In a Cyclist-Friendly City, a Black Hole for Bikes

[depakid]

Source: NY Times


Toronto residents searched for their own stolen bicycles among 2,865 recovered by the police during an investigation of Igor Kenk.
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What exactly was he planning to do with 2,865 bicycles? That is just one of many questions the police and others have been puzzling over since the arrest last month of Igor Kenk, the owner of a used-bike shop here.

Mr. Kenk’s legacy now fills a former police garage with a leaky roof. Organized by brand name and mostly resting on their handlebars, wheels pointed upward, are 2,396 of the bicycles that police say Mr. Kenk either stole or arranged to have stolen.

The jumbled collection of bicycles suggests that Mr. Kenk is the unofficial world champion of bicycle thieves. But as he awaits trial next month on 58 charges related to theft and drug possession, the biggest mysteries of all are Mr. Kenk’s motives and his ultimate plan for the armada of steel, rubber and aluminum he amassed.

“He’s easily the most hated man in Toronto,” said Alex Jansen, a filmmaker who has been working on a documentary about Mr. Kenk for more than a year as part of a study of his rundown neighborhood’s transition to hipsterdom. “But I just found that it’s not as black and white as I originally thought.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/world/americas/22canada.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[ileus]

1. WOW....I'd love to walk among that many bikes at once.

[depakid]

2. Especially if one of them was yours!

I've had 3 stolen in the last 5 years- and all of them were locked.

[Fovea]

3. I have had two recumbents stolen in the same period

One was an Aluminum frame EZ Sport I built from the frameset up with a Shimano Ultegra gruppo.

I swear if I find the person who took it, I will eviscerate them with a dull spoon.

[cliffordu]

5. I lost one years ago. Now, the bike comes in with me. Or I don't go.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. Three of my bicycles were also stolen

one each in 1975, 1977, and 1979.

&%$#* bicycle thieves!

[arcadian]

4. That's the cool way to park a bike.

Every kid knows that.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. can you imagine George Bush's behavior there?

You STOLE these things? Hey, buddy, you need a job?

[riverdeep]

7. That's why you never ride a good bike in the city

if you're going to lock it up. It sucks, but bike thievery is a huge problem in many cities. Unfortunately, authorities don't take it very seriously. As a result, many people just opt not to commute by bike, therefore increasing the use of oil, which people do seem to take more seriously. What are needed are secure locations for locking your bike, something like a parking garage for bikes would be ideal. A building could set aside a small area with racks, you check in your bike and pay a small fee, and a security guard possibly working for the building could double as a watcher for the bikes. The building takes in a little extra income and the bike owners are more secure, the city is less polluted and congested, etc. No government involvement needed.

Many serious bike riders have two bikes: their decent ones that they never let leave their sight and only ride in secure areas, and their junk bikes for riding around town and that they won't really miss if stolen.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. They've got bicycle parking garages here in Japan

The one I use costs less than $1 a day

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. The picture...wow

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Business model for a used bike shop: Steal the inventory

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. I lock mine and i watch it like a hawk

when I ride to the coffee shop... fortunately I can keep it in sight at all times

Fortunately I am not the only rider and none of us has had an issue, YET