Ad bikes in Down Town San Antonio, Texas
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Mom and Her Electra
Friday 7/15/11- Family bike ride and Photography trip to San Antonio Riverwalk- Mission Reach extension section. Good ride nice photos.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Townie 3i a Pair Of them
This week my parents came to visit and my wife and I decided to take them to Corpus Christi. One of the things they wanted to do was shop for a bicycle for each of them. My mom is 5'2 and fitting a bike for her was difficult. While in corpus she sat on her 2nd 26" Electra Townie 3i and smiled. She didn't smile on the first one because it wasn't adjusted to her reach and height. I wanted to give Bay Area Cycles in Corpus Christi, Texas a smiley ;-) because of a job well done with fitting this bike to her. Other shops in San Antonio that we visited just didn't take the time to do that. So our hat goes off to the Corpus Christi Electra dealer and Junior the salesman. No pressure sales but accommodating and that is was the right approach!
Via Flickr:
Electra Townie 3i's at Corpus Christi Bay
Photos from my July 2011 trip to the Coast (Port Aransas, Texas and Corpus Christi) Taken with Canon Powershop G7.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Biking Brackenridge Park
At the round about at the Trails in the Park- San Antonio, Texas - July 2010
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Market Square - Not Bike Friendly
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Dear Management of Pearl Brewery and Management of Market Square,
CC: Mayor Julian Castro, Metro Planning Organization of Bexar County and Bicycle Coordinator of the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau
Today, I was part of a group of cyclists made up of local residents and a few tourists. The group is a loose knit group of almost 900 people organized via Facebook. Each 2nd Saturday of the month there is a ride that includes tourist stops within downtown San Antonio. Today we rode from Brackenridge Park to Pearl Brewery for the Farmers Market, Market Square, Blue Star Art Complex and the Alamo.
I wanted to share my reflections about two of those stops, the Pearl Brewery and Market Square. Both locations are similar in nature. Both are tourist stops; both offer food and drinks; both house local businesses and vendors. At both the Pearl Brewery and Market Square riders bought food and drinks and other goods. Even though these locations are very similar in nature, their attitudes about cyclists as customers were drastically different.
At the Pearl Brewery Farmer’s Market (A usual stop of the Saturday ride) cyclist are treated fairly. In fact, on this particular morning the Pearl was very welcoming to the cycling group. As we approached Pearl, the Police Officer working security directed traffic so the group of 50 could safely arrive and park our bicycles. We parked our bicycles in the “fuel efficiency vehicle” spaces and within view of the shopping we conducted. We stood by our bikes eating local goods and enjoying refreshing drinks purchased from vendors at this location. We were never told that we couldn’t be there and we felt welcomed.
Unfortunately, at the Market Square the attitude was completely different. We arrived and lined our bikes in a location that was close to the vendors we wanted to see. Riders went to purchase snow cones and other goods while other enjoyed the market vendors outside near the bikes. We weren’t there more than 5 minutes when a woman in a white shirt carrying a radio came with a security guard. I assume that she is the manager as she didn’t identify herself to the riders in fact she didn’t even say anything to us directly at first but loudly told the security office “I need these out of here” as she pointed at our bikes. Eventually she came up to a few of us and told us that we can’t park here, and we must use the bike racks outside Market Square. Neither she nor the security guard was very helpful at pointing out exactly where the rack was, or even if it could hold the fifty or so bicycles that we rode in on. We only intended to be at this stop for 10-15 minutes to allow those that wished to buy some food items mainly cool refreshing drinks then we’d walk our bikes out the market and go to the next stop hardly worth taking the time to lock up fifty bikes. The woman said something to us to the effect of “we have customers here; you cyclists can’t be here”. I was offended because if she cared to notice at that moment at 10:30 am on a Saturday we were the bulk of the customers. Other than some offhand comments no serious harsh words were exchanged, but it was clear at the parading up and down and comments she made to the security officer we weren’t welcomed. Clarification wasn’t given as to the exact area we needed to park. Some moved bikes to a large opening where the lady had pointed only to be told again that they could not be there. We certainly understand that 50 bicycles can be difficult to accommodate, and that in this moment in time only a hand full of riders remained near the bikes while others purchased from vendors. We simply couldn’t move all the bikes and it did not seem that the city staff offered any accommodation. We would gladly park our bikes in the correct location if that was made clear and if all the riders were present to move their bikes. Once everyone returned to their bikes, we left altogether. Vendors tried to sell us things as we walked our bikes out of the market and we politely told them, “we’d love to do business with you, but we aren’t allowed to park our bikes here so we can’t.” One vendor remarked the woman was new and “she has been giving everyone hell”.
The contrast between these two locations is clear. We were not welcomed at Market Square yet at the Pearl Brewery we were welcomed with open arms. Obviously, we conducted more business with the vendors at Pearl than those at Market. We weren’t asking for Market to let us run the place; only please show us a place to park that is safe and easily seen so we can shop with peace of mind and some slight courtesy in doing so.
I am a disappointed by this incident as I have always brought out of town guests to Market Square as a part of the San Antonio experience. I’m sorry that on this particular ride we had many out of town guests who did not have a positive experience.
I believe the management of Market Square should take notes from Pearl Brewery and their hospitality. I don’t think the vendors at Market Square would like knowing that the management ran off 50 paying customers on a seemingly slow Saturday morning. It saddens me that Market Square which is operated by the city was not open to cyclists on this day especially in front of out of town guests. All city departments need to realize Mayor Castro’s goals in making San Antonio a bike friendly community as evidenced by the purple signs downtown declaring “San Antonio Bicycle Friendly Community”.
NOTE: Typo in photo will be corrected.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
San Francisco's Sunday Streets Event Moves Into the Mission District - K...
This is a cool idea for San Antonio to consider.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)