POWER GENERATION
Chicago Bike Grid Now is all about building a movement that empowers people to work together to create systemic change. There is so much impactful work to do (see Winter is for Bike Grid Work), but it can’t be done without lots of energized people, so we continue improving on our model of open-source organizing (be brave, be kind, be welcoming, be engaging, make it fun and use the buddy system).
If you’re reading this, but haven’t gotten involved, reach out to grassroots@bikegridnow.org. If you’ve participated in a bike jam, bike bus, or Tour de Grid, but haven’t gotten involved in organizing, reach out. There’s a role for everyone who wants to help make the city-wide bike grid a reality.
WINTER IS FOR BIKE GRID WORK
Nothing fuels our winter fires like the vision of getting anywhere in the city on a low-stress bike ride. Here are some of the tasty things we’ve got cooking:
High School bikeability (Partnering with other orgs to survey and empower the next generation of street users.)
Changing the conversation about DLSD (Our lakefront and future deserve a process that isn’t led by people who like building highways.)
Committee on Ped and Traffic Safety (Did you know it was a thing? Well it is and we’ve started working with them on a shared agenda.)
Land Acknowledgement (The bike grid we’re working toward is on land inhabited by American Indian tribes; it is up to us to try to understand the context in which we’re working.)
Getting more alders on board with the Bike Grid.
Doing outreach to place-based organizations, like neighborhood associations, local school councils, and chambers of commerce, especially on the South and West sides.
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT KAM; IT’S ABOUT THE MOVEMENT
Advocacy is how we spend capital, but organizing is how we build it. When we, as individuals or as a group, try to persuade policy makers with reasoning and moral authority, we are effectively “spending” our influence. But when we are engaging and empowering more people, then we are “accumulating” influence.
We believe we can accumulate influence and build our movement by working with allies to show state and local electeds that we are thinking about the next election and that we want to help those that have championed the safe streets cause. We would love to see you at this fundraiser for Rep Kam Buckner. If you can, chip in $50 to show what we can do together.
YEAR IN REVIEW- HIGHLIGHTS
We know 2023 isn’t over yet and we might still add to this list, but we wanted to reflect on all the things we did together to further our mission. We’re grateful to the community of folks who took part in it.
We got the Bike Grid endorsed by candidates who won mayoral and aldermanic elections.
We shutdown DLSD THREE times
Jamiversary
NASCAR Jam
Jamapalooza II
We launched neighborhood group rides - Tour de Grids
Tour de Grid- Far North Side (with Alders Vasquez and Manaa-Hoppenworth)
Tour de Grid- Near West Side (with Alder La Spata)
Tour de Grid- Far South Side (with Alder Lee and Rep Ma)
Human Protected Bike Lane on Halsted
Three bike buses every week, all year long!
Did some fun stuff too:
Ran dozen of bike buses to Friday Morning Swim Club
Co-hosted Danile Knowles, author of Carmageddon, with Active Trans and Urban Environmentalists at Revolution Brewing
Laughing Past Traffic comedy at AliveOne