Hello. We're artists working through collaborative social practice and creative research to understand the ways in which locality is shaped and enacted in the city.

I took a leisurely bike ride around the neighbourhood yesterday afternoon. It’s been a while since I’ve taken the time to explore, to spend time paying attention to things. I basically wanted an update on the neighbourhood that Danielle and I had lived in a couple years ago.

The eastern edge of Sandwich is quieter than ever. Four blocks of houses (well at least one side of the street for four blocks) is boarded up, it’s beginning to feel like it will be a very long time before that situation is sorted out between the city and the bridge company.

In the meantime, the vacancies and the strange empty spaces created by that situation are increasingly curious. Those stairs need to be used in some kind of project.

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I saw an article on GOOD Magazine today that talked about initiatives that US colleges on the west coast are taking on to encourage more students biking to school. Among these initiatives are giving out free bus passes, car and bike sharing programs, shortening the school week and even paying students not to drive.

The University of Windsor (partly pictured above), as a commuter school, is essentially surrounded by parking lots. For some students, coming up from Essex County or even Tecumseh, taking public transit is not an option… (Let’s forget that there was once a commuter train that went from Kingsville, through Essex, and into Windsor). There are a number of obstacles for other students to get to school, even if they live within range of Transit Windsor’s routes—namely that it takes far too long to get to school by bus and to take a bicycle anywhere but along the riverfront is taking your life into your own hands. 

There are proposed solutions to make the campus into more of a campus, with a sustained student body, and less of a drive-thru educational depot, such as increasing the cost of parking even more, and I’m wondering if the next few years might not be especially crucial to shift the student body onto public transit. With the economy so depressed, affording gas, insurance, parking, and car payments may be impossible, so why isn’t there another referendum to try to instate a University bus pass? Especially for students at Lebel, making it to main campus and back again in time for classes that are back to back is difficult, what if there was an electric shuttle that could get you back and forth in five minutes? How much would you be willing to add to your tuition for that? What if there was a dedicated bike path from Lebel to main campus? What if there was a bike sharing program with drop-off points at Lebel, the St Denis Centre, Odette and the Library? Should we buy some bikes and make our own bike-sharing program?

Have you guys looked into your back yard and thought: “OH BOY I wish I could grow a field full of bikes.” I know I haven’t – BUT THIS GUY DID!

Based out of Santa Cruz, California, Graig Calfee is a bike maker. Sounds neat, so what? Check this quote from the Wired article:

To increase production and improve design, Craig is experimenting with growing bamboo into pre-formed shapes in the field.

By forcing the bamboo to grow through carefully placed barriers, the naturally straight plant grows with the bends and curves he needs for frames and other components.

Hey, is that your grey matter splattered behind you on the wall, or is it mine? Because my brain just exploded. That’s incredible! But what is even more incredible is the way he invisions mass-production of these bikes, one more quote:

“A factory in a field. You can have row after row of bamboo growing into the right structures for bike frames.”

Awesome.

Via

 UPDATE: I forgot to post his website, give it a look! Calfee Design

I totally had a nerdgasm when I saw this. It’s an LED Light System for your bike. Developed by co-founder of the lovely and informative Instructables.com, Dan Goldwater. Here’s the site to get one. It’s not that bad actually, it’s 64.99USD. Not a bad investment, considering that you will always be seen riding around at night. Oh man, I’m definately considering it.

Once more, I found this beauty on Boing Boing Gadgets.