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Home Resource Center In the News Home Greenbelt Alliance in the News |
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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
April 26, 2001 Cyclists See Urban Changes Up Close
A weeklong Bay Area bike ride teaches participants about planning and conservation By Sarah Krupp For the past six years, Karen Salinger has participated in a 480-mile bike ride around the Bay Area. Each year, she notices changes that make her wince - strip malls cropping up where fruits and vegetables used to grow, houses under construction in spaces once inhabited by nature's creatures, once-lonely back roads teeming with cars and trucks. That is why the 48-year old Salinger and about 70 others are doing the weeklong ride, hosted by the Greenbelt Alliance, a non-profit group that advocates land conservation and urban planning. They began their ride Sunday in San Francisco, cycling down the Peninsula ridges and across Silicon Valley. "It's like taking a vacation without going anywhere," said rider Ken Lowny, a 35-year-old architect from Oakland. "Instead of going to a foreign country, you see your own with a new perspective." On Wednesday, day four, the riders began pedaling in Livermore, cycling up Vasco Road through East County heading for the Napa Valley. For some of the riders, Vaasco Road was a symbol of the traffic that urban sprawl creates. As they rode through the hills, trucks and cars roared by even after the morning rush hour. In rare moments of silence, riders could hear the grasshoppers sounding off in the hills. The big stop in Contra Costa was at the Brentwood farm of Dick Vrmeer. He has been hosting riders for years, but this was the first year he had the time to join the ride. Vrmeer is passionate about developing Brentwood for what he says is its real purpose - agriculture. According to the Greenbelt Alliance, Contra Costa County has more farm and open space land at risk for development than any other Bay Area county. In the upcoming years, bikers could be seeing a very different Brentwood, Greenbelt Alliance says. Where the area's apple, cherry and apricot trees stand now, there will be houses and stores, the group says. That's bad business, according to Vrmeer. He says that with planning, Brentwood's fertile farmland can become a huge tourist magnet. "In the summer, thousands of people come for U-pick," he said. "The real future of Brentwood's commercial development is linked to agriculture." Gloomy predictions of the future or laments for land lost did not dominate - most riders said they were having a blast. Robert Amador, 45, described the weeklong ride as his paradise: "You get to eat, ride and sleep for seven days non-stop," he said. To ride, bikers pay a minimum of $600, but most raise in the range of $1200, Greenbelt Alliance representatives said. A small portion supports the riders, who sleep in churches and schools along their route. Most of the money goes to the Alliance. Salinger, the six-year veteran rider, pays her way and donates produce for riders to eat on the journey. It is more than a ride for her, she said. Conserving farmland is integral to her business, Veritable Vegetable, a San Francisco-based wholesale organic produce distributor. ### |
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