Minneapolis Critical Mass Ride 8/31

[maryellen]

I live in nyc, just a few blocks away from the starting point for the Manhattan CM ride. In the days before the problems, it was one fun evening a month--everyone was in a good mood--cyclists, cops, passersby. Well, maybe not all the motorists, but geez, one Friday evening a month?

[northstar]

In the days before the problems, it was one fun evening a month--everyone was in a good mood--cyclists, cops, passersby. Well, maybe not all the motorists, but geez, one Friday evening a month?

What I'm hearing is that this is how things were in the past in Mpls, too. We even have a city council person who rides the CM ride monthly, and the group typically has a police escort at the front and back of the pack. I guess this time around, a protest group was in town to prepare for the RNC, which will be in St. Paul next year, and it totally threw the tone out of whack.

I see the value of the rides, but wonder if the value might be increased if they showed 300 cyclists taking to the streets en masse, grabbing everyone's attention AND following traffic rules...

(sigh...)

[maryellen]

unfortunately, RNC in NYC in '04 was what caused our problems as well. It was thought that the NYPD was using the CM ride shortly before RNC would be a test of the PD's ability to handle mass arrests.