last month...

i sent along some emails to camba; and i did receive a response shortly after, and i quote:

As far as your other question about urban mountain bike parks, we've been approached a few times about things like this. A few years back the city of Cleveland had a project to build a mountain bike park in Midtown. We talked with them a few times to provide some expertise around the situation but it would not have been a CAMBA built trail. A similar thing is going on in the Old Brooklyn area right now.

For the time being we're not giving up on making our 100 mile trail vision a reality. We've been working long and hard on the three park systems to show them that Mountain Biking is a legitimate and desired recreational activity in North East Ohio. They know we're not going anywhere and changing our focus now would jeopardize all the hard work. Personally I think the urban parks are very cool; I've been to colonnade in Seattle and it's really impressive to see what they've done there. For CAMBA though, we owe it to our members and to the region to make sure we make the best out of the situation. That means taking advantage of the massive potential that exists in our park systems. Don't worry, we're making progress, and this will all be worth it when we've got 100 miles of single track.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. If you can do me a favor too, I'd appreciate it. Our membership numbers always drop a bit over the winter months. Make sure all of your riding buddies are CAMBA members. We need to be sure that our voice is as large as possible. Strength is in numbers.

:end quote.

this came from brett. i guess i understand their position/view. two points i take away from this; (one), it is true that all cleveland/northeast ohioians need to join. as i have stated before this is political. even though you don't want to admit it; it is. re-read his last sentence. (two), urban 'sport' parks are important, and are a really good idea. this is the place were kids are able to hang out and play in their neighborhood. they can't drive miles to go play, so why not use some area in the neighborhood to do so? so, i'm going to see what i'm able to do in my neighborhood, and go from there. esp. since there is something being planned in my area. more on that once i get it...

amitabha...