Anyone else planning on "auditing" the L.A.T.E. Ride?

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 26, 2012 at 7:13am

I'm signed up to ride. And not ironically. But I'm ok with that... 

Yes, it's going to be slow and there will be a ton of people but I love the fact that organizing my group of friends meant that friends that don't normally ride their bikes are riding in it. I consider the Late Ride a gateway drug to many other longer rides. My memories of riding in it in the 90s are very happy. I'm not worried about Friends of the Parks losing your entry fee because I think they charge too much for the ride considering how many people are in it. It's $40-45/person times 10k participants which makes me think our parks should have laser light shows by now! 

So if you are "auditing" the ride and you see me, you can laugh at me. I don't mind. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on June 26, 2012 at 7:18am

Dear O, your post is not germane to the conversation at hand. So I will largely ignore it. But I did take umbrage when you said, "...is about as cute as trying to wear a thong bikini in your 80s. Few folks can pull that off." That may be true but most of the elderly Chainlink'sers, CCM'ers and Naked Bikers just happen to be the ones that can pull it off.

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Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on June 26, 2012 at 7:33am

It's $40-45/person times 10k participants which makes me think our parks should have laser light shows by now!

I have had this exact same argument with other ATA and FOP events and staff. They are inherently classicist by setting the price for entry so high that they automatically exclude low income earners. And before people say it, yes, I know you can get in for cheaper if you volunteer, but fuck that. The price is absurd and everyone knows it. I give money to the ATA but I don't appreciate their exclusivity when it comes to their events. That is why we audit.

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Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on June 26, 2012 at 7:35am

The bar we met at last time was, I believe, Nine Muses Food & Liquor at 315 South Halsted Street.

So how does meeting at eleven sound?

That should give us enough time get nice and drunk and then meet up with the McDonalds Ride. Remember to bring booze for traveling in advance! I don't know if we'll stop to get liquor this time.

I'll make a Facebook and Chainlink event page when other people confirm this is a good plan.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Bracht on June 26, 2012 at 8:45am

Count me in even if I have to worry about being called names by the thought police it is fun.

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Permalink Reply by Tim S on June 26, 2012 at 9:07am

I would say that a strong group of friends/riders in the city that does get together on a regular basis (MM, FFR, NSCM, CL, of course CM and all the others I forgot) could also suggest to those that choose the big three that the city/roads are not to be feared, in fact embraced. If one wanted to they can find a group ride every weekend ranging in size from 5 to 50 some times 500+ rolling through the city, suburbs, and countryside. Our community here at the Chainlink offers a central location for people to learn and come together.

Marauders I will be with you in spirit unfortunately I will be sailing on Lake Superior this weekend, have a #3 for me.

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Permalink Reply by Cameron 7.5 mi on June 26, 2012 at 9:42am

I don't really care about the L.A.T.E Ride one way or the other. It's not my thing and the way it advertises itself as the only way to ride around Chicago at night is a little off putting, but to each their own. However I'm amazed at the way it has become such a flash point. Every summer it seems like some new posters join or some long dormant posters come out of hibernation just to berate the Chianlink community for not being more supportive of the L.A.T.E Ride. Although comparing Spencer to a bike thief is taking the L.A.T.E. Ride discussion to a new low. For anyone who's curious here is last year's thread:

http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/how-does-the-online-source...

O said:

Spencer, et. al.:

I really find that your attitude towards the folks who give of their time and monies to support the urban transportation landscape offensive. Many of the folks who attend the big three rides (of which the LATE Ride is one) are from the collar counties and suburbs. We have plenty of rides that we could and do support both here in Illinois and in other nearby states. We do not have to contribute to the welfare of an arrogant urban population of bicycle riders who find us "silly yuppies".

I place the blame for threads like this at the feet of the leadership of this board. But in reality it really belongs at the feet of the agencies in Chicago which tap the suburban market for funds to help meet their operation costs. I say this because they are complicit in your activities and seemingly supportive of your attitude despite the fact that they are members of this forum as well, but seemingly remain strangely silent.

If the LATE ride is for losers, then why even bother showing up? Why not enjoy a romp through non-route regions of the city where you can behave as wildly as you choose to without the possibility of endangering riders with less experience than yourselves who are likely to be even more vulnerable in darkness?

I took the time to spell out my feelings about the general tone set here on the ChainLink at this location. You remind me of the way in which folks in the Segregated South of my youth behaved when dealing with the poor disenfranchised "coloreds" of the 1950s and 1960s.

Your actions seem immature to me but what do I know. I taught junior high students for a decade and only have that experience to compare with your behavior. This thread and the one attributing the burning of the Lakefront Trail Path to "urban youth" when upon close inspection it appears to have been a controlled burn in service of a landscaping change just south of the 31st Street Harbor is another example of the way in which you arrogance exceeds the ability to be civil. You seem to put forth the notion that Black Youth were the possible culprits but I never saw a retraction of that original premise. it was allowed to linger for posterity. Shame on this group for being so bigoted.

For folks to have suggested that the fire might also have gladly burned up the trees used in the Art Installation at that harbor I found appalling. It is time for this group to "grow up". You are fine decent people with arrested development issues. Behaving like teen agers in your late twenties and thirties is about as cute as trying to wear a thong bikini in your 80s. Few folks can pull that off.

We have far too much difficulty trying to get funds from Congress to have evidence of the type that this thread demonstrates in plain view. I have said it before and I will say it again, the best way for the Tea Party to get its pound of flesh out of transportation bills is to reference this forum and some of the threads that have erupted here. It is almost as if you are either trying to sabotage the work of ATA and FOP or are simply clueless about the effects of your words.

Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! said:

The Mc L.A.T.E. Ride doesn't publish their route ahead of time because they don't want people auditing their ride. Silly as it seems. They think people should pay money to ride in a large group. LOL! Silly yuppies.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on June 26, 2012 at 9:49am

I'm also registered for the event, since many of my non-biking friends are interested. The YouSwoop deal you never mention made it fairly reasonable for a supported event (Village Cycle will be stationed at several places along the route, very helpful and reassuring for novices). Im all for anyone joining though, the more people see that we can ride in numbers anytime is great in my book.

 

The route is published, maybe one of us silly yuppies who picked up their packets will share it with you.

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Permalink Reply by Craig S. on June 26, 2012 at 9:56am

I realize everyone is entitled to their own opinion but give it a rest, O, your comments are really off the mark.  Obviously Marauders isn't for you so it's a good thing attendance isn't compulsory for Chainlink members.

I rode the first two LATE Rides and it was fun then.  Now?  Hardly, not with corporate sponsorship and the absurdly high registration fees.

I'm working until way late so I'll need to text someone for location so I can join up.  I feel compelled to have a beer around my neck while riding, again.

@Spencer, ask Martin which bar we met at as he's called this meeting of the minds for the audit the past several years.

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Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on June 26, 2012 at 10:04am

Hey Kevin, do you have the map right now? I was under the impression they give it to you at the time of sign in. Could you take a photo of it and upload it for us? Also we should consider getting people who are going to the ride to start posting the ride location on http://massup.us/.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on June 26, 2012 at 10:14am

I do and I can post it when I get home tonight.

 

I dont remember the first half of the route heading south/west from memory, but for the latter half I believe we head north on Halsted, Milwaukee and California, east on Montrose and south down the path back to Grant Park.

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Permalink Reply by O on June 26, 2012 at 10:23am

Exactly what about your ride protest will be obvious to those of us riding alongside you in the dark? Will there be posters exhorting us to free ourselves from the tyranny of the FOP? Or will someone be giving a broadcast message about the evils of overpaying?

If you truly are all about educating the "silly yuppie" riders the please translate what Joe meant by his initial reply:

I'm DTF

Down To FuckWithTheLATERide

It reads like some sort of threat to me.

I certainly wish that the one member from Oak Park who decided to attach my virility could been more original. I guess that encountering "pushback" is more threatening to some than I had imagined.

I took the time to read the discussion from last year and it has the us versus them tone that this years discussion provides. Hipsters giving condescending verbal jabs at people who by all rights ought to be embraced for their willingness to ride at night in the Murder Capital of the Midwest.

I grew up in Chicago and moved to the suburbs during college. So I know both sides of this situation. I do most of my riding in the city and enjoy what it has to offer. What I fear is lost in this discussion is the need to have folks living outside the city embrace it as much as do I. We all need each other. There will come a time in the not too distant future when transportation funds will be severely attacked and possibly denied for such "frivolous" activities as bicycling.

Chicago needs as much good will as it can muster to over the negative aspects of its weekend murder rates. FOP charges whatever it must for whatever reasons they determine. I make my decision to register for any rides I attend based on how good my past experience with that ride has been. I know as I said before that putting on rides like this is expensive and lots of coordination has to be undertaken to pull it off.

I would rather see your group find ways to collaborate with the FOP and ATA to find effective means of reducing the costs to a point that everyone finds acceptable. Lots of groups that rely on donations (and that's what the registration fee for the LATE Ride really is) are having a hard time. Dog and cat shelters, shelters for the homeless and especially shelters for homeless veterans. I give as much and as often as I can to the homeless veterans shelter in my home town of Wheaton. Lots of people who claim to be patriotic seemingly never discover concrete ways to help those who served. Since I have two nephews who have served or are currently serving this is a cause dear to my heart.

Finally, if you really feel strongly that a low or no cost ride is something that should exist, I would think that many of those on this forum on both sides of the current fee structure issue would be happy to volunteer in a ride that your Marauders cared to stage. I think sometimes that have to "put up or shut up" is a great way to clear the air of bravado and get right down to the heart of the matter.

No one wants to quash your thinking just hopefully get you to think about how you couch your thoughts. Doing something constructive is far better than lashing out at the riders whose money is helping to stimulate the economy for all in the city. If you really think that low income folks are being shortchanged then you could help coordinate refreshment stands (like the ones along the Chicago Lakefront Trail near 47th Street) that are owned and operated by low income folks. They would be as happy to get the much needed shot in the arm for their self-owned businesses as the folks who service the vast crowds at RAGBRAI.

Chicago hipsters need to embrace this and any other invitational ride put on by ATA or FOP as an opportunity for small entrepreneurs to find themselves included in the revenue stream that is created by these events. Riding along with the crowd at night does not seem a very effective means of converting others to your way of thinking on the pricing structure and it does nothing to help low income bicyclists help themselves.

RAGBRAI towns leap at the opportunity to be on the current years route list. Hipsters and their friends should do the same. Set up stands along the route and hawk your wares or put out the word in the African-American community to the south of the ride that they should migrate north for the evening and set up shop along the route.

It would also be meaningful to lobby the FOP for booth space for these entrepreneurs to allow them to gain a foothold in the event on an annualized basis. Getting drunk and riding alongside the people on the route is somehow not what I imagine as an effective tool to drive home your message.

Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! said:

So it looks like it's this coming Saturday . . . is the preference to ride with the ride or against it?

H, with the ride, In the same direction as the ride. And no, this isn't an expressly oppositional get together against the Mc L.A.T.E. Ride. It is simply free people enjoying the road coincidentally the same time an official (expensive as fuck) ride happens to be taking place. Maybe we'll show the riders in the McRide that you can actually bike on the road for free.

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