MoBo is a new project — their garage doors opened just last week — of the Village Green community garden in Northside. Both projects are focused on sustainable living, a DIY ethic and on empowering their members. With a $20 annual membership you can learn how to maintain your bike and buy recycled parts for very little (most parts sell for between 50 cents and $1). You could build up a really nice bicycle at the MoBo workshop for around $50. If you’re struggling, they offer beaters for $5.
“We just want to be able to sustain ourselves,” board member Julie Griff says.
“Our basic mission is to give everybody in this area access to bicycles.”Griff says the co-op works to be inclusive of women and to break down the stigma that says women can’t work on bikes. They’re simple machines and anyone can learn, she says.
“We’re taking bikes that would have been in the dump and revitalizing them,” board member Lucia Palmerini says. Parts that can’t be put back into service are made into art.
“It’s like a buffalo,” board member Rafe says. “There’s so much you can do. You go down to Mexico and people use bike parts for everything.”
Members of the co-op say the day they opened five neighborhood children came by with flat tires. Since they were just kids, they didn’t have the money for membership, but the group floated them in. It wasn’t exactly a scholarship, Palmerini says, but “it’s more of an investment in the future.”
“Hopefully, those people won’t be driving cars in 10 years,” Rafe adds. “We all believe that biking is a positive thing, whether politically or for the environment or for health,” co-op member Owen Stewart-Robertson says.
MoBo Bicycle Co-op is open Mondays and Wednesdays at 5-9 p.m. and Saturdays noon-5 p.m. at 1415 Knowlton Ave., Northside. Info: 513-541-4025 or mobobicyclecoop.com.
STEPHEN CARTER-NOVOTNI is contributing editor of this Body/Mind/Spirit page. Contact him with story ideas or with offers to write: stevenovotni@yahoo.com
