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Here's How To Make 100 Bike Racks Disappear

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  • Here's How To Make 100 Bike Racks Disappear

    HERE'S HOW TO MAKE 100 BIKE RACKS DISAPPEAR
    By Michael Burke

    Journal Times Online, WI
    Sept 14 2005

    Last time in this column, I contended that very few area businesses
    bother courting bicyclists as shoppers or commuters. If you have no
    bike rack, you're essentially pulling up the welcome mat for anyone
    who'd ride a bike to your shop.

    Cathie Barton's son and his friend learned a hard lesson last year at
    the former Country Market grocery store on Racine's south side. With
    no bike rack there, the boys locked their bikes together, then went
    in to pick up a few groceries for Barton of Racine.

    You can guess what happened next. Two other teen-age boys hopped on
    the two locked bikes and rode off together.

    "My son's bike was never recovered, and although the thieves were
    apprehended, restitution is extremely unlikely," Barton said.

    She concluded that a future consumer learns certain lessons from that
    experience, and they include: "As long as we have to get in the car,
    we may as well go to a different store."

    In a related (non)development ... months ago we should have seen
    up to 100 new bike racks installed around the Racine community. But
    we're still waiting for the first one to see daylight; they're all
    in city storage.

    Late last year Sustainable Racine put up $7,800 for 100 bike racks.
    The fund is created by the annual All Saints Healthcare System
    golf outing.

    There was also an early effort, with a Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin
    representative, to find good sites for the racks. About 30 were
    designated for the Downtown area, said Jeff McDorman, Racine manager
    of recreation and cultural services.

    Other racks were to go along the bike paths, North Beach, parks
    and golf courses, Gateway Technical College, the boat launch, the
    skateboard park and numerous other sites. Up to one-quarter of the
    sites haven't yet been determined, McDorman added.

    The racks were shipped to the city in about April. So far they're
    as useful as a paper bike in the rain, because they're still sitting
    there.

    The first snag stemmed from the rack's shape, an inverted U. That's
    different than the stylish kind called for in the Downtown
    Redevelopment Plan. Because of that discrepancy, nothing happened,
    in spring or summer.

    "We had intended to roll them all out together," said Donnie Snow,
    director of the city parks department - and himself a bicyclist.

    Apparently, no one in the city parks department called Downtown Racine
    Corp. to discuss the divergence in rack styles. DRC Executive Director
    Devin Sutherland didn't even know the racks existed until about two
    weeks ago.

    "I can't think this ought to be something we get stuck on," he said.

    "Why the city placed an order that was inconsistent with the plan,
    and why they were not shipped back directly, I don't understand,"
    Sutherland added.

    Nor had he seen the plan for where the Downtown racks are to go. DRC
    wouldn't mind being brought in on that, either.

    Bonnie Prochaska, executive director of Sustainable Racine, wants to
    see the racks put out. "We've lost a whole season," she noted.

    Snow said he's given his staff an ultimatum to get some racks
    installed ASAP.

    As they say in pool, "Rack `em up!" New blood

    for Downtown The new owner of a Downtown storefront is keeping so
    mum about his plans, he hasn't even told his wife.

    In fact, Michael Kademian of Milwaukee is not so sure himself what
    he'll end up doing with 407 Sixth St.

    Its former owner is Rick DiBlasio, stained-glass-window repairman
    par excellence. He has built a larger wholesale repair studio outside
    of Downtown.

    Kademian, 58, is a former physician. "I was looking for a second home
    in Racine," he said. "I like Racine and I like the beach."

    At first he was looking for a small second home here. Instead,
    Kademian wound up buying this building, whose second floor will serve
    as a vacation home.

    The self-described preservationist's first task will be to refurbish
    the building, to make the first floor look as authentic as possible
    to its 1875 roots.

    But good luck pinning him down on what kind of business it'll house
    with Kademian as owner-operator. "I sort of know," he said, "but I
    don't have to decide right now." He insisted his idea hasn't even
    left his head and traveled as far as his wife's.

    The idea could evolve or even change, Kademian added. But he promised
    he won't just stick something static like an office into the storefront
    - it'll be something that'll contribute activity to Downtown.

    Kademian's Armenian great-grandfather immigrated to this country
    and landed in Racine. "It's kind of like coming full circle,"
    Kademian said.

    Better than average The third Average Joe's Gym, a smallish workout
    place aimed at baby boom-era men, will open soon at Shorecrest Shopping
    Center, 3900 Erie St.

    The first opened in Burlington and the second in Mount Pleasant on
    Commerce Drive.

    All are owned by members of the same family. The new one is 75 percent
    owned by former Racinian Karyne Jensen Madden. It will be run by her
    "ex-sister-in-law's new husband." Got that? Average Joe happens to
    be settling in next to a Curves, which sort of caters to the same
    population, but the opposite gender.
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