Usually the year end is the time people look back on changes and get ready for the future. Buying new calendars remind us of time passing and at this time, many folks feel the need to make resolutions for change. When you work for a non-profit you are (or should) be continually committed to change. It is the reason you exist!
Also, when working for such an organization, there isn’t a lot of time to reflect. This past week I was fortunate to have some experiences that have given me time to look back and reflect.
The first was the pre-ride for this Sunday’s J-Cycle Ride. The pre-ride was for volunteers to familiarize themselves with the route and get to know each other.
Heather and I rode out to the start in Palmer Park and met up with the other volunteers. We had participated in the ride last year so this is our second year supporting the ride.
I know very little of the Jewish History in Detroit so this ride is a great way for me to learn about a people’s history that I otherwise would not know. We visited many Christian Churches that used to be Jewish Synagogues and gathering places. All the while our guides talked about their childhood and the families from the neighborhood’s of their childhood that we were riding through. There seems to be something special about remembering your childhood memories of riding bikes to a friends house while riding those same streets again.
We also visited the separation wall on the West Side of the city that was built to keep neighborhoods and people separate. I had heard about this wall, but it was my first time seeing it in person. The past has so much weight to it. It would be nice not to carry that anymore, but without that understanding we can’t move forward.
Also this week, my friends Bryan, Angie and Vanessa were in town from the different cities they live in now. They started volunteering at Back Alley Bikes when I had just starting helping out/working here in 2009.
We spoke about Back Alley Bikes – they were happy to see the lighting in the warehouse and other improvements. We also spoke about the changes to the neighborhood with all the new cyclists that keep popping up everywhere. I had trouble remembering what was new since they left and what was being build the last time they were here. I’ve noticed that changes in the neighborhood, but being in the neighborhood everyday I get confused on the timetable that everything changes because it changes so fast.
Just like on the J-Cycle ride, we were traveling the same streets of our (more recent) past. Some things had changed and some were the same. Change was the constant.
Yesterday wrapped everything together for me. 
Tour De Troit had a party launching their non-profit. Yeah, Tour De Troit started as a bike ride of around 35 people and now is its own stand alone non-profit. This year will be the 12th Tour De Troit Ride with over 5,000 people participating last year.
I wasn’t around for the first few rides, but I’m sure no one saw this coming. In their offices now are posters from all the rides. As I looked through them I remembered summers ending with this ride. I saw the poster from when our board member, Woody Miller, passed away. His initials were on that year’s t-shirt.
I spoke with Tour De Troit’s board Chair, Bil, about how far everything has come. Even in the small time I’ve been involved in Detroit cycling, I would have never guessed in 2009 that multiple companies would be producing bicycles right in Detroit. I wouldn’t have guessed that hundreds of people would ride monthly in Critical Mass and weekly in Slow Rolls.
Bil mentioned that in years past, when he saw someone on a bike that he would recognize the person. This was because most folks that rode bikes in the city knew each other. Those times are gone. This is something I’ve heard from my friends visiting the city. Who are all these people riding bikes? How are there so many people out on the streets now?
Nothing should surprise us. Detroit has gone from the Paris of the MidWest to a ruin porn favorite and now is moving onto something new altogether. Change is the constant everywhere.
As far as the cycling community goes in Detroit I’m looking forward to a day when a “cyclists” is not an identity. Bicycles are just another vehicle we can use to get around. By the pure number of people out riding in Detroit, I think we are moving towards that day.
At the same time I’m sitting here now thinking about all those people: Woody, Vanessa, Bryan, Angie, Bil and others that have volunteered their time to do the work to make cycling fun in Detroit. Each week, Sicily and I ask youth coming into our shop what can make a city more bike friendly. Most of the time they don’t know what to say because they have never been asked. But then they begin to come up with answers of bike parking, free bike locks, and places to rest or get a drink of water while riding.
Cities are such strange places; all the planning that goes into making biking fun when really biking is a great activity all on its own. It seems that all the planning is really creating an environment where folks can realize what they’ve been missing all along.
So I don’t know what the future holds. It is really exciting. I could miss ‘the old times’ and people I used to see around. I could also laugh to myself because all those things we dreamed about and some things we didn’t even think of are happening.
I think I’ll do both because they don’t have to be separate.
Here is to the future.