Not-so Critical Mass

Sacramento’s Critical Mass is dead.

But just to be sure, in case May Is Bike Month riders had resuscitated the group bike ride, SN&R went to see. Defibrillator out. Charge to maximum. All clear?

The local chapter of the Critical Mass bike ride is one of about 300 group rides around the world that gathers the last Friday of every month. The first Critical Mass was founded in San Francisco in 1992 and has been described as both a “monthly political-protest ride” and a “social movement.” But in reality, it’s more like a flash mob of cyclists filling city streets while cars are normally stuck in rush-hour traffic.

Ryan Sharpe, a local rider who helped oversee several years of regular ridership in Sacramento during the mid- to late 2000s, said that the ride has basically been dead for a little over a year now. Occasionally, participants from Critical Mass group rides will still meet at Fremont Park, but only to grab some beers with old comrades, he said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a bad loss,” Sharpe said of the most recent death of Critical Mass, which began in Sacramento in 1999. “We lose the snarky ‘my way or the highway’ attitude. But I think the greater [cycling] community is adopting that on its own.”

Sharpe mentioned that other organizations are bringing the attitude of Critical Mass into the mainstream, citing the Edible Pedal, Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen and Sac Cycle Chic as organizations that have advocated for cycling as effectively as Critical Mass. One could even make the case that with the popularity of the local annual Amgen Tour of California stage, May Is Bike Month events and groups like Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (of which Sharpe is board member), the entire sport of cycling is already mainstream in Sacramento.

Nevertheless, between 5:30 and 6 p.m. at Fremont Park last Friday, there wasn’t a Critical Mass ride to be found. Most cyclists rode straight through the park. Children played on a playground. Rush-hour traffic swirled around the perimeter. Only a lone cyclist rode into the park and stopped. He didn’t look like a Critical Mass rider (smoker’s lips, an old mountain bike, plain button-up T-shirt and shorts).

That’s when suddenly, the middle-aged white guy, introducing himself as Bill, confessed his love of Ron and Rand Paul, while deriding President Barack Obama with equal fervor. Bill made his best case for the Pauls, flailing his arms and voice around like a possessed evangelical preacher. All the while, the secondhand cigarette smoke he was blowing wafted several feet from a children’s playground.

Dead indeed. (Jonathan Mendick)

Men at work

Watch out for those workmen. Fake workers are stripping copper wire from area streets, while burglars pretending to be construction workers are also robbing homes.

With the price of copper on the rise, thieves are removing copper from streetlights and traffic signals. North Natomas has been particularly hard hit, the Sacramento Police Department explained.

Individuals in yellow hard hats have gained access to homes by pretending to be part of construction crews. So far, burglars have struck 12 times since March and the elderly have been particularly targeted. If you see any suspicious activity, call the SPD’s tip line at (916) 443-4357. (Hugh Biggar)