Seattle Summer Streets 2010 exploded onto Phinney and Greenwood last night as they barricaded the boulevard and people poured onto the pavement to celebrate.

Mayor Mike McGinn, like many participants, was blown away by the turnout. Bubble Man put on his usual delightful show, booths from Feet First, Streets for All Seattle, Walk Bike Ride and others set a “streets are for everyone” theme.

Sustainable Greenwood-Phinney, bringing a focus on living simply and climate change, had a boom box playing ’60s tunes for “Dancing in the Streets.”

Balmy summer weather aided turnout. Restaurants and pubs were jammed, Santoro’s Books had a display of doggie treats and pet books. An accurate estimate of the crowd was probably impossible as throngs milled along Greenwood from 65th to 87th, but it was well into four figures and jammed the main drag at its height.

Shannon Markley, wheelchair-bound from a recent biking accident, got a surprise birthday cake and “Happy Birthday!” choir from the gathering. The mayor even stopped by to say hello.

“This is beyond my expectations, beyond anyone’s expectations,” McGinn said. “It’s the perfect representation of what Summer Streets is for — anything you want it to be!”

PhinneyWood.com also was there.

A guy named McGinn in front of a pub, good things happen... Photo ILikeFood.wordpress.com

Bikestravaganza is coming to Seattle on Saturday.

And on Sunday, it’s Fiets of Parenthood Family Bike Games from 3 to 6 p.m. at John Stanford International School, 4057 Fifth Ave N.E. The Gelato Bike will be there, lots of events and proceeds benefitting Bike Works in south Seattle!

At the recent Bike to Work Day rally in front of City Hall, Seattle City Council member Tom Rasmussen was a featured speaker on the joys of cycling in Seattle.

Rasmussen, who serves on the Council’s bicycle caucus, is a bike commuter and known as a cycling supporter. Who better to rally the troops on the biggest bike day of the year than the chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee?

So why, then, did Rasmussen subsequently show up in a Seattle Times article complaining of “indigestion” over a proposed “road diet” for Nickerson? Why did he suggest he might support waiting till 2016, which seems like a long way off for a modest and affordable project?

Why oppose a road diet at all, when a just-released SeattleStoneWayTrafficComparison indicates that a similar project on Stone Way N., another crucial bike-commuter route, showed fewer accidents, more bike trips, and traffic volumes comparable to pre-diet levels? (Translation: no discernible negative impacts on commerce.)

Why, in short, was a cycling proponent taking such an anti-cycling position?

Interpreting Rasmussen’s position requires a bit of decoding. What he told Publicola is that he has heard from both Democratic and Republican 36th district representatives on the Nickerson proposal. Ordinarily that might mean a broad-based bipartisan position, but in this case it simply refers to business interests which still harbor 20th Century misconceptions that bike and pedestrian improvements get in the way of commerce.

The constituency Rasmussen did not mention having heard from was the bike community. In Nickerson, cyclists have a golden opportunity to make their case for improved cycling access and safety — something they talk about all the time. But they had yet to make an impression on Rasmussen.

Tom Rasmussen (far right) at Bike to Work Day rally: Does the City Council have McGinn envy?

Most notable in this regard is Richard Conlin, who came from a strong sustainability background, was the city’s biggest bike-boosting official before McGinn, and still promotes green, progressive policies like making Seattle the nation’s first Gross National Happiness city. As his Seattle.gov Web site puts it, “My goal as a Councilmember is to work with you and for you to strengthen neighborhoods, foster economic recovery from the current crisis, and make Seattle a leader in sustainability by envisioning, creating, and implementing new and innovative solutions.”

After playing a prominent role in last year’s Bike to Work Day, Conlin was noticeably missing this year — vacationing in Greece. Given his quarreling with the mayor over the Deep Bore Tunnel, though, it’s probably just as well he was out of town.

Longtime supporters of Conlin and Seattle’s sustainability community are scratching their heads at the standoff between the Council president and the mayor. One problem is that Conlin has not chosen — yet, anyway — to reconcile apparent inconsistencies between his long-held philosophies — “making Seattle a more sustainable city, reducing waste, strengthening neighborhoods, improving pedestrian mobility and transportation infrastructure, and making government more transparent,” as his Web page puts it — and his recently adopted positions.

Rasmussen as well traced his concerns to the viaduct. As he told Publicola, he’s concerned that vehicular traffic will face a hard time of it during the viaduct replacement if Nickerson has to “diet.”

For cyclists, the complex nature of City Hall politicking presents both challenges and opportunities.

