For those of you that missed the article introducing the Northeast Ride, I’ll summarize: slated for June 2, 2012, the Northeast Ride is going to be a creative cycling tour through the 13 neighborhoods of Northeast.

And it’s going to be awesome.

Making Progress

We’ve got the website up, have started to plan routes, have our budgets in line, and have begun crafting volunteer roles and activities for participants. We’ve received support from friends in the Minneapolis Public Works program, and from a variety of businesses in Northeast. The pieces are, bit by bit, all coming together.

What does “Creative Cycling Tour” mean, anyway?

Think “Northern Spark” with a little more geographic specificity and route structure between destination points.  Guided tours will leave in increments, touring strategically through the best, most memorable, and historic parts of Northeast. We’ll stop at at least one park in each neighborhood to witness or participate in an ongoing activity. Riders that want to stop can take a break, others can continue on the tour. Ideas for these activities include:

• An old timey bike photo booth (complete with dapper clothes at hand for picture purposes)
• A Northeast time capsule riders can contribute to
• Make-your-own spoke card and bike decorating station

And more. We’re taking suggestions, too – so if you have any great ideas you want to share, let us know! Mainly – stops will have creative activities that are entertaining to watch and fun to participate in. The tour will end at one of the Northeast parks with an expo-style festival featuring music, refreshments, and bike / bike art related exhibitions. There’s rumor of an alley cat contest in the works as well.

Why do you need money? It’s just a bike ride.

We’re planning a lot more than just a ride. We want to make sure the entire event is well-organized, well-promoted, and as safe as possible for the participants. (Especially any wee participants.) After running through several different budgets, $15,000 is the number we came to that will allow us to pull this event off without compromising safety, creativity, or legality. We’re trying to get as much in-kind as possible, but our projected expenses include:

• Printing and promotional costs
• Insurance
• Map / route creation
• Tshirts
• Marking off key streets
• Permits
• Event stands/displays at the participating parks
• Safety needs for riders (first aid kits for tour guides, etc)
• Entertainment and permits for the after-tour celebration
• Volunteer supplies / rider organization needs

Why now?

Why not?

In all seriousness, we’re doing this Kickstarter project now for a few reasons. We have spent the past 6 months doing some of the initial pre-planning, budgeting and networking. We think it’s a great idea and so has everybody we’ve talked to. But we need to know that we’ll have the community interest and support needed to pull this off. We’ve done all we can without starting to incur printing, permitting and promotional expenses. We think that pre-registrations and pledges are a great way to show support, and ensure we’re going to have the resources we need to… well, kickstart this initiative! Isn’t that what Kickstarter is about?

How you can help:

Pledges are awesome, but there are additional options to show your support and help make this ride happen.

• Share the kickstarter page: kickstarter.com/projects/469564467/celebrate-northeast-minneapolis-with-the-ne-ride
• Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/NortheastRide
• Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/#!/northeastride
• Check out and share the site: northeastride.org

And of course, if you want to get really involved you can always join the planning committee. The next meeting is November 22, 5:30pm at Altered Esthetics Gallery.