DIRTY CHAIN PODCAST EPISODE 36: Ty Schmidt - Norte, Youth Cycling, and Community Advocacy
Ty Schmidt joins the Midpack to talk all about Notre - Traverse City's youth and community based cycling advocacy organization.
For all Norte information, check out their website at elgruponorte.org
Episode Breakdown
Sheldon's Week in the Midpack - 1:39
Trevor introduces Rachel to Barry Roubaix - 3:45
Race Calendar - 5:34
Future Adventure Ride - 8:03
Trevor and Sheldon's experience growing up with bikes - 9:44
Ty Schmidt and Norte - 15:00
Trevor:
I really think that it's important and fantastic that there are ways to ... there's another offering for kids growing up that you don't have to be a football player or basketball player. You can ride bikes. Then even more than that it's how can we make the roads safe for people? How can we make the community a better place to ride a bike? And it's not just offering kids riding opportunities. It's making your community better.
Trevor:
I'm going to stop talking because Ty did a phenomenal job of talking about this exact thing and what he's been working and so many people have been working to accomplish in Traverse City and how that model can be used for other cities in Michigan, in the country. So let's let Ty tell us more about this. Ty Schmidt, Norte.
Trevor:
It's like the fall sports or the public schools, are they still rolling up here? A little bit?
Ty Schmidt:
Fall sports, yes. I think the traditional sports for sure, you know, with obviously lots of protocol changes. What I'm mostly interested is how to seize this, I think of, as a once in a century opportunity as far as bikes. You know? And how bikes relate to stronger community and health and equity and all those things. I was just talking to Gary, our advocacy director, about a new program that we're doing with high school students, really trying to engage young people to speak up on behalf of their neighborhood. I think Norte does kids on bikes really well. We're trying to dream a little bit bigger and think about long term, enduring solutions to all sorts of things. You know? Kids on the couch. Health inequities. Access issues. Car lines wrapped around neighborhood schools.
Trevor:
Yeah. Very cool. Before we begin can you just explain to me and everyone where we are, where we're sitting? What the clubhouse is here and what's this all about?
Ty Schmidt:
Yeah. We're at the south end of beautiful Grand Traverse County Civic Center, one of Traverse City's finest parks and we're outside the small but mighty clubhouse. This is a small little building that used to actually ... it's got a cool history. It used to be where the Zamboni lived, the locker room on the other side of this where the basketball courts are used to be Traverse City's only outdoor hockey rink back in the 70s, I think. Then it turned into a police sector building. Then three years ago we moved out of my garage because my wife was tired of all the bikes. And we've been here ever since and being able to be in a public park, I look back, is just special because I mean, now it's kind of rainy and dreary and not so much but during the afternoons in the summer this place is rocking.
Trevor:
Yeah.
Ty Schmidt:
You know? It's fun to be part of it.
Trevor:
Are you open to the full community?
Ty Schmidt:
Yeah, yeah. Inside the clubhouse houses the Grand Traverse County Community Bike Shop and so we're not in the business of fixing other people's bikes but we are in the business of sharing our tools and knowledge and space and workbenches with everybody and anybody. It's free. We have everything you would ever want and it's a cool space with all the park tools. So we're open, yeah, 10 to 6 weekdays here through the fall and 10 to 2 on Saturdays. It's just meant to ...
Trevor:
Who runs it? Who mans or persons the place?
Ty Schmidt:
Well, Norte's got staff now, Trevor. Which is strange. Actually a staff of eight.
Trevor:
Okay. I wasn't sure if it was all volunteer based?
Ty Schmidt:
We do have some really awesome volunteers who help come in and work on Norte's program bikes. We also sell used bikes to help generate income to pay rent and insurance and what not. But mostly we share shifts here with Norte staff because, again, it's just something that you have to be accessible to the public. Right? When you're open and available and consistent people will come. It's not just the shop but it's constantly people wanting to drop stuff off or pick stuff up or what's up with here? So we get to sell our mission every day when the park is rolling.