With thousands of cyclists commuting on its streets every day, and a No. 4 ranking among the most bike-friendly cities in the nation, Seattle is a recognized cycling hotbed. Besides McGinn, Rasmussen and Conlin, numerous other elected officials support bike agendas. Perhaps the cycling community, then, can be forgiven for assuming its leaders will automatically embrace bike initiatives. In this light, Rasmussen’s stance can be viewed as testing the mettle of the cycling lobby.

To its credit, Cascade Bicycle Club, the nation’s largest, is rolling into action. In response to Rasmussen’s equivocation, club advocacy director David Hiller posted a piece on the Cascade site’s blog that skillfully deconstructs erroneous claims opposing the road diet. Cascade has suggested cyclists send “Tums to Tom” to settle his stomach.

The blog SeattleLikesBikes and supporters have launched Google and Facebook groups as well as a Twitter feed in support of the Nickerson plan.

To fully persuade Rasmussen, though, cyclists will need to get their voices heard in less receptive quarters, including the constituencies that Rasmussen said were making him ill.

Seattle is facing a wrenching transition from expensive, conventional car-dominated agendas to new, localized, sustainable, “green” and forward-looking policies. It’s a battle between Fading Seattle and Emerging Seattle — Old Seattle vs. New Seattle.

The former jumps into action any time a cycling initiative threatens to impact truck and commercial traffic — Ballard’s “Missing Link,” Stone Way’s bike lanes, the Nickerson road diet. It doesn’t matter that bike and pedestrian improvements (they typically go hand in glove) consistently improve commerce in communities where they’re adopted by putting more people and patrons on the streets. Nor does it seem to make a difference that small businesses, especially the growing numbers of eco-friendly ones, actually support biking and walking and understand the need for people-first policies. Any time street uses other than cars and trucks are on the agenda, the old guard is going to oppose them.

Representing New Seattle are groups like SCALLOPS — Sustainable Communities All Over Puget Sound — Feet First, Cascade (the nation’s largest bike club), People for Puget Sound, Seattle Transition, the People’s Waterfront Coalition and the newly formed Streets for All Seattle, which signed up more than 50 supporters to help back the mayor’s Walk Bike Ride campaign (BikeIntelligencer is one).

The results of last November’s election, which swept into office streets-friendly candidates from Obama on down to Seattle municipal races, were a clear sign of Seattle’s changing politics — and New Seattle’s growing influence. But Old Seattle, which still has financial clout and the Old Boys Network on its side, is not going to roll over and die.

Cyclists are a key part of New Seattle. To follow through on the agenda they used to get candidates elected, they will have to work the community councils, precinct monthlies and civic and business groups like Chambers of Commerce and Rotaries.

Cascade’s recently formed Bike Business Forum is a step in this direction; the club also is helping generate turnout for a review of the project at Rasmussen’s committee on June 8.

It will take time and elbow grease — and maybe a few bouts of indigestion — to move Seattle from old to new.

But to make their tummies feel better, cyclists only have to use their heads and feet.

More links:

Seattle Times: Road diet gives Rasmussen indigestion.

Seattle Transit Blog: Stone Way Road Diet Improved Safety, City says.

Publicola: Cascade says send Tums to Tom.

Cascade Bicycle Club’s David Hiller: Here we go again.

SeattleLikesBikes: Support the Road Diet!

Paris bike plan moving forward.

San Francisco bike plan may move forward.

Update: The mayor showed up around 7:25 and collected a peloton worthy of the Tour de France (in numbers anyway!) for the ride up Dexter and downtown to City Hall. I counted 200 in the group departing from the Fremont Bridge, about 150 at Denny and down further as the riders strung out through downtown.

Overall, the number of cyclists downtown felt lighter than last year, though. The weather was about the same, so something else is going on. We’ll wait for final numbers later today from Cascade Bicycle Club and see what its analysis is.

Mayor Mike McGinn's rolling press conference at the Fremont Bridge.

By contrast, the rally downtown blew off the doors compared to last year, at least triple the turnout. The Mayor and other dignitaries gave short enough speeches to leave enough time for a group photo at the end.

A rousing conclusion to the Bike To Work Day rally at City Hall.

Washington State again No. 1 ranked of “Bicycle Friendly” states by the League of American Bicyclists.

Word continues to get out that Seattle has a cycling mayor. We prefer to state it as: Although other cities have mayors who ride and who support cycling, Seattle has the ONLY bike-commuting mayor.

GoMeansGo dug up a funny video on cyclists’ rights from the mid-1990s (I’m guessing late spring 1997). (Thanks to Eric Stobin for the tip.)

Yes there is such a thing as an organic bike.

Is bicycling the new golf? I dunno … is Red Bull the new double martini?

One more reason why I’m buying a new set of Easton Haven carbon wheels no matter how much they cost!

We’ve been posting in Questionland on The Stranger, where the topic of the week is bikes.

