People are still pissed that NC claims “First in Flight” when everyone is supposed to know that the Wright Brothers invented flight and perfected it here in Dayton.
When it comes to bike share in Dayton- it most definitely wasn’t “Dayton leaders” who brought this idea to town as reported on the front page of the Dayton Daily news by Thomas Gnau (who also stole my Qbase story [1]– a year and a half late).
Dayton leaders have long sought to make the city more bike-friendly. Three years ago, city leaders planned to spend $12.1 million in federal and state money through 2018 on street repair and repaving in a bid to give riders clear bicycle lanes. And runners, walkers and bikers have used trails by the Great Miami River for decades.
“The bike share program is one of the many ways we can connect destinations and points of interests and neighborhoods to each other,” (Downtown Dayton Partnership leader Sandy) Gudorf said. “That’s one of the key reasons we and our community partnership … push to get bike share done.”
via Daytonians could share bikes | www.mydaytondailynews.com [2].
At the first Miami Valley Bike Summit- not very many people were interested in the funny looking white Bcycle that was there- along with Andrew Davison, who flew in from Boulder to introduce the prototype bike.
I had started this conversation when I read about Andrew’s bosses work to launch Bcycle in partnership with Humana Health Care and Trek Bicycles about 6 years ago. I reached out to Alex Bogusky- the aforementioned boss, and creative genius of the ad agency of the decade- Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Alex passed my name over to Andrew- and he shipped the bike here to K&G bike shop for assembly- the trade show booth to my office- and the swag… T-shirts and water bottles, to hand out at the event. Of course, I wrote about all this on esrati.com [3], but, you know- nobody reads that….
My first post on the matter- Pave more roads or free bikes? Stimulus for the future [4] The date? Mar. 31, 2009. I thought we could launch in 2010. I talked to university presidents about it, our shadow mayor, the people at Metroparks (I had either Marvin Olinsky or Charlie Shoemaker ride the Bcycle- and shot some video of them riding it outside the meeting at DECA).
But, in the end, even with photos and posts to prove who was the father of this idea in Dayton- it won’t go down in the history of Bike Share in Dayton as my idea… because, well….
have you ever heard of “stolen valor”- or let me introduce you to my good friend Brian Williams.
Every time you post about someone implementing one of “your ideas” without them mentioning your name, I’m reminded about a small plaque I saw on Ronald Reagan’s desk when I visited his Presidential museum. It read…
“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
While highly respectful of the above comment from Bubba Jones, it is my opinion that Esrati was merely remarking that number of his ideas that woulda/shoulda/coulda moved the Dayton area forward are flatly ignored only to show up later as someone else’s projects or think piece for which they receive all the accolades. Who wouldn’t be bothered by this, particularly when it happens repetitively over time. It’s idea theft (plagiarism by another name) and while one can invoke platitudes that appear on a Presidential plaque, it only serves to minimize and reduce by shame the work of a brilliant and innovative mind. Keep it coming Esrati. The a** holes that keep doing this need to be exposed for the mindless cretins they are.
I first met David about 30 years ago when we were in some classes together at Wright State. During that time I’ve heard some great, ground breaking ideas from David (bCycle) but have heard many bonehead ideas from him as well (the “Walk to Work Tax Credit” comes to mind). I’ve also witnessed his “insanity”; insanity being Einstein’s definition of insanity that David often touts – “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results”. I haven’t gone back through this massive blog to verify what I’m going to say next, but hopefully my memory is mostly correct. I seem to remember David writing about this great bCycle idea that was in place in another city. David wrote about how great it would be to implement it in Dayton and that it would cost somewhere around $1M. If only we could find a corporate sponsor, it would be great for Dayton. Shortly thereafter David wrote a scathing post on the outrageous salaries at one of the health care related companies in Dayton. After that he wrote about having a meeting with execs from that company trying to pitch them on being the sponsor for bCycle since it was a natural fit that a healthcare company would want the citizens they serve to be more fit by riding bikes around town instead of driving. Yet, he was surprised that they would turn him down on this. Even if my memory is a bit fuzzy on the facts, here’s the point – David routinely writes things about local “leaders” that are less than favorable, yet is surprised when those same people don’t jump up and down with excitement about the possibility of working with him when he brings them an idea. Why would anyone want to try and do a project with a pushy, overly opinionated, arrogant person that just drug their name through the mud on the internet? Yet David keeps doing the same thing over and over and seems surprised/hurt about it. I’ve told David on more than one occasion that he is his own worst… Read more »
I doubt Steve Jobs worried about how many friends he had.
The reality is- “non-profits” that pay their CEO’s millions per year- need to be examined.
And, we give tax credits to all kinds of entities- and for all kinds of reasons.
Heard of HUBzones? Probably not.
The walk to work tax credit is still a brilliant idea- taking the variables out of a true renewable energy incentive.
Jones 17
Esrati = 0 (except maybe Bismark)
Yet I do appreciate Esrati for slinging some dung toward our “City Leaders.” They’ve more than demonstrated their incompetence and self serving spender year after depressing year. But hen again, I also loved Ronald Reagan.
…alas, dear David, the Old Bandito is sympathetic, if not empathetic, to your plight. For you are not the only one to have pioneered great ideas only to see others bask in the glory. For example, while sitting in a penalty box in Leamington, Ontario while feeling the sting of a fist to the face and the aftermath of a three-day hangover, the Old Bandito came up with the basic premise of what has become known as “chaos theory.” But do you think Lawrence Feigenson or any of those other Nobel Prize winning physicists at Los Alamos are gonna’ give the Old Bandito any love? And you know that worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle….?
Once again time and time again Dayton lives up its motto. It is one where if you have a great idea is to make sure to undercut, put a person down, make sure there is a media blackout, believe the idea does not exist, create a diversion or red flag operation away from real issues as to manipulate the public here locally. It works wonders when power corrupts to control the people and the masses. Make them believe by sticking to a “club” that it is OK to go along with the lie they believe not and are gods. They will believe it to be the all truth ends to a means and never argue with them. You come out on the bottom. You can always work with these people as you may as long you go along with their plans without questioning anything on blind faith. Do you believe this to be a little frighting? Remember power corrupts absolutely and with conviction. Politics is all about getting the people to believe you and your ideas good or bad. They set the agenda and always make sure if you go against the established rule any decision or idea will go behind closed door sessions. Example a 4 million dollar contract where know one knows who got paid and how much and why? Question whose idea was that? 15 million goes missing in a municipality know one even cares to ask what happened and why? Whose idea was that? Why? What happened? Do you care? Do you want me to go away and stop asking? Did it even happened and was it real or just reported in this manner? If we take it all at face value knowing we are all taken care of and live out the fantasy you doing quite well. I could care less if I get credit or not for an idea because someone will steal it anyway, own it and use it for their self serving arrogant reasons. One can understand if one gets credit from an idea but do it out of respect, kindness, morals,… Read more »
I’m shocked at the price tag to help implement the bike lanes. But my question is, was it worth it? How many people do you see riding bikes in downtown? Plus there are the winter months that this activity is not even feasible. I think the money an effort should be spent on other programs rather than bike lanes. I have to admit this is silly.
Welcome Rad-
The cost of the bike lanes is buried in the number for paving. The lanes don’t cost that much- the paving does, but if you make the streets “Multi-modal” there are additional federal funds.
As to the number of bikes downtown- I see quite a few- green and others-
We’re not a pedal pumping public – but, the numbers have been rising over the last few years. The Bike share system is one of the more utilized systems in the country.