The OutSPOKEn Cyclist
By Diane Jenks
I’m not much of a “joiner” – I’ve never belonged to a book club or a garden club; I don’t belong to a country club or swim club.
Since I’ve always been in business for myself, owning and operating a retail store for many decades, and, if you know nothing else about small business, it’s all-consuming! I retired from retail in 2012. Well, retired is one of those euphemisms for something or other. I still teach regular yoga classes and produce a podcast; I help my husband when he needs me, but I no longer put in 40, 50, 60, or more hours a week at a brick-and-mortar store.
During these past 10+ years, I developed an interest in urban planning and sustainability with a focus on safer biking and walking. I’ve spoken with many authorities in all of these fields for my podcast and started looking at my own community.
In 2022, a project to install bike lanes on a north-south road turned out to be, in my not-so humble opinion, a total mess, with Phase Two under way right now! The road markings are not at all intuitive and the signage is confusing.
As happens more often than not, the right place for a protected bike path was summarily dismissed by residents in the neighborhood. The reason most given is that it might “devalue” their properties, but there are a lot of statistics that say otherwise. Meanwhile, it was too late. Or, maybe I was too late because I didn’t get involved.
Then, last summer, my husband and I wandered up to a local event being held in a nearby park. The title of the event suggested food – “October Feast.” In reality, there was only one food vendor, and it didn’t appeal to us.
As soon as we got back to the house, I reached out to my councilperson, who is a rock star by the way, and she steered me to a committee that is involved with “community engagement,”suggesting that I join that committee.
My “join a group” bias came up right away, but I dug down and decided my “objections” to such things were nonsense and so, I attended the first meeting. Even though my main focus was about safer walking and biking, I quickly became engaged with some of the other projects, even suggesting one on my own.
For some reason, THAT idea garnered the interest and enthusiasm of the committee members, becoming the focus of the first upcoming event – a weeklong community restaurant week with a goal of highlighting many of the owner-operated establishments in the community. South Euclid Restaurant Week will be June 1-7. (Check onesoutheuclid.
And so, we got to work. To date, we have a dozen local restaurants on board and are expecting another four or five to sign up. The committee is excited, the restaurant owners are excited, and we hope the community will come out, try a new place to eat, and tell others.
It probably didn’t hurt that I had produced large events over the past few decades, but it felt good to put some of that old expertise to work and see such enthusiastic results. It also goes to the point that if you want to see things happen, change, improve, and make your community (or your life) more interesting or easier or more fun, you might want to be the one who does something about it.
I’m still pretty certain that I won’t be joining a book or country club any time soon, but serving my community? That’s a win.
