Dot Bike

There was a great turnout at the forum for the 8 at-large candidates for Boston City Council to discuss issues on city parks and open spaces.  At least 200 people packed into the Franklin Park Clubhouse, many of which were sporting bright high vis yellow outerwear and bike helmets.  The large turnout and the presence of all the candidates was a testament to the excellent job of organizing this event by Christine Poff, director of the Franklin Park Coalition, and Valerie Burns, director of Boston Natural Area Network, working together on behalf of the Boston Park Advocates and the 99 total organizations that signed on as co-sponsors, including Dot Bike.

I don’t want to single out any candidate as a particular favorite especially as the topic of this debate was not biking per se and I encourage you to look at the candidates positions on all the issues.  However, I will select a few ‘highlights’ for mention.

There was a charming question from one of the always-sharp B.O.L.D. teens in the audience who noted the dearth of bike racks available in the parks and asked how to get more.  One of the candidates, Doug Bennett, jumped right in with the bold statement that the way to solve the problem was to install more bike racks – one of several perhaps overly straightforward responses from this earnest  young Republican.

Stephen Murphy professed to be a cyclist, which was nice to hear.  He also stated that one of his goals was to establish a committed revenue stream/budget item for parks and open spaces although he didn’t say exactly how this might happen.

John Connolly promoted himself as the main bicycle advocate on the city council, mentioning bike lanes and the bike share program multiple times.  DotBike is still wondering if our neighborhood will see any benefits from the bike share program as currently envisioned.  Our fabulous Franklin Park would be one attractive site to consider as a recreational bike share hub.

One of Debbie and my favorite moments of the evening had nothing to do with cycling.  When Felix Arroyo, who had been fielding questions with poise and relative ease, was asked what he thought about the Asian Longhorn Beetle he was completely stumped.  After a few humorous remarks he made a great recovery by admitting he had no idea and that as a city councilor he would routinely seek out people with expertise to help him get the info he needed to make informed decisions.

Generally, all candidates had an encouraging perspective on the importance of multi-use open space and recreation.  So thanks again to the organizers and we could use more forums like this to keep our elected officials (or hopefuls) involved in the issues and problems that cyclists face every day.