Transcript exported from the video version of this episode - Note that it has not been copyedited

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:19:27
Amy Kenreich
I love. It's like having a welcoming committee every few blocks as you ride, pass or stop at all the breakfast stations. It's it's just a really fun day. It feels good when there's more of you. It feels good when you're riding past people, sitting in cars, in traffic.

00:00:20:00 - 00:00:44:23
John Simmerman
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Active Towns Channel. I'm John Simmerman and that is Amy Kenreich of Denver, Colorado. And we are going to have a fabulous conversation about her activity as a crossing guard in safe routes to school activity and safe streets advocacy. Let's get right to it because it's a long one. Enjoy.

00:00:44:25 - 00:00:48:23
John Simmerman
Well, Amy, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast. Welcome.

00:00:48:26 - 00:01:00:15
Amy Kenreich
Thank you. Welcome. Thank. Thank you. Welcome welcome you to my yeah welcome to welcome you Amy.

00:01:00:15 - 00:01:03:14
John Simmerman
I love to have my guest just say a little bit about themselves.

00:01:03:14 - 00:01:06:29
Amy Kenreich
So who is Amy?

00:01:07:01 - 00:01:31:08
Amy Kenreich
I am a volunteer crossing guard for my kids elementary school and that big safe routes to school advocates and I'm on the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee here in Denver. I am the Denver bike mayor, and I have two kids and we live in West Wash Park in Denver.

00:01:31:11 - 00:01:34:21
John Simmerman
Fantastic. One of my favorite neighborhoods, actually.

00:01:34:23 - 00:01:35:16
Amy Kenreich
It's a good one.

00:01:35:23 - 00:01:37:13
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's.

00:01:37:14 - 00:01:56:02
John Simmerman
A fun it's a fun neighborhood. And and for for folks who aren't really familiar with Denver and particularly we like some of the really rich historic neighborhoods. What's it what's it like living in Denver? How long have you been there?

00:01:56:04 - 00:02:29:28
Amy Kenreich
My husband and I moved here from Washington, D.C. after September 11th. So we've been living out here almost 20 years, I suppose. We started in a neighborhood called Whittier, which is near where I saw you. I think we rode through that for that ride a couple of weeks ago. And so West Rush Park is south of downtown. We moved down here because when I traveled on bike from Whittier to the Santa Fe Arts District, where my office is, it was across every road.

00:02:30:01 - 00:03:00:19
Amy Kenreich
Every major road in Denver is what I used to say. And so it was just it was too dangerous of a commute. So that's the main reason that we moved to this neighborhood. Now, my bike ride to work is a seven minute commute, so that much nicer West Park is full of, I would say, older, mostly original homes that are roughly 100 years old Victorians and what we call Denver Squares, things like that peppered with some a little bit of density.

00:03:00:19 - 00:03:08:07
Amy Kenreich
But there's there's still a pretty good strong hold on single family dwellings here in West Wash Park.

00:03:08:10 - 00:03:11:18
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, Yeah.

00:03:11:21 - 00:03:24:21
John Simmerman
I'm going to actually spring another surprise on you here and that is I think it would be fun to play your little video that you have.

00:03:24:24 - 00:03:25:18
Amy Kenreich
The which.

00:03:25:18 - 00:03:26:26
Amy Kenreich
Was.

00:03:26:28 - 00:03:29:20
John Simmerman
The this basically the who is Amy.

00:03:29:22 - 00:03:31:03
Amy Kenreich
Right. Yeah. Oh yeah.

00:03:31:05 - 00:03:49:02
John Simmerman
Let's plug this in because what I like about this is it'll be very relevant to what we were just talking about in terms of your neighborhood because there's a really nice picture of you like going into your house on the front porch and good stuff. So. All right, let's give this a shot.

00:03:49:04 - 00:04:20:00
Amy Kenreich
My name is Amy. Kendra and I am a bike and community advocate. I live in West Rush Park. I've lived in Denver for almost 20 years now, and I didn't get involved in bike advocacy until I threw a bike rodeo at my kid's elementary school. It was a free event. Who knows where the idea came from? A bike rodeo is the most beautiful thing, and it's basically like a a festival celebrating bicycling geared towards kids.

00:04:20:04 - 00:04:47:11
Amy Kenreich
There's a skills course, there's a rules of the road course, so there's kind of something for all ages. You usually have a food truck, helmet, decorating station. It's really fun. And we went out of our way to make sure that those kids who didn't have a bike or were planning to ride the bus home were able to participate, maybe even better than the bike rodeo was the next few days, because this is really the awakening point for me.

00:04:47:16 - 00:05:08:23
Amy Kenreich
The fact that that experience prompted so many more people to ride their bike really got me thinking like, how many people are out there who would ride their bike? But, you know, there's some reason they're not. That's when I started paying attention to what's going on in the city and what's the city doing to make the streets safer or get more people on bikes.

00:05:08:26 - 00:05:26:29
Amy Kenreich
Around 2018, I started to attend neighborhood meetings. I'm the vice president of the West Park neighborhood Association. I'm also the co-chair of the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee.

00:05:27:01 - 00:05:59:01
Amy Kenreich
I am a crossing guard. That's a funny thing for me to talk about because I don't think people understand how great it is and how fun it is. I became a crossing guard because I just wanted to help out and I wanted to support the other crossing guard that was at our school. The more parent involvement we got with the crossing guard program at our school, all of a sudden other parents started to pay more attention because if the crossing guard that's holding up the stop sign in front of you, if you know that person, you're much more likely to be respectful.

00:05:59:03 - 00:06:01:13
Amy Kenreich
We'll have supper this evening.

00:06:01:15 - 00:06:25:16
Amy Kenreich
There's a lot of dead time, so I bought a speaker. My playlist for Crossing Guard came about because it's boring out there waiting for the light to change and kids love music. They suggest songs for me because I'm out of songs like Even Neighbors, I think, right on that request sheet. I wish everyone realized how.

00:06:25:22 - 00:06:48:08
John Simmerman
I'm going to go ahead and press pause on that now. And folks, I am gonna include the link to that video in the show notes down below. So make sure that you go and watch the full video. It's fantastic. And it's it's really, really well done. It was done. I think it was published, what, a year ago? Is that correct?

00:06:48:10 - 00:06:51:16
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, I think about a year ago. That sounds right. Yeah.

00:06:51:18 - 00:07:13:10
John Simmerman
So looking back at that and I don't know how frequently you watch it and it hasn't been watched by very many people. It's like less than 200 views right now. When you go back and look at that, what comes to mind, what you know, what emotions or things, you know, bubble up for you when you see that?

00:07:13:12 - 00:07:44:16
Amy Kenreich
Oh, gosh. I mean, it makes me feel really good. Sometimes, you know, you get so buried in working on all these little projects and and then when you step back and see them all listed out, it's a little bit overwhelming. I, I didn't realize, I guess all the all the stuff I have going on because I just have my head down trying to trying to make a difference and do what I can.

00:07:44:17 - 00:08:08:24
Amy Kenreich
I feel that I've ended up I have always been a very been a very privileged situation and I don't want to waste that. So therefore, I just don't sit down and I do what I can do. And it's it it feels good when I see that video and I and I love the crossing guard bit because that's close to my heart.

00:08:08:24 - 00:08:11:10
Amy Kenreich
And it it really brings me joy every day.

00:08:11:13 - 00:08:14:28
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. It just keeps giving.

00:08:15:00 - 00:08:19:12
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. I mean, do what do you do? What do you.

00:08:19:12 - 00:08:26:03
John Simmerman
End up doing in the summertime when you're not needing to do as many crossing guard activities?

00:08:26:06 - 00:08:53:23
Amy Kenreich
Well, I sleep in about half an hour each day, so that's nice. I do own a graphic design business, so I maybe put a little bit more energy into that. And I spend time with my kids. They are nine and 14, so I understand that pretty soon they may not want to spend as much time with me. So we like to do a lot of camping in the summer and mountain biking and things like that.

00:08:53:25 - 00:08:55:26
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, yeah.

00:08:55:29 - 00:09:09:21
John Simmerman
We have an image here on screen right now which is you just explain to me is sort of the parade portion of the bike rodeo and is this the school where your kids go to school?

00:09:09:23 - 00:09:17:11
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, my youngest still goes here and my oldest went there from age three to all the way through sixth grade.

