16 June 2008 Archives

Pedalpalooza Events for Tuesday (6/17)

See the Sprockettes (shown here at
Cirque du Cycling on Saturday)
perform at City Hall.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Pedalpalooza is in full swing! Below is a listing of events for Tuesday (6/17).

The highlight is the free, public day of the Towards Carfree Cities Conference. Tuesday’s Program highlights include: a panel on the defeat of the Mt. Hood Freeway moderated Portland Mercury news editor Amy Ruiz, a family transportation panel, a discussion of the Columbia River Crossing project, and keynote speeches by several stellar leaders of the carfree movement.

If you can’t make it to the Carfree Conference (and you’d rather be pedaling in the sunshine), join urban historian/adventurer/artist Shawn Granton for his famous Dead Freeways Ride. Shawn will share his knowledge on a tour of freeways to nowhere and other highway infrastructure lore.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Meet at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant, 5001 N Columbia Blvd,
(Meet and be ready to ride at 7AM at the trailhead.)

7 am to 9 am Thursday June 19, Morning Birding Bike Ride along the Lower Columbia Slough. Birding is a lovely attention-grabbing adventure you CAN do almost anywhere. Biking is joy almost beyond measure that you SHOULD be able to do almost anywhere. Combine birding and biking on a spring morning along the Columbia Slough and then you are really living the good life! Join us for this fun pre-work bird and bike.

Jim Labbe, www.urbanfauna.org

Sprockettes Dance Party/Ride

Meet at the South Park Blocks , South Park Blocks & PSU (SW Market & SW Park Ave.) Take Trimet
6:00pm
Come kick it with your hometown homegirls – the Sprockettes. We leave from PSU downtown and ride to the east bank esplanade for dancing to our bumpin’ mobile sound system. Bring snacks and drinks and play with our hula hoops, chariots, bikes, and trade sweet moves! Wear hot-pink and black to rep!
Agent Trouble, stayhidden at gmail dot com

Heritage Trees of Portland Ride

Meet at – Palio, 1996 Se Ladd Ave

6:30pm – 8:30pm
A leisurely bike ride on SE neighborhood streets stopping at Portland’s Heritage Trees
HT, mlemily at gmail daht comm

Dead Freeways Ride

Meet at South Park Blocks in front of Smith Memorial Ballroom (PSU), SW Park Ave and Montgomery St Take Trimet
9:00am – 12:00pm
What if…Portland built all the freeways it planned? This ride will follow the routes of several highways that never made it off the drawing board, such as the fabled Mt. Hood Freeway, some that did but were later removed, like Harbor Drive, and also as a reference some freeways that currently exist. Approx 10 miles of riding through moderate traffic. This event is part of the Towards Carfree Cities Conference.
Shawn Granton, urbanadventureleague at scribble daht comm, urbanadventureleague.blogspot.com

Public Day at Carfree Conference

PSU Smith Memorial Student Union, 1825 SW Broadway, Portland Take Trimet (followed by Art Show and Reception at City Hall, 1221 SW 4th.)
9:00am – 9:00pm, keynote, presentations, and art show times at carfreeportland.org
The Towards Carfree Cities Conference opens its door to the public for a free day to promote discussion of urban livability, mixed-use development, local agriculture, pedestrianization, strong neighborhoods, accessible public space, and sustainable transportation.

We are excited to announce that Gil Penalosa, a pioneer of Bogota’s carfree ciclovia movement and executive director of the Canadian organization Walk and Bike for Life, will deliver the keynote speech!

Towards Carfree Cities Conference, www.carfreeportland.org, portland at worldcarfree daht nett, 503-810-9443

Blumenauer: Obama meeting was “a coming of age moment”

“If I had to choose between Bush on his mountain bike and John Kerry on his Serotta, I’ll take Obama.”
–U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama made headlines last week for his private meeting with members of the bicycle industry in Chicago.

U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer (who some have whispered would make a great Transportation Secretary under Obama) was also at the event. He was so moved by what he thinks the event meant for the bicycle movement, that he took time to share his thoughts during a phone call with me a few days later.

Job Title
Service Manager

Company/Organization
The Bike Gallery

Job Description
The Bike Gallery is seeking highly experienced professional bike mechanics for Service Department management positions. If you are driven, detail oriented, and passionate about customer service, we want to hear from you.

Former parking lot soon to be garden.
(Photos © J. Maus)

With car use in decline across the country, millions of urban acreage currently devoted to parking them will soon go fallow.

What to do with all those parking lots? Depave them!

The International Towards Carfree Cities conference kicked off this morning with a depaving event in North Portland.

Scores of volunteers from Portland-based Depave pounded, cracked-up, and then carried away tons of pavement from the parking lot at the SE corner of N. Fargo and Williams.

Portland-based Columbia Sportswear has announced that they have taken over sponsorship of Team High Road (formerly T-Mobile) and new jerseys with “Team Columbia” will debut at the start line of the Tour de France.

This would be first time a Portland company was a title sponsor of such a high-profile racing team. Team High Road is currently the ninth-ranked cycling team in the world and is has more wins in 2008 than any other team in pro cycling. The team also includes U.S. star George Hincapie.

A massive crowd — which some estimate at well over 2,000 riders — took part in the Naked Ride through downtown Portland on Saturday night (technically Sunday morning).

As we made our way from the Northwest Industrial Area to downtown (via Burnside), the immensity of the crowd became evident.

Members of the SE Bicycle Patrol Unit
shared their ninja bike riding secrets
with an appreciative crowd.
(Photos © J. Maus)

The last few days really kicked the fun up a notch here in Portland.

Pedalpalooza is now in full swing and the events are coming faster than I can keep up with.

Here are some brief reports and photos from two events that happened on Friday:

Pedalpalooza Events for Tuesday (6/17)

Birding Bike Ride

Sprockettes Dance Party/Ride

Heritage Trees of Portland Ride

Dead Freeways Ride

Public Day at Carfree Conference

Blumenauer: Obama meeting was “a coming of age moment”

Service Manager (Bike Gallery)

De-paving event kicks off Carfree Conference

Portland company sponsors top cycling team: Will debut at Tour de France

A Naked Ride for the ages

Pedalpalooza update: Police on bikes and speed dating

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