My name is Dan Towle and I own R+E Cycles. Amber told me to email you about our bike racks out in front of the store. I'm thrilled that you called. I've been trying for over a year to get the city to either approve a new bike rack design that I wanted to have made, or install 2 more racks to replace the ones that were there.

The original design (see the photo below) had four racks and the bikes stuck out into the street. This work very well for 2 decades, until one day the city came by and replaced the original racks with the type that is out there now. The city originally installed those reflective turtles around the area, but when they installed the new racks, they pulled up the turtles and replaced them with paint.

I have attached some photos of a rack design that I liked, and a proposed drawing of a rack that I would like to make and mount in front of the store. Please let me know what you think I should do. I've kept running into dead ends every time I try something.

Please let me know what I need to do next. I would love to take care of this during this winter.

Here's a picture of the store in 1983

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Here's a picture of the store now. There used to be 2 more racks but someone stole them. I asked the city to bring new, and they did, and again they were stolen. They are bolted to the ground like the old ones were, but the old ones remained in place for a long time. I requested new racks about 8 years ago, but all they did was send a truck out to install the poles on either side of the one rack that was left. I would mount and maintain my own rack if the city would give me approval and assistance in the first mounting.

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Here's a picture of a bike rack that I liked and wanted to copy.

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Here's a drawing I've been trying to get approved for over a year. I will have the rack made, but I was told I need city approval to mount it on the sidewalk where the others are.

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