Roller Racing at Bike Peddler Starts Tonight - Also, Maps and Salem Building Ages!

It's cold!  At least there's some sun.

But if the chill's a bit much, you want to move the bike fun indoors, and maybe enjoy something more sociable even, Bike Peddler's got a solution.

Vintage Roller Racing with Mile-a-Minute Murphy

Roller racing starts tonight!

From the PeddlerBlog:

Roller races are back at the Bike Peddler.

These will be held every Wednesday, from December 4th, to January 25th (except December 25th and January 1st). Warm up starts at 5:30 PM and the first race starts at 6:00 PM.

Even if you have no desire to race, but would rather ride, feel free to come by and ride with your friends. Bring your bike, your helmet (if you feel like it) and some mad roller skills. There will be prizes for the weekly winners, culminating on January 29th with the Salem Roller Race Championships. Series points are awarded as follows; 1 point for racing, 5 points for the win and on down from there. The categories are Men’s, Women’s and Style. Please check our Events page more information and updates.

Fun, fun, fun!

Salem Building Ages at Salemis

Fun of a geekier sort is over at Salemis, where they've put together a neat map and story about of the ages of buildings in Salem.

Interactive and crowd-sourced map of building ages - Salemis

The database behind it can be updated fairly easily, and all you have to do is click on a building to submit a correction or comment.  It might, in fact, be possible to build it out with photos and other neat bells and whistles!  (This sort of DIY thing may in the end be more flexible and offer more possibility than the official City apps - see below for a clip on that.)

At the moment the light color indicates the oldest buildings, the dark the newest.  They've also created an animated gif that shows development on the periphery of the city - so be sure to check it out!


The Historic Landmarks Commission used a dark brown instead of light yellow for a similar, but static, map a couple of years ago.  This color choice makes the persistence of the older buildings stand out more.

Same area, Tax Lot ages from Historic Landmarks Commission

The City's Historic Buildings map has links to photos - each of the orange dots brings up a thumbnail.

Same area, clip from City of Salem Historic Buildings

As you walk and bike around, things like this will make it easier to answer those "I wonder about that building" moments!