My view from The Herkimer

It’s been a few weeks since the Open Streets MPLS ciclovia and we’re already thinking about next year’s event. Why are we thinking about it? Next year, we hope to help make Open Streets MPLS even better.

The inaugural 2011 event was great. The morning weather seemed a bit questionable, begging us to bring rain jackets with us – just in case. But once we arrived, we experienced 20 blocks of people on bikes, parents pushing strollers, visitors stepping into local shops and restaurants, and yoga class in the middle one Minneapolis’ busiest intersections.

 After riding up and down Lyndale a few times with my sister, we parked at The Herkimer for Bloody Marys. From this curbside oasis we watched Mayor Rybak test his cycling prowess at Nice Ride’s slow bike races. We also saw every kind of bike – including a penny-farthing and some sort of recumbent caterpillar. We ran into friends up and down the avenue and left with smiles on our faces.

As we rode home and rehashed all the fun, we also discussed what could have made it even better. Personally, I was a bit disappointed that even though Lyndale was closed, cross traffic was permitted at every intersection. It also seemed odd that vendor booths weren’t more prominent and that several brick and mortar businesses weren’t open.

But I digress. The point of this article isn’t to rehash something that happened weeks ago. The point is that we’re meeting with the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition in mid-July to discuss how MPLS Bike Love might be involved next year and to offer suggestions for what would make 2012 even better. And so we’d like your opinions.

Please tell us what you liked, what you didn’t like, and offer suggestions for what you might like to see next year.

What do you think? Inquiring minds want to know.