The Visit to Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- There's nothing like a daylong workout of walking the Spartan halls of Congress, visiting the offices of Florida's 25 House of Representatives members and both of the U.S. Senators who represent the Sunshine State. You better bring your most comfortable walking shoes when you lobby Washington, D.C., because those floors in Congress are as hard as they get.

I was there all day Thursday with my fellow six bicycle advocates from Florida to spread the legislative gospel to Florida's congressmen as part of the 8th National Bike Summit. It was a record crowd of participants for the Summit, which brought together more than 500 of the most ardent bicycle supporters from across the country. They are bicycle coordinators, bike shop owners, bike club presidents, bike equipment company CEOs and municipal planners who climbed Capitol Hill today to pass out pages summarizing proposed pro-bicycle legislation to members of Congress.

I'm attending as director of SWFBUD, the Tampa Bay seven-store bike alliance (South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers). I was lucky enough to attend because I received a grant from the National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA), which paid my travel, lodging and Summit registration expenses. I want to thank SWFBUD member Bill Addler, owner of Revolution Bicycles in St. Petersburg, who brought the bike dealers association grant to my attention, and also SWFBUD member Tom Jessup, owner of Chainwheel Drive in Clearwater and Palm Harbor, who is a board member of the NBDA and informed that organization of SWFBUD's work in the Tampa Bay area.

The Summit was orchestrated by the League of American Bicyclists. The League arranged sessions for us Floridian participants with Sen. Bill Nelson and three House Reps. But that was not good enough for Laura Hallam, executive director of the Florida Bicycle Association, a state-wide bicycle advocacy organization. Laura, who has attended the last seven National Bike Summits, got folders from the League of American Bicyclists for us to drop in on ALL of the other Congressmen from Florida.

I walked miles and miles between the three massive buildings that make up the House offices, and the three buildings where the U.S. senators have their offices. We left the lycra shorts and jersey at home and donned business suits, ties and jackets to play ball with the politicians of Washington. We were a lobby like any other strolling the undecorated halls of Congress and making our pitches. Bicyclists can be a laid-back bunch, but if we want our fair share of the public resource pie, we have to learn to play the lobbyist part and play ball with the politicians just like the automobile, pharmaceutical or tobacco lobbies.

Other Summit participants from Florida besides Laura included Mary Jane Mark, who owns Mack Cycle shop in Miami and her daughter Rachel; Gary Mendenhall, a customer service manager from Miami for bike product distributor J&B; David Henderson, the Florida Bicycle Association president and the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator for the Miami-Dade MPO; and Miriam Gallet, a Jacksonville/North Florida bike club board member.

We went in teams of two, three and four to drop in on Congressmen and see if we could chat with aides with the bicycle issues that the Summit had identified such as getting Congressional members to be in the bike caucus, to acknowledge a resolution that would state bicycling as legitimate transportation; and to adopt a "Complete Street" bill that would require road construction to include bicycling and pedestrian use as essential modes.

We talked mostly with aides, who were polite and appreciated our visits. Some showed more enthusiasm than others, but we enjoyed making the connections and laying the groundwork for hopefully successful passge of bills that would enhance bicycling. Laura's savvy leadership for the Florida delegation at the Summit was great.

I have the business cards of aides of 12 of Florida's 25 Reps and the aide of Sen. Bill Nelson's card. I was hoping to get some time with Kathy Castor, our local Rep for Tampa. She was not available, so I had a pleasant audience of her legislative assistant, Nathan Taylor, who said Castor appreciates bicycling as an important way to get around and to stay healthy.

My goal is to visit our local governments, too. We need to tell our Hillsborough county commissioners to allocate the $11 million necessary to hook the Upper Tampa Bay Trail with the Suncoast Trail.

And we need to tell the Tampa City Council to adopt a policy that would require the city's public works department to stripe a bike lane on any city road that's re-paved, improved or rebuilt.

The Florida bicycle advocate delegation at the National Bike Summit was small when compared to that of California (55) and Colorado (32). But we hustled to spread the message of bicycling to every federal lawmaker representing our state.

