For the love of Decatur, Illinois

Good in the Hood

Too often news from the inner city is of degradation, or decay. 

Decatur's North Church street is no stranger to this narrative.

In the same fields that once held Grandma Heinkel's ponds and gardens, many old Decatur houses were demolished for security.  

Nonetheless, fearless locals know this is not the whole story. Hope, happiness and entrepreneurial vigor thrive in inner city Decatur. 

Darien Patterson and Andra Robb

Alley ways are some of the funnest places to be. Hidden, and removed, natural and soft underfoot, alley ways offer a different perspective of the homes and their back yards.

One example on North Church Street is a local Congregation bought and reconditioned an old house, fixed it up in grand style, and poured a concrete basketball court just off the alley that the local children play at regularly. 

Still, the alley way sometimes gathers trash, gets overgrown, and can even become impassable. 

Big pot holes, big puddles.

On the first Saturday in June 2024, presenting cook-out hospitality to their neighbors, two Decatur businessmen, Darien Patterson and Andra Robb ignited the fires of vision and neighborhood pride. They developed a plan to do most of the work in advance themselves, then cook up some good food, invite people, and host a work party called "Clean up The Block."  

The result was a rain-soaked clean-up party that offered nutrition for the body, and soul on the N. Church Street alley off West Division. 

Featuring a conspicuously flamboyant 10 x 20 white pop up tent with mosquito net windows seemed a bold sentinel against overwhelming odds. 

Community volunteers.

Springtime Illinois rain drops the size of snails poured hard against the earth, making it muddier and less desirable. 

Prospects were not looking good beforehand when the dark gray sun rose above the house tops and deciduous trees. 

After mowing throughout the previous week these Saturday morning rain storms seemed ominous , "It did not look good this morning," Robb said. "But I was going to put all that food out there no matter how much we got done." 

Neighborhood event promoter Andra Robb watched the huge drops smack the pavement with incredulous eyes. Hoping against hope, the time would be right to fire up his stoves.

Robb fired up his stoves to showcase a lunch of local faire. Maybe he was cooking for maybe twenty five to thirty people today. He had no way of knowing. The goal was to mow the grass, repair the pot holes in the alley, haul trash and eat bratwurst. 

Three big rain storms blew through town, yet laughter whooped and hollered out from under the tent. When the rain stopped the workers ran out and moved sand from Maskies or hauled a sofa to the big dumpster donated by DP Dumpster and Container.

Who knew lifting furniture and trash, filling pot holes, fleeing to a big tent filled with great food every time it rained, was in fact a great way to have big fun?

Sand from Maske's

Local Volunteers included neighborhood handy men, the promoter and his family, as well as folks visiting from Indianapolis and Kansas City. 

They took up repairing potholes in between rainstorms.

Our two sons of Decatur, Darien Patterson and Andra Robb had already implemented a multi day campaign of alley clean up of the few blocks long alley with mowing services, then on Saturday they presented for public consumption,  lunch and a dumpster. 

It was the perfect Saturday recipe for getting rid of clutter and "Spring cleaning" the house and yard.

Serving local Heinkel's Bratwurst to volunteers, rain soaked workers shoveled Maske's Organic Gardening alley gravel that somehow did not seem so heavy.  

Now pot holes were being filled just the week before the First Christian Church, and other congregations were going to present their summer prayer camps and parties along the alley. 

 

Back on the block, up and down the alley, neighborhood families were too happy to take the opportunity to fill a dumpster, as participation was brisk. Five houses participated.

Ali Jr. says, "Lets go!"

Dodging big rain, volunteers still filled the dumpster in less than two hours.

Ali Camara Jr. or "Lil Ali"  rode his bike on the dirt alley, and loved it!

Special Thanks to the Andra Robb Family, the Camara Family, Nik Gaffron, and Jay Johnson. Maske's Organic Gardening, Trump Printers, and Heinkel's Meat Packing Company.

Most of all, DP Dumpster and Container, and Dra's Five Star Lawn Services Dream Team. 

Without you, this would not have happened.

Grandma Heinkel would have been proud of this crew.

The invisible "Man Before."

D. Pulliam, D. Lall, R. Bahati, M. Richey, J. Williams
Poolside at LA Marriot

Cycling Coach David Pulliam is a Revolutionary

In American Bicycle Racing, the racing discipline of the Criterium is lead by what goes on in Southern California.  

