The installation was complete before noon and I saw a bike utilizing the fish by 12:30. Seattle’s Department of Transportaion (SDOT) installed a similar, car-shaped rack on 12th avenue near Spring Street in 2009. The racks provide needed, organized space for bikes, while also providing the surrounding area with a quirky piece of functional art. The fish is 18 feet long and five feet wide.
On the weekends there tend to be a high volume of bikers that stop into the Essential Bakery for some refreshments. Now they have a much needed bicycle-parking option, and the bakery staff is glad for it. To our new friend the Big Fish Bike Rack, we welcome you with open arms, and spinning spokes.
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This is great…and it’s about time! To help make cycling part of everyday life, we need racks and racks don’t have to be boring street furniture. The musician/artist (and avid cyclist) David Byrne has designed a series of sculptural racks, and I’m pleased to see that someone else has successfully taken on the challenge and fabrication of this.
I’m wondering, though – if there was a need, and the proximate cause was the Bakery patrons, why didn’t the Bakery step up and serve its customers?
..and no, I’m not anti-bike (so don’t smash my car up) nor am I a little-gub’mint wackjob, I’m honestly wondering why, if it was such a long-desired thing, didn’t the company that would’ve benefited from doing it just… get it done? Did QFC sit around thinking “gosh, we’ve got all these cars a’comin, if only they had some kind of lot, where there could be parking…” (A silly example, but what and how can local businesses do to make themselves more attractive over large box stores is a hobby horse)
I am sorry if you misunderstood, but the bakery was never in dire need of a rack, nor were they particularly bothered by bikes, but they are happy to have The Big Fish outside the cafe because it is supportive of bicycle transportation green transportation. The bakery didn’t need to step up, and never felt particularly burdened by bikers. It was more a benefit for the bikers- they never parked their bikes near the cafe, usually a few blocks away. The Essential Bakery is just glad to have the rack in their part of the neighborhood.
The small local businesses I know are barely getting by in this economy . . . and Seattle retail rent is unbelievable, and then things they sell get an added 10% (sales tax) and it is their duty to collect it, report it, send it in (gub-‘mint required uncompensated labor) . . . keep on supporting the little guys and gals while there are still little guys and gals to support.
*supportive of green, bicycle transportation*