We bicyclists were instrumental in starting the movement to pave streets in our country in 1902 -- and we are back at it again in 2008 to reclaim a piece of those streets for safe and effective cycling.

My only suggestion: Join the movement. If you love bicycling, step up.

Mr. Snel Goes to Washington

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- I'm ready to climb The Hill Thursday.

Capitol Hill, that is, with more than 500 bicycle activists, advocates and retail store owners to lobby Congress on supporting several bills about bicycling.

I'm here in the nation's capitol representing SWFBUD (South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers) -- the retail bike shop alliance representing seven bicycle stores in the Tampa Bay area.

I'm attending the National Bike Summit, a gathering of some of the most active bicycle advocates in the country to lobby our Congressmen to support legislation that would bolster bicycling on our national parks, on our streets, for kids who bike to school and for a national bicycle route across the country. The Summit is under the auspicaes of the League of American Bicyclists, who have partnered with Boulder-based Bikes Belong to put on the National Bike Summit.

In the Tampa Bay area, I'm a bicyclephile, a guy who's slightly crazy about cycling as a wonderful way of life to experience the world. But here at the National Bike Summit, I'm just another, let us say, bicycle enthusiast.

I'm here with seven other bicycle advocates from the great state of Florida -- and we have appointments Thursday to stop by the offices of Sen. Bill Nelson and three members of the House. But we do plan to drop off pro-bicycling packets at all the other offices of the Congressional members who represent districts in Florida. So, we're going to wear out our shoes visiting the offices of the more than 20 Congressmen who serve Florida.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day of chatting with mostly aides of the Florida's Congressional delegation. The message is simple -- please join the Congressional Bike Caucus and vote yes on pro-bicycle bills taht will do everything from increasing access for bicyclists on roads and in national parks to making it safer for school kids to bike to class.

The National Bike Summit began about eight years ago with 20 guys in bike shorts lobbying Congressmen to suppport cycling. Now, a record number of National Bike Summit participants dressed in snazzy business wear will join the thousands of other folks trying to get an ear of their Congressmen. We have had two days of conference break-outs and strategy sessions on everything from cyclists rights and building trails to advocating bicycling as useful and practical transportation in our congested urban cores across the country.

Stay tuned for coverage Thursday night, when I wrap up my day in the halls of Congress.

Seminole Heights Bike Club Makes Trek Advocacy Web Site

A cool bicycle advocacy site is Trek's 1 World 2 Wheels web site, which includes a nice mention of the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club.

Click on the places tab here:
1World2Wheels

Tour De Spring Training: Vero Beach

The Bicycle Stories' "Tour de Spring Training" arrived this morning at Florida's most historic spring training site -- Dodgertown in Vero Beach. This living, breathing outdoors baseball spring training museum dates back to 1953 with Brooklyn's immortal Boys of Summer that include names such as Robinson, Hodges, Snider, Reese and Newcombe.

What makes this spring so special and relevant -- and sad -- is that the Dodgers are leaving Dodgertown and quaint Folman Stadium this month for fancy, money-generating, big new digs in Arizona. The last Dodgers spring game at Dodgertown is March 17 before the Dodgers wing it west for some spring training games in Arizona. Today was the second game of an abbreviated 11-game schedule at good ol' Homan Stadium.

The heart of Dodgertown is Holman Stadium, which really isn't a stadium at all. The ball yard where the Dodgers play their exhibition games has no structural facade, that is, there's a V-shaped structure with rows of seats down the leftfield and rightfield lines that has fans literally on top of the action and the players. Vegetation and trees are interspersed on the small hill fans walk up to reach their seats. There are even small trees along the narrow concourse behind the last row of seats.

I hear the Baltimore Orioles are leaving their decrepit spring home in Fort Lauderdale to replace the Dodgers. But it just won't be the same to not see the Dodger blue detailing the complex's fields, signs and buildings.