00:09:17:14 - 00:09:18:09
Amy Kenreich
Yeah.

00:09:18:12 - 00:09:38:12
John Simmerman
Yeah. Fantastic. And for those who may not be familiar with what a bike rodeo is, we saw a little bit of it on on the video there. Can you sort of explain that, especially since this is a global audience and they may not have ever heard that term before?

00:09:38:15 - 00:09:43:08
Amy Kenreich
What is a book bike rodeo?

00:09:43:11 - 00:10:09:08
Amy Kenreich
Well, it is a festival celebrating biking. Like I said on the video, some kids call it Bike Christmas. And what it is, is a bunch of different stations set up on our school playground. This one right here we're looking at is the start of the girls at the road station where kids learn their hand signals. And then this is for younger kids.

00:10:09:09 - 00:10:35:15
Amy Kenreich
They can head out the playground gate down the sidewalk, a block through an alley up the sidewalk there. Along the way, they are intercepted by volunteers who ask them to stop and show their hand signals or sometimes stop because maybe a driver is coming through the alley. But there's something for everyone. This is a wave of our parades which go every 15 minutes.

00:10:35:17 - 00:11:04:06
Amy Kenreich
I work with the local police officers and they help me shut down six blocks around the school to drivers. And every 15 minutes we have a parade wave go through. And I think some of the older kids, especially love that because when do you as a kid or an adult, when do you get to ride on an open street like that and not have to worry as much about being hit by a car?

00:11:04:09 - 00:11:30:26
Amy Kenreich
Occasionally we have a kid hit a parked car. But yeah, you know, that requires a aid and an ice cream cone. And that is all good. Yeah. Also, Bike Rodeo has a skills course set up. We have helmet decorating, which is what we're looking at right here. This is really popular with the youngest kids and a lot of the materials are pretty easy to come by.

00:11:30:26 - 00:12:03:22
Amy Kenreich
That's homemade pompoms made out of yarn. Kids use ribbon puppy stickers to decorate their bikes and chalk markers are really helpful for the helmet decorating because that stuff comes off and there's some little plastic pieces that you can put on your spokes. There. That's a really popular station. And let's see, what are the there's bike obstacle courses, which you probably are going to eventually come to in the slide show.

00:12:03:24 - 00:12:32:15
Amy Kenreich
But parents make obstacles out of homemade. You, extra scraps of wood, things like that. So we have teeter totters and ramps. About eight of those set up in the field. Bike Rodeo also has a slow race which is slowest rider wins. That's that's fun. And we have a food truck. We have a borrow a bike station that's important so that everyone can participate.

00:12:32:15 - 00:13:02:10
Amy Kenreich
Not everyone has access to a bike or is able to get their bike to school. Also, siblings participate and sometimes they don't have a bike. And then one of the most important parts of the bike rodeo is the fix it station. We have a local bike shop campus cycles come and donate all of the supplies and they bring to people and just do nonstop tire fixes, brake fixes, and they're adjusting the seat.

00:13:02:12 - 00:13:28:13
Amy Kenreich
Simple, simple things like adjusting the seat or adjusting and making sure there's nothing dangly, mostly tire fixes, I guess. But it's it may seem insignificant, like that's an easy thing, but it's a big barrier for a lot of kids. They just don't have access to a bike tune up. So we love having campus cycles there to to donate those services and the materials for that.

00:13:28:16 - 00:13:35:10
Amy Kenreich
And I think that's all of the I think I went through all of the stations of the bike rodeo.

00:13:35:13 - 00:13:56:07
John Simmerman
And imposing on this because one of my next questions is really because again, the part of the reason why we do bike rodeo is the reason why we do the bike safety education in classes. I used to lead them for fourth graders on the big island in Hawaii. I'm wearing my aloha shirt today.

00:13:56:11 - 00:13:57:13
Amy Kenreich
The owner of.

00:13:57:15 - 00:14:21:01
John Simmerman
The decade that I spent there on the Big island was was is to really sort of normalize, you know, help kids with the skills, but then also attempt to normalize that concept of walking and biking to school. And so we see the banner here, the bike to school. And I was just marveling at some of the images here.

00:14:21:03 - 00:14:50:15
John Simmerman
Obviously, this was part of the special day. But at the same time, I'm seeing some really interesting infrastructure that seems to be in place here. We've got a bike corral here right by the school. Another image of that as well. But then this is the bike rack at the school. And so this really indicates to me that there's some intentionality here in terms of infrastructure that's being provided for at the school.

00:14:50:17 - 00:15:26:19
John Simmerman
And it reminds me of just up the road in Boulder, which I'm very familiar with. I lived in Boulder for over a decade and just about a decade actually, is that, you know, there's tremendous numbers of kids that ride to school, especially, you know, at the elementary school level and then again at middle school and in high school still, which is what we really want to see as a society, is, you know, kids and parents feeling like it's safe and inviting for them to be able to get to school and and have a safe place to lock up.

00:15:26:22 - 00:15:32:00
John Simmerman
So I'm just grinning ear to ear when I see this this image here.

00:15:32:02 - 00:15:55:17
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. This is this bike rack in particular. It came about because of the culture that we've been working on building at the elementary school for the past six or seven years. And there's a lot of about a lot of volunteers needed for the bike rodeo. And I think that has piqued a lot of parents interest in biking to school throughout the year.

00:15:55:17 - 00:16:19:02
Amy Kenreich
And at a PTSA meeting, someone said we need more bike parking. And so we reached out to the school district and they had this in some junkyard. You know, it's a reused bike rack, but it's in a great spot in the shed back in the corner of the playground. So the kids that go in the doors on either side of this bike rack really get a lot of good use out of that.

00:16:19:02 - 00:16:30:18
Amy Kenreich
But you're right. I mean, giving people that infrastructure, that signal that, hey, this is for you and you are welcome here, that does make a big difference.

00:16:30:21 - 00:16:50:28
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. It's fantastic. And you know, you had mentioned you started off by talking a little bit about how and in the video there of how you became aware of and became passionate about safe roads to school, how many years ago was that Now?

00:16:51:01 - 00:16:53:23
Amy Kenreich
I think that was around 2017.

00:16:53:25 - 00:16:54:14
Amy Kenreich
Okay.

00:16:54:16 - 00:16:56:10
Amy Kenreich
Okay. Yeah.

00:16:56:13 - 00:17:00:05
John Simmerman
And still passionate. Still on board.

00:17:00:07 - 00:17:23:10
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. I mean, it's just building about that. In 2017, when we threw our first bike rodeo, I had no idea what a difference that would make the days after the bike rodeo and I mean, prior to that, I just assumed that if people wanted to ride their bikes, they would be because I wanted to ride my bike. And so I did.

00:17:23:10 - 00:17:50:12
Amy Kenreich
But I had this confidence built up from years of doing. I lived without a car when I was in Washington, DC for five years and it was just a no brainer to me to use my bike to get around or use the bus to get around. I preferred that to driving. Right. But I, I guess I didn't realize the impact that car culture has had on a lot of people.

00:17:50:14 - 00:18:15:17
Amy Kenreich
And since then I've realized that, you know, there's a variety of reasons why people are out there riding their bikes. But one huge reason is they don't have a safe place to ride. And I thought, well, if I can make if I can help move the needle on that, then that's where I'm going to focus my energy. And then I realized what a big impact that kids have on the rest of the family.

00:18:15:20 - 00:18:16:12
Amy Kenreich
Right?

00:18:16:15 - 00:18:41:23
Amy Kenreich
When the kids get out there and ride and the whole family is going to get out there and ride with them. So it also just a side note here in Denver, about 25% of our rush hour traffic is due to people driving their kids to school. Right. So if we got more kids biking and walking and taking the bus to school, then that would make it would make an incredible difference for our city.

00:18:41:25 - 00:19:07:11
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, when we think back to the old days, you know, before it became customary for parents to be driving their kids to school, I mean, you know, it wasn't very long ago generations, you know, prior. I mean, yeah, we all walked to school. I mean, I mean, the neighborhood schools were just that They were neighborhood schools.

00:19:07:13 - 00:19:31:13
John Simmerman
And so that's one of the the very, very You mentioned your privilege to be able to live in the community that you live in. And that is one of the things that is wonderful about that Wash park area is that you still do have local elementary schools and local schools that you know, that kids are able to still be able to walk to and bike to.

