SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Dirt bike riders zoom through traffic in cities across America, but residents often complain about the noise and risky driving maneuvers. In Baltimore, the practice grew so divisive the city outlawed dirt bikes, yet young people still love riding them. Scott Maucione from member station WYPR reports on one group in the city that has a potential solution.
SCOTT MAUCIONE, BYLINE: On warm weekends in Baltimore, the sound of dirt bikes echo through the blocks.
(SOUNDBITE OF DIRT BIKE REVVING)
MAUCIONE: For decades, dirt biking has been part of the city's Black culture. Groups of people on bikes and ATVs gather to ride across the city, doing wheelies and other tricks along the way.
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AARON THORNTON: It's more of a fashion show more than anything.
MAUCIONE: Aaron Thornton is a Baltimore resident and former rider.
THORNTON: You know the girls, they watch. And every time when you on a bike, somebody's going to stop, and they're going to look. But it's like the best thing, riding your bike and just going for it.
MAUCIONE: But some residents say they're troubled by the reckless driving, accidents and the loud noise of the engines. Bikers will often hold up traffic at intersections for caravans of riders to roll through. Many of the complaints come from wealthy white neighborhoods. But bikers say they deserve a place on the road, too, and they're angry about aggressive police enforcement tactics in the past that they say included ramming and high-speed chases.
THORNTON: Back in the '90s or early 2000s, we would ride up this block, Madison, and we had some crooked cops. They would chase us. They would chase us and, like, ride up to the back of our wheel.
MAUCIONE: Tensions got so bad that in the early 2000s, the city passed laws to try and crack down. They made it punishable by jail time to ride or even own a dirt bike. At the beginning of this summer, there was a deadly accident when a biker crashed into an SUV, and then an officer was hit by a bike, causing the city to reopen the once shuttered task force on the vehicles. Baltimore police colonel Ryan Lee leads that team.
RYAN LEE: We're really trying to address it from a safety perspective lens. We're really trying to address it because of community livability concern.
MAUCIONE: Lee says the police switched to using surveillance techniques to catch drivers, including drones and helicopters, rather than chasing them. But riders say they're still getting chased by the police, and distrust of the police runs deep in the Black community in this city. Just a decade ago, there were riots over the death of a young Black man in police custody. Dayvon Love works for a think tank focused on policies that affect Baltimore's Black community. He says Black working-class youth are often stigmatized for their fashion and music choices. Dirt biking is no different.
DAYVON LOVE: You don't see that level of demonization of dirt bike riding in other cultural contexts.
MAUCIONE: And Love says there's limited green space and many life stressors for young Black kids in the city, so dirt biking is a form of therapy.
LOVE: We're talking about people who see this as an important refuge for them, like, emotionally, psychologically. And so it should be treated as such.
MAUCIONE: For the last 10 years, Brittany Young's provided a legal way for kids to enjoy dirt biking. She says the criminalization of dirt bikes is the real problem.
BRITTANY YOUNG: Everywhere else in the world, dirt bikes - if you ride an off-highway vehicle on the streets, is a traffic violation, right? You don't have the possibility of going to jail. It's not a thousand-dollar fine.
MAUCIONE: Her little brother went to jail for nonviolent offenses. She feels like if he was able to put his passion into something like dirt biking, he could have avoided that. With that in mind, Young started B-360, a nonprofit that gives kids in Baltimore an outlet.
YOUNG: People (inaudible) like my brother, who have a passion, who had something they liked, but didn't necessarily have programming to, like, redirect them instead of just jail.
MAUCIONE: The organization operates on a small strip of land and teaches dirt biking, CPR, basic safety, mechanics and science lessons based on dirt bike physics. Since its inception, Young says B-360 has taught 14,000 children.
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MAUCIONE: Today, Young's out with some of the counselors and neighborhood kids riding in a small area sanctioned (ph) for her organization. Zyare Morris has been part of the camp for two years.
ZYARE MORRIS: I feel happy.
MAUCIONE: The 9-year-old says he's learned a lot.
ZYARE: They will teach you everything. They will teach you how to ride a bike. They will teach you how to do anything. They will teach you how to wheelie. They will help you, like, push you whenever you need a boost to ride the bike.
MAUCIONE: Now Young's proposed building the nation's first dirt bike park in Baltimore. Her organization secured $3 million in federal funding for it.
YOUNG: If you build it, they will come, right? And so, no matter if it's basketball, if it's football, in our case, it's dirt bikes, what we need next from our city and from people in office is working on that policy so that these spaces can be permanent.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Invest.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Don't arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Invest.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Don't arrest.
MAUCIONE: In July, B-360 and other riders held a peace walk. They chanted - invest, don't arrest. They called for police, city officials and riders to sit down to find common ground and to build the park. Aaron Thornton, who grew up riding bikes, says he thinks the place would be packed.
THORNTON: I tell you - this whole park would be filled, and we could have, like, a dirt bike contest. I know that'd be so great for the city. Everybody would show up. I just know it.
MAUCIONE: The politics could be tricky, and the rest of the funding could take years to come together. But there's no doubt that the revving of dirt bikes will continue to be one of the characteristic sounds of the city.
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MAUCIONE: For NPR News, I'm Scott Maucione in Baltimore. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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