¡MIRA QUE LINDAS! Events at The Awarehouse

Call your senators in support of the clean air act

Graffiti Bike Tour Follow Up

First and foremost we would like to thank everyone who in one way or another has helped piece together Graffiti by Bike. We’ve succeeded in introducing 100+ people and all their people to public art in Wynwood, an international attraction just around the corner. It has turned out to be much more than we could have ever hoped for and the results have been magnificent. With this being only the second time we carry out the tour we have been able to introduce a number of residents to their neighborhood, exposed kids to the positive aspects of urban art and discovered great local businesses.

Special thanks to EMERGE Miami, Green Mobility Network and the South Florida Bicycle Coalition for volunteering their time to organize the ride and keep everyone safe, Primary Flight for making our city internationally known, Lombardi and Goldman Properties for providing wall canvases to beautify our neighborhood, MOCA for hosting a very informative lecture, Harry Gottlieb, City of Miami Cultural Affairs Director and James Quinlan from the Arts & Entertainment Council for their support, Brook at Dorscht Gallery for much needed refreshments and access to their yard, Cafeina Lounge for opening their gates, and most importantly to all the artists who can see beauty beyond concrete walls and neglected neighborhoods.

As you may all know the tour was organized as a means to engage the community and promote active lifestyles. The idea is that cities adopt permanent and ongoing Open Street Programs like Bike Miami Days where residents, business owners and community organizations can all be introduced to each other and interact. These type of events benefit the community and neighborhood as a whole. This tour is a small effort towards that.

You can check out some great photos and a review from Liam Crotty who was awesome enough to document the entire tour.

We welcome all the constructive criticism you may have. We are always looking for new ideas on how to make the rides, events and our city better.

Again thank you all!

Dario Gonzalez & Olga M. Cano

View more photos on Meetup

Up-And-Coming Bike Rides & Events

Graffiti By Bike

A tour of home-grown and world class graffiti in Wynwood, including Primary Flight’s diverse urban art and the Wynwood Walls, many of which are only dry since December. The tour will include information on the artists and crews, and the rules by which they respect tags, bombs, throw-ups and pieces. We will trace a route through Wynwood, following the artistic development of tags to commissioned public work. Check out the preview in the Miami Herald. Make sure to bring sunblock and plenty of water.

The After-After Party

Don’t forget to join us in the evening after the Graffiti Ride on May 22nd for a night of Art and Music.

What:  Live music as well as a gallery event featuring various local artists

Where: 533 Sw 12th Ave (Little Havana)

When:  Saturday, May 22nd at 8:00 pm

Hello 1Sky friends!

Thanks again for all your support and to those of you who joined oil spill protests in Lake Worth and Miami Beach last week.

If you haven’t yet, please check out the press we got from the Miami event: Activists Protest Offshore Drilling

Press from Lake Worth to be posted soon. We’re looking for rapid response from as many folks as possible before Thursday!

Please call your senators before Thursday of this week. The senate is voting on the Murkowski amendment- we’re expecting Thursday- and we need masses to call and say “VOTE NO!” If passed, it would undo the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases from coal power plants under the Clean Air Act- our only federal regulation currently in place to limit emissions and curb climate change. Call with the tool on our website- let the computer call you so we can keep track of how many calls are made: http://www.facebook.com/l/6bc68;tools.advomatic.com/13/calls

Thanks as always for your support,

Andrea Cuccaro

1Sky Florida Organizer

786-925-1151

Bike Miami Rides

What:  Community Bike Ride

Where:  Government Center 101 NW First St Miami, FL 33128

When:  Sunday, May 30th at 10:00 am

“The ride will be starting at Government Center 111 NW 1st Ave, we will be doing the A-B-C quick check to make sure bikes are road ready. We’ll be riding from Government Center, north through Overtown, Wynwood and Little Haiti. We’ll stop up at Hadley Park and return. This will be a great ride lots, and a good opportunity to improve your riding skills. A map will be provided prior to the ride.

Bike Miami Rides are a great way to build cycling confidence while riding on road, they are a fun great way to explore the city in a different way. For more information please email Collin Worth at cworth@miamigov.com (305) 416-1022″

Sweet Treats Ride

Bike Miami Days is this Sunday!

Friends and Fellow Cyclists, Spring is upon us and we’re fortunate enough to have another Bike Miami Days open streets festival!

This means that the streets will be closed to cars and open to
everyone else.  There will be people walking, rollerskating, bicycling
and otherwise enjoy the streets and parks of the Grove. There will be
music, free bicycle rentals (but you DO NOT NEED TO BICYCLE) and fun
for kids. There will be lots of orange-themed goodness brought by the
Dutch Consulate in honor of Queen’s Day, a big annual holiday in the
Netherlands.

