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Last week I wrote about a good idea making the rounds: to give the thousands of bikes recovered from Igor Kenk’s storehouses to people in need. But there are complications that need to be overcome before this can happen.
Chad Nuttal, one of the people who proposed this idea, has now started a petition to try to give this idea some traction. You can sign the petition here.
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8 comments
I’ve signed the petition, since I applaud any good will mission, but I think the City will make every attempt to avoid doing so.
Bikes and the TPS auction are one of the many innovative ways the City can make up some extra monies.
Considering the police indifference and possible co-opted participation in Igor’s enterprise it is absurd the police association should benefit as will happen if the police auction these bicycles. The historic police indifference to bicycle theft and other crimes against bicyclists sets a tone for police/bicyclist interaction and it is up to the police to make a good faith gesture to the community if this is to change.
Those bicycles that are not in ready condition for donation should further be donated to other community organisations to rebuild and redistribute. Such organisations would include CBN and the U of T students cycling organisation (bikechain?). Furthermore the city should recognise their role in this affair and contribute funding to CBN to see that these bicycles are rebuilt and redistributed.
Careful! Signing that petition puts you on the mailing list of a California organisation. I now cannot find a way to unsubscribe, so it’s put on my spam filter.
What’s an American company doing with a Toronto based peitition? Someone exercised poor judgement.
I’m not 100% convinced this is a good idea. Two concerns:
1. What people don’t pay for they tend not to value. I am concerned that these bikes may be neglected and not properly secured so that they are stolen and help give a head start to Igor’s successor. Or that they are not maintained. I’ve seen some people (quite well off!) where even a flat led to the bike being disused.
2. How do we determine who qualifies for a free bike? Who gets the more expensive ones from Igor’s hoard? Who gets the cheap ones? I don’t want to be in a situation where cronyism determines who gets what.
Perhaps a better solution would be a micro-credit type loan for the bike.
Are the bikes themselves more valuable than the potential money earned from their auction?
Donating the bikes to the needy means they get bikes. Auctioning off the bikes to the highest bidder, but earmarking the funds earned for donation to city charities, means they get money for shelter, food, clothing, etc. – or bikes.
Are the needy’s best interests really being served here? Or is this just serving the interest of getting more people on bikes?
At least the community’s heart is in the right place.
The stolen bikes are a windfall, though some may still be lost from their owners. The bikes, or proceeds, or both, should be given away, but to a different recipient than what’s likely the case now, a police charity that may not be that “charitable”.
I’ve been thinking that having the functional bikes be sold off and the parts go to CBN is one way to go. The money from the sell-off could go to a new fund to help pay for the funeral costs of killed cyclists.
Here’s a fun exercise – convert a megaproject into how many bikes could be bought with $xxx,000,000. The rough calculation when the Sheppard was being built is that every adult in the City could have been given a good bike.
There’s a lot of money around in other budget segments; it’s choices…
Thanks for giving the petition some profile Dylan. Really appreciate it. Thanks to all who have gone to the site and signed the petition!
C
I’d like to see the bikes shipped to a community that would appreciate them, not the poor in Toronto who don’t show evidence of caring about maintenance.
There are several groups who send them to African villages, here’s one.
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2008/06/bold-brilliant-baisikeli_26.html
As for the police, I’d like to see them sued for ignoring Igor and other thieves for several years.