Photo courtesy of Dero Bike Rack Co.
Juneau is buying bike racks that double as public art with locally inspired motifs.
The city is paying Minneapolis-based Dero Bike Rack Co. $20,883 for the custom order.
“When these racks are installed – this is just going to be glorious,” said Bob Aldrich, who’s in sales at Dero. “These are the coolest racks that we are fabricating this year, without a question.”
Dero makes thousands of racks a year. Juneau is buying 15.
“Every one of which is a one-of-a-kind, unique design that will be present nowhere else in the universe as presently constituted,” Aldrich said.
The designs include a Tlingit-style raven, a boat, waves, mining tools, an umbrella, and of course, rain boots. Each rack will accommodate at least two bicycles.
Juneau Engineering Director Rorie Watt says the racks are in keeping with a 2009 urban planthat encourages accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians.
“We thought it would be nice to have some bike racks that, you know, had a little flair to them,” Watt said.
Aldrich said they hope to ship out the racks in mid-November.
Project manager Skye Stekoll says some of these racks will replace old ones, some will displace racks in good shape to lower profile locations, and some are going to spots with no racks at all. They’ll be installed next spring.
Jeremy Hsieh is the deputy managing editor of the KTOO newsroom in Juneau. He’s a podcast fiend who’s worked in journalism since high school as a reporter, editor and television producer. He ran Gavel Alaska for 360 North from 2011 to 2016, and is big on experimenting with novel tools and mediums (including the occasional animated gif) to tell stories and demystify the news. Jeremy’s an East Coast transplant who moved to Juneau in 2008.
