For that matter, KATU\'s coverage appears to use an equally large brush when painting their picture of Sunday Parkways.

Stereotypes are spread because at their heart, there is a kernal of truth - but one should never expect a single kernal to represent the entire field of corn.

Clearly, there is much that we can learn from supposedly \"backward\" third world countries that seem to know a lot more about community than we do. Maybe we\'ve just forgotten, I don\'t know.

I\'m just glad I live in Portland, where our sense of community and progressiveness are at the forefront in the US. Now if we can learn the lessons that other communities are teaching, including those we\'ve shunned in the past like Colombia and Cuba, we can enter the world stage in liveability, and not just economy.

there we were at slammed post-Parkway Amnesia Brewery, and my mom was already on the phone with members of her cooking class recounting her great day on the Parkway and asking when they were going to go biking again. this is the same mother and nurse who two years ago would have required her sniffly daughter to stay at home and recuperate, but who asked on this Sunday Parkway Day, \"we can still ride, though, can\'t we?\" answer: \"wild horses, Mom . . .\"

Thanks for the link.

Here\'s what I posted at Portland Spaces:

\"It was pretty glorious. I\'m comfortable biking on your average road, but with a healthy sense of paranoia. It was nice to be able to let the guard down for a day and just ride.

Even better was getting to see all the little kids ride for all they were worth in what must have seemed to them like an infinite highway made just for them. I loved my bike when I was a kid, and seeing the little guys get to cut loose, free of the ever-present threat of death or injury us city cyclists live with, brought many smiles to my face. (And I\'m not a naturally smiley guy :)

I attend a lot of bike events, and being that I occasionally drive, and being that I\'m a pretty polite guy, I often have a pang of sympathy for the drivers who get inconvenienced when bikes take over the roads (even while I\'m reveling in the takeover). So it was that at Sunday\'s Parkways event, I glanced at every intersection to see how many cars were backed up: I never saw more than three. The police did a great job of moving traffic in both directions - while also engaging warmly with passing cyclists who were constantly thanking them - and I was stopped several times to let cars go through.

Just the cyclist/cop love-fest alone made this quite unlike most mass biking events I\'ve attended. I\'ve heard second-hand that police working the event were pretty happy with the whole deal.

People were giddy. If the Oregonian article seemed rah-rah, then I\'d call it an accurate representation of the experience.

One point regarding the route: it was only a 6 mile circuit - not 70 miles as you say in your post - that was closed off. Bogota closes off 70 miles, maybe that\'s where you got that number. We\'re not quite there yet :). Also, it\'s not like the people within the circuit were closed off from the outside world - that\'s what the crossings were about.

I\'m not sure, but I\'m pretty sure even residents on the route itself were allowed to drive in and out of the closed streets. I don\'t believe it was nearly as inconvenient as it\'s been (inaccurately) portrayed to have been on some of the less, er, vigorously-fact-checked reports. It was less of an inconvenience than say, a parade or a road race, and for my money a hell of a lot more fun (and healthy, and community-building) than those other events.

I\'m going to be there helping to get the next Parkways going, hopefully in my neighborhood this time.\"

I had no more luck being concise there than I do here :)

These are some of the eminently reasonable questions posed at the thoughtful Portland Spaces blog. Have a look, weigh in, let\'s keep the momentum going...

Then when addressing your email, CC those customers. Explain that you are not interested in using their customers until you get some satisfaction.