Lookout!

There is a disturbing trend on the streets right now. I ran into an Apex rider on Monday who was looking kind of dazed and rubbing his eyes. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me a crazy story. He had hopped up onto the sidewalk off of Wacker Drive to cross the Wells street bridge to get to the Merchandise Mart. We all know that it is illegal to ride on the sidewalks, but sometimes you need to bend the rules a little, and I have pulled the same move. If you are going to the Mart from the loop, you either have the choice of crossing on the sidewalk of the Wells bridge, Going to LaSalle, which is the most dangerous bridge downtown, or going Franklin to Orleans, which takes you a half mile out of your way if you follow all of the traffic laws. Anyway, as soon as he got onto the bridge, a guy ran across the sidewalk, slammed into his shoulder, and knocked him off his bike. The Apex biker got up and yelled at the guy "What the f--- are you doing?"
The guy shouted back "You can't ride your bike on the sidewalk!"
Apex guy responded "Yeah, I know. But that doesn't mean that you can hit me off my bike!"
The next thing Apex guy knows, the pedestrian pulls out a can of pepper spray and gets him in the face. This was a totally unnecessary reaction by the pedestrian. Apex guy hadn't been trying to start a fight with him, and wasn't physically threatening him in any way, he was just yelling at him.
A similar thing happened to a Velocity biker earlier in the summer. A driver almost hit him pulling into a diagonal parking space. The biker stopped by the drivers window and yelled at him for almost running him over. The driver rolled down his window and pepper-sprayed the biker in the face.
I had been discussing these incidents with a friend who works for the city of Chicago bike program, and she told me that another case of a biker being pepper-sprayed happened on the north side of the city last week.
I don't know what the hell is going on right now, but if you ride a bike around in the city, look out. There are a bunch of lunatics out there. Sometimes conflict is un-avoidable, but try to think twice before retaliating against a driver who pulls a bad move, or getting into it with someone on the street. If you are a bike messenger in Chicago, you should keep the story of Thomas McBride in the back of your head at all times.
Everybody be safe out there.

How quickly some people forget...

Many of you will recognize Phyllis Aplebaum, the owner of Arrow Messenger, and the person in the above picture. If you have ever worked for Arrow, you may have even met her, althogh probably not at the Arrow messenger building. Phyllis' office is in the front of the building, and messengers who work at Arrow are only allowed into the rear section of the building. But if you have ever worked for Arrow Messenger, there is a pretty good chance that you ran into her downtown coming in or out of a building, and there is also a good chance that you got into trouble for not wearing your safety vest and/or helmet.
Even if you have never worked for Arrow, you probably know the name. Phyllis Applebaum is famous among bike messengers for being instrumental in the writing of the Illinois Messenger Ordinance. Phyllis was a chair on the Mayors Bicycle Advisory Committee when the ordinance was revised to require that bicycle messengers wear safety vests and helmets. If you have ever gotten a ticket for not wearing a helmet at work, you can thank Phyllis.
So why is her picture on this blog? A couple days ago, an article came out in Crains Chicagobusiness.com about the pending card-check bill. Crains interviewed Phyllis for the article, and she had some interesting things to say:
Phyllis Apelbaum, founder of Arrow Messenger Services Inc., is especially concerned about the card-check measure as she battles to keep her Chicago-based messenger and delivery service afloat in a sour economy. Ms. Apelbaum says Arrow's business has declined 25% since September and, since January, she's been forced cut her staff to 150 employees from 235.

Ms. Apelbaum wonders how the card-check bill would affect small businesses like Arrow that historically have been off-limits to unions.

"If the unions win, I can't pay our employees any more than I'm paying them now," she says. "In the end, I'll be forced to close down. How does anybody win in that situation?"

First of all, Arrow has not historically "been off-limits to unions". I guess Phyllis must have forgotten the winter of 2004-05, when the Chicago Couriers Union organized the bikers of Arrow.