00:19:31:16 - 00:19:49:23
John Simmerman
You had mentioned that, you know, we just recently saw each other just a couple of weeks ago at the Ride for Racial Justice. And Marcus and I were talking about this on on bike and in the on bike interview and and talking about how he remembers being able to, you know, walk and bike to elementary school, middle school and also high school.

00:19:49:25 - 00:20:21:09
John Simmerman
In fact, we rolled past both his middle school and his his high school. He went to East High. And so it's I think it's like reestablish showing that that habit and that that muscle that oh yeah we can walk and bike to school if it becomes a safer environment And that's where the crossing guard activities sort of, you know, starts to kick in as well as the safe routes to to school and the other initiatives and programs.

00:20:21:11 - 00:20:27:10
John Simmerman
We're seeing a lot of activity here. What's going on in this particular photo?

00:20:27:12 - 00:20:54:10
Amy Kenreich
Well, at some point I thought, wow, this is making a difference at my own school and I should if I'm doing it here, I should do it at other schools, just do the same thing. So let's see, in 2021, I believe, for the walk to school, well, traditionally what was called a walk to school, I think now it's both walk and roll to school twice a year.

00:20:54:12 - 00:21:20:16
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, but I did a raffle at our own elementary school for kids that were walking or biking that day, and you could win like lunch with the principal or a target gift card. I got a little I got a micro grant from the city. We have a nice micro grant program here in Denver, and I use that to replicate what I was doing at my school at five different schools between the connections I had across the city.

00:21:20:19 - 00:21:44:13
Amy Kenreich
And I thought, okay, that worked. All right, so what else? What else can I do? And I always talk about how I feel like a celebrity every day when I am when I'm out there as a crossing guard. Because kids and parents and caregivers, almost everyone that passes through almost every time says, Thank you, Miss Amy. And it really makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

00:21:44:13 - 00:22:08:09
Amy Kenreich
So I came up with this idea. Maybe it was my husband's idea. I'm not sure whose I'm going to. I'm going to claim it for a celebrity crossing guard. So what you're looking at here is a project that just was it's probably my favorite project, I think, that I've worked on. And we had 20 schools, about 20 schools participate.

00:22:08:09 - 00:22:33:07
Amy Kenreich
This is the epic Dixie Crystals handing out raffle tickets to the kids that walked to Lincoln Elementary. So 20 schools I paired a local celebrity with a crossing guard at each school. And so we were lucky to have Dixie, but we also got the majority of the city council members and Denver to do it. I made them all these well.

00:22:33:08 - 00:23:00:03
Amy Kenreich
I put letters on the back of their vests with their name in sparkly letters, sort of in a like a football jersey type of way. So we had city council members, we had a couple of state representatives. We had our Senator John Hickenlooper do it. We had the DPS superintendent, some local musicians, local slash national musicians and deejays.

00:23:00:05 - 00:23:26:07
Amy Kenreich
It turned out better than I dreamed it could. And it checked so many boxes. One of the biggest things I was after was trying to get people interested in becoming a crossing guard. I've seen how it has made a huge difference for my own intersection. I've seen the number of kids double coming across my intersection since I started there.

00:23:26:10 - 00:23:49:06
Amy Kenreich
One of the things we did here with Celebrity Crossing Guard was make sure that whatever language was spoken at the schools, that the artwork, the posters and the social media content was translated into that language. So I think there were I don't know how many different languages we ended up doing, but some of them I had a little bit of trouble with because I hadn't actually heard of that language before.

00:23:49:06 - 00:24:08:20
Amy Kenreich
But I think there's there's somewhere between 15 and 20 languages spoken in DPS. So I was really proud to be able to I have those skills because I'm a graphic designer, to be able to translate well, not to translate myself, but to create the use, the translations, the create different language languages.

00:24:08:22 - 00:24:09:24
Amy Kenreich
Yeah.

00:24:09:27 - 00:24:34:17
John Simmerman
Yeah, that's fantastic. And in you had mentioned like helping to recruit, you know, your people to, to do this And recently we just had Nicole MC Spirit on the podcast and she's now a crossing guard. She just finished up her first year and she's excited about next year. Was she one of your recruits?

00:24:34:19 - 00:24:56:28
Amy Kenreich
I don't know if she got the idea for me or not, but I sure really love having her as a partner in crime. There's a there's yet another local bike and pedestrian advocate, Allison Tawfik, that has joined the ranks, too. And so we every once in a while we get together with a few other crossing guards for a happy hour or or a coffee or something like that.

00:24:56:28 - 00:25:20:10
Amy Kenreich
And it's really it's really cool to have somebody to to complain to and laugh with. Oh, speaking of laughing with you, I have that cone costume, so I got to break that out here. We've got on the right, the far right. We have Debbie Ortega, who is running for mayor and had been a long, long time city councilperson at large.

00:25:20:12 - 00:25:33:19
Amy Kenreich
This is that Eagleton Elementary. And we have the principal, I think, on the left and the one of their deans there in the middle. They were super excited to have Debbie there that day.

00:25:33:21 - 00:25:39:19
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it. And why not have some fun with it, right?

00:25:39:21 - 00:25:55:07
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. I mean, that's what when you're talking about advocating with kids, that's what you got to do is make it fun. Everybody, that's what brings people out is fun. It's fun. Especially when you're working with kids.

00:25:55:09 - 00:26:20:04
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. So obviously, you know, one of the things that you did was, was get engaged and in start you stepped up. You said, you know, hey, I'll do this, I can do this. I'll be the crossing guard if I you know, I've got a little bit of flexibility in my time. I can do this. I can, you know, do this before I need to head off to my graphic design work.

00:26:20:06 - 00:26:38:01
John Simmerman
And it sounds like it's been very rewarding for a year. You're continuing to do this. You're continuing to stay engaged with the bicycle rodeo. When did you also start getting engaged in involved in just overall safer streets advocacy work?

00:26:38:03 - 00:26:39:17
Amy Kenreich
Oh, I mean.

00:26:39:19 - 00:26:44:15
Amy Kenreich
One thing leads to another. I would say.

00:26:44:18 - 00:26:45:17
Amy Kenreich
Would, you.

00:26:45:17 - 00:27:01:26
Amy Kenreich
Know, the tipping point for me was when I got wind that some neighbors in a marianne parkway were objecting to a protected bike lane in front of a school. And I thought.

00:27:01:28 - 00:27:02:22
Amy Kenreich
Well.

00:27:02:24 - 00:27:25:03
Amy Kenreich
That's crazy. Why? Why would you? That does not make any sense at all to me. I've never heard of anybody objecting to a bike lane, especially in front of a school. Didn't make sense. So I started to stick my nose into that in a way that I don't know Many people are ballsy enough to do, which which meant meeting with the opposition.

00:27:25:05 - 00:27:43:03
Amy Kenreich
I cross the cross the picket line, and I went behind the scenes and I went into the condo building that had created a petition to stop this protected bike lane along what they considered their street.

00:27:43:05 - 00:27:55:05
John Simmerman
So let's let's set this up a little bit. We're looking at an overhead image here, and hopefully if I've planned this out right, it's a it's a relevant overhead image. What are we looking at?

00:27:55:07 - 00:28:05:27
Amy Kenreich
This is butterflies stenciled onto the street in the spot where Alexis Bounds was hit and killed by a driver.

00:28:05:29 - 00:28:13:27
John Simmerman
And that event that took place, I think this is the one year anniversary of her her death, is that correct?

00:28:14:00 - 00:28:23:08
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. This was to celebrate the one year anniversary. One, I guess not celebrate, but to mark the one year anniversary. Yeah.

00:28:23:10 - 00:28:48:24
John Simmerman
Of the day to call attention to. And so that that was part of the call to action. And this is how you and I got connected in social media. I was, you know, keeping, you know, aware of what was going on. My time that I lived in in Boulder. I actually worked in downtown Denver for two years during my decade that I lived in Boulder, I would just ride the the at what used to be called the Boulder Express down.

00:28:48:24 - 00:29:30:03
John Simmerman
Now it's called the Flatirons flier down from from Boulder to downtown Denver. And it's one of the reasons why I'm so aware of of the Denver neighborhoods. And so even though I haven't been there since 2004 in terms of living in Colorado, I try to stay on top of everything that's that's happening there. And so I caught wind of this, you know, situation that was emerging, which is exactly what you were explaining, was this seemingly baffling resistance to making a safer street, a street that the call to action from the community, from you all was that, hey, we've got a problem here.