Trevor:
Awesome. A little more about this, the clubhouse. You mentioned the bike shop inside but outside it looks like you have, I don't know, a little playground, a little not a pump track necessarily but do you work on some skills with kids or is this just for fun?
Ty Schmidt:
What we're looking at is actually, it looks a little janky, Trevor, but that was months of hard work building this bike park. It doesn't, again, look like much but this gets used a ton. Right? Just like sitting across the other more traditional playground, but kids come here all the time and ride this and we use it for bike practice. We have an after school mountain bike program that we teach kids riding skinnies and bike positioning and confidence with the teeter-totter and whatnot but it is open to the public as well because I think once they become confident on their bike, like riding a rollers. That's a little scary, you know? But once that confidence improves I think they're more apt to ride bikes and ultimately that's the main goal. We're trying to get something more permanent in the southeast corner of the park here but that's turning ... just takes time, dealing with government. But ideally we could have a more robust and permanent pump track.
Trevor:
So it looks like you have a few strider bikes or something. It looks like all ages can come.
Ty Schmidt:
Yeah. We do a balance bike program with all of the area elementary schools. Because of Covid that's been canceled. It's raining right now but normally every morning at 10:30 we invite all area pre-schoolers to come and just meet up and ride and that's how they, you know, it's funny watching them because you don't even really need to tell them what to do. They just watch other kids do it and all of the sudden they're just zooming. Right? I'm bummed out that we can't be in the schools teaching the pre-schoolers but it's something that's here for them to use whenever.
Trevor:
Okay. I want to start at the beginning. I want to talk about Norte beginning but I also want to know how you personally got, well not involved in it, you started it. Why don't we start here. What is your official position at Norte?
Ty Schmidt:
My official position is co-founder and current executive director of Norte. I founded it in '13 with my wife Johanna. Both physical therapists. Know nothing, absolutely nothing about running a non-profit and grants and board governance and all this stuff. I started it because I was bothered by what I saw when my son started kindergarten at our neighborhood school. No offense to them. You know, they're great and they work hard at it but it was just like a river of cars wrapped around this neighborhood school. I would sit there on the bench waiting for him to get out and I would just see a handful of kids walking and even fewer biking. Then I went to every other neighborhood school in Traverse City and saw the exact same thing. That bothered me. As a physical therapist I'm just tired of dealing with chronic disease and sedentary lifestyles.
Ty Schmidt:
So I said, "Johanna, what do you think about starting this," in a town with thousands of non-profits. Does Traverse City need another non-profit? Who knew? I mean, really. I left my job in 2017, now I run this full time and what a privilege. You know?
Trevor:
You started in 2013, you said?
Ty Schmidt:
Yeah.
Trevor:
So it took four years and then now it's your full-time gig?
Ty Schmidt:
Right.
Trevor:
At the beginning it was a way to involve or get kids just riding bikes, basically? Then what is it now? Like as you explain to someone what Norte is today, like what is it today?
Ty Schmidt:
In the beginning it was bike trains. That's all it was. We would connect kids, neighborhood kids to their neighborhood school. That's all it was. It started with three kids and then five and then 15 and then 20 schools. Right? The idea of making it fun and normal and easy and convenient and safe. That's all it was in '13. In '20-
Trevor:
Real quick. I don't mean to interrupt you but a bike train, so like it would basically be they would get up in the morning, they'd meet a bunch of friends on bikes and they'd ride that train basically?
Ty Schmidt:
That's right. That's right.
Trevor:
To school. And then to home or whatever? Okay.
Ty Schmidt:
That's right. So parents would drop them off at our house and Johanna and I, we job shared at the time so we had the luxury of time. The parents would drop their kids off at our place. I would bike them to school and Johanna would bike them back and then the parents, they would disperse from there.
Trevor:
Okay.
