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Last month, Livable Memphis, a recipient of a Fall 2010 Advocacy Advance Grant, completed its “Overton-Broad Connector” Innovation Grant proposal. The advocates used their $25,000 award to introduce two model innovations to the Memphis community.

The New Face for an Old Broad event in November 2010 took the Better Blocks concept to a new level by temporarily reprogramming a street to show how bicycle and pedestrian facilities can encourage economic development. Three blocks of the Broad Avenue commercial district were turned into a DIY weekend festival. Local schools painted crosswalks, vacant storefronts were cleaned out and turned into pop-up shops and cafes, local artists created murals. The temporary redesign of the streetscape, including painted protected bike lines, have remained untouched for more than a year because they follow code standards and the local community has been pleased with the increase of business.

The grant also supported Livable Memphis’s advocacy efforts to complete the Overton-Broad Connector. The park trail segment will serve as the only pedestrian entrance to Overton Park from the east and increase access to mixed-income communities. Livable Memphis completed the design concept and is working to raise additional funds needed to complete the cycle track.

Going above and beyond the matching grant requirement, Livable Memphis raised more than $100,000 in sponsorships, donations, grants, event proceeds, and membership dues for its efforts. The advocates’ work has received additional financial support from Bikes Belong, Tennessee Recreational Trails Program, and HUS Sustainable Communities grant program.

In addition, Livable Memphis introduced updates to Memphis pedestrian ordinances regarding ADA access and crosswalk right-of-ways, which passed City Council, and developed a new “fines and fees” ordinance that will bring violation charges regarding bicycles and pedestrians up to the standard of their peer cities.

We’ve added added materials to our Online Resource Library that Livable Memphis used in its advocacy and feel would be useful for other Alliance member organizations:

• Sample Request for Proposal for Professional Design Services and instructions for submitting a Letter of Interest
• Traffic Volume Count Study Methods

Livable Memphis joins the more than two dozen other organizations that have used Advocacy Advance grant funding to spur development and carry out successful bicycle and pedestrian campaigns. Check back in coming weeks for information about next year’s funding cycle.

The irony is impossible to ignore: A burger joint leading a charge against bike lanes.

By any measure, Memphis is certainly in need of safer streets that support physical activity. In 2010, the city was labeled by Bicycling magazine as one of the worst places to ride in the entire United States. At the same time, Memphis was at the top of another list: It had the highest rate of overweight residents of the largest 50 cities in the U.S., with a staggering 70 percent of all adults overweight or obese.

So when Memphis officials rolled out a massive street project that didn’t include any facilities to encourage bicycling or walking, local advocates at Livable Memphis were ready to take action — and a won a commitment from the mayor for 55 miles of new bicycle facilities by 2012.

Now that the promise is hitting the pavement, some business owners are pushing back with misguided fears that bikes curb commerce.

Earlier this year, the city (with some help from the advocates at Livable Memphis) rolled out a proposal for Madison Avenue that would add bike lanes to this major east-west connector by converting the street from four traffic lanes to two (with a center turn lane). In his detailed memo, city bike/ped coordinator, Kyle Wagenschutz, outlines the traffic and economic benefits of the plan. Despite the wealth of data suggesting that businesses prosper in proximity to better bicycle and pedestrian facilities (click here for a number of studies in our Resource Library), a number of shops along the Madison stretch have risen up against the bike lanes, including a long-standing, much-loved restaurant.

“Hueys has been and continues to be a wonderful restaurant, and the owners (the Boggs family) have served as good stewards of the Memphis community for many years,” Anthony Siracusa, Memphis resident and secretary of Bike Walk Tennessee, says. “But today what we see in Memphis is a burger and fry joint blocking a bike lane in the second most unhealthy state in the nation.”

So advocates, like Siracusa, have been working overtime to make sure the bike lane proposal doesn’t get fried.

“Locally, we have waged a serious letter writing campaign with hundreds and hundreds of letter submitted to the Mayor and his staff,” Siracusa says. “We staged a bicycle buy-in, supporting those businesses that support the bike lanes. We sat down with the Mayor and invited two business owners to share their support of the road diet and bike lanes on Madison. In spite of all this work, we stand perilously close to a re-paving project on Madison that maintains four lanes of car traffic and provides no space for bikes.”

“While we thought we had turned a corner – leaving behind two straight years of being rated as the nation’s worst bike city – opposition from a small number of business owners has endangered a critical step in making Memphis a better place to live, work and play,” he adds.

