Nice surprise! It looks like there WILL be bike racks for 30 bikes at the rink. Good work on everyone's part…
There is a new ice rink opening up temporarily in Alameda from Dec 16 thru January. The first thought I had after "cool" was - will there be bike parking? For usual businesses opening in Alameda there is a mandatory rule of 1 bike parking space for every ten auto spaces.
I contacted the planning department staff who told me that there would be a "bike corral". My first thought after "cool" was - what do they mean by "bike corral".
After emails and phone calls, I found out that the city planning department approved the ice rink with a fenced off area behind the porta-potties. No racks to lock your bike to. Nothing just a fenced off area that you can "park" your bike in.
It appears that planning department staff are unclear on the concept of bike parking. Schools typically have bike corrals filled with bike racks. Imagine the chaos in those corrals without the racks, and what would you lock your bike to?
Unfortunately, because the permits have already been processed and the approval process is complete, there isn't a whole lot anyone can do, but bike there anyway and keep asking where the bike racks are.
posted: Wed, 14 Dec 2011