June 2008

Vol. 1, Issue 5

Contents:
1. European Connections
2. Resources Highlights – Bicycling to Stop Climate Change
3. Hot Topics - Bio Fuels vs. Hunger
4. Supporter Spotlight - Annie Miller

European Connections
By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

My recent whirlwind month in Europe has resulted in some exciting new opportunities for One Street. The most profound for me is the inspiration I gained from the organization leaders I worked with. To start the trip, I facilitated a campaign planning workshop in Prague, organized by Nadace Partnerstvi that followed One Street’s proven campaign planning guidance.

Twenty fired-up organization leaders participated in the five hour flurry of inspirations that ended with eight, fully planned, winnable campaigns that will remold Prague’s streets for bicyclists, lift bike parking standards, bring significant funds to Safe Routes to Schools, turn a rail corridor into a trail to connect neighborhoods, save climate change legislative language, increase transit funding, make biking to work cool, and save a neighborhood from a golf course. Not bad for five hours, eh!

Next stop was Brno, also in the Czech Republic, where I attended the European Cyclists’ Federation Annual General Meeting and offered a condensed version of One Street’s campaign planning workshop to participants. The next day, One Street was welcomed as a new associate member organization of ECF with a unanimous vote from the membership. We are all honored and look forward to more partnership opportunities with ECF.

My meetings and bike rides with other organization leaders in the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden offered more inspirations as well as real opportunities for One Street including a potential partner for our Social Bike Business program. I’ll keep you posted as we move ahead.

Resources Highlights – Bicycling to Stop Climate Change

Many of you share our frustration at the blatant absence of bicycling as a solution to climate change. There is small comfort in knowing that our colleagues around the world are writhing with us as we read or listen to news reports of government subsidies towards “fuel efficient” cars, never considering that replacing car trips with bicycle trips would bring a far greater bang for their subsidy funding.

Even environment organizations are dancing to the "fuel-efficient" tune without singing the praises of bicycling. Shall we continue to writhe and foam over this, or shall we do something about it? Yeah, that’s what we thought you’d say. Let’s shout the virtues of bicycling to stop climate change! Below are some fun examples to get your creative juices flowing. Please email Sue at sue{at}onestreet.org with any great examples from your efforts, or others, and we’ll post them to One Street’s Climate Change web page to help all of you get the Bicycling to Stop Climate Change message out. Now, check these out:

Hot Topics – Bio Fuels vs. Hunger

Right in line with the omission of bicycling as a solution to climate change is the blind stampede towards bio fuels. Several of our supporters on our discussion list responded to our message highlighting this issue which led to intriguing discussions here and in Europe. A few brave souls are standing up against this mad rush because its predictable results of increasing food costs and subsequent increase of hunger around the world are already playing out. One, perhaps oversimplified, but memorable image came our way in this quote:

"Speculation and so-called Bio-fuels are leading us to a shortening of raw food sources world-wide. The consequence: Poor people go even hungrier, so that the rich can drive their cars in a supposedly environmentally friendly way. This shows the duality of the term bio-fuels. "Bio" means life. In this case, it is the life of those, who must give them up for our gas station fill-ups.

Perhaps we should, as cynical as it sounds, indicate the usage of a car in terms of hungering people per one hundred kilometers. An SUV uses the equivalent of one year of a person's food needs for every full tank of bio-fuel. Depending on your driving style, every hundred kilometers you are using 0.2 to 0.3 people! I would rather stick to my bicycle."
-Marco Walter, Constance, Germany, reported in the taz, 17.4.08.

You can also find an astonishing amount of discussion and resources on this subject at Wikipedia under Food vs Fuel.

Supporter Spotlight – Annie Miller

Annie exemplifies the most valued kind of donor, the kind who calls out of the blue hoping to help with what they have to offer. And Annie’s offerings are exactly what One Street needs for our office! Earlier this year she took responsibility for the belongings of her dear friend Ralphy who passed away. Annie needed to find an appreciative home for his treasured desk, passed down through generations, and Ralphy’s daily station during his years in business. Ralphy’s desk is now the proud centerpiece of the One Street office. But Annie’s support didn’t stop there! She has given us other furniture to bring our office to life. And she’s now hot on the trail of a donation of a full computer set-up for our next employee.

Annie is giving what she can to One Street to help her community and the world become places where everyone can feel safe riding bicycles. As Annie puts it, “We’ve got to know the places where we live, to work as a community, to help each other.”

Annie cleans houses in and around Prescott. She loves her work because when she leaves a house she’s cleaned, she knows she’s done something good for her community, can see that improvement. If you’re in the Prescott area and need a hardworking, detail oriented house cleaner, please give Annie a call: 899-2316. She does regular scheduled cleaning and even specializes in spring cleaning.