San Francisco Youngsters From Tough Neighborhoods Find Refuge In A Cluttered Shop Where The Owner Is Dedicated To Social Change.
Local section of the San Francisco edition, San Jose Mercury
News
Page: 1B
By David Cragin, Mercury News
Inside an unassuming hut, in the shadows cast by the Bay Bridge and Pacific Bell Park, kids turn wrenches and true spokes, determined to turn a grim present into a prosperous future.
The solar-powered Bike Hut at Pier 40 on The Embarcadero is the tiny fiefdom of Victor Veysey, 32.
Inside, where walls are festooned with tools, parts, helmets and locks, Veysey is transforming cast-off bikes into instruments for social change.
Here's how it works:
Meanwhile, Veysey prepares the kids -- mostly blacks from some of the tougher, more impoverished areas of town -- for such futures by showing them the value of discipline, the gains of work and the rewards of self-respect.
Partially funded by the San Francisco-based Bicycle Community Project, the non-profit Bike Hut is designed to serve inner-city youth. Day-to-day operations rely heavily on the sales and rentals of nearly two dozen new and used bikes.
But the true mission is not to sell bikes but to help kids.
More than 40 are regulars who drop in to fix their bikes, help Veysey fix the rentals or just hang out. They find him through teachers at school and other juvenile programs but primarily hear about the Bike Hut through word-of-mouth.
Eight are on the payroll, working about 20 hours a week and earning $7 an hour.
Fifteen-year-old Max Roston, who lives directly across the street from the Bike Hut at the Steamboat Point Apartments, became an apprentice after stopping by to get his bike fixed.
''I just dropped in,'' he said. ''Vic took care of my bike and said, 'Come on over anytime.' ''
That was almost two years ago.
Today, under the tutelage of Veysey, Roston -- who used to spend much of his time ''just hanging out with friends'' -- is building up a savings account and learning valuable life lessons.
''He teaches us how to be responsible, how to talk to people,'' said Roston, who will be a sophomore at Galileo High School this fall. ''And he also asks us questions about what we want to do with our life.''
There was never any question what Veysey wanted to do with his life. An avid cyclist, the blond, blue-eyed Santa Cruz native with a degree in sociology began to see bikes as tools of empowerment for the underclass during a period as an international vagabond.
''Bikes are an easy and cheap way to provide mobility,'' he said. ''If you have mobility, you can go anywhere you want.''
He learned the art of restoration by fixing a basement full of bikes for a German theater group. Back in San Francisco, Veysey helped establish a Safe Haven bike repair shop for young people in Hunters Point. Then he was tapped by Charles Higgins, who founded the Bicycle Community Project in 1993, to run the Bike Hut full time in 1998.
Full time usually means 80-hour weeks, and in rare instances, Veysey might find the need to be fixed to his post for consecutive weeks with nary a day off.
Fifty-eight days in a row last summer. Another time, duty called Veysey for six weeks straight.
''I had a kid coming from the homeless shelter,'' Veysey explained. During the day, ''when his mother left the shelter, he had nowhere else to go; so he came here.''
With so many young people -- from two to 22 -- liable to show up at any given moment, it's that type of dedication that allows Veysey to work his magic.
''I totally invest myself in giving them a real environment where they can say things to me, and I am going to give them a real reaction,'' he said.
Judging by the respect he's earned among the kids -- and their parents -- his methods have been successful. Why?
''I'm just extremely real with them,'' he said. ''I am creating a society that they understand, and I consult them to find solutions to their problems.''
Forced to deal with urban blight and economic despair, many of the kids in Veysey's program are dealing with issues far greater than typical teen angst.
From the North Beach projects, Kareem Pierson, 14, strolled up to the Hut about a year ago hoping to earn some biking gloves. He earned the gloves. Now, he is on the payroll.
''Kareem needs $400 for school clothes,'' Veysey said. ''I am trying to make sure he gets it, and trying to make sure he doesn't spend $100 on tennis shoes.''
Pierson dreams of one day becoming an auto mechanic. For now, he is content to do what he can to enhance the Hut.
''We been cleaning it up,'' said Pierson, who is paid for about 20 hours a week, ''trying to improve it, so hopefully we can get more people to rent and buy bikes.''
The Bike Hut is also looking for donations.
Robert Ping, director of the Bicycle Community Project, said funding is accumulated through donations, grants, ''any way we can get it.''
''Right now, no organizations are giving,'' Veysey said. ''My main source of donations is from private citizens who drop off old bikes or who stop by with cash or a check.
''We need more funding, donations, bikes, parts and more volunteers, because we can be tapped out pretty quickly.''
Since Veysey can hardly find the time to run errands or get a cup of coffee, the few volunteers who help out around the Bike Hut have become an invaluable asset.
Ryan Beckham, 25, a bike messenger in the city, volunteers up to 10 hours a day when he isn't working.
''I do as much as I can,'' Beckham said. ''Victor's an awesome friend. I will do anything I can for him.''
In three to five years, Beckham just might be managing his own Bike Hut.
Veysey, with the Bicycle Community Project, has designed a proposal for a network of Bike Huts that would be used as rental stations and drop-off points surrounding the Bay Trail.
The Bay Trail is a network of multiuse pathways circling San Francisco and San Pablo Bay. Now 40 percent complete, it will encompass a 400-mile route through all nine Bay Area counties and 42 shoreline cities.
''We will need more volunteers,'' Veysey said. ''But these kids, with the proper training they receive here, will become staff members, and eventually will be running their own Bike Huts.''
One of those kids might be 9-year-old D'Errica Perryman. Although not on the payroll, the soon-to-be fifth-grader is working toward earning a new bike.
''I can pump up tires, put handlebars on, and clean 'em up and paint 'em,'' said Perryman, a resident of the Steamboat Point Apartments.
Perryman's mother, Patricia Wilks-Perryman, has three other kids in the program and has witnessed the benefits firsthand.
''I noticed positive changes right away,'' said Wilks-Perryman, manager of the Steamboat Point Apartments. ''Their communication skills have improved. . . . I use to shelter my kids, and not let them venture out of the house. Victor has taken that fear away from me.''
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