Here is a picture of nearly the entire crew of Arrow bikers on March 19, 2005. All had shut off their radios for two hours in a temporary walkout on this day to show Arrow management that they were serious about their demands : a small commision raise and fair pay for Arrow in-house jobs. Arrow management responded by locking the bikers out for the rest of the day, and calling the Chicago Police to the Arrow base to protect them from their own employees. This action crippled Arrows operations for the day, and proved just how important to the company the bikers were, and how powerful workers can be when they organize themselves into a union. Arrow conceded to the bikers demands soon after, the company managed to stay in business, and Arrow employees still benefit from the direct action taken in 2005.
The second point that is interesting is Phyllis's claim that "I can't pay our employees any more than I'm paying them now, in the end, I'll be forced to close down. How does anybody win in that situation?" She has been spouting the same tired rhetoric for the past six years. The messenger industry was experiencing a decline in the early 2000's. She used this as an excuse to underpay her employees until the fall of 2004, when the CCU began to challenge the claim that she couldn't afford to pay her employees more. She tried to scare the employees with the threat that the company would go under if she was forced to pay them more five years ago. This simply was not true. The bottom line is that none of the bikers in the picture above wanted the company to be destroyed by their actions. They simply wanted to be fairly compensated for the hard work which they were performing for Arrow Messenger. This is still the case. Nobody wants to see Arrow go out of business, only for the workers at Arrow to be able to make a living wage for all of their hard work, the same as the managers and Phyllis Aplebaum have been able to live comfortably off the profit Arrow employees have provided for them over the years.

CCU 3rd of July picnic recap

What do you get when you combine a bunch of messengers, some little kids BMX bikes, a grill, a kickball, and some sweet prizes?
One hell of a good time!
The CCU decided at the last minute to throw together a July 3rd picnic as a fund raiser for the RBMF. We obtained some kids bikes, a grill, some food, and a few prizes from sponsors , then headed down to Union Park to have some fun. The main event of the day was the kids bike race. The format was a sprint from one side of the park to the other in four-person heats, with the winners advancing to the next round.
It seemed like kind of a silly idea, but as the heats went on, it was clear that everyone was taking the race seriously. Smart Bike Parts and Upgrade Cycle Works were kind enough to donate some great prizes, and all of the racers had their eyes on the first place prize, a $200.00 tattoo certificate courtesy of Tatutattoo. After several heats, the two fastest small bikers emerged, Adam Hanzel from Velo, and Taylor. These two men had destroyed their competition on the journey to the final round, creating a cycling rivalry for the ages; Lemond vs. Hinualt, Merckx vs. Van Looy, Coppi vs. Bartali, Hanzel vs. Taylor.
The race organizers decided to change up the pace a little bit, and had the everyone play a seven-inning game of kickball before the final round. This also proved to be quite a spectacle, with about 15 players on each team and Tim from Velo as the umpire. Runs were scored, rules were broken, dirt was kicked onto Tim's shoes, and one team got the W.
Then it was time for the final sprint race, one lap around the diamond. Both racers got off to a good start, but Taylor crashed hard rounding second base. Adam kept the heat on as he rounded third, and then got out of the saddle and sprinted for the finish line. He lost control as he crossed home plate, winning the race, but also going down hard. Both men emerged from the race sweaty, bloody, and dirty, but only one man could win.

Congratulations to your CCU kids-bikes champion, the fastest man on two little wheels, and tattoo-virgin:

Adam Hanzel

Kickball!

I guess everyone is still recovering from last Friday's fundraiser. Once we can get the pictures back from that there will be a fairly comprehensive recap post. Until then, come play kickball Friday 7/10 at Union Park. We're starting at 6ish, or whenever we can get enough people together. Bring your friends! Bring strangers! Bring your own refreshments!

Hope to see everyone there!

CCU 3rd of July picnic!

Come to the 1st Annual CCU 3rd of July Picnic. There is going to be food (veg friendly, too), drinks, tiny bike races, kickball and prizes. I can't express how excited I am about our grand prize. The winner of the finals of the tiny bike race is going to win $200 worth of tattoo work from Allie Sider at TatuTattoo. Allie is a great guy who is really supportive of the CCU and the RBMF. There are other great przes to be won, as well. All the festivities kick off at 5pm at Union Park (Lake/Ashland). The cost for all this fun is only $10 and all the proceeds go to the Ryan Boudreau Memorial Fund. All are welcome! See you there!