MASON CITY – Eric Bookmeyer’s “Mayor’s Bike Ride” was pretty much a huge dud – and there wasn’t much “lean” about it.
The event was pushed on at least two billboards, social media and mentioned at City Council meetings. T-shirts were ordered. Two thousand slots were allocated for anticipated riders.
It didn’t pan out for Mr. Bookmeyer.
Thursday evening, a grand total of 17 riders participated in the Mayor’s Bike Ride. That number included Bookmeyer and three members of his own family. The ride began at the Newman Catholic High School parking lot and proceeded on the trails around the ponds at Lester Milligan Park. There was a $5 fee for adults 18 and over. Youth ages 5-17 got in free.
There was no immediate information available on how much the two billboards used to advertise the event cost the taxpayers. The billboards have been known to cost $500 to $1,000 per month each.
Mayor Bookmeyer has been a big proponent of the “Lean” initiative, but has freely advocated for spending on billboards for this event, tens of thousands of dollars on sculptures for a “non-profit group” whose first stop for funds was City Hall, a remodel of City Hall, four trips to Washington D.C. with lavish meals and hotel accommodations, hundreds of thousands of dollars for the North Iowa Corridor (which is a clear failure at bringing good-paying jobs to Mason City), and more, all paid for by the people of Mason City. Mayor Bookmeyer also was behind a major push to construct a downtown hockey arena, which failed to get off the ground.
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54 thoughts on “Nothing “lean” about Mayor’s Bike Ride, which was a huge dud”
Bummer that this didn’t turn out better. There are a lot of bikers in Mason City, so it surprises me none of them supported it. We have a Mayor’s ride that is huge in our town. We support it whether we like the Major or not. It is tourism and part of the monies go back to the biking community through trails and sharrows.
Poor turnout. Youth task force is a good organization. Poor decision to try to utilize the mayor as the celebrity. The midnight ride was good. Time to move on. What the hell can we kick the crap out of next. Cmon let if fly. Without Max and his clown act this is the only entertainment left for those who wake up each morning thinking everything is a piece of crap and everything is crappy and everyone is so stupid. Feed them. they are hungry for something to feast on.
The youth task force tells lies about cannabis. Lies that will come back to haunt them in the future.
I’ve seen the future and it ain’t pretty for those who used politics to play doctor and ended up hurting us ALL.
I’m sorry that the fundraiser wasn’t more successful, as it was for a good cause. I don’t the like the style of the bike racks they are getting though. They are more about looks than being functional! PS, hybrid bikes with narrower tires are much easier to ride, less resistance.
What I find offensive is Books bike! It’s like he’s a member of the more money than brains club. A Specialized mountain bike with front shocks! What mountain is he riding down? Flatlanders need shocks under their arse! lol Front shocks are for down hill.
A What’s with that weird ass rear fender? Is he trying to be cool like Poser mobile?
The trouble is Books never been on that bike all season until this ride. I’ve put on about a 1000 miles and have been hard on myself for slacking this year.
Fender,,,,,,,, where the hell you been?
You guys on your dumb bikes make me laugh.
I am getting the feeling that Matt doesn’t like the mayor. I would enjoy your site much more if there were more news and less opinion.
Matt, why don’t you find out what the net proceeds were from the bicycle ride fundraiser? I’m betting there were a lot of people who contributed who didn’t ride, probably more than the requested amount per person.
It can’t be a late night ride because the Mayor could get picked up for R.A.B.W.I.(riding a bike when intoxicated).
Fred wieck would love that
How is this a story? Fat jokes? Im sick of it. No more NIT for me.
Sorry B4 spell checker bounce,I meant Our Mayor not are Mayor but the story still is the same.
Mayor’s bike ride through industrial park must of been taking tour of where jobs used to be (IMI,Tonka Coolers,Alpania,Rockwell International,Alexander,Wellborn,Curtis 1000,AMPI,Minnesota Rubber when many people worked there,Mode A Day,Some Plastic Factory where beer dist. is now).Sorry if I missed some,but all these jobs were lost and been gone forever and have never been replaced.But now are mayor and some council member think that bringing 9.50 job are a big deal.Most if not all paid way more then that in the 80’s 90’s.Vote all these people out and lets turn this town around with SOME REAL JOBS.This doesn’t even include the CementPlant.Jobs lost well over 1000 maybe as high as 2500 jobs lost.Just think if we had even half those jobs what this town would be like.Mayor and council put your nose to grindstone instead of the air and something would get done.
Let me see if I got this right.The Mayor is overweight. His bike ride wasn’t as successful as it could have been. Oh yea the Mayor is overweight. The Mayor tries to do something good and it doesn’t turn out, for whatever reason, to be a huge success. Have any of you ever done something for the right reasons and not have it turn out like you had planned? Geez Matt ,I know you hate him but stick to real faux pas not invented ones.
The Globe reported, “Just over two dozen people participated in the first Mayor’s Bike Ride Thursday night in Mason City.” I only counted 13 in the video.
Another example of how our mayor is a hypocrite. He will talk about lean but spend money that should go elsewhere.
