The Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op’s 2021 Annual Report

Since the beginning, my BSBC Annual Reports have followed a project that started as a personal dream, fixing bikes in an abandoned garage, and grew into a community space and bicycle program that is now a New Haven institution. Over the years we have worked to reimagine power structures; create healthier lives and environments; get more bikes onto the streets of our city; teach, learn, and build with our hands; and thrive in a community of always-growing friendship.

2022 will be the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op’s eighth year in existence, and my final year as its director. This year, with the help of the Board of our non-profit CCBW (Connecticut Community Bicycle Workshop) and the VAB (Volunteer Advisory Board), the Co-op will be transforming its organizational model and hiring new leadership. This is an incredibly exciting and inspiring time for us (and for me) and one that I have been building towards since founding the Co-op in 2015.

In 2022, the Bike Co-op is taking a big step forward as we begin to design and implement new leadership structures through collective process. As I move away from day-to-day work, and ultimately leave my current role at the end of the year, I will be moving onto the board and into an advisory position for the years to come.

The Co-op will be starting a hiring process for one or multiple new staff, so get excited for some new faces coming to your inbox and meeting you at the shop or out in our city. We hope to begin the search in existing bicycle co-op communities around the country, various job boards, and local networks, so if you have thoughts or ideas, please reach out to me. Or if you want to be involved in the transition process this coming year, we would love your support! Email me at john@bsbc.co!

As we dream about our future, it is also important to celebrate the past! 2021 was a really meaningful year, even as the pressures of the pandemic challenged our work, our space, and our community. During the past year in particular, our volunteers and staff have made all the difference, helping the Co-op adapt and thrive during an especially difficult time. It was our first year with three staff members at shop hours most days (Kai, Daniele, and myself) and an incredible year for our volunteers. We had a record 168 active volunteers in 2021 (119 in 2019, 131 in 2020), with an average of 40 different volunteers working on bikes every month.

Thanks to all the work and love that volunteers and our new staff brought to the Co-op, we got 604 bikes recycled and out the door through our donation programs and affordable used bike sales; 50 more than 2020! These bikes are now riding around the streets of New Haven, making our city greener, our residents more mobile, our streets safer, and our lives more fun!

384 people got day memberships, which means 384 excited bike riders who got their hands dirty, learned a new skill, and got their bike back on the road. And that doesn’t even include our work at off-site repair clinics, those who’ve fixed their bikes at the Co-op on a sliding-scale, RAR (Radical Adventure Riders) nights, or longer-term members who use the space regularly. The work that everyone does in our space contributes to our vision of a world where we repair instead of buying new, encourage instead of dismiss, and celebrate our collective empowerment through bike repair and redistribution.

We also rode bikes. We cheered each other on. We showed up for events hosted at the Co-op and shared posts and photos of rad projects. Kai organized fantastic rides, events, and meetings, and it looks like she will gather us together for many more in 2022. Daniele became a household name at BSBC, and while he took a job at another bike shop and will just be volunteering this coming year, his expertise will be just as valuable. The core volunteer team took on so many responsibilities and (with Kai’s help) is building the Volunteer Advisory Board (VAB) into a strong internal institution. Connor has built Coffee Outside into a weekly ritual for so many people. A group of volunteers — Maria, Connor, Ali, Ryan, and Billy — have organized and started monthly Saturday Shop Hours, which has proven to be immensely popular in its first few weekends. IRIS and CMHC continued to be powerful partners in our bike donation efforts, and new programs started to grow deeper roots. The leadership team of RAR — Jesse, Elise, Ali, Jess, and Kai — have built the chapter into an awe-inspiring collective, with countless events, rides, and stories to tell. And I made sure to eat my fair share of cookies.

I am so excited for this coming year. It is going to be a big one for us and we will need your help! Every single member, volunteer, customer, visitor, bike rider, advocate, collaborator, and friend has been a part of building the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op during the past seven years. You have shown up in so many ways and leading this project has been one of the great honors of my life. Passing it forward to the next generation of collective leadership will build a more sustainable and rooted Bike Co-op that will serve our city for years to come.

I are excited to have you by our side as we take this big step forward!