KENK: Launching Into the Unknown

On the same day that the world’s stock markets not only faltered under the fear of more credit melting away, but actually took  huge tumbles before recovering their footing just before the closing bell, we also got to saw the infamous Igor Kenk regaining his own bearings at the Cadillac Lounge during the launch of the new book Kenk: A Graphic Novel. Outside the Caddy, there wasn’t a free locking spot for as far as the eye could see, with bikes double and triple parked to anything that would secure them along that entire stretch of Queen West, and inside the crowd filled Sam’s spaciously expanded lounge with barely elbowroom to spare, as people were spilling out the door onto the sidewalk…Until someone yelled that the screening had started.

Mob Mentality

The unveiling of Igor Kenk as a comicbook ‘anti-hero’ in the graphic novel “Kenk: A Graphic Portrait” has made alot of people realise that the Kenk Saga has ceased being a criminal case, and has now become part of the city’s culture, and perhaps someday, part of its retrospectively colored history. Unbeknownst to many Torontonians, the infamous case of Igor Kenk vs. The Crown was actually wrapped up at the end of 2009 with a guilty plea to 16 various drug and theft charges. Although this case was widely publicised at the start with high-profile bust of Kenk at his Queen West location, the Public has been left to simmer in its own bitter bile for a few years, only to find out that Kenk was then released for time served in February of 2010. How could this possibly be a fitting closure for alleged crimes that spanned decades, and resulted in thousands of bikes being seized? Who can fault the Public for once again feeling as though justice can be miscarried through plea-bargaining?

The root of this mis-perception lies in the fact that Igor has been notorious for many, many years now. His outrageous public persona was genuinely the stuff of legend, and although bike-theft was a citywide pox, Igor had become the central communicator for the entire disease. So it creates a schism in public perceptions when the alleged theft of thousands of bikes, and assorted drug charges, resulted in only 30 months of jail time, which was commuted to include time already served. This might very well be a case where the legend becomes larger than life, and once justice peeled away at its layers, we weren’t left with enough substance to prosecute to the degree that the Public thirsted for. Or perhaps the Public has been mislead by events, and missed some key facts about the actual crimes and Kenks culpability, and is now left hanging as well!

KENK: Our Property Isn’t Protected

Back in the Summer of 2008 the world changed in a big way for alot of people, but most especially for the infamous Igor Kenk. For years, this ill-reputed merchant and bike-mechanic had been notorious not just for his rumored deeds and corrosively incisive views on Society, but also as a magnetic force for street urchins and anyone else who felt disenfranchised in a world driven by the pursuit of happiness through possessions and consumption. In his visible role as a raving misfit on the edge of a bustling Queen West scene in Toronto, and a sneering purveyor of cheap transportation to anyone who would doubt his wisdom, Kenk became personified as twisted street prophet. Foretelling doom for Western Culture with its unbridled growth through the exploitation of resources, and the fallacies of credit/debt fueled economic expansion at all costs.

KENK: Fitting Time with Crime

In the lengthy saga of the Crown’s prosecution of Igor Kenk as the “world’s most notorious bike thief”, the Public was led to believe that a crime spree that had lasted for decades, had resulted in an enormous volume of charges finally being leveled against the defendant as the result of the famous late night raid of Igor’s Bicycle Clinic. The initial deluge of surprising revelations about drugs and stolen art being added to the litany of bike-theft complaints, and the thousands of bikes and parts being seized from various rented garages, as well as in the infamous shop on Toronto’s Queen West, had all created the kind of Public furor that a local Media would have been more than happy to rile up into a good old-fashioned lynch mob…back in a kinder, gentler day. Instead we were led to believe that there was a mountain of stolen bikes, and well-substantiated charges leveled against Kenk, and that Justice would indeed be brought to bear.

As 2009 was winding down, the growing vacuum of new (or at least well publicised) information on this case had left the Public wondering aloud in the online forums and other social circles of the Internet, just when and how justice would ever be dispensed to close this case. In fact most average people didn’t even realise that the case had already been closed with a guilty plea just before Christmas 2009, and that time served had been factored in. As a result, Kenk’s sudden release last month only exasperated this unquenched public thirst for blood, and did nothing to quell the growing general sentiment that the time served didn’t seem to fit the crime.

Instead the Public, with its limited views and misconceptions about the Law and it’s Enforcement, became even more entrenched in its popular notions that lawyers can somehow circumvent the law if there’s enough money involved. So how do we reconcile the apparent difference between what is, and what should be?

Ministry of Lost Bikes

After years of apparent apathy about bike theft in the city of Toronto, in July 2008 city officials, authorities, and law enforcement officers took on a suddenly very keen and marked interest with the famous arrest of Igor Kenk. Not only only showing resolve in the simple dispensation of their duty to investigate bike theft, but in fact in orchestrating a full blown late night sting operation on Igor Kenk’s infamous Bike Clinic on Queen West. A well publicised operation that was covered in the media with supporting facts, figures, and background info that was produced in time for the first printings the very next day. This level of well produced exposure also indicated a keen interest in both the execution of this successful operation, and in the public perceptions that the issue of bike theft had been dealt a sever blow…The wheels of justice seemed to finally be moving!