“2 Billboards for all of this” hahaha. That’s great.
I think the real story should be how many lazy ass people we have in Mason City that won’t get off their *** to do anything but complain ??
@Ben-I guess you are talking about yourself here, right, hater.
Hey Ben, I was thinking the very same thing. All the complainers sitting behind their computers and not joining in the ride. I had forgotten about it and I bet others did too. Anyway I wish that it had been a success for many reasons.
You mean so Tiffmeyer wouldn’t get exposed as a fraud? Dam, the truth hurts sometimes.
Hey Matt, do a story on the whereabouts of the EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE during the bike ride. That list was bigger than his bike turnout. What a staunch group of ass-kissers!
Eric Gogerty, Tyler Anderson, Mick Baker, Julie Bauer, Sherry Becker, John Berding, Tim Dettmer, Robin Edgar, Larry Elwood, Liz Fitzgerald, Dan Garriets, David Grooters, John Groninga, Randy Haskins, Mark Holt, George Jessen, Jay Lala, Tim Latham, Ann MacGregor and Heidi Marquart.
Also, Ron Masters, Scott Moorman, Stephanie Nettleton, Jack Nielsen, Joyce Nielsen, Tom O’Neill, Kim Pang, Kirk Paulson, Dennis Reidel, Marti Rodamaker, John Rowe, Gary Schmit, Ray Shimak, Scott Shipman, Deadra Stanton, O. Jay Tomson, Pat Tomson, Rhonda True, Dan Varnum, Gary Wattnem, Walt Wendland and Hal Winston.
@Lloyd Braun-Interesting. Thanks for the names. I wonder how many are posting on here with false names.
Hey Lloyd,
Are you going to be doing any Seinfeld re-runs!!!
This name is perfect for City Government issues!!
Your creativity is refreshing!!!!
Most of these are on the Who’s Who of the M.C.C.C.
Also known as Y.K.M.A.I.K.Y. (you kiss my ass I’ll kiss yours) Sorry I don’t belong.
Some of you can bash NIT all you want but the truth is the truth. Why blame NIT today for printing the truth? It was not a made up story the numbers speak for themselves.
There’s only one naysayer sticking up for Bookee, a blogger who calls himself “Just a thought” and he seems to have been outted as a relative of a former Bookmeyer campaign member. Sad how these “cronies” (Matt’s word, I love it!) distort reality and lie day after day to the good people of Mason City. Thank God NIT came along to give us all perfect truth and honest reporting. Matt, I don’t know how you do it, and how you have stood up to these bullies, but wow. Please keep bringing us stories like this <:~)
I don’t even know where to start. At no point did I support the mayor. I begged questions about the bias of this news site. I’m forced to ask if you even read my posts. I won’t be voting for Bookmeyer. How I got associated with his campaign is beyond me as I was living out of state at the time of his election. Cronie?…I just…..no.
Now this really says it all. They even put up a billboard and he couldn’t attract more than 20 people. My sense is that most parents wouldn’t want their children around this bully. No example for children, since he pulled his beauty salon stunt in front of his little boy.
Now that he is going to be working to get his dream team elected– Solberg, Hickey, Tornquist– they should all be a bit skeptical of aligning themselves with this beast. They are working on a billboard of the dream team….
I want to know how many taxpayers dollars were put into this event???? My understanding is that the money was from the Youth Task Force, but that money has to come from somewhere.
So looking forward to this backfiring….
The mayor should wear his helmet to the council meetings too. It looks very becoming on him….and tight.
He’ll need the helmet if he goes door knocking for re-election this fall.
He won’t even do that himself. That’s what lackeys are for.
Looks like his bike could use a bigger seat.
OHCOMEON.
Even for North Iowa Today, this was biased. It’s a bike ride through town. The Mayor tried to put something together and a few people showed up. This constitues a headline on this webpage?
I’m done with this site. Rename it wehatebookmeyer.com and be done with it. At least then people won’t confuse it with an actual news page.
NIT reports the failures of the cultural elite as well as everything else the Globe misses on a daily basis. The proper place for the Globe is at the bottom of your bird cage getting shit on. Thank you NIT for your excellent journalism!
Now, we can only hope that you ARE done. Bye…bye.
Classy stuff, My Voice. Fairly consistent with this site.
The thing is, I’m a pretty normal guy. Fairly conservative. I go to a local church. College educated and decided to work at a MC business. I pay taxes here and spend money locally. I don’t doubt for a moment that The Globe misses occasional story and think any and all competition is good.
I just can’t believe anyone takes this site seriously as a news source. The Mayor could save a child from drowning in the Winnebago and this site’s top headline would read, “MAYOR SEEN EMBRACING UNDERAGE CHILD BY THE RIVER.”
I think Matt is a smart guy and think he can do some good around town but likely won’t be voting for him on account of this site. I’ve seen stories develop in real life only to see them reported here with little semblance of the facts and at best, a clear skew to whatever issue he’s hoping to push. Freedom of the press is a glorious thing but this site, at best, is a soap box for various political opinions. But it’s not news.
