Jenny,

Awesome, awesome feedback and energy. I'm very inspired and reassured by the support of this group and welcome additional feedback and ideas of how to proceed. Sunday and low traffic makes a ton of sense. At the bike board we also discussed the Friday rides and the night lantern or light ride/walk event may work out very well on the trail (and the Greenmont connector all the better!)

I spoke with Bill briefly at the Kern's Bridge opening on Saturday and he suggested also bringing this to the meeting of the whole. This way, leaders from each neighborhood association can hear about this proposal and perhaps start the conversation about starting location for inaugural event and options to rotate. Alternatively, we also have the Ped and H&W meetings to invite conversation and I'm happy to meet directly with neighborhood leaders at their regular meetings as well.

Sincerely, Jesse

On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 9:36 AM, Jennifer Selin < jennyformorgantown@gmail.com> wrote:

PARKing day could use a boost! It is usually just a few spaces on high street. They convert a parking space into a parklet. Ella has the definition right, it could be broadened. It is international!

Sundays also work well for these events, if during the day, People are looking for things to do and the traffic patterns are more relaxed. The bike board had some wonderful social rides on Friday evenings. I like the idea of non competitive point to point events similar to a folks march, the family resource center has had several of them.

Back to open streets, we can just select a part of town and plan an event, maybe a Sunday afternoon, we would want enough distance to make it fun but small enough to be able to close it off and police it. Best not on a game weekend, the police get tired.

People would really enjoy using their streets for fun!!!

Jenny Jenny Selin Cell 304-685-6569 Public Employees may disregard this message

On Jul 30, 2018, at 9:25 AM, Ella Belling ella@montrails.org wrote:

I will just throw out a possible date and event-

International PARK(ing) Day

When:September 21, 2018 Location:worldwide Around the globe, people are celebrating the international PARK(ing) Day, an initiative to promote re-thinking of public space. It always takes place the 3rd friday of september. The idea is to transform parking lots into parks, playgrounds, BBQ parties, gardens...Grey parking places are beeing transformed into a liveable and creative space.

Ella Belling Executive Director Mon River Trails Conservancy P.O. Box 282 Morgantown, WV 26507 http://montrails.org 304-692-6782

On Jul 30, 2018, at 1:56 AM, matthew crossnyc@hotmail.com wrote:

Greetings, Matthew Cross of the Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board here. Thank you Jesse for volunteering towards this effort. With attempts in the past the biggest hurdle is WVDOH control of the primary downtown streets. They have been reluctant to close off vehicular traffic. But we can come up with another attempt or different plans entirely as we have some great creative minds to work with. I have a flexible schedule so just let me know of any meeting plans. The Ped Board could also host you at one of our meetings to get things started.

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*From:* Jesse Heady jesse@heady.name *Sent:* Friday, July 27, 2018 10:16 AM *To:* traci.knabenshue@mail.wvu.edu; Vicki.Hoover@mail.wvu.edu; clement.solomon@mail.wvu.edu; mwiles@boparc.org; ella@montrails.org; kellyrwilliams@msn.com; jessicaharmening@gmail.com; cabildso@yahoo.com; Stanley.Cohen@mail.wvu.edu; frn@unitedwaympc.org; daniel.shook@hsc.wvu.edu ; crossnyc@hotmail.com; billregernash@gmail.com; wellwvu@mail.wvu.edu; barb@downtownmorgantown.com *Cc:* Jonathan Rosenbaum; Drew Gatlin; J.D. Gatlin; rwallace@morgantownwv. gov; Bill; Bicycle Board *Subject:* Help bring Open Streets festivals to Morgantown

Hello,

I’ve recently met with the Morgantown Bicycle Board at their July 12 meeting regarding promotion and advocacy for Open Streets style of events in and around the Morgantown area. We had a very positive discussion about the potential we have in Morgantown for recurring events focused on bicycle and other pedestrian traffic in downtown and surrounding neighborhood streets. We also covered a number of previous discussions and individuals who have been instrumental to bringing this topic up in the past and understand this is not a new concept, and would like to work together to build a broader coalition.

I've been collaborating with Jonathan Rosenbaum of Positive Spin in the interim and your name or your group has come up as a potential partner and advocate for a broader coalition in the Morgantown area. We need your help to build support and organize a formal working group to bring an Open Streets event series to Morgantown and surrounding neighborhoods.

We have a very vibrant, strong, and growing community in Morgantown. Open street style events have the potential be great attractions for local and regional participants of every age group and interest for all pedestrian traffic on open streets. They also reinforce other working group efforts to bring unity between communities through arts, small business, and community collaboration while highlighting individual neighborhoods and commerce downtown.

These points are the focus for discussion with you and/or your group at your next regular meeting, or a time where we can all meet to discuss as a group:

• Develop a plan for community-based, organized and executed bicycle

and foot traffic public events mirroring larger city events like Atlanta Streets Alive and Open Streets Pittsburgh to include:

• • Daytime, multi-part community rotating street festival that
  encourages pedestrian foot traffic, bicycling, and skating with vendors and businesses on city streets and neighborhoods
  • Evening time pedestrian course with emphasis on community
  interaction, connection of neighborhoods, artistic expression and movement, and light-based decoration of bicycles and other creative lanterns or devices -- rail trail is an obvious and non-intrusive option
  • Examples of inspiration: Atlanta Streets Alive
  http://www.atlantastreetsalive.com/, Atlanta Moon Ride http://atlantamoonride.com/, and OpenStreetsPGH http://openstreetspgh.org/
  • Project framework: Open Streets Project
  http://openstreetsproject.org/
  • Develop strategies to over come challenges in permitting/budget

and other area, align to existing events and working groups, sponsorships through leading entities in our region, promotion and advocacy partnerships, and understand how and what is possible to achieve these events on a regular cadence

In the examples linked above, these types of events are proven to draw crowds and attention, and bring interconnected communities closer together. Now is the time for Morgantown to adopt more of these events, to compliment and expand upon the success of events such as Kids Day downtown. Events like these also reinforce the positive message of being green through cycling, reinforcing pedestrian traffic in high volume vehicle areas, and highlight the need for pedestrian safety in a positive and interactive setting. This last point is especially important given deadly accidents involving pedestrians in the last couple of years in Morgantown.

We are working to carry the same message to other board meeting(s), groups, and leaders to solicit a broader coalition of stakeholders. I'm offering my time as a volunteer citizen interested in reinforcing positive and deliberate progress for this and other initiatives in Morgantown through organization, advocacy, writing, web development, and any other way I can be of service. I hope we can count on your own passion and advocacy to join our initiative to make this vision a reality for Morgantown.

I also ask that you please freely share this message with your colleagues as we work to further expand education, understanding, and support for this initiative. There may be individuals or groups that were missed in this initial phase of communication; this was not intentional and we want to ensure every group who wants to contribute, or who may be an invaluable partner, to know they are welcome and encouraged to participate.

Thank you! I very much appreciate your time and attention to these items in this unsolicited and lengthy email, and I very much look forward to your feedback, and meeting with you to organize and bring this shared vision to a reality. Our next steps are scheduling time to meet and discuss the items above in more detail. Thank you in advance for your reply with your availability to meet.

Sincerely,

Jesse Heady

jesse@heady.name (404) 314-9787