For instance, Coryn (Rivera) Labecki of Garden Grove, recently won her second Pro National Criterium Championship two years in a row!

The Criterium race is typically a short fast circuit race that attacks tight turns on urban blocks, and is popular amongst fans and sponsors alike. Unlike road bicycle racing, the big packs of cyclists don't just fly by once after a long wait, but burst into sight every few minutes.

In American cycling,  the lion's share of America's Criterium National Champions rise up from streets of Los Angeles. Currently the most famous leaders of this discipline are faces of color, so often missing from the sport of cycling. In criterium racing, L.A.'s own, Coryn (Rivera) Labecki, Rahsaan Bahati, and the Williams brothers have revolutionized the discipline, and the sport.

What does this group have in common? They all were advised, served, or simply, their parents were befriended, by a little elder Angelino named David Pulliam.

Champions become champions because someone in the know recognizes their awkward and inelegant potential, and advises them with a palatable bit of relevant information. In any sport, with any developing star, there is a period of uncertainty when the careful voice of experience illuminates the budding brilliance within.

In SoCal bicycle racing circles, David Pulliam is recognized for his elegant timing, his kindness, and his endless generosity. This is not your "scream insults" type of coach.  Dave is a listener. His laughter is an affirming soul food for cyclists trying to get to the top.  After listening, Pulliam may not speak many words, but instead will show up the following day with the bike part that, upon his installation, make the athlete's back feel better and ride flat, out of the wind.

His words and maneuvers instill strength, speed, and technical skill into cycling athletes. Sometimes he works on the young Champion's parents. Other times he assists the coach they already have, and improves their training program with his curiosity.

Born in the late 1950s in Athen's Heights, David came up working construction with his father. Considered well mannered, and curious by the nuns at school, David was a small fella who wore glasses with a prescription as thick as coke bottles. 

David began riding and racing with the Major Motion Cycling Club in the 1980s. Major Motion, a predominantly African American cycling club took their name from the all but forgotten American World Champion of 1899, Marshall "Major" Taylor. The Major's incredible speed and aristocratic demeanor was world renowned at the turn of the century, but by the mid 1930's the collective memory had been erased in the United States. In the late-1990's the Major Motion Cycling Club of Los Angeles discovered their own Major Taylor incarnate when they nurtured a young man from Leimert Park named Rahsaan Bahati.

Bahati brightened the elite cycling scene when he won Silver at the Junior National Championships in 1999. He won the next year in 2000. Recruited for the National Team in Europe, he became a media darling. He was celebrated in, and beyond the American Cycling scene throughout the early 2000 and 2010's. As a professional cyclist, Rahsaan Bahati inspired up coming youth, and adult cyclists, around the world.

Three wide eyed young cyclists who as Belezian immigrants growing up in South Central saw the example of Bahati, were brothers Justin, CJ, and Cory Williams. Upon joining the Major Motion Junior Development squad, their father Calman, a bicycle racer himself, became fast friends with David Pulliam.   

Two peas in a pod at race side, Calman and Dave could be seen in close conference at Elite Junior races all over America. To this day, when asked about David Pulliam, Calman Willams becomes ebullient. "None of this could have happened without David!" exclaims Calman.

And what happened next, is as they say, history.

LEGION of LA , the unprecedented, and historic pro cycling team created by Justin Williams, leads modern American Pro Criterium Racing today. By building formidable "lead out" formations at the end of races, they win again and again. The "Lead Out" is a team formation that cuts the wind for the star who then "sits in" or rests while the team keep the speed to the finish so high, no one can come around before their star jumps away.

"The Williams brothers's Legion of LA came to dominate American criterium racing like no other team since Team 7-11 of the late 1980's." says Ken Nowakaski, retired head coach of nation leading, Marian College Cycling Program of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Los Angeles has become a fertile spawning ground for champion cyclists, especially in the discipline of criterium racing.  Criteriums are the most exciting, often frightening, tight circuit races that utilize speed and iron nerve. Cutting into corners on thin rubber tires only inches away from the next racer, is not for the faint of heart.

In the early two decades of this century, Dave Pulliam's Major Taylor Junior Development Cycling Program was pumping out National Champions regularly. Men were not the only product, either. Dave was very effective directing young female racers to the Championship Podium. Coryn perfected her sprint sprinting for traffic lights against Alex Garcia and Justin Williams.  Alexis and Kendal Ryan, as well as, Carla and Paulina Lopez came to the team to race with a young Corynn Rivera.

