providing a low carbon, low waste, local snack to you!

Seattle is hosting, for the first time, the International Walk-Bike Conference on September 2-5. http://www.bikewalk.org/2008conference SPOKESPEOPLE will be presenting a poster at the meeting and we’ve invited conference participants to join us on our ride http://www.spokespeople.us

On October 4, we’ll be going to South Lake Union, finally completing the SPOKES around our Wallingford hub. We’ve had people as old as 84 and young as 7 pedal themselves to all of the neighborhoods adjacent to Wallingford and north of the Ship Canal: Phinney, Greenwood, Fremont, Ballard, Green Lake, University District, Ravenna/Roosevelt. We now have a set of maps on-line that link these neighborhood centers on the road with the lowest grades and slowest car traffic that we’ve been able to figure out.

Bike ride to Archie McPhee’s this Saturday

photo

REPOST from SPOKESPEOPLE]

Hello SPOKESPEOPLE!

This Saturday, August 2, we’re going to Archie McPhee’s in Ballard! Michael Snyder (206.650.8394 msnyder@zserf.com) will be co-leading this ride. We’ll stop at the Fremont PCC, (the PCC has generously donated a piece of fruit for SPOKESPEOPLE riders which fits well into our philosophy of providing a low carbon, low waste, local snack to you!). And we’ll try to make time to visit the Tour de Fat in nearby Gas Works Park (note this bicycle festival runs only from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. so you may want to check it out BEFORE coming on the SPOKESPEOPLE ride) www.spokespeople.us

This SPOKESPEOPLE ride is a little longer than usual, but we’ll use the flat Burke Gilman Trail during a lot of the ride. Riders, please bring money if you want to buy anything at Archie McPhee’s, the PCC, or Tour de Fat.