Last month, amid student concern and not without some confusion about policy, the issue arose about putting a bicycle rack at Hutchinson Central Technical High School in Downtown Buffalo.
Not only has the policy question been resolved (there never was one concerning bicycles on school property), but Green Options Buffalo, courtesy of Justin Booth’s Rusty Chain proceeds, has donated a bike rack to the school. According to Joseph Giusiani from the Division of Plant Services and School Planning, the rack will be installed by Thursday of this week.
Though school principal David Greco thought it might be best to install the rack in adjacent Johnson Park in order to allow it to serve the community as a whole, Giusiani said that one of his co-workers walked the area with Greco today and thinks it will go closer to the school building.
“It would be simpler for us to put it on school grounds,” Giusiani said. “We have some pictures one of the students sent us of where he thought the rack could go, and we’re looking at all of the options. Everyone has an opinion of course, and we’re concerned about the safety of the student bikes.” Giusiani said there is no canopied area for the bikes, but getting them close to the building is a priority.
Referring to Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools Dr. James Williams, Giusiani said, “The superintendent wants them at every school. Little by little, as we punch out of Phase 3 and into Phase 4, all of the schools will have them. We’re installing a rack at Discovery School this week also.” The rack for Discovery was pulled out of storage for installation at the school on Abbott Road in South Buffalo according to BPS Spokesperson Stefan Mychajliw.
Greco said that he finds a sense of comfort in seeing the students get on the “specials,” the line of busses that wait in front of the school daily, knowing that they will be delivered safely from door to door. Along with that sentiment, he reiterated that in the 15 years he’s been at Hutch Tech, he’s only seen around 10 students ride bicycles. But that may change with students knowing they’ll have a safe place to put their bikes, confident that they’ll still be there when the school day is over.
There’s a dawning bicycle culture out there, and the green message has been preached to these students since pre-K. It’s nice to know they’ll have some green options.
Image: Hutch Tech as seen from the Avant, ECB.