New Haven Independent

At first blush the connection between New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas (now called simply Art & Ideas New Haven) and the city’s homegrown bicycle advocacy group, Elm City Cycling, might not be obvious. But the links — quite extensive already — are set to expand even more with planning for Festival 2008.

Andria Matthews (pictured above) is manager of community and ideas programs for the festival. She attended the ECC’s monthly meeting at City Hall Monday night to brainstorm about how to incorporate cycling — and cyclists — even more deeply into this year’s festivities, which run from June 14 to the 28th. She brought a lot of her own ideas and enthusiasm to the table.

For years, members of Elm City Cycling have led a myriad of bike rides for all ages and ability levels during the three weekends the festival runs. The rides leave the Green and wend their way east, to Lighthouse Point Park; west, to Savin Rock and the West Haven boardwalk; and north, to Sleeping Giant State Park. Other rides stay within a tighter radius and visit several of the city’s community gardens or quirkiest dining spots. They culminate (when not rained out) in a century (100-mile) ride around greater New Haven.

One year a giant stuffed cloth “rider” — affectionately nicknamed “Goby” — on a super-sized bike led the festival’s kick-off parade through Fair Haven to the Green. All the rides are fueled completely by volunteers.

This year Matthews suggested that in addition to the annual mainstay tours, cyclists might make some rides more reflective of the festival programming. A major theme this year is spirituality, so a possible ride might take in sacred spaces within the city — houses of worship, historic cemeteries, and the like. Since the festival is international in scope, someone suggested a ride that would visit points of international interest. (The Amistad story comes immediately to mind.)

Someone asked Matthews to let ECCers know if others involved in the festival planning had exciting, creative ideas for ride destinations, which local cyclists could then lead.

And she had another idea: the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will be working for a year with groups around the community asking the questions, “When is action a form of prayer?” and “When is prayer a form of action?” Matthews asked, “Would you like to be part of a dance performance?” Cycling as dance…hmm.. a pretty evocative notion.

As the discussion ended, Matthews asked the group if it could have its proposals for dates, times and destinations for this year’s rides ready by early February, for inclusion in the festival’s program. Bill Kurtz (sitting to the right of David Streever, who chaired the meeting) has coordinated the rides in the past, and volunteered to do it again. At which point Matthews thanked the group, proclaiming ECC just about the easiest and most enthusiastic group she has worked with. Maybe she’s a cyclist, too?

Later in the meeting, the city’s transportation chief, Mike Piscitelli updated the group on the status of New Haven’s application to the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) to be designated a “Bicycle Friendly Community.” The idea was initiated by ECC, some of whose members worked on the initial application. Piscitelli then met with a few of the cyclists to move the process forward, bringing in the City Plan Department and the city engineer. There are four levels of designation. New Haven is unlikely to earn a top level (only one city in the country — Davis, California — has earned the highest), but any designation will require the city to meet certain benchmarks, and then provide others to work toward going forward.

Piscitelli (pictured) also announced that a new intern in his office has been assigned to work with Elm City Cycling — always welcome news in an all-volunteer organization.