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Arizona Daily Star columnist, Josh Brodesky, wrote a piece this morning about the velodrome Pima County has been pushing for.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
“If we had a velodrome, that would make us the bicycle capital of America,” said Richard DeBernardis, president of Perimeter Bicycling Association of America.
That’s why a velodrome is part of a Pima County bond package that will go to voters, oh, no time soon.
Maybe in November of 2013 at the earliest, ChuckHuck recently said to me. The idea was to build the velodrome for $5 million on county land near the Kino Sports Complex as part of that package.
This is a perfectly fine plan, but the problem apparently is we need a velodrome now, and we need it downtown.
So the new working idea, courtesy of the county’s bond advisory committee, is to have flat broke(n) Rio Nuevo pay for the velodrome, and Pima County would then pay Rio Nuevo back once voters approve the project as part of a bond package. Or maybe Pima County would front Rio Nuevo the money, and then pay itself back once the bond package passes.
Talk of building a velodrome in Tucson has been circulating for years, but has been stalled by the postponing of the bond election.
The velodrome isn’t the only bicycle related project being held up by the ever delayed bond election. The Kory Laos BMX park is waiting on the bond election to build a concrete BMX park. Also tied into the bond is $15 million for an urban greenway path system throughout the city and money to help build portions of the county’s urban loop.
Make sure to check out the rest of Brodesky’s column here.
Is it just me or does it seem like Josh Brodesky and Rob Odell really dislike living in Tucson and like nothing more than to see it fail. I’m all for investigative reporting, but sometimes it seems like all these 2 do is stir the pot and step back to watch the ‘comment section’ light up. Not sure that qualifies as journalism.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to recall that the construction of the Trexlertown, PA velodrome was largely funded by Rodale Press, publisher of Bicycling, which is located in nearby Emmaus. There also was some funding from Air Products and Chemicals, whose headquarters is close by, in Allentown, PA. So, there is precedent for private sector funding of velodromes.
Food for thought…
Catty little pseudo insider column. It doesn’t have to qualify as journalism because it’s an opinion piece. Of coures reading the Star reader comments is as always uplifting because no matter how contentious it gets here we pale in comparison to the Star-ites.
I’d love a Velo. I think it might be something Phoenix couldn’t steal from us like they did spring training. I do think it would be tough to fund publicly. The hostility towards anything remotely connected to Rio Nuevo combined with our lousy bonding rating and voters who are completely disinclined to spend on anything including education has me discouraged. That Richard De Bernardis is involved is the only thing that gives me hope. I wonder if kickstart does velos?
http://www.kickstart.org/
While I’m on this “let’s see what we can find in terms of private sector funding” kick, how about considering the bicycle industry? Might be a velodrome funder or two in that crowd.
Great thinking, Martha. That may be the only way it could ever get funding in our current economic situation.
Straw,
You make some very good points. However, I think Phoenix would be more likely to build their own track if we built ours first and they saw it made money. Phoenix would make theirs bigger, fancier and all enclosed with air conditioning. I’m going to paraphrase our friend Rynsa: “Those w/ the most money get the nicest toys.”
I don’t *know* that Phoenix would do that, I’m just trying to think a few moves ahead.
Thanks for the props, 3wheeler!
And here, for everyone’s enlightenment, is the history of Trexlertown’s velodrome:
http://www.thevelodrome.com/about-us/history/
I was standing along the Rillito path for a ‘flat’ stop and looked over at the Rillito Park and saw the velodrome there….then somebody said,”zz!!…”.
Yes, corporate sources frequently make the difference. The obstacle Tucson faces? A lack of corporate headquarters in our area. We don’t have the corporate HQ’s that drive major corporate sponsorship of projects like this. Forget Raytheon. They do many positive things in our community but don’t look to them for support of a velodrome. Besides, their HQ is in Massachusetts. ‘Nuff said. My take? It will have to be government that does it, as is so often the case in this market.
Yes, corporate sources frequently make the difference. The obstacle Tucson faces? A lack of corporate headquarters in our area. We don’t have the corporate HQ’s that drive major corporate sponsorship of projects like this. Forget Raytheon. They do many positive things in our community but don’t look to them for support of a velodrome. Besides, their HQ is in Massachusetts. ‘Nuff said. My take? It will have to be government that does it, as is so often the case in this market.
I couldn’t agree with Colby more. Brodesky is dismissive and snotty throughout this article, and he fails to do the research necessary to get the basic facts of this story correct. He may not realize it, but the Velodrome is not a joke to those who have been working toward it for years.
Brodesky is known within the journalism community as a mediocre reporter and a poor writer. In the realm of political and government affairs, he his known as a feckless hack who deliberately lies and/or misrepresents stories. He has done it many, many times.
It wouldn’t matter if they published all of his “reporting” in the editorial section where it belongs, but it is irresponsible to post his lazy tripe on A2 where people will confuse it with actual journalism.