This Saturday, May 3, the Southwest Collective will host the BIKE Brighton ride, starting from the Chicago Park District Headquarters, 4830 S. Western Ave., and cruise six miles through the Brighton Park neighborhood. The community group describes itself as "a collective of neighborhoods in the Midway [Airport] area, joining forces to improve the Southwest Side of Chicago."
There will be a hangout session starting at 10 a.m., and then the ride is scheduled to roll out at 11 a.m. The Chicago Department of Transportation's SAFE Ambassadors will be there, along with local Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th). Complimentary Divvy loaner bikes will be available on a first come, first served basis to people age 18 and older. Register and see more info about the event here, including elected officials and other community organizations and bike groups co-sponsoring the ride.
Ahead of the event, Streetsblog caught up with the Southwest Collective's Transit Advocacy Steward Dixon Galvez-Searle for a preview of the ride, and an update on what his organization is currently doing. The interview has been edited for length and brevity.
Cameron Bolton: Could you start by telling me a little more about the bike ride?
Dixon Galvez-Searle: Sure. So, we've done regular bike rides with the Southwest Collective for about five years now, and we've covered pretty much every park on the Southwest Side, except for the new Park District headquarters, right outside the Western Orange Line station in Brighton Park.
And ever since that opened a few years ago, we've had in mind that it would be great to do a bigger sort of all-Southwest Side, multi-neighborhood ride along the lines of some of the bigger rides that you see in the city. We thought the Park District Headquarters would be a great spot to host that because it's central to the Southwest Side and close to a train station. It's accessible for people who live in a lot of different neighborhoods. And so we've always just had in the back of our minds that this would be a great spot to do it that big.
And we had talked to one of the local alderpersons, Julia Ramirez, over the last year or two to say, "Hey, this is something we're interested in doing. Is this something you're interested in joining us for?" she had interest. Earlier this year we were able to set a date for that.
CB: That's cool. Southwest Collective does a lot of activist work when it comes to things like sustainable transportation and traffic safety. Have you done any of that with Alderwoman Ramirez before?
DGS: Well, we've, we've talked with the 12th ward office about a plan that that [the Chicago Department of Transportation] has put together, and that came out of what they've called the Neighborhood Bike Network project in Gage Park, in Brighton Park, in McKinley Park. And so last summer, they held a public forum at one of the local schools in Brighton Park to sort of unveil this plan and give people who live in the area a chance to weigh in, a chance to see in detail what does it look like at various intersections, and what does it look like in total? So there was a presentation. We talked a little bit at that meeting. CDOT presented their proposal. There were a lot of maps that people could ask questions about and mark up.
CB: In light of this, how does it feel to be able to have Ald. Ramirez join you on this bike ride?
DGS: It's great. I mean, I think the more that elected officials can see personally what is going on in the neighborhood, in terms of traffic safety, the better, and the more that people see an interest in biking in the neighborhood, the better. A lot of times on the Southwest Side, you're not going to see a lot of cyclists out on the street on a day-to-day basis. Some people ride down Archer for sure, but it's sporadic, and that's one of the reasons that we started the rides a few years ago, to connect people who are biking.
CB: There will be a raffle, correct?
DGS: Yes. We have two adult bikes that we're raffling off, and we have an online registration form that we're asking people to sign up at so we have a good idea of a head count, and also so people can enter the raffle. We've got pictures of the bikes up on that form so people can see and pick which one they're interested in. There's a skinny black road bike and a yellow and blue Paul Frank-style bike that's a little bit smaller. That would probably be good for somebody in high school.
But they're both in really good shape. They were donated generously by a friend of the collective over the winter. And so we are happy to give these away. And we're also going to have a goodie bag with some lights and bells and some other stuff from Working Bikes that they are donating to supplement that. So, two people are going to walk away with a pretty nice bike right before the ride. And I will mention the winners do have to be present. So if people enter the online raffle but don't come to the ride, when we pull the name, if nobody responds, we're going to pull the next name. So, people do have to be present to win. But we're excited to give those away. And I think everybody's gonna walk away happy from the ride, but two people are gonna walk away especially happy.
CB: Are there any other things going on with Southwest Collective that I should mention?
DGS: I think we covered a lot of it. We are not doing the monthly rides this year like we've done in previous years. But if this ride goes well, and we're hopeful it will, we have our eye on doing similar, larger-scale rides throughout the Southwest Side. So, if we get a big crowd for this, and if all goes well, it won't be the last one. So, I think people can look forward to larger-scale rides, this year and then into the future.
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