Car Less Brit

Roanoke ↘↖

downtown revitalization, storefront by storefront

About a year-and-a-half ago, Debbie Sinex of BEULAH INVESTMENTS LLC started advertising a property she owned, 310 2nd St SW, Roanoke, VA, USA for lease. Then about eight months ago, because the property was still vacant, Debbie contacted me to see if I would be interested in using the space for some type of community-building venture, maybe as an art gallery or something of a similar nature.

I came up with the idea of creating a museum, the “Car Less Brit Museum”, to document the Car Less Brit Experiment (an experiment about living without a car within Roanoke city limits) and anything else of interest related to the multiplying bike culture of Roanoke.

Debbie agreed to a six month lease for this project - rent free - I just covered the utilities and liability insurance.

During the course of the Car Less Brit Museum, Stratton Delany of Keirin Culture, a bicycle frame design business, visited the museum. He had previously seen the “For Rent” sign in the window, but,

“unless the museum had been there and I had been able to go inside and get a feel for a functioning business inside the space I would not have taken much notice of the For Rent sign.”

After chatting with Stratton about the space and putting him in touch with the owner of the building, Stratton has decided to rent the space as a storefront for Keirin Culture.


Stratton moved to Roanoke from Richmond VA a year or 2 ago and conducts most of his business on-line. However, having a downtown storefront to his business will greatly increase his business profile in this region.

In addition, Stratton plans to use this downtown space as a gallery for his bike frames and as a location to screen bike related films and documentaries and to offer a place for bikers from the region, and those passing through, to relax, have a coffee and engage with other local bikers.

This is a happy, simple and true story. What a great thing it would be if owners of the several other empty storefronts in downtown Roanoke took note of this tale of 310 2nd St SW, and followed suit in a similar fashion…

7 December 2009 • downtown revitalization stratton delany river laker roanoke keirin culture car less brit museum car less brit emerging artists bike culture

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Lewis Gale Jingle Bell 5K Run/Walk

another 5K coming up downtown roanoke - let’s do it, even faster than we ran the Drumstick Dash 5K last Thursday!

Sat Dec 12 9am

28 November 2009 • 5K arthritis foundation jingle bell run jingle bell run/walk for athritis roanoke lewis-gale jingle bell run 5k drumstick dash

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cricket

wonder if there’s interest in birthing a City of Roanoke cricket team?

26 November 2009 • cricket Roanoke cricket team

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‘Flat River’ (life size Car Less Brit) $750, today only, at CraftStar Bazaar, Roanoke, Va USA

21 November 2009 • flat river car less brit emerging artists Roanoke craftstar bazaar river laker

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Car Less Brit Museum has almost disappeared

16 November 2009 • car less brit car less brit museum river laker roanoke

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Laker said last week that he doesn’t plan to reopen his museum

— Roanoke Times newspaper article today re Car Less Brit Museum closing

15 November 2009 • roanoke times car less brit museum jenny kincaid boone river laker car less brit roanoke

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Car Less Brit Museum's 6 month existence is now over

News post & short video of the rather special closing event!

13 November 2009 • car less brit museum river laker star city harbinger roanoke car less brit

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Oh, No! What Happened at the Corner of 2nd and Kirk Last Night?

About six months ago, Roanoke, VA experienced the wonder-filled opening of Car Less Museum, and the corner of Kirk Avenue and 2nd Street has not been the same since.

Sadly, circumstances have brought an abrupt halt to the merriment and mayhem in the shadows of the Municipal Building.

Last night, two masked marauders were caught in the act of tearing down one of the Star City’s most revered and iconic, though temporary, landmarks.

The group Bad Eye Deer Bicycles has claimed responsibility for the attack.

— Star City Harbinger

10 November 2009 • bad eye deer bicycles car less brit museum car less brit river laker roanoke bike culture biking

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[image]

photo by John Hamill at start of Starbomb bike ride down Mill Mountain, Roanoke, VA

9 November 2009 • john hamill starbomb roanoke bike culture biking bicycle river laker car less brit

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folks from duck duck collective shooting Levi’s commercial featuring Ron, from sharebike, Car Less Brit, Car Less Brit Museum and John Johnson of Bad Eye Deer Bicycles. Roanoke, VA.

Commercial released Dec 09

8 November 2009 • bad eye deer bicycles car less brit car less brit museum duck duck collective roanoke sharebike river laker biking

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One of those occasions when you take the leap and dance in front of everybody and while dancing think “this may look kinda cool” and then you see the video!

The dance moves are from the musical Oklahoma and the live Celtic hybrid music is from IONA. Larry, a buddy, is the brave soul on stage with me.

It happened at the Virginia Library Association 2009 Annual Conference, Williamsburg, VA.

1 November 2009 • car less brit dancing river laker roanoke virginia library association vla vla annual conference iona

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the roanoke zombie walk & ride

photos by Jes Gearing and Deda

more photos at http://bit.ly/1yNEOU and http://bit.ly/vzHJQ

1 November 2009 • zombies zombie ride roanoke car less brit river laker jes gearing

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Shout Outs to Roanoke Public Libraries at VLA Annual Conference 2009

A few comments about Roanoke Public Libraries’ presentations at the Virginia Library Association 2009 Annual Conference, Williamsburg, VA October 29-30, 2009

Roanoke Public Libraries’ presentations integrated content from Emerging Artists series, Car Less Brit Experiment as well as other Roanoke Libraries events and programs.

31 October 2009 • car less brit roanoke public libraries roanoke emerging artists vla virginia library association river laker justnathan

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2 more Car Less Brit's in Roanoke

yes! Andrea & Aaron Garland just sold their car - congratulations and welcome to the pleasures of carlessness!

31 October 2009 • carlessness car free carfree roanoke car less brit

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my first experience shopping for new sneakers with a sneakerhead helping. What a help they are! Now I am ready for the Virginia Library Association Annual Conference.

28 October 2009 • trainers sneakerhead VLA annual conference roanoke car less brit converse sneakers

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