Lisa Reisman Photo
Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op volunteer Julia Nojeim fixing Alfred Wicker's flat tire.
Angus Lamont, Mayor Justin Elicker, Catherine Lindsay, and Steve Winter look on as Doreen Abubakar cuts the ribbon.
Agitating the atmosphere: That’s what Doreen Abubakar called the opening of the Newhallville Bike Box, a new free bike repair station on Shelton Avenue and Hazel Street.
“We live in a place where there is no library, no medical institution, and no community space where people can gather,” Abubakar, founder of the Community Placemaking Engagement Network, told the spirited group of 30 at a festive, if wind-buffeted, ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“The largest public asset in Newhallville is the Farmington Canal Trail, and we have the longest stretch in New Haven,” she said. “But who’s riding it? It’s not us.”
That’s the origin story of The Bike Box, a reference to the reused shipping container installed at the Newhallville Learning Corridor along the Farmington Canal Trail and filled with the tools and skills of a bicycle repair shop. It was created through a partnership of CPEN and the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op, a community DIY bike shop in East Rock.
The mission: “To get more minorities on bikes learning the rules of riding, and that starts with bringing the necessary skills and tools to this community, to get our neighbors on the trail, to build equity in this space,” Abubakar said.
“Everyone in New Haven deserves safe and reliable transportation, and that’s why the BSBC has been venturing further from our East Rock home,” said Catherine Lindsay, program and operations manager of BSBC, which has formed partnerships with the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, and Amistad House, among others.
“New Haven is a city that has been segmented by forces of racism and profit, and the Farmington Canal Trail is one of the lines that cuts through our segregated city,” she said, as two cyclists alighted from the trail.
The Bike Box was funded through the Neighborhood Opportunity Challenge (NEOC), which afforded the used shipping container and tools. It will also support a professional part-time bike mechanic for twice-monthly repair clinics until October, free maintenance classes, an apprenticeship program for a Newhallville teen, as well as 25 adult bikes donated by BSBC to Newhallville residents.
City climate czar Steve Winter lauded the collaboration between the Bradley Bike Co-op and CPEN.
“Getting people knowledgeable about repairing their bikes, riding their bikes, and being safe on the roads is so important in a city where so many people don’t have cars and one that’s so bikeable and is getting more and more bikeable,” he said, with the extension of the Canal line and the Shoreline Greenway Trail.
Over by Shelton Avenue, Alfred Wicker watched volunteers industriously fixing his bike’s flat tire and replacing its chain. “I’ve been in the Ville for 52 years, and it’s how I get around,” he said, as some people played cornhole and others readied themselves for the baby bike race amid the unforgiving wind. “This is a wonderful thing.”
Sign advertising the offerings of new Newhallville Bike Box.
This is a wonderful thing! I hope more people volunteer to teach bike skills and bike repair skills, and people donate old bikes so people without bikes can earn a bike through sweat equity of learning about repairing and rebuilding old bikes. The more people without cars gain access to bikes, and can repair and maintain bikes. and the more bike lanes and trails we have, the more mobility people have.