It was one of those picture-postcard spring training days today at Dodgertown, where temperatures in the mid-70s, a pleasant cool breeze out of the north and a cloudless sky drew a packed house to the ballpark. I'll be back, I'm sure.


The ball yard can get cramped and tight with so many fans crammed onto a tiny concourse and sidewalk that goes by a few concessions stands. You can always go to other bigger concrete spring stadiums like Legends/Steinbrenner Field right here in Tampa or the Cardinals/Marlins complex in Jupiter. But nothing is like Dodgertown's Holman Stadium.


The beauty of spring training is that fans can get real close to ballplayers in small, quaint ballparks where the atmosphere is laid back and relaxed. Behind every fan at the ball park is a great personal story that you never read about. That's funny since most sportswriters covering these baseball clubs are fans themselves. Yet, they don't really mix with the sun-drenched fans to explore these story gems. Instead, they usually hole themselves up in the media box or the press lunchroom. I personally enjoy chattting it up with fans -- it's easy to make connections.








I saw Mets fans wearing jerseys of everyone from Tom Seaver to Edgardo Alfonzo. Lots of Mets rooters donned jerseys with the names of new guys like Johan Santana to . . .




reliables like David Wright to oldies but goodies like . . .


Casey Stengel


I love fans who score these "exhibition" games where a zillion unknown players with numbers in the 70s, 80s and 90s play the final four or five innings in games that are pretty much glorified scrimmages with other clubs.


I enjoyed chatting with this guy, Scott Costi from Thousand Oaks, Calif., who flew to Central Florida for a mere two days to catch this game with his son. Amazing how far people will travel to soak up this baseball church.


Last call for beer by the beer guy. This fella usually works the stadium in Fort Lauderdale where the Baltimore Orioles train. But he was here in Holman Stadium. Maybe, because the Orioles are taking over Dodgertown next season, the beer guy was doing a little beer-vending scouting of the premises and aisles.



And for you history buffs out there, take a peak at these plaques mounted on the media pressbox wall behind home plate.


Note the "atomic action" phrase. Couldn't even call it what it was -- a bomb.

On The Road To Vero Beach

This morning, Bicycle Stories got up awfully early to hit the road to Vero Beach and the latest stop on the "Tour de Spring Training." Good morning from State Road 60.


Once I arrived at Vero Beach, I took the bicycle out of the car and did a 35-mile loop south on US 1 to Fort Pierce and north of A1A back to Very Beach. I was amazed at how bike-friendly US 1 was between Vero Beach and Fort Pierce. A lovely bike lane for this stretch of road.


I biked past an amazing island state preserve on A1A in Fort Pierce called Jack Island State Preserve. I wrote a profile of this beautiful mangrove island for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) and I wanted to take a few extra photos. It's reachable by this cool bridge, on the Intracoastal side, about a mile or two north of the Fort Pierce Inlet.

Bike Trail/Film Studio Brouhaha

Fellow baseball enthusiast, North Carolina Tar Heels expert and Plymouth, NC historian Willie Drye passes along this gem about NBC Universal studio in the Los Angeles area trying to block a bike path because studio honchos fear people will use the bike trail to lob scripts onto studio property. That's a very valid argument because when I bike past Legends/Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, I fire baseballs onto the ballfield and tell people I can throw a baseball faster than Roger Clemens -- and I'm not on the juice.


Controversial bike lane

SHBC's Family/Kids Ride

The Seminole Heights Bicycle Club's Family/Kids Ride this morning went well, as 17 bicyclists pedaled the neighborhood with a trip down to the Hillsborough River and a partial loop around Lake Roberta.

We had kids on bicycles; two trailers with kids inside; and a kid on a bike seat -- plus Steve Swiger riding high on the "Tall Bike" to the delight of young and old alike.

This is people coming together to bike in its purest grassroots form -- the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club has no fees, titles or hierarchy. We have a core of steering committee members who have stepped up to make this happen and I'm happy to be associated with these folks.

These bikes rides should be next to "Community" in the Webster's.












Here's Rick Hickman, who did a superb job developing the SHBC web site by the way.




A man and his wheels.