This began "the Mexican Connection"  Arturo and Ceazar Lopez were two fathers who brought their children to Dave. 

Freddy and Ricky Cruz were affiliated with Dave especially in preparation for a Canadian bench mark stage race called L'Attibi.  Freddy Cruz went on to coach Issac Del Toro who recently won Europe's highly esteemed Tour de France prep race called Tour de L'Avinir. 

(see Issac here)

Nowadays, Pulliam feeds his recruits into Damon Turner's Los Angeles Bicycle Academy. LABA's rise in bicycle racing over the last two years has been meteoric. It's no secret.

At race side the careful observer will see the very fastest racers take time to hold court with the venerable little man with the big glasses, because one bit of his advice can make all the difference between seeing it coming, or wondering what just happened.

Seeds of Championship

 

JUMPED!

Interest in the sport 

of road racing has not waned since "Covid," regardless of the stats reported by the cycling industry.

Every day I see young people sprinting for fitness with a hunger for victory in their eyes. 

Moreover, elder statesmen continue to defend the finish line that is the new comers'rite of passage.

Caught back ON!

When a new talented cyclist arrives at that crossroads where they wonder, "should I get serious about this?" Time and time again, Cyclisme is there to clear the path to success. 

On any hot June Noon, the Olde Man of the Road, Tim Bergmann is out there taking it on the chin.

The new kid is strong as an Ox and they have been ripping into the wind out Willamette Blvd for the last half hour.

Now here comes the PIER PARK sign for Sprint Prime Points. The Kid is strong but Tebo is cagey. 

This is how it happens. Games are played, people are out of breath and camaraderie builds alliances. Repetition is yet to bring prowess, but today the victory is in the introduction.

Soon, we will organize the Team Lead Out.

The Big Show!

Cross Nationals
Watching Mateen warm up in the pre dawn mist, I exclaimed to Tom Durkin, and my wife Sarah Joy, (and anyone else who would listen, "We made it!"
"With every practice lap, he is justifying our practice, our perseverance, and the plethora of pre-paid passes!"



It was such a thrill to be at the raceside, in Fort Steilacoom Park. Arriving rested and ready, we remembered business leaders like, Holly Bussmus (see here), Steve Martine (see here),  Bob Mionskie (see here), Bob Grummel (see here), and Dave Guettler (see here) came together and supported a local HS student's dream.

After pre-riding the course on the day before his Junior 17-18 Juniors' race, Mateen Richey said with some wide eyed concern, "it's a hard course!"

Intimidating slopes.

Mud teaches many lessons.
Seventy young men from all over The Nation brought their bicycles to Tacoma Washington on Sunday December 15th to face the mud, and each other in the 2019 United States Cyclocross Championship, and no one rode away unchanged.

Called up to the start line in 69th place, Mateen had a plan.

He knew his one advantage at the back
was a clear view of the whole pack in front of him.  Mateen's plan was to watch for congestion early, and try to go around.
He figured, if he could find a clear line early, he could establish a good position to chase the front runners.

tire inspection

When the race began, the pace was very fast. It was all he could do to hold his position, until congestion came upon the set up corner to the big muddy run up. This was the early congestion he was looking for. When suddenly twenty people bogged down almost to a stop Mateen went around the outside out into the tape.

Tiring depths.

A HS track 200m hurdler, Mateen powered to the front of this immediate cluster of riders.  Now he was in the low forties. But soon a hard hop-on remount broke his seat adjustment bolt and his saddle was all over the place.
Running into the pit, he found three men waiting including Denzel, Bob Grummel,  and his father Mikail, were all waiting to hand him a new bike.

By this time however, all the wrestling around the broken saddle had done its damage to his position in the race. After the bike swap, Mateen fought to hold on and ended up racing near other familiar Oregon riders, but never to surge past 50th again. Finishing 56th and not being lapped were his victories in his first Cross Nationals.

Mateen was in a fight amongst the back 30. Racing hard, Mateen saw it as a good race because he came in thirteen places improved.
Finishing amidst other well known Oregon riders just four seconds behind Jackson Loftus and ahead of Tigard's Tyger Westerfield it was a familiar finish.

