The Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op in New Haven has two main goals: to bring people together by rehabbing bicycles and matching bicycles to the people who need them. WSHU's Good at Heart host Randye Kaye speaks with the co-op's general manager, Kyle Anthony, about how they boost their community with bikes.
WSHU: Kyle Anthony from the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op. Wow, I have five questions for you. This is in New Haven, Connecticut.
KA: Yes, on Bradley Street.
WSHU: Amazing on Bradley Street. And the website is bsbc.co.?
KA: dot co, yeah.
WSHU: Okay, so who do you help with your co-op, and how do you do it?
KA: The short answer is that we help anyone who's interested in bikes. People are able to come to us and learn. We're not a bike shop. That's kind of the thing that is different about what we do in the bike community. But we are a learning workshop, and we're a community space. So we exist to create a nice space for people to come learn about their bikes and fix their bikes. We also sell bikes. We also donate bikes. So every year, we save 700 bikes from landfills. We…
WSHU: You save 700 bikes.
KA: Yeah, every year, 700 plus even. Our volunteers come in, and we're there a couple of days a week to help fix bikes. Fix our bikes, fix people's bikes. It creates a nice, fun environment for everyone to learn in. And then we're able to turn 300 bikes a year around for people who need them, and 300 bikes a year around a year for people who need to buy them. So we can give bikes in a lot of different ways.
WSHU: Wow. And it's all volunteer.
KA: Well, we have a small staff. I'm one, and then we have a lead mechanic who's great, and a couple of other mechanics and people who help out.
WSHU: Tell us how this got started and why you were the one to do it.
KA: Well. So I love bikes, and I didn't actually start the bike Co Op. Our good friend John Martin started the co op 10 years ago. We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. My love for bikes and my interest in knowledge and being around bikes and being around community, I've just ridden forever, and somewhere in the mix, I gained a lot of knowledge. None of us even knew how to ride bikes before we started. So, someday you learn how to ride a bike, and the next thing you need to learn is how to fix a bike. And if you know, gather that knowledge, and you can take care of your bike or become an avid fixer of bikes. The next thing you can do is hand that knowledge off to other people. And that's kind of a nice mix. You know, it's a nice thank you for cycling.
WSHU: Yeah, I love that. But how did this morph into an actual Co Op? I get it, and I there's no AAA for bicycle that I know of. Maybe AAA will save you if you have a bicycle flat tire.
ANTHONY: I think they might.
WSHU: They might, but at any rate, you're not feeding people fish. You're teaching them to fish. So how did this philosophy, this revelation that you own a bike, it's great. Learn to fix it. How did it now become the Bradley Street co op?
KA: Ten years ago, John Martin, our good friend, had the opportunity to clean out a building that his father owns, and in the process of cleaning the building out, he wanted to do something fun for himself and the community. He was freshly back in New Haven after being away for school and a couple of opportunities. So he just thought, well, “I have tools, and I have a bike stand, and I've cleaned up the front half of this building, and every day I clean up the back half of the building, but every afternoon, maybe I could open the doors and see what happens.” And on his first or second day of being there, he had a volunteer, and he met other people in the cycling community who were trying to help. We built a partnership with Connecticut Mental Health Center, and through that, we made a lot of friends, and we started gathering a lot of bikes, fixing a lot of bikes, and giving them out. And 10 years on, the numbers grow every year, and our ability to reach people grows every year. Our volunteer base grows every year and also our volunteer base changes every year. We have so many students in our cohort, in our core volunteer group.
WSHU: Like from Yale and Southern…
KA: Yeah, okay. So we have a lot of people who we get to know really well for four years, and then they move on. But every year, we have a new batch of people who are just looking for a place to hang their hat and be helpful and make friends. I'd lived in New Haven for a long time. I had moved away, and when I came back, I was looking for community and looking for friends. started going to the bike Co Op, just as a person who knew enough about some bikes to be a little helpful. And I started showing up kind of every day for a couple of months. I spent a summer there while on vacation, and it blossomed into me showing up every day and getting to be one of the big helpers.
WSHU: One of the big helpers. I love that because, at the heart of this whole show, are experiences like that. You know, people are looking for community. People are looking to feel purposeful. People are looking to resonate with other humans, and what better than to give of your time and give of your gifts? And that's exactly what you're doing. So what does this Co-op look like? If I'm going down Bradley Street, what do I see, and when we open the door, what would we - and you're not open five days a week, right?
