Getting a bike park built generally is a long, drawn out process, but the McLaren Bike Park is on its way to becoming a reality. We’ve held our first community design meeting, and are getting ready and prepared for the next one. (Design Meeting #2 just got approved by SFRPD for Thursday July 28th at 6pm. For more info scroll to the bottom of this post)
Before we go over what happens next, here’s a recap of what happened at the first meeting for those that couldn’t make it.
After everyone had assembled at the community center and picked up maps, bike park enthusiasts headed over to the potential park site to assess the space in person.
We had a slight delay in getting started, as there was a golf advertisement filming when the group arrived. Our group waiting patiently until they finished their final takes; then it was time to walk around and explore the space we would be working with.
While a number of us have been to the prospective site, walking through the entire space really demonstrated that the space feels larger that one’s first impression, especially if the space in the trees becomes available.
A number of ideas were batted around by those present, and splitting up, we wandered through the site to get a feel for the site, and began to work on envisioning our dream bike park. After some time, the group headed back to the community center for the official meeting. Alex Randolph from SFRPD welcomed everyone. Dan Schneider, SFUR Executive Director talked about the mission of SF Urban Riders. Dustin Smith, MBP Project Manager explained the goals of meeting #1. Judd from Alpine Bike Parks gave a presentation about some of the possible features we could have incorporated into the park — pump tracks, flow trails, dirt jumps, wall rides and more were discussed. Getting a bike park built is a much bigger discussion than what kind of features we’ll want to ride though. Parking, bathrooms, windbreaks, and landscaping are just some of the additional details that need to be addressed in the design. Some of the local residents brought up a number of additional concerns regarding the space in general as well.
Riders in attendance included freestyle BMX concrete park enthusiasts, cross country mountain bikers, and gravity oriented mountain bikers.
It is exciting stuff- to quote SFUR Executive Director, Dan Schneider, “We are entering the exciting territory of real bike park design input…. and needless to say we all want the best 2 acre bike bark in the world!”
McLaren Bike Park Community Design Meeting #2
Thursday July 28th from 6pm-8pm
Location: John McLaren Elementary School – Cafeteria
2055 Sunnydale Ave SF, CA 94112
map link: http://maps.google.com
Big School complex across from MBP Site ( Google marker is not accurate)
San Francisco's First Bike Park 