Want to help? Write a quick not to Memphis Mayor AC Wharton with your enthusiasm for his plans to make Memphis into a bike-friendly city at mayor@memphistn.gov. And read more at the Walk Bike Memphis blog.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the exciting transformation of the Broad Avenue Arts District in Memphis, Tennessee. With a little help from an Alliance Advocacy Advance Grant, the folks at Livable Memphis are helping to revive the struggling street by making it a vibrant bike-ped corridor connecting parks and extending a popular greenway.

In late November, they kicked off the project with one heck of a party. I promised to pass along pictures, and they’re worth the wait. Yep, that’s Jeremy Grandstaff, Alliance Member Services Director, pedaling a tandem in the bicycle parade with Banner trotting to keep up. Click here for more pictures.

The good news from Advocacy Advance Grant recipients just keeps on coming. First, Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling had a fabulous event to launch their fantastic guide. Then, Bike Walk Connecticut hosted a hugely successful statewide summit. Now, Livable Memphis is making headlines.

This past weekend, Alliance member services director, Jeremy Grandstaff, took a trip down to Tennessee to celebrate “A New Face for an Old Broad.” And it was one rocking party.

The innovative event highlighted the coming transformation of the midtown arts district by adding a little paint to the street pavement. It showcased how vacant storefronts could be revitalized and how bicyclists and pedestrians could become the pulse of a bustling business corridor. And Jeremy had the pleasure of announcing Advocacy Advance funding for the exciting endeavor.

In September, the Alliance awarded a $25,000 matching grant to Livable Memphis, a local advocacy organization that’s making huge strides for biking and walking in the Tennessee town. Earlier this summer, they got their mayor to commit to an impressive 55 miles of new bicycle facilities. Now, they’re focused on making Broad Street a vibrant connection between two of Memphis’ largest parks and a critical extension of the Shelby Farm’s Greenline path.

On Friday, Livable Memphis helped kick off the project with a major flourish. The street was reconfigured with latex paint to include protected bike lanes, and area schools designed new and colorful crosswalks. Cedar trees towering 10 feet high and antique light posts were erected for ambiance. The many vacant storefronts were temporarily inhabited by vendors, and live music entertained the huge crowd of cyclists and pedestrians.

“It just clicked that this had to be done on Broad,” Sarah Newstok, program manager for Livable Memphis, told WMCTV this weekend. “It would be a way to bring in the bike lanes and the facilities that we’re hoping to have along the entire route, and also bring in the neighborhood revitalization piece, which is so important to our work at Livable Memphis.”

Jeremy attended the press conference to announce the $25,000 Advocacy Advance Grant for the Broad Street project and was mighty impressed with the festive two-day affair.

“I started walking down the street toward the festival and all these kids were decorating tricycles and getting ready to ride in the parade,” Jeremy says. “I had some bike pins and I gave one kid a bike pin — and then everybody wanted a bike pin. It was just this feeling of community; this idea of being able to come together to enjoy their streets and their neighborhood.”

“I saw the way that they had embraced access and connected into the arts world,” he adds. “There were artists and different bands and people came and went at their own leisure. They were all having such a great time and to know that we were directly and indirectly involved with that type of a success was really inspiring to me. To have that opportunity to feel like we’re directly funding innovation and to see it happening was really moving.”

Stay tuned for pictures!

With $103,000 in direct funding, the Alliance for Biking & Walking is galvanizing state and local bicycle and pedestrian organizations with its latest award of Advocacy Advance Grants. After a highly competitive selection process, the Alliance has chosen four organizations that are strategically poised to increase biking and walking in their regions and advance innovative campaigns that can be replicated in communities across the country.

“This round of Advocacy Advance Grant recipients spans the spectrum,” Jeffrey Miller, Alliance President / CEO, says. “From rural to urban communities, from the coast to the Heartland, the organizations will leverage these dollars to propel dramatic progress in their communities. The insight these advocates gain will not only enhance their individual organizational capacity, but build a stronger, more effective national movement.”

In the Startup/Capacity category, a $30,000 matching grant will build and re-energize the California Bicycle Coalition, providing a vital push for biking and walking in a state that not only boasts the largest population but also acts as a bellwether for the rest of the country. The Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking will also use a $30,000 Startup/Capacity matching grant to establish a new Kansas City-based advocacy organization that will, among other campaigns, work to link the nation’s longest rail-trail to Missouri’s largest urban center.

In the Innovation category, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine will receive an $18,000 grant for a rural outreach effort and the Livable Memphis initiative will utilize a $25,000 grant for a creative trail campaign that incorporates local art and connects underserved communities.