00:29:30:03 - 00:29:38:28
John Simmerman
We need safer streets in. Alexis is unfortunate and tragic Death is a great illustration as to why we need safer streets.

00:29:39:00 - 00:30:20:10
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, I mean, Alexis. So that happened. Her death happened in July, but the opposition to the bike infrastructure started months and months before. And the horrific thing is, even after she died, they continued to stick to their messaging, which is it's not needed. These are Alexis's sons helping us paint and Central on the sidewalk in preparation for that day, the commemoration of her one year death, which was just about as heartbreaking as that.

00:30:20:12 - 00:30:22:11
Amy Kenreich
I just can't I.

00:30:22:13 - 00:30:23:08
Amy Kenreich
Think.

00:30:23:10 - 00:30:47:08
Amy Kenreich
It was really difficult to watch that, to watch them come and help us. This is a picture of David Chen and Molly McKinley, who were organizing this with me. We really worked as a team and everyone had their their strengths. This is 2020th July 2020. So you can see, even though it's super hot, we're matched up at this point outside.

00:30:47:08 - 00:31:16:07
Amy Kenreich
That's David's cargo bike that he brought all kinds of stuff, stuff on brooms and heavy ladders to hang the lanterns in the trees. That took us three days to paint the street. And then we had a ride, some speeches by Teddy. I think this is Teddy on the right. That's Alexis's husband giving us. Oh, no, that's David. Sorry.

00:31:16:10 - 00:31:27:13
Amy Kenreich
My eye is there. But Teddy did speak and then David spoke. David got to got the city to put a bench in in memory of Alexis. And also the sign in memory of Alexis.

00:31:27:15 - 00:31:53:07
John Simmerman
And so in your in your right, I mean, this continued on a year later in 2021. You know, here we are It's still it's still going on. You guys are still working through this. And this little flier says cyclist voice is needed. And really I whenever I see something like this, I really try to caution folks, broaden the tent.

00:31:53:09 - 00:32:15:14
John Simmerman
It shouldn't just be cyclists. Voices are needed. It's like everybody's voice is needed. We need safer streets for everybody. And oh, by the way, this protected bike lane will help make it safer for everyone. Not only people riding bikes, but also people who are pedestrians. Because what we're trying to do is traffic. We're trying to slow down the motor vehicle traffic.

00:32:15:16 - 00:32:49:15
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, Yeah. So this was yeah, we did kind of hit it from all angles that the fire that you had up that was something that we specifically gave to cyclists and taped on to bikes. So but looking back, you're right, messaging could have been tweaked a little bit when I spoke to audiences like this. This is a neighborhood association meeting and East Flash Park, the neighborhood association that the the neighbors that were opposing the project lived in.

00:32:49:17 - 00:33:18:27
Amy Kenreich
That was definitely what I tried to get across. Was this where this project would benefit everybody? Oh yeah, that some of these things I forgot about the Flash Park profile. Did did a ride. I don't know if you like how these things happen or how I get wrapped up in them, but I do. This is another example of using my kids as a kind of advocacy ammunition because you work it.

00:33:19:00 - 00:33:38:20
Amy Kenreich
I know. I know you. I mean, I always talk about how kids are unpredictable and I mean, how else am I going to teach my then? I don't know how old he was. That nine, maybe. Yeah. How else is he going to learn the rules of the road and how to eventually ride his bike to middle school and high school?

00:33:38:22 - 00:34:00:24
Amy Kenreich
Right. It's not as intuitive as you think if you have not been through driver's ed, you haven't had that experience of being in a car and not being able to see because your block, your view is blocked or just being in a hurry and just not paying attention. Yeah, you need you need kids to to learn how to ride in the road and and you want people of all ages to be able to ride on the road.

00:34:00:24 - 00:34:09:23
Amy Kenreich
So, yeah, I use my kids all of the time. If I'm going to be on the news, I do an interview, I bring my kids with me. Yeah, for sure.

00:34:09:25 - 00:34:37:21
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it. Well, and that's and the relevance to that is that what we're talking about is creating an environment which is appropriate for all ages and abilities and, and that's exactly what I want to illustrate here, is I'll press play on this and you can talk a little bit about the conditions. Now, this is from last summer when I was in town to film the interviews for the Denver E-bike Incentive Program.

00:34:37:21 - 00:35:05:28
John Simmerman
I was doing that for Bicycle Colorado. And so I had a chance to go out and ride the facility because I wanted to see it. And so this is circa last summer, last fall, September of last fall. I don't know if anything has changed, but walk us through because this is the end result. It did happen. You were able to overcome the resistance and now you have an all ages and abilities facility.

00:35:06:00 - 00:35:09:29
John Simmerman
It's got to be gratifying to see how far this has come.

00:35:10:02 - 00:35:41:06
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, 100%. This was one of the first protected concrete barrier bike lanes in Denver. And I'm hoping that the people that oppose this infrastructure before now see so many more people riding this street. And you can see even people that are walking and running and up using the street, a lot of times I see strollers in the bike lane, which doesn't bother me at all.

00:35:41:06 - 00:36:21:26
Amy Kenreich
There is a walking path on the to the right and the sidewalk further off on the left. But yeah, I think it turned out great. There's I can see that Denver is working on continuously improving the design of the protected bike lanes throughout the city. I am personally wish these barriers were a little bit taller or harder. Roll over with your tires because drivers that are dropping off kids at Steel Elementary, which is just passed this light on the left side of the screen, you can kind of see the sign for it there.

00:36:21:29 - 00:36:47:16
Amy Kenreich
But on the other side, coming up the other direction, a lot of times drivers will pull over, roll their tires over the the concrete barrier and drop off their kids. Which funny side note there a couple of years ago there was a parent there and this this was just so fantastic. She made these signs that were they said they looked like city signs.

00:36:47:16 - 00:37:14:16
Amy Kenreich
They're metal. And they had that on these metal posts and they said reserved parking for the lazy and selfish. And you put like four of them along the grass median, a lot like where people were using the bike lane as a parking lane, a drop off for kids and the bike advocacy community just loved it. And I happened to run into this guy at a Whole Foods bike rack and I was like, It's you, it's you.

00:37:14:16 - 00:37:38:25
Amy Kenreich
And then he moved away and I don't know his name, but he's he's famous to me. Yeah. One of the the reason these barriers, though, are not more substantial is because we have quite large fire trucks in Denver that the fire department is a little bit, in my opinion, more than I would like.

00:37:38:27 - 00:38:08:14
John Simmerman
Right. Yeah. And we'll pause here just for a second to talk a little bit about what some of the resistance was, because I think it's it is helpful to try to understand you had mentioned that you decided to to like infiltrate the area and and better but but more importantly have an opportunity to be empathetic and try to understand what the resistance really was.

00:38:08:16 - 00:38:21:17
John Simmerman
Can you kind of share what it was, you know, some of the things that they were concerned about and and really help us understand?

00:38:21:20 - 00:38:30:17
Amy Kenreich
I when it came down to it, their main concern was visual, so they thought that it would be ugly.

00:38:30:20 - 00:38:54:24
John Simmerman
So so the very first thing that comes to mind when you talk about esthetics and the resistance to it, we hear it globally all all across the the world. Here is, oh, those ugly plastic sticks. They're talking about the flex posts. And we see one flex post here in in the visual. It was that one of the resistance was those are ugly plastic sticks.

00:38:54:24 - 00:38:56:23
John Simmerman
We don't want those.

00:38:56:25 - 00:39:29:18
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. 100%. They really use the historic preservation argument. This parkway has a historic does It's a historic parkway. And they were sending open records requests to the city. They were pulling up these documents that preserve that officially preserve the parkway, not the street. By the way, they were confusing. They thought that the entire the grass and like the entire right of way was included in this historic preservation.

00:39:29:20 - 00:40:04:09
Amy Kenreich
And unfortunately, they they I think they were they should have been maybe a little bit more strategic in their arguing for historic preservation, because what ended up happening and I thought this was pretty funny. Channel nine Kyle Clark did a bit on this and he pointed out that they're not arguing. They don't what they don't want. They don't want historic preservation because he showed a picture of the street 100 and some years ago where it was it was dirt and there were horse and buggies.

00:40:04:09 - 00:40:14:01
Amy Kenreich
There are no vehicles on the street at all. What he said they wanted was preservation of the present, not preservation of history. So I thought that was really poignant.