Benefits of going to Nationals included a new strength found. A humbled realization, and an elegant sense of self initialized. Parents and family were drawn together and encouraged. Our foundation is in place to improve in 2020.

The Road to his first Nationals

When Mateen Richey 
was a child, 
we marveled 
at his ability to stay motivated 
and keep his bicycle upright in chaos.
Kids on Bikes activities at Blazer Boys and Girls Club put cyclists all around him and in his way.
His goal was to not to dap (put his foot down.)
As an 8 year old, he was a master. (see 8 yr old here)

Mateen always rode his bicycle in silence, and with a smile.

Unfortunately, we lost track of him for a spell. A few years.
Chaos had been no stranger in his young life.

A cacophonous parental divorce charged the tenor of his upbringing. Young parents in poverty were challenged to despair.
Everyone in Mateen's family love him and help him. They all want the best for this young star.

Luckily, his grandfather had an extra room in his house and $20 in his pocket to go get some dinner at Taco Bell. It was time of rest and recovery. As well as gentle recovery in an intellectual setting.


Grandpa's level of support allowed Mateen to attend his first year of HS at about 75% consistency, and periodic school security escorts to the principle's office.
This time in life allowed Mateen to nearly live at the Mt. Scott Community Center, playing basketball.


Swimming is a big part of Bicycles and Ideas for Kids' Empowerment, and on one of trips to the pool, we spotted Mateen. We swam at Mt. Scott Pool where he played pick-up basketball.
Now over five feet tall, Mateen was attending high school in his Freshman year.  Miraculously in this same week, one of b.i.k.e.'s most famous volunteers met Mateen's Math Teacher in a bar.

b.i.k.e. was given the private cell number of the very teacher who had to call the school security. When I called and introduced myself, we only spoke of general programming ideas at first. But soon, I revealed I had a kid in our program that might be in his class. When I said the child's name the math teacher gasped with astonishment. This was one of the kids he had been having the trouble with.

Next thing you knew, we were all out to dinner sharing a meal. (see here)

His team of elders.

One thing led to another, and a Stanford Phd. Mathematician named Study Buddy J got on Skype with Mateen. With a Math tutor, Mateen was transformed. His math class under the watchful eye of his math teacher, became a study skills laboratory. Improvement in math study skills steadily transformed Mateen's approach to his entire class load. Last term Mateen received a 3.5 gpa.

Mateen has been thinking lately he might study to become a CPA like his brother in The Lore of Cyclisme, Stephen Bedford.

December 15th in Lakewood Washington, Mateen will race in his first NATIONALS.

USA CYCLOCROSS NATIONALS in the ELITE JUNIOR 17-18 Division.

Watch the live feed at 8:15AM (here) and  https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/information/news/2019-usa-cycling-cyclocross-nationals-live-stream.html

A Village for a Champion

Behavior in a young person's life, is the currency with which they purchase opportunity. Whether they are being cool amongst their peers, or being responsible amongst adults, their choices how to move and breathe manifest their lot in life.

Mateen Richey was born a quite kid. Back in the day when his high school age mentors from the Cyclisme racing program announced he was their pick from the Blazer Boys and Girls Club Kids on Bikes Program  pool of talent.  Back in 2013, he just smiled. He hardly speaks a word to this day. And today, he wins bicycle races in a variety of disciplines.

Caring teammates have been the key to Mateen's success. He rides with children and adults and practices Cyclisme's four edicts of championship: benevolence, good form, simplicity and team.
.

Finding the foothold!

The Richey Brothers at the front!

Reaching for Championship
is no small task, but Mateen and Maurice
are "all in!"

Racing at Portland International Raceway in the free Juniors category, they found victory in different ways.

Diverse and friendly this venue was the perfect place to bring Maurice (11) and Mateen (16) Richey.

OBRA Official, and race announcer, Luciano Bailey, an Italian, African American from Back East, is a veteran of the Cyclisme Lore, and an alert defender of the faces of color making entre into the peloton.

He knew just what to do when a fast talking maurice wanted to explain his way out of staying on the wheel of the kid his age off the back, Lucci pedalled bye and stuck out his arm for a friendly high speed madison push on the back of the 11 year old nabob of negativism.

Meanwhile, at the front of the pack, older brother Mateen was matching wits with the full might of the Dialed Racing Junior Program. Refusing to pull through, they would attack en masse, the moment he pulled too long.