news story / By Heidi Walters

Out in the Rain

A pedaling courthouse worker just wants his secure bike parking back

(March 11, 2010)  For the past three and a half years, Rodney Brunlinger has ridden his bicycle every weekday to the Humboldt County Courthouse, where he’s worked for the same amount of years on the third floor in the assessor’s office. Come rain, fog, high winds or sloth.

And at first, when the 40-something assessor’s technician started bike commuting, everything was sweet. He was reducing his carbon footprint. Saving money. It was fun. He’d sold his car and outfitted himself with a 2005 remake of the 1955 Schwinn Deluxe Seven cruiser. Two-tone paint job in true blue and turquoise. Faux gas tank. White wall tires. Shiny chrome handlebars and fender stays.

Rodney Brunlinger on his new “Ol’ ‘55”. Photo by Heidi Walters.

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But then those shiny chrome parts began to rust. And the bike rack Brunlinger uses — on the I Street side of the courthouse — is so close to the curb, he says, that his bike’s been banged up by car doors. Once, someone left a partially eaten ice cream bar on the seat.

Brunlinger blames the county, which 15 months ago banned employees from parking their bikes in the rack in the courthouse basement.

“It’s the best bike Schwinn ever made, going to hell out here,” said Brunlinger last Wednesday evening outside the courthouse as he was getting ready to bike home. “It’s gotten rusty, vandalized, knocked over. Because who comes to this building? Criminals and wackos. But, I mean, screw my rust. You know what’s worse? Less people are riding bikes. Two people I work with have not ridden since they closed the garage. There used to be three to six bikes in the basement. I don’t see three to six bikes out here every day since they closed the basement.”

Meanwhile and contrarily, accuses Brunlinger, the county has launched a new campaign to … yes, get employees out of their cars and onto their bikes and feet.

The basement ban came in December 2008 after the county, under state mandate, installed the new courthouse security system that by now we’re all familiar with — those X-ray baggage scanners and walk-through metal detectors in the front and back lobbies of the courthouse, the guards, the “empty your pockets” and “lift up your pant legs to the top of your socks.” No security system was installed in the basement, however, where there’s another entrance into the building. Only department heads and uniformed law enforcement can park their cars in there. Other employees used to be able to park their bikes in a rack in there, at least, but now the rack is off limits to everyone.

“They think we have bike bombs or something,” Brunlinger said.

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