00:40:14:04 - 00:40:39:04
John Simmerman
I think that's really, really important to pause and and talk about, because that's exactly what we end up seeing when we see the resistance to change, when we see not in my backyard, not in my front yard, don't change the streetscape. It's is a bit of a fear of the unknown and it's a bit of trying to preserve the status quo of what we have now.

00:40:39:10 - 00:41:02:17
John Simmerman
Because, you know, we you know, society, the people that are living in this area, it's what we're used to. It's like, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, let's let's kind of keep it as it is. The irony, of course, is, yeah, if you really want to look at the historical context, yeah, these weren't even paved roads, you know, that's how old this really is.

00:41:02:19 - 00:41:21:16
John Simmerman
The automobiles are actually the interlopers. The automobiles are actually the thing that is degrading the livability and the quality of the environment, not the other way around. Not people, not people walking, biking or riding horses.

00:41:21:19 - 00:41:47:26
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, absolutely. I wish that I could explain all that to people when they when they have those objections to change, when they're scared like that. I wish that I could sit them down and say, do you realize, like, let's take a step back, like you said, and and understand how how did we get here and what has it done to our communities and our our planet?

00:41:47:29 - 00:41:49:20
Amy Kenreich
Yeah.

00:41:49:22 - 00:42:18:15
John Simmerman
Yeah. And so one of the narratives that came about and I think it's positive to have these arguments in these these these challenges is that it helps us have a better understanding of what's truly important. And I'm scanning, I'm looking at the parking that is still available here on the street and we're looking at the fact that there's still plenty of of of space for people to be able to drive through this area.

00:42:18:18 - 00:42:59:17
John Simmerman
They're just going to do so much more slowly, more carefully. It becomes a more welcoming environment for everybody and again, all ages and abilities. And but one of the narratives that that did come about and is important for us to come about is to have this discussion of what is more important, the health and safety of people walking, biking and driving or the preservation of esthetics or the preservation of of parking or the preservation of being able to drive through an area as fast as possible.

00:42:59:19 - 00:43:36:13
John Simmerman
I mean, we can see that, you know, there was a 20 mile per hour sign right there. This is not an area where, you know, you should be imagining that. Yeah, you're going to be able to to drive through as fast as possible. What's really, really interesting is that oftentimes some of the people who end up resisting change and and resisting these types of infrastructure, one of the things that they talk about is that when you say, well, what would you like to see change or what would you like to, you know, if if you could wave a magic wand and make your street, you know, more welcoming, what would it be?

00:43:36:13 - 00:43:39:28
John Simmerman
And this as well, people are just speeding. They're going too fast.

00:43:40:00 - 00:43:45:02
Amy Kenreich
Right? Well, it's like, oh, hey, have I have I got a plan for you?

00:43:45:02 - 00:43:45:29
John Simmerman
Because, hey, this.

00:43:45:29 - 00:43:46:27
Amy Kenreich
Is we've.

00:43:46:27 - 00:43:48:23
John Simmerman
Got common ground here.

00:43:48:26 - 00:43:49:08
Amy Kenreich
Yeah.

00:43:49:08 - 00:44:20:14
Amy Kenreich
I love to find the common ground. I think that is really helpful when you're talking to people who have opposite views as you not just, you know, talking about bike lanes, but all kinds of situations, because oftentimes you do find that everybody wants something similar. And and we get so hung up on, you know, you know, that same thing has happened on Broadway, a few streets over a bike lane is protected.

00:44:20:14 - 00:44:45:22
Amy Kenreich
Bike Lane has been going in there for the past year or so. They're still working on it. But we need to understand that that's going to that it's for it's going to improve. That project isn't just for bikes, it's for pedestrians. The city is also working on the drainage underneath the replacing the signals there. It's going to make it better for everyone who uses that street.

00:44:45:25 - 00:44:53:17
Amy Kenreich
And I hope that some of the people that that these are the towers that you're panning over to hear where the petition at the epicenter of the petition.

00:44:53:22 - 00:44:58:19
John Simmerman
Oh, see, I didn't even know that. I was just intuitively doing that. So there you go, man.

00:44:58:22 - 00:45:30:10
Amy Kenreich
I spent too much time probably up in the on the 15th floor there at someone's kitchen table with with what the organizers of the petition just mostly listening, asking them questions to try to find common ground, showing them that I am a human being. I'm not I'm not what they envision as a cyclist, which would be somebody in spandex on a road bike that's going 25 miles an hour down their street.

00:45:30:10 - 00:45:52:20
Amy Kenreich
I tried as best I could when they when they would say we would look out off the balcony. And they were to see that to see that bike. They didn't even that bike. They didn't even stop at the stop sign. And at the same time, there were cars, drivers doing the same thing. And so I would nicely try to point out, look at that.

00:45:52:20 - 00:45:54:18
Amy Kenreich
Both modes are doing that.

00:45:54:20 - 00:45:56:03
Amy Kenreich
Right, Right.

00:45:56:05 - 00:45:58:27
Amy Kenreich
Who's at risk here? Yeah.

00:45:58:29 - 00:46:19:15
John Simmerman
Which which interestingly, too, I mean, I don't know if the the safety stop law had passed by then, but earlier in this video, you know, astute viewers would notice that, you know, I was stopped at the stoplight. I did eventually go through that intersection. It was safe for me to do so. It was still read at the time.

00:46:19:15 - 00:46:41:16
John Simmerman
But although it did turn green by the time I was halfway across. But yeah, I'm now the Colorado safety stop law is in place, which means that people who are riding a bike must treat a stop sign like a yield sign and and treat a stop light like a stop sign and only proceed to go forward when it's safe to do so.

00:46:41:19 - 00:47:09:22
John Simmerman
But yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that too is that there's that that stereotype of who rides a bike and unfortunately that stereotype for too long in North America in particular has been, you know, the mammal. It's like me, you know, the middle aged dude who's on his racing bike wearing like a Lycra, you know, that that's what mammal, by the way, stands for, folks, mid middle, middle aged men in Lycra.

00:47:09:25 - 00:47:29:05
John Simmerman
And so it's important to understand that. No, no, no, no, no. What we're really talking about here is a safer, more inviting environment for for everyone walking or biking and driving, using transit. What we're really talking about here is, is quality of life and livability.

00:47:29:07 - 00:48:01:24
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. And along with that, a lot of misconceptions out there, such as all all cyclists run, run, stop signs like you mentioned it's it's now okay to in the way that you describe run a stop sign as a cyclist here in Denver. But when I did hear those those false I don't know what the word I'm looking for is when I heard people say things that were not accurate, I tried to correct them.

00:48:01:24 - 00:48:33:00
Amy Kenreich
And I always tell people that are getting into advocacy to find your use of the skills that you have to to advocate for. I like combined biking and if you're a writer, combine those two things. I'm a graphic designer. I use that in my advocacy. A friend of mine is really good at research, so I had these facts I could pull out of my head when they would say, Oh, look at that person running the stop sign on the bike.

00:48:33:03 - 00:48:43:14
Amy Kenreich
Or they would say, Look at this. Like, Look at that bike run the stop sign. I would say, Well, actually cyclists and drivers break the law at the same rate. And here's my source.

00:48:43:15 - 00:48:59:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. I was paused on this just because I wanted to give some love to this hardworking little machine here. This is actually I caught the the the bike lane sweeper in action.

00:48:59:12 - 00:49:00:02
Amy Kenreich
Yeah.

00:49:00:04 - 00:49:04:03
John Simmerman
Beloved, these little guys are so cute.

00:49:04:06 - 00:49:05:21
Amy Kenreich
Yes.

00:49:05:24 - 00:49:41:01
John Simmerman
You have folks who may be tuning into this. And Wyatt, why the fascination of over that is that protected bikeways like this oftentimes get a lot of debris that sort of gathers in there. So having the ability to have the appropriate machine for appropriate maintenance to be able to to to sweep up that debris, especially if there's some broken glass and things of that nature really does help make the overall environment that much safer for for the families that are riding on this as well as Yeah, yeah.

00:49:41:03 - 00:49:43:26
Amy Kenreich
And they have so many snowplows also.

00:49:43:28 - 00:49:45:23
Amy Kenreich
That come through. Yeah.

00:49:45:26 - 00:49:46:24
Amy Kenreich
I love this.

