Joe Steffen

By KATIE ZEZIMABIDDEFORD, Me. — When Kylie Galliani started at the University of New England in August, she was given a key to her dorm, a class schedule and something more unusual: a $480 bicycle.“I was like, ‘A free bike, no catch?’ ” Ms. Galliani, 17, a freshman from Fort Bragg, Calif., asked. “It’s really an ideal way to get around the campus.”University administrators and students nationwide are increasingly feeling that way too.The University of New England and Ripon College in Wisconsin are giving free bikes to freshmen who promise to leave their cars at home. Other colleges are setting up free bike sharing or rental programs, and some universities are partnering with bike shops to offer discounts on purchases.The goal, college and university officials said, is to ease critical shortages of parking and to change the car culture that clogs campus roadways and erodes the community feel that comes with walking or biking around campus.“We’re seeing an explosion in bike activity,” said Julian Dautremont-Smith, associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a nonprofit association of colleges and universities. “It seems like every week we hear about a new bike sharing or bike rental program.”While many new bike programs are starting up, some are shutting down because of problems with theft and vandalism. The program at St. Mary’s College in Maryland was suspended because bikes were being vandalized.“Ours was one that was totally based on voluntary taking care of the bike,” said Chip Jackson, a spokesman for St. Mary’s, “and I guess that was maybe a tad unwise. So the next generation of this idea will have a few more checks and balances.”At Ripon, and the University of New England, officials say that giving students a bike of their own might encourage them to be more responsible. Ripon’s president, David C. Joyce, a competitive mountain biker, said the free bike idea came in a meeting about how to reduce cars on campus.The college committed $50,000 to the program and plans to continue it with next year’s freshmen. Some 200 Trek mountain bikes, helmets and locks were bought, and about 180 freshmen signed up for the program. “We did it as a means of reducing the need for parking,” Dr. Joyce said, “but as we looked at it from the standpoint of fitness, health and sustainability, we realized we have the opportunity to create a change.”The University of New England here in Biddeford had a similar problem — too many cars, not enough space and a desire to make the campus greener. So it copied the Ripon program, handing out 105 bikes in the first week of school. Because of the program, only 25 percent of freshmen brought cars with them this year, officials said, compared with 75 percent last year.“We felt the campus could devolve to asphalt parking lots, and a lot of people didn’t want that to happen,” said Michael Daley, head of the university’s environmental council and a professor of economics.The bikes are marked with each student’s name.“I don’t have to fill it with gas, and it doesn’t hurt the environment,” said Kaitlyn Birwell, 18. “With a car, you need a parking permit, gas, and it breaks down. I’m a college student and don’t have the money for that.”Michelle Provencal, 18, said she hopes her bike will help her avoid a dreaded side effect of being a college freshman. “Maybe instead of gaining the freshman 15 I’ll lose it,” Ms. Provencal said.When Mercer University in Macon, Ga., asked for donations of old bikes, it received 60, which are being fixed up and painted orange and black, the university colors. Forty are available for weeklong rentals, and Mercer has organized mass rides to downtown Macon, about three miles away, to promote the program.“A lot of students haven’t ridden a bike since middle school or even younger, but when they get back on it their faces light up,” said Allan J. Rene de Cotret, director of the program. “So why not leave your car parked where you live or back home with your parents and ride your bike around campus?”Emory University has partnered with Fuji Bikes and Bicycle South, a local bike shop, to provide 50 bikes that can be rented at no charge at six spots on campus. Students can also buy Fuji bikes at a discount and receive a free helmet, lock and lights from Emory.Students, faculty and staff can go to a rental station, show their Emory ID and check out bikes. The program plans to add 70 more bikes and four checkout points in the next year. In addition, about 150 bikes have been sold through the partnership in the past year, said Jamie Smith, who runs the program, called Bike Emory.“We like the idea of bolstering the cycling culture here,” Mr. Smith said, “and ultimately it supports alternative transportation.”Bikes at some campuses were treated as toys rather than transportation. Others were difficult to maintain or were not used.“The kids weren’t taking care of the bikes, leaving them wherever instead of parking them in the bike racks,” said John Wall, a spokesman for Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., which eliminated its two-year-old bike-sharing program this year. “The other problem was that the bikes weren’t the greatest to begin with. They were donated by Wal-Mart, and others were rehabbed. They had also been out in the weather. It just didn’t work out.”The elements are a concern at other universities as well. More than 150 students at the University at Buffalo signed up for a city bike-sharing program that has drop-off points on campus, but it suspends service from November to April.“It’s hard to maintain all the bikes during winter, and usage drops dramatically,” said Jim Simon, an associate environmental educator at Buffalo.Here at the University of New England, officials wonder what will happen when snow starts falling, but they are looking toward bike-sharing programs in cities like Copenhagen and Montreal as proof that they can work in the cold.St. Xavier University in Chicago this month is unveiling the first computer-driven bike sharing system on a college campus.Students can wave their ID card over a docking port. The port is attached to a rubber tube, which can be used as a lock and opened by entering an access code. Students must enter the bike’s condition before it can be unlocked. The system is used in Europe, but with credit cards.The first 15 minutes are free, and users pay 60 cents for each additional 15 minutes, or $2.40 per hour. All 925 resident students automatically become members through their ID cards. The system was intended to be environmentally friendly, with solar panels powering the ports.A tracking system similar to G.P.S. will keep tabs on the bikes.“You can’t throw it in Lake Michigan,” said Paul Matthews, the university’s vice president for facilities management, “because we’ll know if you throw it in Lake Michigan.”

