Ask Margaret
by Margaret Word Burnside
Two bike racks, each depicting an open book with flared pages designed to provide
bicycle parking, can be found to the right of the entrance to the Dunedin Public
Library at 223 Douglas Ave., south of the city’s Main Street. These clever bike racks
were commissioned in April 2011 by library director Phyllis Gorshe and Dunedin
assistant manager Matthew Campbell with the help of the Friends of the Library
support group, the city’s Arts and Culture Advisory Committee and Bill Coleman,
the metal artist responsible for creating and completing them in about four months.
A colorful Butterfly Bike Rack created by Bill Coleman about 2002 marks the entrance
to the newly enhanced Butterfly Garden on the grounds of the 1888 Historic Andrews
Memorial Chapel, a popular wedding and event venue at 1899 San Mateo Drive in
Dunedin’s Hammock Park, and managed by the Dunedin History Museum.
The clever bike rack you admired is one of several that were commissioned
by the City of Dunedin through its Artistic Bicycle Rack Initiative, which was
established in the late summer of 2009. The initiative came about after Dunedin’s
Assistant to the City Manager Matthew Campbell admired bike racks he saw in
New York and Connecticut. Campbell was joined by then Mayor Dave Eggers,
Vice Mayor Ron Barnette and the City of Dunedin Public Works and Engineering
Section staff to research and implement Dunedin’s new bike rack program.
What can you tell me
about the amazing
bike rack that looks
like a train in front
of Cafe Alfresco in
downtown Dunedin?
C.M., South Tampa
If you have any questions about the
people, places or things in the Tampa
Bay area, please send them to
“Ask Margaret” at Tampa Bay Magazine,
2531 Landmark Drive, Suite 101,
Clearwater, Florida 33761.
We regret that not all questions
can be answered.
138 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2020
GRAM GRAM