The current financial crisis here in the U.S. has brought to my mind some of W.H. Auden’s lines on the Great Depression. They come from his 1933 poem, “Here on the cropped grass…”:

Europe grew anxious about her health,

Combines tottered, credits froze,

And business shivered in a banker’s winter…

Very few poets can be topical this way and create a successful poem, as Auden does here, I believe (though he did exclude this poem from later collections). The lines preceding these are memorable as well; they provide a wonderful description of the difficult years of the early 1930’s. But because they pertain less directly to today’s financial crisis, I will simply encourage you to find the poem and read it in its entirety. Try a good library and see if they have Auden’s great volume of poems, On This Island (titled Look, Stranger! in Britain), or read it in the wonderful collection of his writings of the 1930’s, The English Auden.

Now we await the unfolding of history to see if this current “banker’s winter” will last - and whether we can stave off a depression.

Photo by William Ostrem

I worked as a volunteer yesterday in Minneapolis at Freewheelin, the bike-share program that served the recent political conventions. I was at the station above, near the Minneapolis Convention Center.

It was a cool, cloudy day, with temperatures in the fifties and sixties, so the station wasn’t as busy as I’d hoped. The Freewheelin totals for September 1-4, the four days of the Republican National Convention, were 1, 971 rides for a total of 15,141 miles. Those numbers are well short of those from Denver, where there were 5900 trips for 26,000 miles. Don’t be too quick to blame this on the Republicans; perhaps the Minnesotans were less interested in biking than were Coloradans. The “bike-partisan challenge” - 10,000 rides and 25,000 miles - was met in terms of miles but not rides.

It seemed that most of the Freewheelin riders at our station were in town because of the convention, but there were a lot of locals riding too. Nearly everyone liked the idea of a bike-sharing program.

I enjoyed meeting the riders and the other volunteers. I also got to meet the Minneapolis Bike Walk Ambassadors, people hired to help increase biking and walking as transportation. They’re part of the city’s nonmotorized transportation pilot program, which has a large federal grant. The ambassadors led tours and helped people with directions. Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson is their program manager, and we spoke about bike education as well.

I volunteered largely because I’m interested in bike-sharing, and I was encouraged by my conversations with the Humana employees who were running the Freewheelin stations. They see bike-sharing as a business opportunity. It’s reassuring that a health-insurance company - and such a large one at that - is trying to make this happen. It’s important for those with deep pockets to get on board if we’re going to make progress on this form of transportation.

I got the contact info for the Human employees running the Freewheelin program, so I hope to communicate with them in the coming weeks to see what ideas they might have for a bike-sharing program here in Northfield, Minnesota.

I’m teaching a class called “The Practical Cyclist” at Just Food Co-op here in Northfield on Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 7-8 pm. I welcome anyone who wants to learn more about cycling or wants to share their knowledge with others. Here is a description of the class:

The Practical Cyclist

Designed for those who want to replace car trips with cycling trips or simply travel sustainably and enjoyably, this classroom-based course will examine the advantages of cycling; potential obstacles; equipment and strategies; safety issues; and cycling advocacy. This is not intended to be a road skills course. Taught by Bill Ostrem, who has been a “practical cyclist” for over twenty years.

When: Tuesday, September 9, 7-8 p.m.
Cost: No charge. Donations welcome.
Location: In the Just Food Event Space, 516 Water St. S.

Pre-registration required. Call the co-op  at 650-0106 to register.