Tonight GAIT had its first meeting. Ten of us sat at a table at the Issaquah Brewhouse and talked about bicycle and pedestrian issues in Issaquah. Rob, Nina, Barb, Karen, David, Kent, Erik, Karen, Becky, and me.

I have to thank Kent for giving us the kick needed to have a meeting when he forwarded some info about a program from the Kryptonite Bike Lock company to place free bike racks. We spent a fair amount of time brainstorming where we might like to see such racks. Here are the places mentioned:

  • City Hall South
  • City Hall North
  • Issaquah Medical Center (on Gilman by the post office)
  • Gilman Station near the end of the East Lake Sammamish Trail
  • Bank of America on Front Street
  • Mills Music
  • Memorial Field
  • Poo Poo Base
  • Skate Park
  • Community Center
  • Target
  • Caffe Ladro in the Highlands
  • Safeway
  • REI
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Pickering Barn
  • Lake Sammamish State Park

Some of these may already have sufficient racks in place. We thought we’d prioritized public locations ahead of private businesses thinking we might be able to lobby businesses into installing racks on their own. There are a lot of unknowns about the program so next steps here are to refine the list and get some pictures taken of where we’d like to place racks, and then to contact Kryptonite to see what they’re willing to do.

Beyond the bike rack program a lot of ideas flew across the table. I’ll try to get some pages here on the website to capture some of that over the next few days. There were also some war stories told about various organizations, but you’ll have to come to a meeting if you want to hear any of those.

It was exciting to see so many interested people there. Suddenly I have no qualms about referring to GAIT as a “group” and using the word “we” when talking about it. That alone is a big step forward. Thanks, everyone!