R.U.B.A.R.B. is located behind St. Mary of the Angels church, on the corner of N. Tonti and Gallier, in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans.
SHOP HOURS:
Mon. 10-2
Wed. 3:30-Dark
Sat. 1-Dark
Local Bike Links
march 2008
*3/15 The Audubon Zoo invited RUBARB to Earthfest. We had a table highlighting what it is we do and brought 6 kids to participate and roam around the zoo for the day.
*3/10 Books on Wheels, from Richmond, VA, brought free books and bike repair to RUBARB! www.booksonwheels.com
*3/1 the Audubon Zoo's Zoomobile visited us with some small creatures from the zoo... a hedgehog, rat, chicken, turtle and snake were made available for us to look at and touch. we learned a lot about these animals and got to examine some other items they brought-- a snakeskin, porcupine quills, bones, furs and even an elephant's tail! Thanks Zoomobile for bringing the zoo to us!
*Pedalers for Peace, a college group from Minnesota, will be coming to NOLA for spring break and riding bikes to Mississippi. They will acquire 14 bikes from RUBARB, which volunteers have been working on diligently.
*RUBARB was awarded a First Book grant!... they will be sending us books to distribute to kids so they can start little libraries in their homes.
february 2008
* Plan B gave us a big chunk of their kids bikes.. We now have a new selection of 20" bikes. Thanks Plan B!
* A bunch of rubarbians attended Alvar Library's Family Day... we received free books and enjoyed the festivities of food and music.
*happy Lundi Gras! we walked around the Quarter with some kids and enjoyed Zulu's party along the Riverfront, a tasty seafood plate, street musicians, and even participated in a street puppet show.
january 2008
*Some of us took a field trip to BARKUS, the dog parade, a week before mardi gras. we enjoyed seeing all those costumed canines and ended the day with a picnic by the Mississippi.
Summer '07: RUBARB ended the 2007 school year by bringing 12 youth on a great trip to the beach in waveland, ms and recently returned from the brag ride (check it out! www.brag.org) with 2 young cyclists. Congratulations to Matt Gray and Hakeem Smith (and Liz, their mentor) who completed the 421 mile ride across the entire state of Georgia! They were invited to be a part of the Dream Team, a group of teens, along with mentors and coaches, who participate in the week long event. We are proud of their accomplishment.
May 2007: We had our first mobile bike clinics at the the Emergency Communities sight in the Lower 9th Ward and at The Homecoming Center in the 7th Ward. It was great to meet more youth who are excited about bikes and had new ideas and perspectives.
Michael Franti from Spearhead and his film crew came and hung out with us recently to hear about our shop and see what we were doing. We all went down to the Lower 9th crawfish boil as well.
April 2007: Earth Fest at Tulane was great. RUBARB had a table set up, and a bunch of us from the shop went and got to enjoy the top notch crawfish boil hosted by Tulane.
Clowns Without Borders on April 28th. These clowns had a very tight show which made all of us laugh. They also showed us how to make some different clown items before they performed.
February 2007: We were part of a very successful 'blinky light' giveaway where we handed out and helped install about 100 lights to help new orleans riders be more safe. The kits also contained a complete patch kit, tire levers and a resource guide. The event was sponsored by the metro bike coalition (www.metrobicyclecoalition.org).
Two RUBARB volunteers went to the artspace Diverse Works in Houston to attend "Voices Breaking Boundries: Un/Natural Disaster: Katrina-Kashmir" exploring the connections between two communities on opposite sides of the globe.
January 2007: we started organizing at least one field trip a month. Since than, some of what we have done includes; going on bike rides and picnic along the mississippi river, the Audubon Zoo where we saw lots of gators, birds, elephants and other animals and hung out on monkey hill, an Easter party in city park a trip to Barrataria National Park, were we had lunch and took a long walk through the Louisiana swamps, and one of the highlights, going to the beach in mississippi.
we've been silk screening RUBARB t-shirts and selling them as a fundraiser for the shop and for field trips with the bike shop youth. We buy shirts at a local thrift shop, silk screen one of our 3 designs, and sell them on a sliding scale from $5-$15. visit our t-shirt page
an exciting book about new orleans bicycles was recently released and the proceeds from it will go to plan b (www.bikeproject.org).