00:49:46:26 - 00:50:09:12
John Simmerman
I had to tell you that a I went out of my way to, to, to ride this like I said, and film this and, and be able to do this. And this is the reason why it made me so happy to see it is it just really exemplified when you see people walking and biking in this environment and you see how much safer it is for families to be able to do this.

00:50:09:15 - 00:50:30:02
John Simmerman
It's unfortunate that, you know, a tragedy had to happen or it did happen. And but it's it's wonderful and gratifying to see that, you know, you all who fought so hard to get this in place and on the ground to be able to see it come to to fruition.

00:50:30:05 - 00:51:18:14
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, it was really a group effort. And my first brush with the Denver bicycle advocacy community, Denver bicycle lobby mainly organized that group, and it's a great group here in Denver. I just there's so much support. There's always somebody that I mean, people I love that it's they they work with zero budget they have zero employees. Yet when something like this happens, they they show up and people come out of the woodwork to to show support because it's sad to say but you you do need to do that sometimes to show show the city or show the rest of the community that we do exist.

00:51:18:17 - 00:51:30:26
Amy Kenreich
People do care passionately about, you know, safe street infrastructure. And you can't let you can't be drowned it out by the people who are resistant to change.

00:51:31:03 - 00:51:57:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, you know, I have the website up here again it's Denver bicycle lobby dot com and they really filled a gap that existed They came into existence a few years ago right about the time that you know the bicycle era the the Denver bicycle group was kind of like, you know, waning a little bit. And people had been with them for a little bit before going and joining bicycle Colorado.

00:51:57:17 - 00:52:23:23
John Simmerman
And of course, then then Jill kind of went over to the the streets partnership and it becomes more of a what I like to to advocate for from a a true advocacy organization is make your advocacy organization with a broad tent be able to to to you know represent walking biking and disability and you know AARP and everything.

00:52:23:23 - 00:52:58:26
John Simmerman
Make that a broad partnership very very strategic on Denver's have and I'm glad to see that we had the same thing happen here in Austin where, you know bike Austin was was sort of waning walk Austin was sort of waning and the new Vision Zero group, you know, advocacy group was sort of waning. It's hard to keep the the the moment I am of volunteers again, volunteers, you get burnt out and so they pulled together, pulled to get forces together to create the safer streets Austin Coalition.

00:52:58:26 - 00:53:30:02
John Simmerman
And so now it's a broader tent. But I do advocate for also saying that, you know, when you have activists organizations, which is what I really consider the Denver bicycle lobby is, you know, where you don't you're not necessarily It's a difference. There's a difference between an advocacy organization that needs to be able to work well with city governments and in organizations and municipalities versus activist organizations, which are like, no, we're going to call you out.

00:53:30:02 - 00:53:40:28
John Simmerman
We're going to organize a critical mass. We're going to do a die in, we're going we're we don't have any paid employees. It's us. We're the people. So.

00:53:41:01 - 00:54:00:15
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, Yeah, they are. I agree with that. They are more activist for sure, which I think you need. You need advocacy and you need activism. Exactly. I would love to to do a just a minute campaign. I think that's what it is. Right? It's just a minute. Hashtag. Just a minute. Have you heard of that?

00:54:00:19 - 00:54:03:05
John Simmerman
I have, yeah. Yeah. But I guess they.

00:54:03:07 - 00:54:04:28
Amy Kenreich
Need to do that. Yeah.

00:54:05:01 - 00:54:39:07
Amy Kenreich
Well, you know, I don't know that much about it, but I did listen to the person. I'm blanking on her name, but someone in San Francisco, I think is where it started, where there was a bike lane that was constantly blocked by drivers. That would be just a minute. Just a minute. And so they a team went out in yellow T-shirts with a megaphone and they would when the bike lane was blocked by a driver, they would hold up traffic, car traffic so that bicyclists could go around the driver and they would they would say, just a minute, just it's just going to be a minute.

00:54:39:07 - 00:54:51:19
Amy Kenreich
No, there are so nice about it. So nice. It's no big deal. No big deal. The driver. Be right back. Love to do that in Denver. So I see. I see that in the future here.

00:54:51:22 - 00:54:52:10
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. No.

00:54:52:11 - 00:55:25:15
John Simmerman
And and really I think it's it's one of the the neat things that sort of came about over the past, you know a couple of years and here's the entire street in San Francisco the the just just a minute to campaign here and and really it's yeah and really it's it's bringing forth this concept of you know, we see it all the time is that the life, the health and safety and lives of people riding bikes are compromised.

00:55:25:21 - 00:55:50:15
John Simmerman
So the cars will go ahead and, you know, park in and block the space. And so what this group of volunteers is really demonstrating and doing here is in through a guerilla advocacy or a guerilla activism movement. Yes, a guerilla activism movement is is to say, oh, yeah, well, you know, today it'll be just a minute. Just yeah.

00:55:50:15 - 00:56:21:16
John Simmerman
So it's it's great because it's so tongue in cheek and snarky and but it really brings forward the car brain mentality that that we have in our society where it's okay to to to inconvenience and potentially endanger the lives of somebody who is walking or biking or in a wheelchair. But oh gosh. For you know, God forbid, we can't we can't inconvenience people in cars.

00:56:21:16 - 00:56:29:25
John Simmerman
We can't actually slow the traffic down. And so that's why this was such a wonderful activism movement.

00:56:29:27 - 00:56:30:15
Amy Kenreich
Yeah.

00:56:30:17 - 00:57:04:10
Amy Kenreich
I even speaking of incoming inconveniencing drivers this year, I, I might have crossed the line when I was doing my crossing guard duty with one of the parents coming through on in a vehicle. He was very irritated that he missed the light signal, a light cycle to bring his child across to where the school is. And I mean, he missed it because there were pedestrians in the crosswalk and somebody needed to turn.

00:57:04:12 - 00:57:22:18
Amy Kenreich
Another driver wanted it to turn and they couldn't turn because people I mean, the kids were in the crosswalk. So he got wrote, irritated and I ended up blowing my whistle at him. And he parked his car and he came back and we had a little conversation. He followed me through the crosswalk back and forth from the East Coast.

00:57:22:18 - 00:57:46:21
Amy Kenreich
So his style of conversation was more like yelling. Right? And some of the other parents ended up calling the principal and she came walking down the block to make sure everything was okay. But by that time I had talked him through it and he was yelling at me, It's not fair. I need to hold back the pedestrians and let the let the cars go through.

00:57:46:21 - 00:58:08:11
Amy Kenreich
And I said, I know you live in Baker, which is the next neighborhood over and your child is in sixth grade. Why doesn't he walk to school like all these other people are walking to school? Why? Why doesn't he? Because I was laying a trap for him. And the parent said while he would have to cross, he named all these big streets.

00:58:08:11 - 00:58:25:15
Amy Kenreich
And I was. He said, Yeah, it's not that far. It's like a mile. And a half. But he it's not safe for him. And I was like, You're right. It's not safe for him. That's why I'm out here. And the conversation really took a turn and he ended up apologizing to me and I thought that was a really hard conversation.

00:58:25:22 - 00:58:46:22
Amy Kenreich
I probably crossed the line, but I wish that I could have more of those conversations. And with drivers who yell this or that out their window when I'm walking or biking because they feel like it's not fair or they deserve the space more than I do, I wish I could have those longer conversations, even though they're tough.

00:58:46:24 - 00:58:48:28
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. Yeah.

00:58:49:01 - 00:59:13:01
John Simmerman
I'm glad you had that conversation, though, too, because you know, it it is important to to have those conversations and especially if you can have those conversations face to face and and be able to work through that that quote unquote, issue. And little did he know that you had a little bit of East Coast experience of your own.

00:59:13:01 - 00:59:15:02
Amy Kenreich
So you weren't going to be you.

00:59:15:02 - 00:59:19:03
John Simmerman
Weren't going to be as shocked as some of those others other parents.

00:59:19:03 - 00:59:39:29
Amy Kenreich
In my heart, my heart was racing, but you have to meet people where they're at, especially if you disagree with them. I think it's important to understand their communication style and as best you can understand what their experience is and why they have come to these conclusions. Because a lot of times then you can find common ground.

00:59:40:05 - 00:59:41:16
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, well, and one of the.

