The 2011 Leadership Manhattan Beach class invites community members to bike from the El Porto Parking Lot to the Manhattan Beach Pier on Saturday in celebration of the addition of 90 new bike parking spots around the city.
The “Better Bike Racks, Better Living” project will more than double current public bike parking around town. Forty-five racks, each accommodating two bikes, will be added to areas that include the pier, the El Porto parking lot, the intersection of 13th Street and Valley Drive, the 12th Street parking structure and near four downtown shops.
Racks in three decorative styles were custom-designed by the class and installed by city staff, including a blue wave design, a hoop design and a hitching post design with images of palm trees and the words “Manhattan Beach” at the center.
“We didn’t want to be overly artistic, but wanted to choose designs that were functional and that make the city look beautiful,” said LMB class member Josh Dubinsky.
The $25,000 cost of the racks was funded by 20 individual donors and sponsors including the Beach Cities Health District and the Dipaola Foundation.
LMB is a training program that began in 1992 to teach students leadership skills through volunteering, networking and organizing projects and events. Each class culminates in a capstone project that benefits the community. Last year’s class installed educational signs and audio and video equipment at the Roundhouse Aquarium at the end of the pier.
The 2011 class began in August and students attended a course at the Beach Cities Health District where they learned about the Vitality City initiative underway in the beach cities. A priority of Vitality City — a three-year, comprehensive plan to increase residents’ health and quality of life — is to make the community more bike-friendly.
“That was at the top of the meter for the whole class,” Dubinsky said. “The bike racks just seemed to fit with what was doable within the time frame, what’s already going on in the community and what would most benefit the city.”
The idea was proposed by class member and project leader Bill Hory, who is the cofounder of Citizens for Outdoor Recreation and Exercise (CORE), an organization that formed last year to reopen the sand dune in Sand Dune Park after the city closed it due to excessive use.
“It is remarkable and a testament to this community how a group of 23 strangers came together in September and, after a few short months, identified and executed a project that results in additional public parking for over 90 bikes in our community,” Hory said.
Saturday’s celebration is scheduled to begin at the El Porto parking lot at 2:30 p.m. followed by a bike ride to the Manhattan Beach pier for a ribbon cutting ceremony at 3 p.m.
For more information, visit www.LMBbikeracks.com. ER