Ty Schmidt:
We made it more about just shepherding, we really tried to teach them things. Right? Because I would sit, I lived down here in Washington Street and before I did this I would see kids riding on the sidewalk and blowing through stop signs and I'm like, who is teaching these kids how to ride bikes? The answer was like-
Trevor:
No one.
Ty Schmidt:
Nobody.
Trevor:
Yeah.
Ty Schmidt:
That's this idea of a bike train. That's nothing unique. I mean, that's not unique to Norte. I mean, nothing is unique about Norte. A lot of this is happening across the country. Right? This idea of just empowering kids to move as part of ordinary life. Anyways, so bike trains take off. I've quickly realized that it's not just about bike trains, right? It's about access and connection and you can't just wave your hands around saying, "Kids bike to school," when it's not safe to do so. Right? So we took on this other role of championing infrastructure and policy and wading into advocacy waters which is messy. But again, I looked around like how is doing it and the answer is nobody.
Ty Schmidt:
That's where we are now. We talk about our mission of building stronger, better-connected, more walk-bike friendly communities by empowering the young and the young at heart. Right? My thing is I don't want to talk about stuff. I don't want to plan stuff. I just want to do stuff and learn by doing and see what works and what doesn't work. I think we found that. You know? Our little organization now is, you know, just the fact that we have eight staff, right? Sustainable, long-term careers basically, speaks to this, the amount of support in the area as it relates to less car, more go, right?
Trevor:
If I'm a young person, if I'm a middle-schooler or elementary school student, kid what ... and if I was involved with Norte what would I expect my year to look like or my season to look like? How do you divide that up and what does being involved in Norte look like?
Ty Schmidt:
Yeah. We can start with middle schoolers but my plan was always to start them young, really young. Like three or four years old. Right? And to nurture them through elementary, middle, high school and to not be ... We can fill programs all day long but it's always been about something more. Right? And building relationships and looking to what success looks like. That's just a thriving, equitable region where walking to the library or biking to the park is normal. Right? As soon as we can do that I can quit and my job is done. But middle schoolers, we offer all sorts of things.
Ty Schmidt:
We were just talking about Gary with his Explore Academy about giving young people the tools to be articulate, confident advocates. You know? Because we don't need more Ty Schmidt's or Gary Howe's, but I think once you give these kids a platform and they come speak at, say, a city commission meeting or they to their principal and say, you know, "Hey, Mr. Perkins. Why is East Middle School wrapped in car lanes?" And what can we help do about it? It goes a lot further than if I go there and wine and bitch about what I think they should do or not do.
Ty Schmidt:
But then we also have a youth mountain bike team because I think, I don't know how you fell in love with bikes but I fell in love with bikes in the woods. You know? I think it's a gateway drug to something bigger. So we used to have them meet here at the Civic Center but now we've expanded regionally. We have practice venues from Midland County to Antrim County to the west side of Grand Traverse County to the Commons and the Vasa near Traverse City. It's just fun. I mean, we're so fortunate to be able to ride bikes in an area like the Grand Traverse region. I fully understand we are standing on the shoulders of giants. The people that have come before us would ... Norte would not be possible with all the work from these trail organizations and land organizations so I always try to mention that. Because this would not happen like, I don't know what Toledo is like, but it takes a special place and that stuff needs to come first.
Trevor:
Sure, yeah. No, I like what you're saying. Like the racing team, for instance. It's not necessarily the end goal but it's a tool for the end goal to create responsible bike people. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt:
And engaged, right? And mostly because bikes are transportation. Right? I mean, they're different than skis, which I love. Or different than obviously other traditional, basketball, competitive sports. I don't really care about racing or competing. I do think it's a good motivating tool to keep kids working towards something, right, that they can achieve something and challenge themselves to keep getting better. But even now without Iceman this year we have 271 kids and they show up every day geeked about practice because practice is fun. It's also challenging and it's also adventure.