Who:  Pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers, and fun-lovers
What:  Bike Miami Days Open Streets Festival
Where:  Peacock Park, 2820 McFarlane Rd, Miami, FL 33133
When:  Sunday, April 25th at 9:00 am
Why:  Open streets are great fun!

It’s going to be loads of fun – an opportunity to enjoy Miami’s beautiful weather and waterfront, parks and people. There is something for everyone. Be active – ride and walk around or just relax – bring a lawn chair and soak up the sun and bay breezes as you people-watch on Main Highway, South Bayshore or Pan American Drive.

Don’t miss the Official After Party! Hosted by the South Florida Bike Coalition, this event is free to Bike Miami Days volunteers and SFBC members. For a $10 contribution to better bicycling in South Florida, you’ll enjoy a free mimosa or soda, free food, another raffle(!) and music into the afternoon. If you want to see more events like this one across South Florida, don’t miss this party! Thanks to Akashi and South Florida Bike Coalition for hosting.

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!!!

Bike Miami Days returns to Coconut Grove

Emerge is excited to announce the return of Bike Miami Days to Coconut Grove this April 25th, from 9am to 2pm. Like to volunteer? Great! Contact our friends from MOST.

The City of Miami, Dutch Consulate and volunteers organized as MOST (the Miami Open Streets Team) again bring you BIKE MIAMI DAYS – an open streets festival of sorts where everyone is invited to explore a city neighborhood in a new way.

There will be people walking, rollerskating, bicycling and otherwise enjoy the streets and parks of the Grove. There will be music, free bicycle rentals (but you DO NOT NEED TO BICYCLE) and fun for kids. There will be lots of orange-themed goodness brought by the Dutch Consulate in honor of Queen’s Day, a big annual holiday in the Netherlands.

It’s going to be loads of fun – an opportunity to enjoy Miami’s beautiful weather and waterfront, parks and people. There is something for everyone. Be active – ride and walk around or just relax – bring a lawn chair and soak up the sun and bay breezes as you people-watch on Main Highway, South Bayshore or Pan American Drive.

If you missed last year’s event, you really want to be sure and make this one. See you there!

VOLUNTEERS: We need volunteers ~ volunteer performers, promoters, activity organizers, ambassadors and more. We need help leading up to and during the event. Please let us know if you can help! Thank you*

Graffiti Bike Tour Recap

Wow! Firstly, Emerge would like to thank everybody who came out to our Graffiti Bike Tour over the weekend, the feedback has been some of the best we’ve gotten from any of the rides that we’ve hosted. Dario Gonzalez & Olga Cano were very knowledgeable about the names and stories of our local street art talent, lending a high brow air to the spectacle. Don’t take my word for it, though, check out the pics for yourself:

Meetup Photos
Picassa Web Album

March is Bike Month after all, so it was a great way to kick off the rest of the festivities we have planned for this month. Head on over to the Critical Mass Meetup Page to RSVP!

And now, a message from Olga Cano of Miami Open Streets Team:

Dear All,

This is a heartfelt thank you from the Miami Open Streets Team, Olga Cano and Dario Gonzalez for your help and general support of efforts leading to Streets . Art . Cycles; Graffiti by Bike. You helped grow a simple idea to a very successful, free, public event.

This success reintroduced bicycling as a viable activity to a few people who normally wouldn’t dare cycle through city streets. When we were children, getting on a bike opened a new world to us; we could suddenly travel two or three blocks from home and we felt like Columbus riding the Santa Maria through the Atlantic to the ‘Indies’. Were we much braver then? With our want for comfort and convenience at nearly any cost, poorly designed streets / intersections and, crazed motorists, it does takes a certain amount of confidence to get on a bike in the city. However, by presenting cycling to the public as an activity for everyone we are showing people that bicycling is neither crazy nor impossible but rather, lots of fun and fantastically practical. Our group of 45-55 people ranged from 10 to 60 years of age and was compose of nearly equal parts males and females, all of which are now street-art lovers who prefer tours by bike. Robert Noval, Gary Mendenhall (Green Mobility Network), Colin Worth, Dieter and, others kept us all safe.

Our tour explored parts of the City ‘around the corner’. Rather than disappearing into our cars at the beginning of the tour and reappearing at stops, we rode through Wynwood at a slow pace. We were able to say hello to residents making their streets part of living room-life and wave at others who courteously allowed us to pass as they remained stopped in their cars. The tour attempted to bridge a social gap that is too easy to understand and too difficult to talk about. The slow cycling route through Allapattah and Wynwood helped cross some of the boundaries between richer and poorer. Wynwood is everyone’s neighborhood and we hope this introduction encourages further and even regular exploration. We’d like to thank Emerge Miami for making this City a little better every day. We’d also like to thank Ken Bercel of the Lost & Found Saloon, for investing in Wynwood and projects like ours, the Biscayne Times and the Miami Herald for interest and reporting on things local and, Karla and James Murray.

