Promoting People Power through Media & Interactive Activities

At the beginning of the quarter, I promoted and participated in the Sneak Routes and Secret Places Bike Ride. This 10 mile group bike throughout the lesser-known routes on the Westside of Santa Cruz took place on a beautiful sunny day and drew in a cool crowd of all ages.

A week before the sneak bike ride event, I was inspired to make my own laser cut version of a bike route sign for a secret bike route.

This is the digital design I created in Adobe Illustrator. The thickness of the lines instruct the laser machine where to cut and where to engrave.

The smaller squares from the digital designs were cut into dozens of People Power key chains!

Before the Sneak Routes and Secret Places Bike Ride, we reviewed saftey guidelines and helpful riding tips.

Instead of using the main street, we took the sneaky route!

We stopped by the railroad near Wilder Ranch to talk about the Rail Trail, a recently funded project to build a bike path along the rail road that will connect San Mateo County to Watsonville. You can read more about it on People Power's website.

The MAH organized a Pop Up Museum event at hub where People Power coexists with other organizations like the Bike Church, Computer Kitchen, and Sub Rosa. A Pop Up Museum is an open event for all community members to set up related exhibits and workshops in one space.

People Power set up a fun an interactive spin art station where participants could pour paint or pedal the stationary bike to create a cool splatter effect.

We also set up a helmet decorating and spoke care making workshops. We had reflective stickers participants could cut out to make their gear unique and visible!

Some sample spoke cards.

After adding reflective stickers of my initials "HA" on both sides of my helmet, I went for a bike ride along West Cliff. It was definitely noticeable! HAHA

Here's a glimpse from the Santa Cruz Bike Party on Valentines Day. We had a gang of over 50 people biking around town under the full moon. It was so roll-mantic!

An awesome glowing tandem bike with speakers and a couch trailer!

Some sisterly love!

Dancing in San Lorenzo Park!

We set up some spin art again for the "What the Cruz?" event at the MAH.

Here are some submissions for the Bike Week poster from high school students across Santa Cruz County. Instead of hiring a graphic designer to create the poster, there was a contest among local teenagers and the entrees were impressive! 

We met at the pirate themed bike party a few months ago. We were laughing because we both arrived at the meet up spot late with our pirate buddies and couldn't find the official group so we ended up forming our own bike party like true pirates!

We also set up a station for helmet decorating and spoke card making workshops. This time we had a legitimate laminating machine!

Crafters creating spoke cards with reflective stickers.

I made this spoke card using one of the unclaimed splatter paint papers from the previous event we held with spin art. People Power!

Currently, I've been helping promote upcoming free Bike Commuting Workshops that will be held at the People Power headquarters on Pacific Avenue. I walked around downtown  Santa Cruz with my classmate Maryam talking with local businesses about posting these eye-catching posters in their window for the next few months. The majority of businesses we spoke to were very supportive!

I look forward to continuing my work with People Power in the Spring and participating in more informative workshops and interactive events!

*A big thanks to Tawn Kennedy and volunteer photographers from the MAH for capturing many of the photos included in this post*

Project Challenges/Advocacy

My project thus far has been smooth going! I’ve been getting some great footage from Tawn and have started putting it together—it’s coming together nicely. Going on the ride that Tawn put together in Aptos produced some great footage as well. We took high school kids up into Nisene Marks and rode some really fun trails. It was most of the kids’ first time mountain biking which was a blast to see and I got some really fun footage all over the trails.

Putting together the video for Green Ways to School hasn’t evoked any problems and has been a lot of fun so far. The only thing I have some concern over is how far the video will reach via the internet. We’ve talked a lot in class about the audience that our advocacy actually reaches which is often those already involved in the bike community.  The video that I’m making for Green Ways to School will go up on their website, which means that the only people who will see it are those actively searching for Green Ways (meaning that they have a prior interest in the organization and thus, in bicycling). I want the video to reach kids and parents who are interested in contributing to an eco-friendly community or who want to engage in sustainable forms of transportation but might not have the resources or might not be comfortable sending their kid off to school on a bike or on foot. I would really love to find the resources to reach this audience. I’ve reached out to the public access station here in Santa Cruz but haven’t heard back (perhaps because they’re under renovation right now?). I know that Tawn has worked with them before so that’s a great connection to have, and I’ll contact them again soon or talk to Tawn about ways of getting the video on air. Of course, posting the video to blogs and internet communities (like this one!) always helps, but again, probably won’t reach the local demographic that I’m interested in reaching. I’d be interested to hear suggestions as to how to reach this audience! Included is a sneak peek photo of the Nisene Marks ride last President’s Day weekend.

Bicycle pizza cutter lets you bring your love of bikes to the table (Grist)

Original post on Grist by Jess Zimmerman here.

"Maybe you’re fed up with the lack of bike infrastructure in your city — take out your frustrations by offroading this pizza cutter right through your food. Those city bureaucrats can’t keep you from riding on any pizza you want! Alternately, maybe you’re celebrating a bike marriage proposal, or you’re carbo-loading for your next road race, or maybe you just can’t stand to not be touching a bike at all times. Whatever the reason, the Fixie has you covered."

ReCYCLED Bike Parts!

I stumbled upon some wonderfully creative uses for bicycle parts. How cool would it be to design a bicycle themed community garden? A unique space where sustainable transportation meets sustainable food systems using charming recycled materials. It could be a symbol of collaboration between local organizations with different specialties but a similar vision.    

Stained glass cogs

Wheel inspired planters and genius pest management tactics

My personal favorite - a trellis adapted from wheels and zip ties. It looks like a special gathering space for small groups, families, picnics, etc.. I would use it to grow pole beans. 

 

A bicycle gate to tone set upon entry. 

These are pretty cool, as they can be utilitarian or strictly decorative. Perhaps one could hang trowels, shovels, rakes, or even bicycles on one of these bad boys.