Brent Hugh, executive director of the Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking, said his organization is excited to utilize the Advocacy Advance Grant to organize and energize the Kansas City region. “It’s going to help us move Kansas City and Missouri light years forward in our bicycle and pedestrian advocacy,” Hugh says. “We’ll be able to create a new organization dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian advocacy in the Kansas City region and work on key projects like extending the Katy Trail to the heart of the metro area and helping area communities become Bicycle Friendly Communities.”

Since the program’s inception in 2009, the Alliance has infused state and local advocacy organizations with more than $500,000 in direct funding, scholarships and technical assistance. With the aid of the Advocacy Advance Grants, 24 local and state organizations have hired key staff, drastically grown their membership, and won critical campaigns that advance biking and walking in their communities.

The latest round of funding includes the following recipients and projects:

California Bicycle Coalition Education Fund

The California Bicycle Coalition Education Fund will receive a $30,000 matching Startup/Capacity Grant to reenergize CBCEF and aid in the hiring of a new Executive Director. The new Executive Director will work to create and lead a traffic justice campaign; advocate for a high-speed rail system with on-board bicycle accommodations and secure bike parking; and develop a statewide recreational bicycle route to promote bicycle tourism.

Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking

The Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking will receive a $30,000 matching Startup/Capacity Grant to create a Kansas City metro area bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization. The new subsidiary will work to extend the Katy Trail; secure the designation of five Bicycle Friendly Communities in the Kansas City metro region; and achieve a coordinated regional funding system for trails and bike routes.

Livable Memphis

The Community Development Council of Greater Memphis’ Livable Memphis Program will receive a $25,000 Innovation Grant to create a 1.7 mile bike-walk artway - a combination of on-road bicycle facilities and in-park greenway that completes the trail connection between two key areas of the City of Memphis. The project will increase advocacy for public investments in bicycle infrastructure, unite isolated, low-income neighborhoods with public amenities, and exemplify how street re-programming increases pedestrian traffic.

Bicycle Coalition of Maine

The Bicycle Coalition of Maine will receive an $18,000 Innovation Grant for its Community Spokes Program, which leverages the expertise of BCM staff, board members and local relationships of rural citizen advocates to generate improvements in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and policy statewide. This project will serve as a model for rural communities that face challenges with advocacy capacity, bicycle funding and infrastructure.

The Advocacy Advance program is made possible by leadership funding from SRAM and generous support from Bikes Belong and Planet Bike. Read more at http://www.AdvocacyAdvance.org

In May, Bicycling magazine named Memphis one of America’s worst cycling cities. But a big push from local advocates could be the first step in turning around the Tennessee town. 

The ranking in Bicycling wasn’t exactly a surprise. According to the Alliance’s 2010 Benchmarking Report, Memphis lags in the bottom third of cities in just about every category, including safety and bike-ped policies. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act exposed just one example of the city’s seeming disregard for biking. While other jurisdictions loaded up their applications for stimulus funds with cycling and walking facilities, officials in Memphis didn’t include so much as a single sharrow in their ask for ARRA dollars.

Advocates with Livable Memphis weren’t content to let that omission slide. When the city started street repaving projects utilizing federal dollars, advocates rolled out an aggressive campaign to add accommodations for cyclists. 

Sarah Newstok, program director for Livable Memphis, says two Alliance workshops in 2009 gave her the tools to take on City Hall. The Membership Training in San Francisco, she says, clarified her organization’s mission. Then, attending a Winning Campaign Training in Little Rock armed her with tactics to advocate effectively.

“We really pulled out the stops,” Newstok says.

Livable Memphis members spoke at council hearings and sat down with council members. They lobbied members of his administration and met with Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. himself. Advocates penned letters to policymakers, editorials for the local newspapers and saturated media with their pro-bike message.

“After chipping away from lots of directions the barriers seemed to crumble all at once,” Newstok says. “Our outrage about not including bike facilities in the repaving projects really came to a head this month, with a public scolding of our City Engineer by the Mayor.”

Shortly after the rebuke, Wharton committed to 55 miles of bike lanes and facilities, installed over the next two years. “Even though bike lanes were regrettably omitted from the city’s recent stimulus fund application,” Wharton announced on July 15, “I have directed our city engineers to make any necessary adjustments to their operating budget plans so we can get these lanes and facilities in place.” 

The about-face was significant. “This is a major turnaround for us,” Newstok says. “I feel like Memphis is finally at least facing the right direction.”

“Of course, this leaves us with a long list of next ‘to do’ items,” she adds. “But I’m energized and we have a very engaged crew of volunteer advocates. Here’s to getting Memphis off Bicycling magazine’s worst city list and to being awarded most-improved in the next ranking.”