Biking With The Mayor of Columbia

The mayor of Columbia, Missouri, that is...

UPDATE: The visit is really skedded for Nov. 4 and the ride starts at 9:30am at CA headquarters and will end at 11:30am.

From CA:

The mayor of Columbia, MO will visit Columbia, MD on November 5 as a guest of the Columbia Association (CA), Columbia Tomorrow and Howard Community College (HCC). Mayor Darwin Hindman’s itinerary will include a bicycle tour of downtown Columbia, a Bike Power Summit with community leaders and an appearance at Howard Community College’s multi-media event, The Bike Project. Hindman was recently featured in a Parade magazine article, “Reinventing America: A Free-Wheeling City.” The 76-year-old mayor rides 60 miles a week in his hometown of Columbia, MO, which has a population of 100,000 people–almost exactly the same size as Columbia, MD.

The bike tour of Columbia will be led by CA Vice President of Open Space Management Chick Rhodehamel. Other community leaders and bicycle advocates will participate in the ride from the Columbia Sheraton through downtown to some of the villages. The tour of Columbia will end at Howard Community College, where Hindman will visit The Bike Project’s exhibition in The Rouse Company Foundation Gallery of the Horowitz Center for Visual and Performing Arts. He will make brief remarks about his experience riding a bicycle in the two cities named “Columbia” at a lunch hosted by HCC President Kate Hetherington.

Columbia Tomorrow founder Jud Malone will lead the Bike Power Summit, a discussion which will include Hindman’s advice about creating a pedestrian and bicycle friendly community. Columbia Tomorrow is a nonprofit group Malone founded to address issues facing Columbia in the future.

That evening, Hindman will return to HCC for a dessert reception and a reading that explores biking through the words of cyclists from 25-75 years old, who wrote on the theme, “I bike because…” The reception starts at 7 p.m., followed by the reading in Monteabaro Hall in the Horowitz Center for Visual and Performing Arts. The background for the reading will be projected photographs taken by bicyclists. The event is free and open to the public.

Columbia Tomorrow was established in 2008 to help create a more sustainable, inclusive and attractive community that strives for excellence, according to founder Jud Malone. For information, please contact Malone at 443-852-2805 or jmalone@gmail.com.

Mayor Hindman is a strong advocate of parks and trails; an interconnected, non-motorized transportation system; and encouraging active healthy lifestyles. Mayor Hindman was first elected mayor of Columbia, Missouri in 1995 and is serving his fifth term. He has lived in Columbia, MO nearly all of his life. He is not seeking re-election; his term expires in April 2010.