Since our beginning, C4RD has maintained that the way bike events are managed has contributed to the blight in our Redevelopment Areas, incentivizing the preservation of vacant lots rather than the development of year-round businesses that could serve tourists AND locals. As our City Commission reconsiders the rules for bike events, we have some recommendations. We are NOT against the bike events that contribute to our tourist economy. But C4RD wants both bike events and redevelopment to thrive, with a renewed focus on eliminating blight around Main Street and MMB. We would like the City to remove the Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureau from the participant application review process for these events and to put it all under the purview of the Redevelopment Department that already has the responsibility for improving these Community Redevelopment Areas.

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We believe the Bike Week Master Plan(BWMP) should define parcels eligible for participation and set the standards for entertainment, food service and vending. Temporary parking for bike events should be permitted separately, whether they are in the defined BWMP area or not. We want some lots currently used for bike event parking to be made available for year-round parking with some simple improvements. Finally, we feel the City should get objective data on the parking available and the parking needed in these CRAs, so that decisions can be made based on facts, not anecdotes.