On Thursday at Albany Station, the bike leans against a rack that now is sturdy as a rock.
After Christmas, with not much going on, I reported on an unusually shaky bike rack at Albany Station. On Thursday I went by there again and guess what: The rack had been not just fixed, but fixed in a way to make it unlikely to need repairs again.
Before, the trouble was that two of the four bolts holding the rack to the concrete below were missing. One of the four had obviously been replaced, another one was rusty and looked old, and two were gone.
Because I didn’t know why someone would unscrew two of the four bolts, I called the episode the “mystery of the missing bolts.”
It’s still a mystery, but there’s no mystery about the solution.
The rack has been moved a few inches to the north, putting the bolt holes away from a crack in the concrete. And four new fasteners were installed. They look like stainless steel. The rack no longer sways when you touch it. It is firmly and securely anchored now.
I inquired about this turn of events at City Hall. The reply came from Rick Barnett of the parks department. “We saw it on Hasso’s blog and Tom’s guys fixed it,” Barnett wrote in an email.
Tom? That would be Tom Valentino, the city’s building maintenance supervisor.
So, kudos for the quick response, and thanks all around, to Rick and Tom and especially to Tom’s crew. (hh)
Postscript: Further info, received Jan. 13 from City Hall: “Jon Goldman (transportation superintendent) reports that the wobbly bike rack at the train station was repaired by Brandon Curry with assistance from Ray Volkers, both of our building maintenance staff.”
Behold the four shiny new steel bolts holding this rack down.
That’s a nice phrase to read or hear–that is, “I read (or saw) it on Hasso’s blog.”
The power of the blog. No march on City Hall. No riots or pillaging to force a “bike racks matter” issue. Just a immediate “can do” attitude as City government ought to be.
Proof that the pen is mightier than the crescent wrench.
Sway to go!
Hasso, how about taking a field trip to Corvallis, reporting on the pedestrian areas that don’t drain very well and seeing if Mark Shepard’s charges can take aim at that issue?