Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $10,000 to DPW-Highway (#422) to purchase bike racks.
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
E. (ID # 2026-1151): Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $10,000 to DPW-Highway (#422) to purchase bike racks. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Williams Seconded by Councilor Vandiver All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Comments and Discussion: Elena Proakis Ellis discussed a $10,000 appropriation for purchasing bike racks across the city, with Councilor Williams leading the discussion on following guidelines and prioritizing locations. The city does not yet have an approved list of their locations but is taking input to complete the plan, and hopes to accommodate multiple types of bicycles. Installation will include cement pads where necessary. They hope to install 8-10 bike racks with this funding. V. ADJOURNMENT Motion to Adjourn by unanimous consent made by Chair Romanul at 8:09 PM All were in favor and meeting was adjourned 5 City Audito
Transcript
▶ 1:02:07 Speaker 1: Sure. Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. Motion passes.
▶ 1:02:25 Devin Romanul: Motion passes, and will be brought to our next full council meeting with a recommendation for passage. And last but not least, ID number 2026-1151, appropriation from free cash in the amount of $10,000 to DBW Highway to purchase bike racks.
▶ 1:02:39 Speaker 9: Thank you. So this was at the request of the mayor's office. The administration was very interested in ensuring that we had sufficient bike racks at places like schools, parks, downtown business districts. So it is not a specific request for specific locations. It's just allowing us to reinvigorate a list that we used to have. Kara Showers used to maintain a list when she was our Mass in Motion coordinator. And so we have an old spreadsheet from probably five or six years ago that were the locations where bike racks had been put in, and then the wish list. So we're just recreating the wish list and adding to it as people see fit. I already have gotten one new request since somebody saw the order advertised for one of the business districts for a new bike rack. So we're open to where these go. If there's specific locations in your wards or around the city that you think should be prioritized, please let us know, and we will use it to install as many bike racks as we can till we run out of the $10,000.
▶ 1:03:51 Devin Romanul: I love that. Thank you very much. Up first, I have Councilor Williams.
▶ 1:03:54 Speaker 8: Thank you. Sorry.
▶ 1:03:57 Ryan Williams: Is this just for the purchase of the actual racks themselves, or are you going to include construction costs, cement pads, things like that?
▶ 1:04:07 Speaker 9: So I'm envisioning that we would include the cement pads. I know right now, for instance, the Horace Mann School, the PTO raised money to buy a bike rack. Yeah. But they didn't have the money to pour the concrete pad that was required. They were requesting maybe we could move the bike rack to a different location where it would be on the pavement, and maybe they could anchor into there.
▶ 1:04:23 Speaker 11: Yeah.
▶ 1:04:24 Speaker 9: My thought is we will pay for the concrete pad, which I think we estimated was like $900.
▶ 1:04:29 Ryan Williams: Yeah, fantastic. We'll just pay for that with this. Fantastic. And for sake of saying it, are we going to follow the Melrose bike parking guidelines in terms of the style of bicycle parking that we're purchasing?
▶ 1:04:41 Speaker 9: We try to do that, yes.
▶ 1:04:42 Ryan Williams: Yeah. I would say we should definitely do it, should do more than try.
▶ 1:04:46 Speaker 9: Well, I think some of the locations, like the one that was recently requested, was just for one of the little lollipop racks.
▶ 1:04:52 Speaker 8: You mean the-- Yeah. Well, that's in the bike parking recommendations.
▶ 1:04:54 Speaker 9: Oh, it is. Okay, because I was going to say, I'm not sure if that one's in the bike parking. But if it is, then great.
▶ 1:04:58 Ryan Williams: There's two. There's the lollipop horse hitch rack, and then there's the U. Not the wavy. Oh. The wavy's not in it.
▶ 1:05:04 Speaker 9: Right, you don't like the wave anymore.
▶ 1:05:05 Ryan Williams: You like the- Right. It's the one that's like this. Anyway, it's in the bike parking recommendations.
▶ 1:05:09 Speaker 9: We will mostly follow that, but I do know that we had different guidance from the-- I don't remember if it was Walk Boston or one of the groups that did an earlier assessment had slightly different conclusions. So we will just try to make sure that we're keeping everybody happy.