Since that time though, Torontonians in general, and Cyclists in particular, had been waiting with waning anticipation for justice to be served. For visible signs of restitution, or at least some sort of karmic balance being applied in the unfolding of the infamous case of Igor Kenk vs The Crown…

Training Wheels

Life has a funny way of coming around full circle, one way or another. The recent release of Igor Kenk for time served in his drug and bike theft convictions may not have provided the Public with the vindication that most would have liked, but this week a measured sense of Public ‘closure’ was finally provided by the Ministry of the Attorney General with their disbursement of bikes and parts to “kids in need”. On Monday of this week Torontonians finally learned about the fate of the over 2200 bikes/frames that still remained from the forced forfeiture that Kenk agreed to in September of 2009. These ‘wards of the State’ are now being re-distributed for adoption by a variety of selected organizations, both here in the city, and to First Nation’s communities in Northern Ontario. Yet this isn’t where the final feel-good chapter of this saga ends…Not by a long shot.

Take for example the 30 bikes and 1,000 assorted bike frames and parts that have been delivered to the Cabbagetown Youth Centre this week. This will be an enormous ongoing Community project, since most of these frames need to be re-assembled from hundreds of parts. Some have suggested that the Ministry would have been better to auction these parts off to fetch the best price, and simply buy complete bikes with the proceeds. This might have been an especially lucrative approach considering the many nicer road bike frames that are reportedly in these piles of parts involved, however the opportunity to learn skills and the value of hard work would have been lost in such a straight hand-out. Also, most people can just subconsciously presume that in addition to any speculation on choice pieces by insiders, the bureaucratic and self-inflated costs of administering anything at the government or Public Service level, would have simply dissolved any extra value right out of such an equation. So it’s best to just take the big messy approach, and get these bikes sorted and re-built at the Community level.

TBC…

Ring & Post Risks

There are over 16,000 of those standard “Ring and Post” stands where Toronto cyclists are encouraged to lockup throughout the city. Yet surprisingly, only a small minority of cyclists realize that these stands are made with an essentially flawed design. One that can be broken with nothing more that a 2X4 piece of wood, and adequate leverage!

The city has been aware of this fact since 2006, and has been gradually upgrading these Ring&post slowly with secondary rings to reinforce the flawed design, but there is something you can keep in mind if you need to use one of the original (and still widely prevalent) designs. Basically, since the “ring” can be snapped off the post, you need to avoid simply locking to the post and thus leaving you bike free to be lifted up and off the stand once the ring is broken off. By instead locking through the “ring” you might not be any more securely locked, but at least you discourage the wood be thief, because even if they make off with your bike, it will stall have a very large metal ring attached to you lock, which they will still have to visibly travel with (thus making their thievery more conspicuous), and the ring will make it abit harder to break your lock even if they do make off with your bike…Lock, stock, and barrel!

Also make sure to lock through at least one of your wheels and the frame, preferably with two different locks (since this doubles the work and need for tools of the bike thief) in order to make your prized bike harder to roll away with – and thus the thief will more than likely just move on to easier prey.

Incidentally, the City council for Pittsburgh PA just passed a  Bike Parking Requirement Ordinance, so it will be interesting to see how a city with a solid heritage in quality metalwork does in building in it’s bike parking infrastructure.

Pittsburgh Councilman Patrick Dowd connected the dots and discussed how this ordinance is just a piece of the broader concept of what “we really have to do” to turn Pittsburgh into a bicycle-friendly City. “Just look at the books…the City has priviledged the automobile…and did that work 100 years ago.”  He went on to say that “what we’re trying to accomplish is just that, but for the bicycle.”

Ride On!
Jo

Cleaning Up Carcasses

You’ve seen them…Everyone has

Those derelict bikes that have been locked up for so long, that they get picked over by thieving scavengers. Leaving the remaining bones to rust and rot until they simply become another eyesore in an urban landscape. Luckily the City of Toronto (through it’s Transportation Services Division) is well aware of the need to finally carry off these carcasses, and does so every year during a general  Spring Cleanup where the streets are combed for a variety of repair and rubbish issues. What you might not realize is that you as a Citizen can also exercise your civic role by alerting the City to any derelicts you’ve seen on public property, and then witness the final results within just a few weeks!

Now before you get any ideas for practical jokes, be advised that The City will not only exercise good judgment in these matters, but also post 7 day-notices on reported bikes as well. Afterward, the bikes are collected by Operations Crews,  and held for an additional 30 days before being disposed of. During that time you can claim a bike by going through a rigorous identification process, that would definitely put anyone on a legal hook, if they were to try some underhanded little stunt with someone else’s bike…Or worse!