Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter hosted a bike ride that highlighted some of the City’s great new infrastructure on the afternoon of December 31st. The ride was organized by Anthony Taylor, Senior Vice President of Equity in the Outdoors for the YMCA of the North, and Russ Stark, the City’s Chief Resilience Officer. BikeMN has worked with Russ and Anthony for years on many different initiatives and it was fun to be a part of this one. Needless to say, the event was intended to show off new infrastructure and that the infrastructure is well maintained and ready to be used all year long – even by bicyclists in the winter.
The ride started in Lowertown, looped behind CHS Field to the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, and headed north through Swede Hollow on the Bruce Vento Regional Trail. The trail then follows along Phalen Boulevard to Johnson Parkway where we took a right and went south along the great new bikeway to Mounds Park. After stopping for a picture in the park, we headed back down the hill to Lowertown. The ride was about 8 miles long and we were out for about an hour. It was a little chilly with a brisk wind from the east, but everyone was prepared and ready to celebrate!
We really hope that this becomes an annual event with the Mayor, weather permitting. About twenty people were on the ride and they were all smiling. Many thanks to Mayor Carter for leading us on this ride that showed off what St. Paul is doing and that riding in the winter can be easy, safe, and fun.
Dorian Grilley
Executive Director of BikeMN