Trading Bike Racks for Parking Spaces in Berkley

My dandy little town of Berkley, Michigan just had an article in the local little paper, Woodward Talk, entitled "Berkley aims to promote greater bike usage at city businesses".  This sounds like it will be all about new bike lanes and bike racks, right?  Sounds encouraging, right??

Well, almost.  The article is actually about how the council voted DOWN an amendment to the bicycling parking requirements for Berkley businesses and requested that the planning commission rewrite the ordinance.  From there it goes on to point out that...

...the original ordinance would have allowed existing establishments to reduce their number of required off-street parking spaces. By counting bike rack spaces toward this requirement, the number of parking spaces could be decreased by as much as 25 percent for commercial businesses.

and as written, the ordinance "...would have REQUIRED [emphasis is mine] business owners to install a new bicycle rack anytime their existing parking lot is developed or resurfaced."  But Councilman Dan Benton does not feel that businesses should be required to install bike racks if they don't want to.  He is quoted as saying, "We should not be making businesses put in more bike racks if they don't want to." and then claimed that bike racks are too expensive (the article quotes a cost of $100-$450 each).

I admit, I don't know how much resurfacing a parking lot costs, but I'll bet that $100 (or even $450 more) is pretty damn nominal if you get to reduce the number of parking spaces provided.  Plus the city already requires that businesses provide a certain number of parking spaces. So, how is requiring bicycle parking any different? A point made by Eric Auensen, chair of the Berkley Environmental Committee.  (oh yeah, I know how... its cheaper!)

Ok, ok, I likely won't win many friends in the business community with this opinion, so since we've already tossed out the ordinance, and we're starting over, then let's make it a requirement for the DDA area.  Hey, if you're a lawyers office or insurance agency locating in a "high traffic" area, then you should have to provide bike parking.  Plus, 12 to 14 bikes fit in each singular parking place, so you lose one space and gain 14 "spaces" - seems like a pretty good trade off to me.  All for 100 bucks.

As long as I'm complaining about this, might as well complain about the lack of bike lanes to safely get to businesses on Coolidge and 12 Mile Road too....    And HEY, how come our existing bike routes END at the city's edge?!?  Why doesn't Berkley, Southfield, Royal Oak, and Oak Park play nice together on bike routes?!?

Battles for other days, methinks.

Photo Credit: Cyclelicio.us

Berkley Downtown Development Authority

I have decided to volunteer with the Berkley DDA. Basically, my drive behind this is twofold: first, because I live here, its in my best interest. Secondly, Berkley is in dire need of some branding. The city does not seem to have a strong image with the folks that I've talked to. Why not? Unfortunately, I can't answer that without some wild speculation, but I'm good at wild speculation, so here goes...
Berkley for a while had a campaign that was "Berkley is unique" - the goal I think (can't stress enough, this is all speculation/personal opinion), was to not get lumped in with Royal Oak and become something different than that sort of restaurant/bar scene. While it may be unique, that doesn't really communicate a strong message of what it means for the community to be unique.

However, having said that, there are a lot of things that the DDA and city overall does very well. The city hosts a very successful art fair, a Dream Cruise parade/party, and a holiday parade. In the last year or two there are several new businesses that have been attracted to Downtown Berkley. I know there has been parking issues in the past, and the DDA is actively working on those issues.

So, I'm tossing my hat into the ring to help. Here's an except from the letter I am sending them that talks about my vision for Berkley:

For Berkley’s downtown to flourish, I envision a community that has several anchor businesses that provide a wide variety of options for individuals who wish to keep their dollars in the community, with a wide variety of business types (e.g. restaurants, bars, clothing shops, music shops, etc.). I recently saw an estimate of the amount of dollars that Detroit residents spend outside the city of Detroit, indicating how much “lost” revenue there is for Detroit businesses. I think a similar study for Berkley would be a fascinating and eye-opening assessment of how the DDA needs to target businesses to move within the city.

In my unresearched, personal opinion, I believe there are two key demographics that are driving the future of the downtown in Berkley – families and the “subculture” of young urbanites who use scooters and bicycles for transportation. The Berkley DDA should focus on attracting business that fit these niches (or really ANY niche as long as it is well defined and substantiated) for its downtown business development work. Catering to both groups will hopefully result in an attractive, lively downtown with strollers, scooters, and pedestrians sharing the pavement on their way to local businesses.