Trevor:
What are you creating now, though? Without an Iceman. I mean, there are a few races I guess I've seen here and there. I guess down by us but I'm not sure up here if there's been ...
Ty Schmidt:
And there's not to be honest.
Trevor:
Do you create your own, then, goals for the kids and how are you dealing with that?
Ty Schmidt:
Yeah. It is something we are trying to change our thinking a little bit and less about, again, competing and racing and more about getting better as an individual. I know it's sometimes hard to sell to an eight year old.
Trevor:
Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ty Schmidt:
But we're here-
Trevor:
You'll appreciate this when you're 45.
Ty Schmidt:
Right. Because it's about getting better. That can mean anything. Because we got kids, even in high school, who are brand new to bikes, who don't even know how to shift or put a chain back on. But those are the things I think about long term and during change that once you hook them, right, bikes are for life. You know? I look at how it's changed my life and made me a better person. I just want to pass that on while also having fun and making sure of course they want to shred. You know? And they want to jump but I got bigger plans.
Trevor:
You said bikes are for life. I feel like when I first met you on a ride earlier this year I don't know if you use a term like bikes are a lifetime sport or something like that. That resonated with me because I think a lot about music as a musician and especially with young people, equipping them with music, that's for life. It's different than basketball or football where you don't get 12 of your friends together when you're 50 years old but you can always play the piano or sing or something like that.
Ty Schmidt:
Right, right.
Trevor:
So bikes, I feel like, are in the sport realm or similar to that. You could ride a bike forever. But teaching that early on, I just really resonate with that kind of philosophy, I guess.
Ty Schmidt:
Yeah. I think that's the vision and how do we do that while not being judgmental or critical while understanding everybody has their own life to live, right? How do we make it visible like this. This is a lifestyle that's 100% possible and you'll be better off for it. You'll be happier, healthier, more engaged with your community.
Trevor:
What are some of the success stories or what have you seen come out of this that you've been like yeah, this is what I was looking for and this is the kind of people I was hoping to help, I don't know, not create but the community I was hoping to foster?
Ty Schmidt:
I've got several stories. I mean, I'll start with one. I started this when my oldest son was in the 4th grade, whatever now. Now they're all juniors and I just went ... So we have this bike shop alley over here and we have this bike mechanics class when these kids were young and we're teaching them like, I'm not going to fix your flat anymore, kid. You know? This is how you can do it and if you need to use the shop come and learn and do it and tinker and work on bikes. I walked over there to those three shops and in each single one of them was a Norte kid. Right? So here's a kid with lifelong skills, employable, real-life jobs. You know? That's one success story.
Ty Schmidt:
The other success story, if you cross over Eighth Street here to the south is the Traverse Heights neighborhood and that neighborhood has been underserved for generations. You know? Traverse City is a very affluent town but as soon as you cross the tracks, not so much. We pushed hard back in '16 to start with some sidewalk infill acceleration projects. When we talk about advocacy, and that wasn't easy, right? It was just not easy to take a stand like this is worth this city's investment. This is worth tax dollars. Start doing this now. And now, I mean, it's amazing over there. You know? And there are sidewalks all over. You know? And around the neighborhood school. That I'm super proud of.
Ty Schmidt:
I'm just proud of this team. I look around at our board meetings or at our staff meetings and we have brilliant, passionate people involved with this. I think taking a stand but also doing it in a way that invites people to join you. I hate using the word, a movement, because again ... but that's what it takes to be sustainable because everybody has got good ideas. You know? I think those are three success stories. I mean, I think youth development is at the core of what we do.
Trevor:
Sure.
Ty Schmidt:
Being strong, passionate advocates for access and equity and then making sure that the greater community takes ownership in this because then I can go away and this thing can sustain itself and be fine.
Trevor:
Yeah. So what then is the next step. It sounds like this has gone beyond anything that you were really initially hoping for and it's kind of become it's own thing. So what could you see Norte accomplishing or what big dreams could you have for Norte in the future?