00:59:41:16 - 01:00:09:17
John Simmerman
Things that is is happening in and it happens it has been happening a lot recently, especially in the wake of the pandemic is is understanding that streets are more than for just driving fast in a in a in a motor vehicle and sometimes you know streets are are designed for carrying surfboards. Oh, wait a minute.

01:00:09:20 - 01:00:12:08
Amy Kenreich
What's going on here?

01:00:12:11 - 01:00:16:04
Amy Kenreich
This is Viva Street number two.

01:00:16:06 - 01:00:26:28
John Simmerman
Number two. Yeah, it was it was a it was a rainy day. This was the June Viva streets. And you guys got reamed out. Now, Mayor was kind of damp to ride it.

01:00:27:01 - 01:00:27:25
Amy Kenreich
It was damp.

01:00:27:25 - 01:00:46:11
Amy Kenreich
Also, Mother's Day morning. These are my kids messing around with the megaphone. My daughter. We started getting a little delirious here at the this, but the June River Street, we were there was some runners coming by and we were announcing them as as if they were like running a marathon, winning it.

01:00:46:13 - 01:00:53:26
John Simmerman
And I want to show this because I mean, when we say it was wet, it was red, it was coming down wet.

01:00:53:28 - 01:01:05:25
Amy Kenreich
So it rained like this, like pouring rain. So unlike Denver, I thought it would never happen on the second be the streets, but it was worse on the second one than it was on the first one.

01:01:05:27 - 01:01:11:03
John Simmerman
I haven't seen this. I'm going to press play on this. Oh, my God. Yeah. This is just the water running.

01:01:11:06 - 01:01:11:29
Amy Kenreich
In the street.

01:01:12:04 - 01:01:14:10
Amy Kenreich
Right into the drain. I mean, the.

01:01:14:12 - 01:01:15:22
Amy Kenreich
Oh.

01:01:15:24 - 01:01:38:03
Amy Kenreich
It was so wet like this until about 1130 in the morning. Yeah, I couldn't believe the water. And I was so disappointed because I had, I had some games planned. Yeah. For some fun games. Yeah. Some of the same games that we've done at our own bike rodeo. You can see that people did start to come out as the rain let up right.

01:01:38:06 - 01:01:48:07
Amy Kenreich
And unfortunately they they ended up just calling it, I think, to spare some of the volunteers that spirit I.

01:01:48:13 - 01:01:56:03
John Simmerman
Yeah No no and you have to do that now refresh my memory. You're not going to be around for the July v the streets. Is that correct. You're going to be all right.

01:01:56:06 - 01:02:20:15
Amy Kenreich
Planning on doing vacation stuff? Uh huh. I will be camping off the grid, but I'm going to come back a little bit early for the August one, and I'm going to have some of those games that I plan to do at the June B, The Street will have a I think about 35 hula hoops left to decorate and maybe we'll have an M.C..

01:02:20:17 - 01:02:31:24
Amy Kenreich
I've thrown out some other ideas for July. I have a lot of prizes to give away too, because I purchased gift cards up and down Broadway at those businesses to give away as volunteers or as prizes.

01:02:31:27 - 01:02:35:27
John Simmerman
Nice. Yeah. So I will be at the streets in July.

01:02:35:28 - 01:02:37:11
Amy Kenreich
July and August.

01:02:37:16 - 01:02:40:23
Amy Kenreich
Maybe they think I might be invite you.

01:02:40:23 - 01:02:52:16
Amy Kenreich
I invite you to come back for August because I will have that megaphone, not my daughter. And we'll be doing some fun competitions skills. Course, if you dare.

01:02:52:22 - 01:02:53:22
Amy Kenreich
Yeah.

01:02:53:25 - 01:03:00:12
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. Donut Donut relay. Also I have a donut trophies that I've already 3D printed.

01:03:00:14 - 01:03:35:23
John Simmerman
Well, I absolutely love document ing Viva Streets and Open Streets events. For the past several years I've documented the Open Streets events up in Fort Collins. I've got, again, several years worth of video footage that I've shot up there in Fort Collins. And this is the reason why. I mean, again, it reframes what streets are for, because so much of what we in North America have been scripted to believe is that a street is only for the fast movement motor vehicles.

01:03:35:25 - 01:04:00:12
John Simmerman
And that's really not what streets are for. I mean, streets have been around for literally thousands of years where motor vehicles only became, you know, prevalent in the last 100 years. And so understanding that a street is is not only a place for movement, for, you know, transfer, for mobility, of getting from one place to the other. But it's also a social place.

01:04:00:12 - 01:04:31:20
John Simmerman
It's it's the platform for building wealth. It's where commerce is has traditionally happened for for thousands of years. And so it's wonderful to see more and more cities getting engaged in doing open streets events and being able to do this, because I do believe that it helps reframe subtly. I know it's only an event. Maybe it's once a year, maybe it's, you know, a several times a during a summer, unless you're down in Bogota and you do it every Sunday.

01:04:31:22 - 01:05:00:17
John Simmerman
But but my point is, is that it helps to to reframe that. Oh, yeah, that's right. Streets can be more than just a place where we're supporting a fast moving traffic and in automobile addiction that that have you know that that that you know car centric car bringing sort of approach of drive everywhere for everything it's like.

01:05:00:17 - 01:05:01:17
Amy Kenreich
Oh yeah it's not.

01:05:01:17 - 01:05:05:23
John Simmerman
That for a week it's a nice day let's let's walk let's bike.

01:05:05:25 - 01:05:53:21
Amy Kenreich
Yeah yeah that's I that is something that I try to push on. People do it. Just do it when you can. Just try it out. Bike to work day to day is about just trying it out. Try it once or twice. Do it every Friday, do it on the weekend. The farmer's market. Give it a try. Because I do feel like when you have that, especially for children, when you have those happy experiences with your family or with your friends riding to, you know, Friday night pizza dinner or riding down to the playground, like experiencing that that freedom of being able to go places before you can, before you're old enough to really go far.

01:05:53:24 - 01:06:17:24
Amy Kenreich
My 14 year old is in that position right now. He's able to ride his bike to his friend's house. He's constantly going down to the playground. And I hope that that rush, that feeling, the positive feeling of of having that independence on his own two feet or on his own two wheels, I hope that sticks with him and that he continues to value that.

01:06:17:26 - 01:06:23:05
Amy Kenreich
That's the mode outside of a vehicle, you know, as he grows up.

01:06:23:07 - 01:06:57:17
John Simmerman
Yeah. And that's so incredibly important. It's one of the things that we see and I've documented over in the Netherlands and also in Denmark as well, and for that matter in Sweden and Norway, is that we are seeing that when you have a safe and inviting all ages and abilities environment out there where you know, kids can get around under their own power, whether it's walking, whether it's biking, whether it's using transit, you're able to establish a a sense of efficacy, of being able to navigate through your own community, your own space.

01:06:57:20 - 01:07:21:26
John Simmerman
They're able to actually make that transition into young adulthood and adulthood much more successfully because they are do have that sense of independence and sense of self-confidence that they can that they do know how to get around under their own power. They can get to school on their own, they can get to after school activities, they can get to their friends places.

01:07:21:29 - 01:07:41:07
John Simmerman
And it's so incredibly empowering when I interview parents or, you know, in those types of environments, they're just like, Oh yeah, I mean, we couldn't do what American parents are doing. I mean, that would just be, you know, it's so stifling and and it's not healthy for the kids either.

01:07:41:09 - 01:08:01:19
Amy Kenreich
No, no, for sure not. I was on a see for the school online conference last year and what city I think it's in Portland so much and I believe her name is Megan she she does a biking school bus. So maybe it's not. Maybe it's Seattle.

01:08:01:21 - 01:08:11:10
John Simmerman
Oh, yeah. Megan Ramey Yeah, in Hood River. Yeah. So she she does. She's the bike train conductor up there and she's now safe routes to school person up in Hood River.

01:08:11:10 - 01:08:54:14
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, I believe it's her that runs a what she calls an eighties club at a middle school. And because I've been in as my kids get older, I think, Okay, well, you know, bike rodeo may not be as appealing to the of middle and high school age. So how does see for school work with that age group and I love that it is club that I think Megan runs where it's it's really a disguise for a walking group and the kids get together and they just simply walk, walk or ride transit to or bike to places that they get to pick themselves and then they plan out the route.

01:08:54:17 - 01:09:06:02
Amy Kenreich
I think that's fantastic. And kids that age just like eat that up. Being able to go someplace on their own makes their own decisions great and just full of life lessons there for sure.

