Monday, February 8, 2010

Bike Parking Problem at Noe Valley Whole Foods Persists

While we are down the parking meter that was turned from a parking meter into a 24 hour loading zone in front of Whole Foods, the MTA has installed the two bike racks at the same location! Net 2 spots - of course they are out on the street instead of close to the store. Sorry to not have a picture of the new racks, I'll try to scare one up, I was operating without my trusty iPhone and had to borrow my Mother's phone for a few pics on our trip around stroller valley. Incidentally, I can now see how some people get really annoyed at the stroller brigade, watching my Mom drive the SUV of strollers, our BoB, through Noe Valley. I was freaking out in the Whole Foods that she might take out a few thousand dollars of wine - she was like a bull in a china shop. Say this for cyclists - we've trained ourselves to be inherently aware of our surroundings. But I appreciated the company, as did Liam.

Anywho, I did get two photos.

First, the obligatory shot of the 4 Whole Foods racks - packed to the gills.

While I sat outside as my mother munched on some snacks and fed Liam some organic Rice Milk (he's sick and dairy was exacerbating his runny poop, but the Rice Milk ran through him amazingly fast, I have never seen so many super saturated diapers) - I saw only 2 bikes turn over. Apparently the cyclo-set had some serious power shopping going on in Whole Foods - so much for the argument that you can't carry a lot of groceries on your bike. I jest, certainly this included employee bikes, which is cool, unless the bike racks are terminally full and the cyclists start to impede upon the most important, entitled class in Noe Valley...



I speak of "The Dogs", of course. The eye-hook this bike is locked too is for leashing your dog outside the store. Whole Foods is even kind enough to put out a water bowl. You can see poor Audrey's leash haphazardly connected to the leash loop, as she cowers in fear under the bike. WF has 4 of these things, the other three were occupied by another bike and 2 pit bulls. We decided to go with this one.

As another cyclist pulled up and looked forlornly at the full rack, I said "I'll watch it for you" as he leaned it up at another dog spot. I said "We need more racks here". He said "I'd sign the petition".

I don't think it needs to be a "petition", but please email the store manager if you give a crap - here is the contact form on their website

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