Streets . Art . Cycles explored connections between Street and Fine Art. From the bombers tagging without respect to international artists invited by Primary Flight and other artists displaying their work on the Wynwood Walls, the choice of media, selection of the subject and the speed of the process makes for a strong argument of similarities between the two types of public art. What makes for respect among artists? Why collaborate with a crew? What is the audience and how do artists strive for fame? All of these questions were informed due to the help of Typoe, Books, Claudio Picasso, Joe (of Goldman Properties) and, Susan (of Deitch Projects).

Again, we thank you for your support!

Bike Miami Rides – Jan 30th – TACOLCY Bike Club

This is a joint ride with City of Miami’s Bike Miami Rides, and the TACOLCY (The Advisory Comittee of Liberty City Youth) Bike Club. This should be a fun ride with the kids of the TACOLCY bike club.
The original ride was unfortunately cancelled by inclement weather.

Bike Miami Rides will be starting the new year with a Community Bike Ride. We will be meeting at the TACOLCY center 6161 NW 9th Ave.

Join City of Miami Police, University of Miami BIKESAFE, Emerge Miami Critical Mass, and the new TACOLCY Bike Club on a ride around Little Haiti and Liberty City.

We’ll check everyone’s bicycle and helmet, go through the rules of the road, and then head out for a fun ride through Miami’s city streets.

For more information about Bike Miami Rides contact Collin at 305.416.1022.

Happy 2010, now let’s ride — First Critical Mass of the year!

The first decade of the new millennium has come and gone and the organizers of Emerge Miami are very excited for everything that is to come. Our own new year’s resolution is to keep the momentum, which includes updating our blog with more consistency. So here’s to more outreach, more presence, a greater sense of community, and,hopefully, more bike riding in the greater Miami area.

Now, with that said…

Don’t let the cold weather deter you! Join us on your bike this Saturday, January 9th for the monthly Critical Mass bike ride, organized by Emerge Miami.

January 9th Critical Mass

This ride will be a joint ride with the City of Miami’s Bike Miami Rides and the TACOLCY (The Advisory Comittee of Liberty City Youth) Center Bike Club. Critical Massers will meet at 10am at the MLK Metro Station and ride to meet the other groups at the TACOLCY Center. Come show your support for city-wide bicycle initiatives!

The ride will take us through Liberty City, Little Haiti, Buena Vista, The Design District and the Upper East Side. There will be lots of kids, too!

If you have any questions, leave a comment or drop us a line at our Meetup page, http://criticalmass.meetup.com/40/

Join 1Sky and Emerge Miami for the October 24th Global Day of Action on Climate Change

Hello Emergers,

Join 1Sky, Repower America and Emerge Miami in taking action on climate change this week- over 4,000 rallies happening across the world on Saturday! Join ours in Miami, and help make fun artsy things this Thursday at our meeting.

Awesome Activist Thursdays- Join 1Sky and Repower America at 7 PM at the Wallflower Art Gallery (at 10 NE 3^rd St in downtown Miami) on Thursday evenings to make costumes and bike fixings we can sport at the Oct 24^th event, and to continue taking actions that urge our senators to pass the climate and energy bill!

Saturday, Oct 24^th: Join 1Sky, Repower America, and Emerge Miami’s Critical Mass for a global day of action on climate change!

What: A bike rally to urge Florida senators to act on the climate bill!

When and Where: Sat, Oct 24^th, we will meet at 11:15 AM at Vizcaya Metro Station, to cycle the main event where Ocean Watch, a group of researchers sailing around the world, will educate us about effects of climate change they have observed. Hosted by the University of Miami (details on back).

Once at the event:

Please be sure to visit the 1Sky/ Repower America table to call senators on the spot and to sign the petition and tell your senators you want to see them pass a strong climate and energy bill!

At 2 PM, join into the large human photo opp by the drum circle, in which we will arrange ourselves into a formation of the number “350” –the number that citizens worldwide will be publicizing on this day- to tell our leaders we need to reduce our greenhouse gases to 350 carbon parts per million.

What to bring: your bike, a drum if you have one, sunscreen, water, and a smile!

Contact: Andrea Cuccaro, 1Sky Florida Organizer, 786-925-1151

Ongoing action opportunities

Call your senators: visit www.1sky.org/call for senators’ phone numbers and talking points about how they can strengthen and pass the climate and energy bill!

Join Emerge Miami’s Critical Mass bike ride every second Saturday: http://criticalmass.meetup.com/40/