Does DPW Superintendent Robert Perry Find This Acceptable? Does He Even Care?

It used to be that if anyone wanted to ride their bicycle on the upper portion of Promenade Park, they had to dismount and carry their bicycle up the stairs or walk their bicycle along a short and bumpy trail to the park located on the other side of the Chamber of Commerce building parking lot.  Neither of them was an easy option, but it did not deter certain riders, including a few regulars on electric bikes (yuk!) often seen riding in the park.  After the recent improvements to the park's entrance, including a much needed pedestrian ramp to get to the top, riding a bicycle anywhere in the park is now a breeze, and apparently an acceptable activity.

This morning, I watched a youngster on his bicycle enter the park, ride through the entrance, pedal up the winding ramp to the top, ride to a spot along the fence to enjoy the view, ride back to the stairs, successfully ride down all the sets of stairs instead of using the ramp, then ride back through the entrance and on up Warren Street.  He never once dismounted his bicycle during his visit to Promenade Park.

Entering via the ramp

Exiting via the stairs

There is not one sign prohibiting the use of bicycles in the park (though there are such signs in the 7th Street Park).  The cyclist in the park today did nothing wrong -- what he did was, in Robert Perry's mind at least, completely acceptable and unproblematic. 

Mr. Perry could have had signs installed in the new entrance to Promenade to prohibit all sorts of activities in the park, including bicycling and skateboarding, but he chose not to.  Okay, I will go easy on Mr. Perry today:  Let's assume that he just forgot that there should be signs with rules for the park and that he doesn't find bicycling in the park acceptable, especially on the stairs.  If Mr. Perry feels strongly that bicycling, skateboarding, littering, smoking, and glass containers should be prohibited in all of our parks, when will the signs go up at Promenade's entrance making these rules evident to everyone entering the park?  When will bicyclists be made aware that they are not welcome to ride anywhere in the park?  Don't hold your breath for that to happen.

There is no bicycle rack at the entrance to Promenade Park -- indeed, there is nothing to lock one's bicycle securely to.  There is a cheap bicycle rack in the 7th Street Park that rarely gets used, and there is a decent rack at the Riverfront Park.  Why would Promenade Park need one as well?

A few months ago at a Common Council meeting, Robert Perry said that protecting the precious stone stairs at the new entrance to Promenade Park was so important that DPW would not put salt on them to melt ice and snow.  Since Mr. Perry hasn't done anything to prevent anyone from bicycling or skateboarding down those expensive, special stairs, it appears to be perfectly acceptable to him to do so.  Or, again, did he just forget to do something about it?  After all, he claims to be concerned about the well-being of the stairs.

Signs seen in 7th Street Park 
but not seen in Promenade Park.