KA: Correct. Yeah, we're there three afternoons a week to the public, and then two Saturdays a month. And we also have an auxiliary location in Newhallville, which is a kind of reverse of what we look like in Newhallville. We have a shipping container in the summer, in the nicer weather, spring to fall, where there are two Saturdays a month, helping people in Newhallville fix their bikes and get them.
WSHU: Where is Newhallville?
KA: Newhallville is kind of the northernmost neighborhood in New Haven, on Dixwell, headed to Hamden.
WSHU: Okay, okay.
KA: Just about the last neighborhood going north out of New Haven.
WSHU: On an afternoon, then when you're open, I'm walking down the street, and what do I see? Is there a hand-lettered sign? Or do you have a real sign, like, what does it look like, and what goes on inside?
KA: Yeah. So we have a very beautiful plywood sign, and we have a beautiful triangular chalkboard. I think when you're walking down the street, in a nice way, it is pure chaos. Our building is a couple 100 years old, a former bus depot that was cut in half by the city when they built the Trumbull Ave connector. It is a strange brick building with a roll-up garage door, and it holds, on any given day, fixing bikes. It comfortably holds eight people working on their bikes, and on every beautiful day of the year that we're open, there are 20 or 30 people working on their bikes spilling out onto the sidewalk. It's a real mix of what New Haven has to offer. We have Yale students, and we have high school students, and we have professors; it's a jumble of humanity. And everyone's there. We have regular unhoused people who are visiting us. And on any given day, at one stand, there'll be a person fixing their $2,000 bike, and then on the other stand next to them will be a person who found a bike and has no other means of transportation, and they're just there getting a flat tire fixed. And we'll see them once a week for the entire summer, trying to turn that bike into a bike that rolls well, I wouldn't say perfectly, but it rolls well.
WSHU: I can just picture it. That's a great description, like a quilt of humanity. What does a bicycle mean for someone who is in the Connecticut mental health system or unhoused? What difference can a working bicycle mean?
KA: For sure, it's a lifeline. People who are trying to find jobs. Aren't always lucky to have jobs in their neighborhood or across the street from their house. So we do have a lot of people who feel lucky to have found the job that they have, but it is unfortunately out of town, and they could take the bus, but the timings are inconvenient. And then I meet a lot of people who just have another mile to go past the bus stop. And they come to us, and they they know that a bike will get them from point A to point B to point C to point D, and all of those points on the map are their jobs, doctor's appointments, family, friends, keeping them out in the world, keeping them in front of the people who are caring for them, and keeping them there to care for the people that they care about. It makes a lot of difference for people's lives to be able to get where they need to go.
WSHU: I love that. Can I ask you, what do you do when you're not volunteering at this, or is this your full-time job?
KA: Oh, this is my full-time job. I am. I am the luckiest boy in all of the world. I'm there 30 hours or so a week. I volunteer the rest of the time.
WSHU: It's great. Yeah, fantastic. So, of course, now we know the bicycle. Vehicles, and all of this is on your website. And you know, bicycling is great for your health. There are entire countries where more people ride bicycles than drive cars, and it's great for the environment and all kinds of things. But there's always a stumbling block when we want to do what's good for us, and sometimes owning a bike, affording a bike, fixing a bike, can be some of those stumbling blocks. So you help with all of that. Do you have one particular story about somebody that the co-op helped that you'd like to share? Or does anything come to mind? If not, that's okay.
KA: Oh yeah. I mean, let me think for one second. There are people who get bikes from us, and I never see them again. And I like to think that that's perfect. You know, they made it to where they need to go, and they're still going, and maybe their bike never broke again, and that's perfect. We do have a lot of people who I've watched just grow as people. We have a lot of people who've received bikes from us who, as time has gone on, I've now known them for four years. I've known them for five years, and now they are people who got a bike through a program where they were being helped with mental illness, right? And now they are excited members of a community where they help other people get bicycles in the same way. So I have people who come to our bike giveaways now to be helpful mediators between the people who are getting bikes and me. And we've made friends all along the way. The co-op is very politically engaged, and the members of the co-op have a vast array of very positive beliefs. We're at a March in New Haven, trying to be helpful to a cause that we believe in. And I saw two of our friends from CMHC, Connecticut Mental Health Center. And I went over, and I was like, oh, when you see a buddy, you gotta go say hi to a buddy. And they were just standing on the corner, and they said, “Where are you guys going?” And we said, “Oh, we're marching”. And they said, “Oh, we'll march with you”. And they joined the protest. You know, there's something beautiful about that.