▶ 1:05:27 Speaker 8: Thank you.
▶ 1:05:29 Devin Romanul: Thank you so much. Up next, Vice Chair Vandiver.
▶ 1:05:31 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. I appreciate my colleague's comments about the style of bike racks and also wanted to make sure that we're following those guidelines, which I assume are based on how can you park your bike compactly and how to make sure that it's secure and not easy for somebody to grab the bike anyways. And I'm not sure whether those recommendations also include-- There's been some evolution in how people use bikes. We have more of the longer cargo bikes around now. We have scooters. And just wanting to make sure that as we're doing this, that we're thinking about what do we need to accommodate in these racks, and getting the most for our spending, since it's great that we're investing in this type of infrastructure to support people biking around, and just want to make sure that we're thoughtful about all those details.
▶ 1:06:21 Speaker 9: Yeah. We welcome input on that as well. I know you have a larger bike. If there are certain considerations that you think we should be making while we're purchasing them, send it along.
▶ 1:06:32 Speaker 10: Thanks.
▶ 1:06:33 Devin Romanul: Terrific. Up next, I have Councilor Park.
▶ 1:06:36 Speaker 8: Thank you. Quick question. So how did we come up with a number of 10,000, and approximately how many bike racks will that actually get us?
▶ 1:06:43 Speaker 9: So it all depends on the style of bike racks and how many-- If they're
▶ 1:06:50 Speaker 11: the... that kind, how many loops they have.
▶ 1:06:55 Speaker 9: I would say the bike racks we've purchased in the time I've been here range from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars, depending on what
▶ 1:07:03 Speaker 11: style they are. I would say we'll try to
▶ 1:07:05 Speaker 9: stretch the money as far as we can. So if there are a lot of locations for the less expensive ones, we'll try to get a bunch of those in. But it really all depends on where we decide are the higher priority locations and what type of racks are suitable for those locations. Like the schools need multi racks.
▶ 1:07:27 Speaker 8: Okay. So it's fair to say maybe five, approximately five?
▶ 1:07:31 Speaker 9: I would say more than that. Okay. Maybe eight to 10.
▶ 1:07:35 Speaker 8: Okay. Great. I just didn't know if it was just one luxury bike rack.
▶ 1:07:40 Speaker 11: Yeah, no. No. And the $10,000 number was just the number that the
▶ 1:07:44 Speaker 9: administration wanted us to spend on it. So it's not married to a specific number of bike racks or type of bike racks.
▶ 1:07:53 Speaker 8: Thank you.
▶ 1:07:54 Devin Romanul: I'm sure there's some sort of bejeweled bike rack- ... emporium somewhere. Up next, I have Councilor Williams.
▶ 1:08:01 Ryan Williams: I just wanted to say thank you. And I'm sorry if I came off as a little harsh in my last comment, because I'm excited. And so thank you very much, and thank you to the mayor, because this is something that people, especially people who like to bike and go downtown and shop downtown, and people with cargo bikes who can actually shop downtown like they're driving a minivan, have been asking for for a very long time. And having it just sort of pop up like this is very nice. So I appreciate the thought and the effort put into figuring out where they need to go and how you can work with the PTOs and all this stuff. I think it's great. So thank you.
▶ 1:08:35 Speaker 3: Yeah. You're welcome. What is the will of the committee?
▶ 1:08:37 Speaker 8: I'd like to make a motion to recommend.
▶ 1:08:39 Devin Romanul: Second. Motion recommended by Councilor Williams, seconded by Vice Chair Vandiver.
▶ 1:08:44 Speaker 3: On discussion. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?
▶ 1:08:46 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Obremski? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul? Yes. Motion passes.
▶ 1:09:04 Devin Romanul: That motion passes, and the order will be brought before our next full council meeting with a recommendation for passage. Thank you both for joining us- Thank you very much ... for this- Thank you ... exciting and long Appropriations Committee meeting. That being our last order, I will now motion by unanimous consent to adjourn. Seeing no objection, we are now adjourned. Good evening.