Steering through rough terrains, Mixte is taking lead as one of three bike friendly business with gold designations in San Diego awarded by theLeague of American Bicyclists. Making something seem seamless in a car-first culture has been a hard pedal, but it’s not impossible with the right goal, direction and infrastructure.
Mixte leadership has proactively sought to instill bike culture to its staff, providing accessible showers, a flexible dress code that accommodates biking while working, official bike parking and staff workshops on bike maintenance or navigating urban neighborhoods.
Before joining the Mixte(am), when I started doing my research about this small San Diego PR firm I heard takes in clients who mean well for our city, the first thing I did was search what Mixte meant. It is both a type of bike and the type of north star that guided our CEO Jamie Hampton to other access inequities. Mixte became a seed in Jamie’s mind as she sat on her very used road bike waiting on a red light next to a Honda SUV, a consumer product she promoted, when she thought, there must be a better way.
A literal form of access inequity
I, myself, am not a cyclist yet, but last night I did another search: How to commute from home in National City to our office space in Golden Hill. In my fourth day at Mixte, I still can’t claim the bike culture has set on me. I’ve to get on the bike first, right? It has, however, gotten the wheels turning in my head. Some parts of it are the coasters with vintage bike illustrations where I set my morning coffee or seeing a colleague arrive to last Friday’s meeting on her bike, but I think the biggest switch was acknowledging advocacy for bike infrastructure is a quite literal form of access inequity.
Advocating for better bike roads and for organizations looking to promote this alternative commute means questioning the status quo, the one that often benefits a few while leaving many without options. When our city’s finest roads are only accessible by car, we’re telling bike riders their choice comes second. See also: When the finest apartments can be inaccessible to renters who receive financial assistance, the city was telling landlords Section 8 tenants could come in second or not at all. There must be a better way — and there was, right?
There is a lot of pride at Mixte for its bike culture and advocacy; it’s our symbol of resilience against lack of renovation. This is the reason in 2018 there was 100 percent participation by Mixte staff for the San Diego bike-to-work commute. It served as a reminder of our philosophy. Every blocked intersection and every narrow shared road was a callout for what we do best: Finding a better way.
On a larger scale, since its inception, Mixte has been the PR machine behind the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, which advocates for all people who ride in San Diego County. Also, Hampton is a founding member of the nonprofit Business for Good, which runs advocacy campaigns uniting small business owners to advocate for improved bike infrastructure and to support disruptions like dockless bike share. We also work with organizations with national and international reach like the American Council on Exercise and the North American Bikeshare Association, which address transportation issues and encouraging active communities for many.
We are proud to be recognized as one in three gold standard bike leaders in San Diego, but hope to have many more join our daily commute soon.
For inquiries about Mixte’s talents and past adventures, please contact Jamie Hampton: jamie@gomixte.com, (858) 337-7466.