WSHU: So this brings us all back to community. And honestly, I'm sitting here with you, and I see your eyes light up just talking about this. And everybody would love to feel this way about their work. And I will say, as someone who has a son with a mental health issue, that the thing that helps him that has to be there, along with treatment are community, purpose, and structure. So there's a big difference between receiving help and being given the opportunity to give help, which is what you do in your co op. So, question number three: how can people help the co-op? How can people help you?
KA: There are three main ways that people can help the co-op. One is if people have bikes in their garage or in their basement and they want them to go somewhere, they want them to have a second life. They want them to know that they're back out there in the world, so they should bring them by.
WSHU: Save you a trip to the landfill.
KA: Indeed, indeed, any of our open hours were there to receive donations. So if you have one bike or 100 bikes in your basement, you should shoot us an email or give us a call or just come on by during our hours.
WSHU: What about half a bike?
KA: Half a bike? We'll take parts. We were happy to have anything, as long as it is a bicycle, we're happy to take it. Unfortunately, no E-bikes. Currently, our bikes are always about 20 years behind where the rest of the cycling community is at.
WSHU: So that's number one.
KA: Number one, number two is if you have the funds to spare, and you know you would like to know that your money is going directly to a positive learning experience for people and putting people on bikes who need them. We take financial donations, monetary help it at, you know, any amount
WSHU: From the website,
KA: Yeah, the main thing is that a fully fixed bike is 100 to $200. We take what we get. We do a lot of work with a very small amount. And we can get as many people on bikes as there are bikes to give to people every year. There's almost never a shortage of people who could use help. And there's always a bike for them. When we can make it happen.
WSHU: Love it.
KA: And then the third way is volunteering. I mean, it is a beautiful place to spend time and make friends. When I started volunteering at the co-op, it was a cool clubhouse. When I started working at the co-op, I realized how so much the help that we give actually translates into it being a cool clubhouse. So it used to be clubhouse first, and now for me, it's the help, but I think that it can still be clubhouse. And if you're looking for a place to learn about bikes. You don't need to know anything about bikes. We're there to help you learn. And if you know anything about bikes and you are trying to just get your knowledge out into the world, the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op is the place for you.
WSHU: Is this a model, by the way, that is picked up in other communities around the nation?
KA: We are part of a rich tradition of very odd outsider bicycle workshops. Just about any city in America, you'll find something that looks like a bike Co Op. There's not really a singular model for what it is, but charitable bike work exists in every city, and we love to visit them, and we love to share stories. And I don't mean to brag, but I have been told that ours is everybody's favorite. That's just, that's just what I've heard those are the that's what's on the street.
WSHU: So people can come visit and learn how to do it in their own communities.
KA: Exactly
WSHU: So two final questions. Question four is always who or what has inspired you. Is there a quote or philosophy you live by? Maybe from your father-in-law, maybe from a book. Is there a quote or philosophy you live by that inspires you?
KA: Everything my father-in-law has ever told me is inspiring. But I will say that our volunteers inspire me, our staff, our board members, everybody involved in our community, really inspires me. The nice thing is that the cycling community as a whole is full of really wonderful people, and we have gotten to where we are with everyone's help. And, you know, it's like, I would like to just say that, like our founder, John Martin, inspired me to be here. Joel LaChance, his mentor, inspired him. Our good friends, Martin Flores and Mitch Dubey, inspired me. He was a great friend and a great cyclist and a great friend of the cycling community. All the New Haven bike shops, the Devil's Gear, and Amity Bikes. They're not our competition. They're our friends. It's beautiful. We send people to them. They send people to us. It is just a nice network, you know. And I feel like very proud to be part of a tradition, you know, it's, it's wonderful.
WSHU: I love that. Final question. Why do you think we're here on Earth?
KA: I think we're here to be here, and I think we're here to be here together. You know, I know that the world is a really lonely and can be a scary place. And it gets a lot easier to live in this world, the less you have to be alone in it. So I'm always happy to be here, and I'm happier to be here with other people. So it's wonderful.
WSHU: I love that. Well. Kyle, thank you so much. It's the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op. The website is bsbc.co, and you can volunteer. You can take advantage. You can come down and check it out in New Haven, Connecticut. Thank you so much for doing your part to make the world better.