Savannah attorney and Democratic activist Joe Steffen has been meandering around his hometown of Galax, Va.Galax sits high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The area has been known for bluegrass music and, until recent years, for furniture, textiles and lumber.But the furniture business, Steffen says, has gone to China, and the textiles emigrated to Central America and the Philippines, so unemployment is up. A new state prison soon might be the largest local employer.”It was absolutely gorgeous weather, in the low 70s, with the trees just turning, and it … was great reconnecting with a lot of old friends,” Steffen wrote me recently.But this isn’t about Steffen’s vacation. He’s been stumping in Virginia for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.Virginia is one of the traditionally Republican states where Obama is threatening to beat Republican John McCain.The presidential race in Georgia has tightened up since Steffen took off for Virginia, but at the time, the Peach State seemed safely Republican.Steffen is hardly the only Savannahian who has campaigned in other states.During the Democrats’ primary election season, when Georgia was a shoo-in for Obama, Rasheim Wright worked for him in Texas. Wright is now based at Obama’s Savannah headquarters.And GOP activist Clint Murphy is working in Florida, where he is deputy director of McCain’s campaign for the Southeast.The phenomenon is neither new nor limited to Savannah.As you read this, Massachusetts volunteers are pushing into New Hampshire or traveling southwest to Ohio and Pennsylvania.Meanwhile, New Yorkers are invading Ohio, and Vermonters are infiltrating New Hampshire. At least a few Californians are slipping into Nevada; they’ll probably meet some folks from Arizona and Texas there.All the invaders will have some things in common: They want to make a difference in the presidential election - enough to spend their vacations, work long hours and travel on their own dime.But they can’t make a difference in their own states, because, as some of you will recall, we elect the president state by state, not by popular majority.Each state gets a number of votes - called electoral votes - equal to the sum of its two U.S. senators and its U.S. representatives. With just two exceptions, it’s winner-take-all.So the volunteers have something else in common: They’re leaving states where the outcome no longer seems in doubt to work in states where doubt lingers.The volunteers are following the examples of their candidates’ paid campaign staffs.After all, if you have lots of bodies in a state where you’re well ahead, it just makes good sense to shift some to a state that’s up for grabs.For example, Obama staffer Caroline Adelman, who’s from Atlanta, has been back in Georgia awhile. But she says she’s worked in about a dozen states, “wherever they thought they needed me the most.”Anyway, it seems to have gone well in Virginia for Steffen, who used to be on the City Council in Galax.”I canvassed all day Saturday and after church on Sunday, hiking up hilly city streets in Galax and onto some dirt roads just south of the county seat,” he wrote.”I didn’t get chased by any dogs nor run off out of anyone’s yard. … One old farmer thanked me for visiting and gave me a lucky buckeye.”So far, Steffen’s luck apparently is holding up.Polls indicate Obama has edged ahead in Virginia.

The electrifying Obama can afford to share his ticket with a staid running mate. Why Sam Nunn would be a smart choice.
Jonathan Alter
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 11:57 AM ET Jul 4, 2008
After more than two decades on the quadrennial short-list, the idea of former Georgia senator Sam Nunn as vice president has become a cliché. And knocking him down is easy. You know the rap. …

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Bicycle Friendly Community Action Plan PDF Download

We, the undersigned Mayors and municipal elected officials, make decisions every day affecting the health and safety of our residents, the efficient conduct of commerce and delivery of government services, and the long term quality of life in our communities.
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Cyclists and Bicycle Enthusiasts Come Together to Form Advocacy Group
Savannah, GA – With level terrain, great weather, and tree lined streets, Savannah is a great city for cycling, so it would seem, though we face obstacles to riding everyday such as aggressive motorists, lack of appropriate parking, too few and poorly maintained bikeways.
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Published in the Savannah Business Report and Journal.

In the wake of the recent sale of the SandGnats to yet another out-of-town ownership group a Savannah Morning News Op Ed lamented the imminent demise of Grayson Stadium. That Editorial presented yet another example of the outdated thinking that has handicapped what would otherwise be a flourishing sports community here in Savannah.
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Published in the Savannah Business Report and Journal.

Absent a miracle of Biblical proportions (cue the Huckabee choir) we are down to three possible presidential selectors of our next Vice President.
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