Okay, a little background first. I race bikes (the non-motorized kind) for fun. Road bikes, mountain bikes, and lately track bikes since Atlanta is one of the few cities that has a which is basically a big oval track with banked ends. Unfortunately, the velodrome is located in East Point (an Atlanta suburb) which is totally broke. The designers thought it would be neat to build the track over a stream (you can see it in the infield in the linked pic) and it does look nice, but it also caused the far end of the track to settle and finally crack. The city got wind of this and closed the track for safety reasons.
This, of course, made the local cyclists unhappy as the track had been seeing quite a bit of activity in the past 5 years or so after many years of disuse. We've even hosted several national-caliber races and also established a kids' program which had gotten to be quite a popular after-school activity for the kids in the surrounding area. We resolved to raise enough money to make the needed repairs so we could get the velodrome reopened. Unfortunately, the city of East Point had other ideas. They informed us that they were not going to renew the Velodrome Association's lease on the track and were planning to turn it into a park and duck pond (which is, of course, ridiculous since the city is approximately $3 million in debt and have bigger fish to fry than a damn duck pond). We persisted in trying to get them to reconsider and then finally said they would have a meeting and vote by the City Council on Jan 20th. Word spread and we absolutely packed the auditorium. Several members of the EPVA discussed the recent surge in use of the velodrome, the many people attending the weekly races (and spending money for dinner and such in the nearby businesses), the popularity amongst the kids (accompanied by photos of the kids tearing around the track), etc.
Long story short, the council relented and voted to renew our lease. We should have enough money soon to temporarily fix the settling problem and hopefully enough money in a year or so for a full overhaul. Behold the power of warm bodies and strong voices.
This, of course, made the local cyclists unhappy as the track had been seeing quite a bit of activity in the past 5 years or so after many years of disuse. We've even hosted several national-caliber races and also established a kids' program which had gotten to be quite a popular after-school activity for the kids in the surrounding area. We resolved to raise enough money to make the needed repairs so we could get the velodrome reopened. Unfortunately, the city of East Point had other ideas. They informed us that they were not going to renew the Velodrome Association's lease on the track and were planning to turn it into a park and duck pond (which is, of course, ridiculous since the city is approximately $3 million in debt and have bigger fish to fry than a damn duck pond). We persisted in trying to get them to reconsider and then finally said they would have a meeting and vote by the City Council on Jan 20th. Word spread and we absolutely packed the auditorium. Several members of the EPVA discussed the recent surge in use of the velodrome, the many people attending the weekly races (and spending money for dinner and such in the nearby businesses), the popularity amongst the kids (accompanied by photos of the kids tearing around the track), etc.
Long story short, the council relented and voted to renew our lease. We should have enough money soon to temporarily fix the settling problem and hopefully enough money in a year or so for a full overhaul. Behold the power of warm bodies and strong voices.
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