@Just a thought-I appreciate you having a job and paying taxes as most of us on here do.Having only 17 people and three of them his family should tell you something about how the real people of this town feel about this guy who says one thing and then does another. This is nothing more than a ploy to try to get people to think he really cares about people. he doesn’t. He only cares about the power he has as mayor. He spend, spend and spends with no thought at all about the taxpayers of the city. If you don’t like what is put on N.I.T. why do you come on here and comment? You just can’t help yourself can you? We get the truth on here that you will never hear in the GLOB.
I TOTALLY respect your right to your opinion. But what amuses me is people like you that complain about this site and say you are done with it yet you can seem to stay away. Why is that? Always coming back for more commenting. Either you’re done with it or you’re not. Classy is doing what you say you’re gonna do…just a thought. I personally don’t care but don’t say you’re done if you’re not.
If you plan to stay…great. I welcome you and your opinion…but that doesn’t always make your opinion right….yes, even about this site and what it feels is news…unless you have a journalism degree I don’t know about?
Anyway…have a good day pal. 🙂
Of course I’m willing to respond to comments from my own comment. I wouldn’t constitute that as “coming back”. I started a dialogue. I’m happy to see it through. Once this is over though, I’m done.
I’ve been visiting this site for months. Every once in a while I’ll get a different take on a story and believe me, I relish those instances. But for every one of those, it’s Peter with another op-ed with few to no sources feeding the echo chamber of “We hate ______” I roll my eyes of course and move on, but now it’s just too much. The number of times I’ve posted in the past only to have different readers tell me to leave the site because my opinion isn’t welcome is now beyond count. Thinking people should want a different opinion to grow and solidify their own. That doesn’t seem to be the case with a large element of this sites traffic.
And while I don’t have a degree in Journalism, I do have one in English. However, I don’t believe an advanced degree is required to see that there’s on obvious and passionate angle on every story this site decides to publish.
“Just a thought” …. is that really you, Jason Bultje? Related to Cohl Bultje, Eric Bookmeyer’s 2009 campaign manager? Son of Scott Bultje, from IC System? Who had vendetta against the Human Rights? Come clean if you have the guts.
I can appreciate that response. Here’s the thing thou, this is Matt’s website. Matt has a lot of support. The kind of support that fuels passionate defense from those that believe in his cause. His cause is to bring the truth to this area of the cultural elite and their ongoing attempt to rule over all of us. Maybe you can’t see that. Maybe you just don’t want to. Whatever the case is, you have to understand that there are many here that want to bring the rein to an END. Some of us have more tact than others. Some of us have more tact but just not so much on certain days. I don’t always come off right. But I try to respect the opinion of others. I sometimes fail miserably. Especially when it is a subject that I am passionate about. Everyone has a right to their opinion. Everyone has a right to be passionate about. Matt has a right to print whatever the hell he wants on HIS site. That’s just the way it is. You can like it or leave it. That was said with all do respect…it is what it is and that is just that.
Kinda like you have the right to do what you want to in your own house. If others don’t like it…they don’t have to come over do they? I don’t know how it can be any more simple than that. Kinda hard to go into someone’s house and bitch about the color of paint on the wall. You can give constructive critism but don’t expect the homeowner to run and grab a bucket of paint just because you don’t like it.
Just tell Jason to call Cohl or Scott to console him. Even though IC couldn’t cut it here in mc.
You won’t be done, you’ll be back this afternoon.
I respect your opinion, however, facts are facts, and this bike ride cost the taxpayers and we got zero return on investment. If the ride was a success, it would have been reported that way. The fact is, the people of Mason City have no interest in Eric Bookmeyer and do not want to ride their bikes with him, and this event proved it, even with billboards and social media reminding us for weeks. There was nothing lean about this bike ride, and that’s a fact.
I appreciate the response.
Years ago, Mason City had a Midnight Bike ride that was well attended. It started at the Mall and went to NIACC then out to Wal-Mart and back to the Mall for a morning breakfast. I’ll let the readers come to their own conclusion about the Mayor of MC.
@Just a thought,
You will still come back, you will not leave, I wish you would. You will probably just change your name.
Nice stroll through the industrial park of Mason City
Hey Eric, I found photograph of you, not to lean huh?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=622837257761683&set=a.139551119423635.23045.100001062431235&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf
Any chance Bikemeyer kept on a peddlin’ right outta town?
Where’s the love?? LOL He wanted lean, and he got it. He is such an embarrassment to Mason City. Keep going Eric, the only friend you will have is the one looking in the mirror, and I would wonder about that.
17 people… 2000 slots…. I wonder if at this point our Mayor has had a sudden look at the truth, math does not lie… 29 thousand in Mason City and you can not get even 100 people to come out and ride a bike with you. When you surround yourself with “YES” people or intimidate to get your way, you do not have an honest relationship with your community. Today we see the honesty. Not even your exploratory committee showed up for support, o yes there was one I saw on this video Heidi.
Years ago, Mason City had a Midnight Bike ride that was well attended. It started at the Mall and went to NIACC then out to Wal-Mart and back to the Mall for a morning breakfast. I’ll let the readers come to their own conclusion about the Mayor of MC.