01:09:06:04 - 01:09:07:11
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. Yeah.

01:09:07:13 - 01:09:34:20
John Simmerman
So I pulled you away from Bike to Work Day. We're recording this here on Wednesday, June 28th, and I love reframing things and, especially given the fact that so many people aren't aren't working in a traditional environment anymore. So I love reframing bike to work day, as is bike anywhere and everywhere day. But what was it like this morning there in Denver?

01:09:34:23 - 01:09:57:04
Amy Kenreich
It was great. I told somebody we should have iced coffee, not hot coffee everywhere because it just got hotter and hotter, but not as hot as the day before. It was fun. I mean, I just I love. It's like having a welcoming committee every few blocks as you ride past or stop at all the breakfast stations. It's it's just a really fun day.

01:09:57:07 - 01:10:22:15
Amy Kenreich
I love to see more cyclists out there. It feels good when there's more of you. It feels good when you're riding past people sitting in cars in traffic. It was fun. We started off at Union Station. My husband and I started at Union Station today because our kids jumped on a train with their cousins to go to Glenwood Springs, which I highly recommend that train trip for anybody listening.

01:10:22:17 - 01:10:24:05
Amy Kenreich
Beautiful scenery.

01:10:24:08 - 01:10:54:06
John Simmerman
Fantastic. Yeah, that is a beautiful for a route that basically parallels much of I-70 through through the mountains. And yeah, especially in that portion of when you start getting close to Glenwood Canyon. Absolutely beautiful. You know, the other thing that I like to emphasize to about this type of event is that and it came out in my video that I produced this Year of Austin's Bike to Work Day, which was in May.

01:10:54:09 - 01:11:24:07
John Simmerman
In fact, that's nationally. That's usually when it's held is in May. Colorado is one of the states that has shifted it to June just from a weather perspective. Good thing it wasn't pouring down rain from this place. But one of the things I like to emphasize, though, is that in in like I said, it did come out when I was interviewing people on the ground, you know, this year is that they you know, many of them were working from home.

01:11:24:07 - 01:12:06:18
John Simmerman
That's where they work they they don't actually need to ride their bike to work. And but one of them, her quote was like, this is the best day ever. This is my favorite day of the year. I'm like, Why? And she's just like, because of what you said. It's fun to be able to to ride around through the city, a group of other people and and not feel like you're you're you're the only one because that's one of the things that does end up happening is that we're so spacious, space efficient when we're on a bicycle that, you know, you can literally fit tens of thousands people on bikes in a bike lane.

01:12:06:23 - 01:12:37:18
John Simmerman
And that's one of the reasons why bike lanes so often look empty is because we're so space efficient. We don't take any up anywhere near as much space, a massive SUV. And so it is a wonderful thing to to to be able to get out there with other folks. But the other real most important aspect of this type of day is that it gives an opportunity to support others who, you know, they just they don't know how to go about it.

01:12:37:18 - 01:13:10:07
John Simmerman
And so this is where veterans who do bike to work or bike everywhere, you know, for all their errands or whatever can help support and say, hey, let's let's get you set up. Let's we'll all ride into the office together. And it helps it helps allay some of the fears that exist within people who, you know, may not have never, you know, have felt comfortable being able to ride to work or to the grocery store or whatever.

01:13:10:07 - 01:13:18:12
John Simmerman
So that's what I love about this day. And why it's so special is it helps support people and give some confidence to them that it can be done.

01:13:18:15 - 01:13:21:18
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, biking and walking is contagious. It is. Yeah.

01:13:21:20 - 01:13:34:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yes. Active mobility, active towns. That is what it is all about. Amy, is there anything that we haven't yet talked about that you really want to leave the audience with?

01:13:34:24 - 01:13:37:12
Amy Kenreich
Yeah, I would say I would love to.

01:13:37:12 - 01:13:43:06
John Simmerman
We got it. We got to do this, though. Let's. Let's end with this, Amy. Let's end with Pixel Monsters.

01:13:43:08 - 01:13:48:11
Amy Kenreich
Oh, I forgot about that. Oh, wow. All right. So.

01:13:48:14 - 01:13:56:13
John Simmerman
So this is going to be our final segment here of our interview. What's Pixel Monsters all about?

01:13:56:15 - 01:13:57:23
Amy Kenreich
Well.

01:13:57:26 - 01:14:28:24
Amy Kenreich
Like I said, I like to use my graphic design skills in combination with like advocacy or activism and this is a little poem that explained what was going on in the street. Fun pixel monsters remind drivers we all streets are for people. This was artwork that we did to the shared streets. There's Emily working on the final details.

01:14:28:24 - 01:15:02:20
Amy Kenreich
People started embellishing and beyond what the stencils allowed and so we painted these pixel monsters along to, I think 16th and 30th Avenue shared streets, probably 25 volunteers over a couple of days. This was during the pandemic, the heart of the pandemic. You can see some masks there. Not too long after the Alexis Bounds, a memorial artwork was done to those streets.

01:15:02:26 - 01:15:22:22
Amy Kenreich
These are this is a photo by Rob Taaffe. This is takes really good photos, but a super fun project just to remind people to have fun and remind drivers that are people out here in the street that it can be a space for connecting with others.

01:15:22:24 - 01:15:42:16
John Simmerman
Right? Yeah. Yeah. And I love the fact that that that that pixel months that very first one you know had the streets are for people on there that's that is fantastic. I don't know if you know that that is like one of my my taglines for for active towns.

01:15:42:18 - 01:15:42:28
Amy Kenreich
Is oh.

01:15:42:28 - 01:15:43:05
Amy Kenreich
I did.

01:15:43:07 - 01:15:44:05
Amy Kenreich
Something for people.

01:15:44:08 - 01:15:47:04
Amy Kenreich
Yes that makes a lot of sense. I love them.

01:15:47:06 - 01:16:23:00
John Simmerman
And what's really what's really fun is I, I don't tend to be snarky much at all, but in some of the artwork that I've put together out on the active town store is some graphics associated with with streets are for people. And and one of the things that I've done is is create a shirt that sort of is a play off of the the old tricks commercial tricks are for kids.

01:16:23:02 - 01:16:24:00
Amy Kenreich
You know and so.

01:16:24:00 - 01:16:44:26
John Simmerman
I came up with some you know streets are for people shirts so my standard streets are for people. Shirt is is this tree here but one of my favorite streets or for people shirt is is the following is is that you know silly motorists don't you know streets are for people.

01:16:44:29 - 01:16:45:06
Amy Kenreich
That's.

01:16:45:07 - 01:16:46:25
Amy Kenreich
Right make it fun I mean you.

01:16:46:25 - 01:16:48:06
Amy Kenreich
Can you can't it.

01:16:48:06 - 01:16:50:14
Amy Kenreich
Can't all be punches.

01:16:50:16 - 01:16:51:29
Amy Kenreich
Yeah yeah, yeah.

01:16:52:01 - 01:16:52:28
Amy Kenreich
Yeah. For sure.

01:16:53:00 - 01:17:15:27
John Simmerman
Good stuff. Amy, thank you so much for joining me on The Art of Towns podcast. It's it's been such a pleasure chatting with you. I'm devastated that you're not going to be at the VMA streets in July, but I'm great. Absolutely grateful that we were able to ride together a couple of Saturdays ago for the ride for Racial Justice and just so stoked to have you here on the Active Towns podcast.

01:17:15:29 - 01:17:17:26
Amy Kenreich
Thanks for having me.

01:17:17:29 - 01:17:32:17
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in and I hope you enjoyed this episode with. Amy And if you did, please remember, give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you're not already subscribed to the channel, please just click on that subscription button down below and ring the notifications bell.

01:17:32:24 - 01:17:54:20
John Simmerman
And if you're enjoying this content, please consider becoming an active town's ambassador. You can support me on Patreon, Buy me a coffee on YouTube. Super. Thanks. Right down below. As well as making a donation to the nonprofit and buying things from the active town store, every little bit helps. And as appreciated. Thank you all so much and we'll see you soon.

01:17:54:23 - 01:18:16:25
John Simmerman
This is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers. And again sending a huge thank you to all my active town's ambassadors supporting the channel on Patron. Buy me a coffee YouTube super. Thanks. As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active town store, every little bit adds up and it's much appreciated.

01:18:16:27 - 01:18:18:04
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much.