Another Drunk Cyclist gives up the bottle on DrunkCyclist.com. Also see the profile on the transformation of Big Jonny in the June issue of Mountain Bike magazine as well (not online).

Thanks to Lance and Levi for donating their Tour of California bikes to a great cause.

Kudos as well to Trips for Kids, which pulled in $25,000 for its bike commute challenge.

Anthill Films’ new “Follow Me” DVD is finally out and available to the general public!

Bike to Work Day is Friday! Last year more than 20,000 riders turned out, and this year Cascade Bicycle Club organizers have good reason to believe we may be seeing a new record. Already this year records have been set for the Seattle Bike Swap, the Chilly Hilly and early sell-out of Seattle-to-Portland.

The weather outlook ain’t great, but we all know how quickly that can change.

Last year’s Bike to Work Day was a real hoot!

Is bike commuting for you?

It is for Mayor Mike, who will ride from his home district in Greenwood to downtown for the big Bike to Work Day rally on the 4th Avenue plaza of City Hall. A bunch of us will be joining Hizzoner, please feel free to hop on board around 7 a.m. at the Bike to Work Day station right at the Fremont Bridge.

A full rundown of Bike to Work Day stations and events.

San Francisco’s Bike to Work Day was last week, and really rocked!

So did Marin County’s!

By some unfathomable coincidence, it’s also Seattle Beer Week this week. At GoMeansGo, that translates to DrinkMeansDrink … and the Seattle Brew Cruise on Tuesday.

Unlike our Mayor McGinn, though, David Cameron apparently often has a car accompanying his bicycle.

And now with his new station in life, bike commuting may be out of the picture altogether.

Not so with Mayor McGinn, who will commute by bike to the big annual Bike to Work Day rally downtown a week from tomorrow.

Congrats to Lou Mazzante, named editor of Mountain Bike magazine. We liked his work for BIKE, the best-written bike magazine around, and trust he’ll bring similar sensibilities to Mountain Bike. We hope this signals, in fact, a greater commitment to Mountain Bike, which has been a kind of weak sister to the somniferous Bicycling since it “absorbed” Mountain Bike a few years back. I didn’t realize Mountain Bike is 25 years old, though. That makes me feel old. Wait a minute, I am old…

Older I bet than this guy. He looks pretty buff too!

SeattleLikesBikes does not like the Burke-Gilman Trail’s “Missing Link.” Take a ride on the pitted side…

Cozy Beehive on the Shimano Ultegra chain failures. See comments queue too. This one needs to be networked: The visual evidence on Cozy is compelling but one would think that, if the problem is widespread, we’d be hearing from a lot of cyclists out there. The Bee says to stay tuned…

Outside Magazine: Ban on mountain bikes in wilderness areas is plain wrong.

Mike Bikes! to press conference

You have to love this: Newly elected Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn riding his bike to a press conference. Thanks to BikeHugger for the pix. When we wondered last August whether Seattle could get a mayor “who actually rides,” we were expressing more hope than expectation. Now it’s breakthrough reality. Images like this do wonders to advance the cause. Our full mayoral-bike thread here.

Toll avoidance maneuver: “Bicycle enthusiasts and certain tourists who use the Ohio Turnpike are paying up to 75 percent more in tolls thanks to a change in vehicle classification that took effect toward the end of last year.” As I tweeted to BikingBis, here’s the drill: “Arrive toll booth, get out of car, get bike down, ride past toll booth, back to car, drive thru, put bike back on rack, drive on.”

Pedal Pusher Club's Bicycle Safe Vehicle

The Freeride Revolution continues apace. Up on Galbraith Mountain, not content with the region’s bestination (south of the border), they’re taking Galby to new heights with work on Luge, Upper Mullet and other hot spots. Thanks to WHIMPS, EB, Fanatik Bikes and everyone for giving us a 2010 season to top them all!

Kudos to Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle for birddogging the bikes-on-bus at any stop in downtown free ride area.

Downieville Classic will be July 9 through 11. Note the reference to “mental hardship”…there was talk of abandoning Downieville because of hassles from locals and the Forest Service. Sounds like nerves are still a bit frayed but at least The Big Dawg is on!!

Momentum: New Bicycle Safe Stickers from Pedal Pushers Club now available!

Numerous articles on his new appointment cited Mark’s many accomplishments and qualifications. However, none noted what we consider to be a salient, if not the crowning, characteristic of his long personal resume.

That’s right. He’s a cyclist.

We are not sure where the “C” word appears on Mayor McGinn’s checklist of qualifications for new appointments. But we hope it’s pretty high. After all, if Mike is out there riding to press conferences on his bike, he’s got to have a staff that can keep up with him!

Congrats Mark and all the best in your new calling.