Ty Schmidt:
I think it's a good question and mostly because of what Covid is presenting here at this time. Right? I mean, I look at what happened during the lockdown and how important parks and land and access, because walks were never canceled, bikes were never canceled. Outside was never canceled. I take that kind of personally in that, I don't know, I just really want to make sure that as a community that's something we value. Right? So I don't know what Norte's potential is, to be honest. I don't, but I would really like to find out and we're at a little bit of a tipping point. You know?
Ty Schmidt:
We're not a small organization anymore. Budget of $600,000. You know, like are we going to go all in and see what our potential is and get to the corners of, you know, because we can do Traverse City all day long. I mean, we can do that in our sleep now. But from Frankfurt to Leland to Northport to Elk Rapids, are there ways that we can empower those communities and make it easy for them to bring about certain changes that they want? Not what Ty Schmidt wants or Traverse City wants but I think that's what's next. Scaling and learning from all the mistakes we've made over the years. Can we share that with others to do good and do them? Right? That's what I've learned. Nothing that goes out there is cookie-cutter. You can't take what's worked here and go up to [inaudible 00:21:33]
Trevor:
How do you serve that specific community in the way they need to be served?
Ty Schmidt:
Exactly.
Trevor:
Yeah.
Ty Schmidt:
And that's tricky but it's also just starting with how can we help? This is what we've learned over the years. This is what we're good at. We can do all the boring stuff for you but we can't do it for you. Right? You know. I think that's what's next. Last year I think we reached 2400 kids total. You know?
Trevor:
Wow.
Ty Schmidt:
It's very possible the next three years that can be 8000 kids. Can we reach 20% of the kids in the region, in elementary school? Guys. Boards probably listening and probably like, "I don't know, Ty. Sounds like too much."
Trevor:
No, that's great. Ty, you're a ... I mean, it sounds like you're obviously passionate about this and you sound like a pro speaking about this. I barely had to do any prodding for questions or anything. But really, I mean, this is kind of quick and easy. Is there anything else that you want to ... on your mind that you just want to shout out or talk about?
Ty Schmidt:
No, but I do, you know again, I see what else is happening. I don't know who listens to Dirty Chain but I see what's happening around Michigan from Todd up in Marquette and Craig down in Brighton and what's going on in Grand Rapids and Lansing and I just find it very inspiring to be part of it, right? I'm learning every day and I'm happy to share what we've learned every day so if anyone is listening and wondering where to start or how to do it or how to do it or if they just want to pick my brain, I love that and I think people were so good to us when we started so, I mean I'm not an expert, but we have learned some things and I'd be happy to share that.
Trevor:
I think that I would guess that if you are part of a community where something like this is not a part of it, that it could be a little overwhelming at the beginning of like how do we even start this and how do we even, yeah, where do we even begin? I know that in Lansing we just had our first year of the Capital City Youth Cycling Club and that was very successful. Yeah. I think in each of these communities it would be great to see more of this happening. Thank you for just the hard work and years that you've been putting into it and making this something possible and vibrant. Thanks Ty. Appreciate it.
Ty Schmidt:
You're welcome. Yeah. Thanks Trevor.
Trevor:
The Dirty Chain Podcast is a Michigan Midpack Media production in partnership with KLM Cycling, the source for your bike accessories and necessities.
Sheldon:
Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook at Dirty Chain Podcast. Email dirtychainpodcast@gmail.com or call our hotline at 616-522-2641.
Trevor:
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Sheldon:
Audio editing and original music by Trevor Gibney.
Trevor:
Sheldon Little handles the social medial, graphic design, and of course, bad decisions.
Sheldon:
Finally, again.
Trevor:
And thank you to Ty Schmidt for joining us on this episode. As always, keep your chain clean.
Sheldon:
But get your chain dirty.
Trevor:
We will see you in the midpack.