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The new bike fix-it station outside the Paramount Room has been in place for several weeks now, but it’s easy to miss. I bike past it every day on the way to and from work, and I’ve never noticed it. So last night the restaurant/lounge, in collaboration with the Active Transportation Alliance, officially launched the new resource for cyclists with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. I arrived about halfway through, after the ribbon had been cut but in time to watch the ATA’s Jason Jenkins demonstrate how to change a flat tire to a crowd of a couple dozen people.
Paramount Room owner Jon Young says that he’s had regular customers who are cyclists for a while, but what spurred him to try to attract more was the elimination of street parking outside the bar when the bike lanes on Milwaukee were redone in June (the Paramount Room is just north of the Milwaukee/Kinzie/Desplaines intersection). When the restaurant opened six years ago, he says, they were the only business on the block facing the street, so the 20 unmetered parking spots out front were almost like having a parking lot.
