Transparency at City Hall

There is no longer a bike rack outside of the City Hall council building. For awhile, there was one sitting at the Main Street side, but for the last couple of weeks it has not been there. The only bike rack you will find at City Hall now is largely hidden behind shrubs and shadows outside the Administration building. Of course, compared to the Maryland Bridge, Main Street underpass, beligerent hillbillies, undercover cops, etc. this is small fries for Winnipeg cyclists. However, it sends a loud and explicit message to all citizens and visitors of Winnipeg: We refuse to join every other city across North America--from Vancouver to Phoenix--in at least pretending that we care about cycling.

And really, in a city where the mayor in 2005 told reporters that "ideally, they [car and bicycle traffic] should be separated," it makes sense that there would be no bike racks outside of City Hall. Good for Sam Katz' City Hall for having the courage to express to the public how they truely feel about cycling; no more gestures of cycling downtown being something that is encouraged, or that City staff might actually have a place to lock their bike should they choose to get to work sans Taurus. For this City Hall, that bike rack out front was a serious conflict of interest.