05.13.09
Bike to work, have a beer
“In just one hour, the average person can save 52 cents a mile on gas, reduce carbon emissions by 15 pounds and burn 450 calories!” So says the Marin County Bicycle Coalition. In order to do this, simply trade in your steering wheel for a set of pedal-powered handle bars.
As our nation trends ever greener, local and regional innovators seem always to be the ones pushing our environmental envelope. So it’s no surprise that North Bay efforts designed to encourage planetary health by choosing fun things—like riding bikes, over blasting around in poison-spewing monsters—synergize when teamed up together in a big event.
This Thursday, May 14, all three North Bay counties celebrate the Bay Area’s 15th Annual Bike to Work Day. Sonoma County boasts 28 widely scattered “Energizer Stations” that day, where volunteers promise to gift bikers with “goodie bags.” Energizer Stations will also be found in both Napa and Marin counties.
Workplace teams throughout the nine-county Bay Area are already racking up miles and contest points by biking to work each day throughout this, National Bike Month. Additionally, each county is honoring a “Commuter of the Year.” Clay Kaufmann, Marin County’s winner, is a 10-year-old third grader who prides himself in biking to school, no matter the day’s inclement weather.
And at the end of a long, hard Bike to Work Day, the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition has a party on tap, with beer from New Belgium Brewing, food from Toad in the Hole and Bistro 29 and live music by the Spindles. Join the party from 5:30 until 8:30pm at the Trek Store, 512 Mendocino Avenue in downtown Santa Rosa.
Learn more about Bike to Work Day events at www.bikesonoma.org-bike2work.html or www.511.org.
Sheehan at ssu
Antiwar “Peace Mom” and burr-in-Bush’s-behind Cindy Sheehan speaks at Sonoma State University on Friday, May 15, at 7pm in the Sonoma State University Gym. With George Bush exiled to secession-minded Texas, Sheehan shifts focus to how a presumably less barbaric Obama administration should rapidly conclude its inherited Middle East aggressions and occupations.
Sheehan’s lecture benefits Project Censored, Students for Media Democracy, and Media Freedom Foundation’s Investigative Research fund. A $10 donation is suggested. Students get in free, but no one will be turned away at the door for lack of funds. 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. For more information call Peter Phillips, 707.664.2588, or email [ mailto:[email protected] ][email protected].
