The "I" stands for Internet in these candid candidate
profiles
COLUMBIA, 3/18/11 (Beat Byte) -- A
conversation about Fred Schmidt the other day
kicked off with a doozy: "Fred for First," read the yard sign on Broadway, far
enough away that the full name below wasn't clear. "I knew Fred Parry was
going to run some day," said the person in the car beside me. "How come the
Chamber didn't endorse him?"
Which raises the question: Who will voters think they're
voting for April 5? Probably the only thing Columbia City Council
candidate Fred Schmidt has in common with his First Ward neighbor -- Parry lives
just a block away -- is a mutual affection for riding bikes on the Katy Trail.
In fact, fans of PedNet, low-car lifestyles, trails, and
GetAbout Columbia's mission should have no better friend than Schmidt at City
Hall.
"I’m very excited,"
said Fred Schmidt of the city’s
Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission. "We’re very excited they were kind of able to
fast-track this," the $22 million in federal highway funds to build a
comprehensive network of trails throughout Columbia that became GetAbout
Columbia in 2005.
Schmidt had returned home from New York to be closer to
family, and plunged into the Great Columbia Cycling Initiative, a controversial,
largely unfulfilled vision with broad appeal, but little real action in the
halls of power.
"Fred Schmidt rides everywhere on his bike," the Columbia Daily Tribune noted. "He rides to the store. He rides to work. He even rides for
pleasure in Columbia parks." Lack of supportive infrastructure, however, left
Schmidt "searching for somewhere to tether his two-wheeler," a metaphor for
virtually anyone who takes a walk or rides a bike in Columbia.
The snows have left even bigger gaps in Columbia's streets
and sidewalks, sorry affairs in too many places that too often lead pedestrians
to dead ends, like the forbidding crossing at Providence and Broadway that
literally screams STAY AWAY at the foot or cycle
bound.
And in an odd nod to midwestern frugality, only
two crosswalks are painted at many 4-corner intersections, screaming
something else: Pedestrians in Columbia are a low priority.
Virtually the entire discussion downtown
and at City Hall has been about cars: how to house them
in oversized parking garages; how to increase parking fines; how to make sure
more cars can get downtown. Ironically, every member of the Columbia City
Council -- regardless their claimed low-car predilections -- has gone along with
the car-motivated discussion, from approving the garages to increasing the
fines.
Perhaps Schmidt, if elected, would try to move City Hall in a different direction.
Perhaps Schmidt, if elected, would try to move City Hall in a different direction.
"It’s a muggy morning
in May, and Fred Schmidt and Corri Flaker are waiting for cars to pass through the intersection at Clinkscales Road and
Worley Street. Wearing bright yellow vests and holding a tape measure and bound
copies of aerial photos of other Columbia intersections, the team looks slightly
out of place amid the bustle of motorized activity."
Schmidt and Flaker were measuring the width of Clinkscales
Street to figure out if a 4- to 6-foot-wide bicycle lane could become part of
the street.
Both "avid bicyclists," they were "foot soldiers on the
front lines of a battle some in Columbia are hoping will reduce residents’
dependence on cars, motorcycles and any other vehicles with an internal
combustion engine," the Tribune reported.
But the $22 million Congressionally-authorized
grant Schmidt was soldiering for hasn't played out as sold: "To
prepare and build an interconnected system of trails, walkways, bicycle paths
and other infrastructure improvements designed to foster non-motorized
traffic."
About the grant five years ago, GetAbout Columbia director
Ted Curtis said, "We’re still in the paper world." It's mostly
remained there ever since.
Though Council
members long ago approved miles of new bicycle lanes, trails, sidewalks and
so-called "pedways" — wider sidewalks for bike riders and wheelchairs —
far too much of GetAbout's grant money has
been spent on so-called "soft items" like staff salaries, consultants,
office rent, and several almost infamous multimillion dollar contracts
with Vangel and Associates to market a concept most Columbians
already understand: that walking and cycling are good ideas.
Instead of the grant's promised nineteen miles of new
trails; sixty-six miles of new bicycle lanes; nine miles of new sidewalks and
pedways; and two pedestrian bridges, Columbia has a new entrance to the
MKT trail on Providence and Stewart Roads, a few additional trails, and
faded bike path insignias called "sharrows" painted on
roadsides never altered to accomodate bike traffic.
As policy coordinator with the PedNet Coalition, Schmidt
commented on the problem of
motor vehicle/bicycle collisions, urging better education. Inadequate
infrastructure, however, contributes as much if not more to insufficient
safety.
In a
different role as president of the Benton-Stephens neighborhood
association, Schmidt tackled two high-profile
controversies.
An adult bookstore called "Passions" opened on Old 63
North in 2008, riling neighbors concerned that too many sex shops were
"clustering" in the Benton-Stephens area, around Stephens College and
Benton Elementary School. Passions' bright red neon sign elicited neighborhood
groans.
"It’s terrible signage; you wish there was a sign
ordinance you could get them on because it’s that bright-red neon, but I’m not
sure if there’s any law you could use," Schmidt told the Trib. "While
there’s a lot of grumbling about it, I’m sorry to say there are probably also
neighborhood patrons."
That same year, the Benton-Stephens neighborhood
association squared off against Country Club Estates neighbors
over the Landmark Hospital on Old 63, a 32,000-square-foot
healthcare facility Country Club residents mightily opposed.
"It will adjoin residential land, and it is a 24/7,
365-day-a-year hospital," said Country Club resident and former City Councilman Bob
Hutton. "Potentially an office use that is
just 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. would certainly be a lot more reasonable than a
hospital."
Benton-Stephens neighbors -- across the highway -- disagreed.
Benton-Stephens neighbors -- across the highway -- disagreed.
"Fred Schmidt, president of the Benton-Stephens group,
said he didn’t think the hospital would adversely affect traffic or the
character of the neighborhood," the Trib reported three years ago.
"A number of people felt this is really the best thing
that could happen on this property," Schmidt said. "I know it is something that
the proponents and the opponents see the same thing, and then come to different
conclusions. But personally, I think it might be just the thing that sets the
right tone for that area and keeps it from becoming more commercial. It may be
the thing that fits better with residential than anything else they can hope
for."
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