CHELSEA KROTZER / DAILY RECORD

Dusty and I were thinking of bringing our bikes down the ceiling of our garage this weekend — spruce them up, put some air in the tires and prepare to head out on the roadways of Ellensburg.

Doing so brought back a memory from last year, around this time.  Dusty and I were living over on 18th Avenue at the time in a little duplex, far enough away from campus to say you are away, but close enough for Dusty to ride his bike to class without much effort.

I was on one of my many recurring fitness streaks (they come and go between the holidays) and decided instead of driving down to Fred Meyer, we’d ride our bikes.

So we set out, and it was fun — quite a breeze (especially since there is a downhill grade from 18th Avenue all the way through to downtown Ellensburg. Along the way we decided to stop at some of the local boutiques, just to window shop.

The only question was, where to we put our bikes?

We were down by the corner of Fourth Avenue and Pine Street, and for the life of me, I couldn’t find a bike rack. At this point, we dismounted our bikes and were then walking with them back and forth down the side walk. I got to the point where I was impatient and figured, OK, we’ll just park them next to the store.

Oh, no. Not the store! At that moment, we were gruffly addressed by a certain city council member who reminded us there were to be no wheels on the sidewalk.

Mind you, we were walking our bikes — not speeding down the walkways.

I told them “We would, if we could find a place to park them.”
The person showed pointed to a rusty colored metal sculpture, which according to them was, in fact, a bike rack.

I understand the need for art — but how about make the structure something you can actually tie your bike to. Or, in that case, put a sign that says “Yes, this is a bike rack. No, you will not be frowned upon for using it — even though it looks like art.”

My first thought when seeing the “bike rack” was “Oh, this is something the city put in to fill an art quota.” I commend the concept of making art functional, but maybe a bit more focus on the functionality should be part of the equation next time.

And please, give us a sign!