You remember Omari? He sent in those photos to share from the Youth Bike Summit. Well Omari put some words to his experience as well.
I (jason) did some light editing, added links and made some text bold that really stuck out to me. So the emphasis is mine, but the experience is all Omari’s. Check it out:
My Experience at the Youth Bike Summit in NYC
by Omari Norman
So my experience at the Youth Bike Summit was actually surprisingly fun. But I didn’t know what to expect in the first place anyway. I thought we were going to go and it was sorta gonna be like a biking convention: we were going to greet and teach bike lovers, kids and/or people that just want to know more about bikes. But we were gratefully invited into a homey environment to talk , laugh, and learn with other bike lovers. I loved that; it was very fun.
I don’t really like to go interact with new people. People usually come up to me! I say something funny, they hear it and then they interact with me. Most of the time that’s what happens but while we were at the summit I actually wanted to go talk to people because of the feel of the environment. Seeing people having fun, laughing, interacting, joking, thinking and innovating; it was awesome =). My favorite moment from the summit was actually just seeing people having so much fun. People from many different parts of the country were all conversing and inspiring each other. Lots of people knew each other and lots didn’t so it was very interesting to see the outcome of a fun and loving environment.
After going to this conference and hearing about other bike projects and seeing NYC, do i feel different about Detroit? Yes, yes I do. Because in NYC there were so many more bike lanes and well they even have rental bikes. Detroit doesn’t have nearly as many bike lanes and I wish we had a rental bike system! NYC is way more dependent on bikes than Detroit and what contributes to this fact is that they have way more people. And of course they have more money to afford it. I met a guy that was from Philadelphia and he worked for an organization that was similar to ours. They taught kids , mentored them, donated bikes and a lot more. But unlike us, he did not get paid. It was for like community service and he was proud to do it. So that was very cool. (*editor’s note: we do have volunteer opportunities for adults and youth)
This experience changed me in a way that changes my view on interacting with people first. Maybe I should try to go up and talk to people (in that type of situation) more. The more you do that, the more you can learn and have new experiences you know? And lastly with the new knowledge that I have from the conference, what am I going to do with it? Well one thing that I mostly notice in (especially in Detroit) is that not enough people care about bikes. I was so happy to see so many people at the summit just for the sake of bikes. But in Detroit not enough people care; I think people still look at them as toys and they don’t see the impact of them yet. Me, myself, I just want to try to get people to know more about bikes and get them more excited about them. Try to go and help more as much as I can if I can. I want to get people more inspired. Just to get the word out there about bikes even though I don’t know how to exactly do that yet.
One idea is that well my friend Yakeem has his own radio station in Detroit called Urban Nation Radio (you can find them on Facebook). He works with many different people on the station but he is very important and basically runs it. He is a real bike fanatic. He loves bikes and I try to ride bikes with him as much as I can. If I have more conversations with him about bikes it maybe will inspire him to give a shout-out to bikes or bike organizations such as ours. That word will spread and the people that heard it will mention it in conversations and then more people will know and hopefully it will become a big cycle. That’s only one idea and I will come up with more.
Overall NYC was awesome and the summit was amazing. I had lots of fun with you guys you guys are awesome; everyone. Jason, Heather, Duane, Shamar, Ian – love all you guys. See ya.
Thanks Omari
