Bublr Bikes seeks support from business community
Bublr Bikes needs a boost of community support, including a serious fundraising campaign, supporters of the nonprofit bike sharing service say.
In addition, they’re growing increasingly concerned about the possible entry into the Milwaukee market of companies such as LimeBike, a for-profit, dockless bike and scooter service.
“We want to help sustain and grow the Bublr Bikes,” said Bob Monnat, chief operating officer for Mandel Group Inc. and a key Bublr supporter. “There has not been an ongoing effort to get the business community behind this.”
Monnat was among those honored Thursday night at a first-ever fundraising event for the bike share program that was launched in Milwaukee in 2014. The occasion was an opportunity for Bublr supporters to make greater commitments to ensure that Bublr can continue to operate.
“It’s like every other means of public transportation — they don’t make any money. You’ve got to support it,” Monnat said. “We need to get some momentum here.”
The fundraiser comes as Bublr has grown to a total of 87 stations, said Sally Sheperdson, the bike service’s executive director. Bublr has about 3,000 members.
Bublr kiosks are found as far west as the Echelon apartment complex near the County Grounds in Wauwatosa and are also in Shorewood and West Allis. New locations include Miller Park, City Lights Brewing, Cathedral Square and near Trestle Park in the Historic Third Ward.
Bublr supporters are keeping a wary eye on the interest of LimeBike in the Milwaukee market, Monnat said. San Mateo, Calif.-based LimeBike launched in June and has bikes and electric scooters in several dozen cities and college campuses. LimeBike representatives visited Milwaukee during Young Professionals Week in April in an effort to drum up support.
LimeBikes and scooters can be rented and parked anywhere rather than at a designated station such as those used
by Bublr. That has led to complaints in other cities that LimeBikes clutter sidewalks and block driveways.
Bublr board chairman Bruce Keyes, an attorney with Foley and Lardner, says “rogue uninvited” bike sharing services can hurt Bublr, without providing the same concern for bike maintenance or winter service. He said the newcomers face less regulation because they don’t have to cooperate with local officials and property owners about where to put their stations.
In addition, Keyes said, the for-profit services might not be as concerned as Bublr about getting bikes into underserved parts of the community.
“We’re absolutely trying to play offense,” Keyes said of Bublr. “We’re the local product. We’re members of the community and we want to be around a long time.”
Keyes said he hopes Thursday’s event leads to funding that will allow Bublr to maintain stations in areas that don’t generate a lot of customers.
At the time Bublr launched, urban real estate developer Mandel contributed about $100,000 to the organization.
“Embarrassingly, it was the largest private contribution they received,” Monnat said.
The company also has offered Bublr membership deals for tenants and employees.
“I think that a bike share is a marker of a city that’s ‘with it,’ ” Monnat said. “This is just as vital for the city as the streetcar. We have to support it.”
On Thursday, Mandel and Astor Street Foundation Inc. announced they would make grants to Bublr and encourage others to do the same.
“There’s a $50,000 floor, and we hope that we can convince some organizations to provide some ongoing sustainability grants,” Monnat said. “I’m trying to marshal enough forces to make it to $100,000.
“It’s like any other civic, arts or public benefits funding organization. Any arts group requires annual giving to sustain the organization. Bublr Bikes is just like that,” Monnat said.
Keyes said he hoped that Bublr could raise up to $200,000 in the near future.
Bublr bikes help boost business at bars and restaurants in busy parts of the city, Monnat said, adding that those businesses and other real estate developers should back Bublr.
Participants in Thursday’s event also heard a message of support for Bublr from Curt Culver, nonexecutive chairman of MGIC Investment Corp.