Finally back to my hotel room after the first full day at the Bike Summit. My head is sort of spinning from all the new things I’m hearing and seeing. There’s something surreal to me about looking down the street at the White House U.S. Capitol Building (it’s just a few blocks from my room).
The day started out with an opening panel discussion all about Portland. Jay, Jerry, Evan and Mia got to gush about what a great bike city we live in. Jay kept everyone smiling with his anecdotes, especially the one about Commissioner Randy Leanord‘s metamorphosis from brawny firefighter tough-man to bike commuter. The Trek Portland also made an appearance when Congressman Earl Blumenauer rolled his out on stage.
I hoped to have some big mountain biking news (sorry, it has nothing to do with Forest Park), but I’ve decided to wait and bring you the full story when I know more details.
Here’s a few other bits from my scribbled notepad:
Tomorrow is the big day when we walk to Capitol Hill and meet with our Congressional reps. This will be a new experience for me and I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing….not to mention that we’ll be walking around all day and I’ve managed to get some heinous blisters (long story). Oh well.
Luckily the League had an advocacy training session to help newbies like me. Here are some interesting stats they shared:
- 10,000 bills are introduced each Congressional term.
- Only about 5% of those get passed.
- 33% of those that pass are for renaming a post office or federal building.
- The average meeting time with a member of Congress is 7.5 minutes.
So that’s it for now, I’ve got tons of other ideas and things I want to write about, but I’ve really got to get some sleep. Sorry to everyone who has emailed the past few days, I know I’m lagging on replies.
Thanks for reading.
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Are you biking in D.C.?!!??? (e.g. Welcome to D.C. Now Get on your Bike!)
It would be hard to imagine a group gathering from all over the country to talk about bikes without actually riding bikes! It’d be a great way to get from the White House to the Capitol! 🙂
Speaking of traveling with bikes, are there any Bike Friday folks there? I realize you probably won’t have time to respond to this, but maybe someone else will.
Keep up the good work there, Jonathan.
Thanks for keeping us all updated on your adventures, Jonathan! Keep up the great work.
Jonathan et al,
Thanks for informative reports and representing Portland and biking to officials in Washington.
Keep up the good work!
This “BikeStation” sounds interesting. Personally I think the empty spot wher the Pioneer SQ Powell’s travel store was may be a great spot for this. The Tri-met office is in the same location.
PSU, would be nice too, however having this near the bus mall and the central city would keep the most people in mind.
Keep-up the great work in Washington!
~n
A few thoughts. First of all thank you for this amazing report.
I know you’re terribly busy, but there are no photos of Jay Ferm. The link is broken.
Regarding our version of Golden Gate park, Portland is lucky that we don’t have the car-park problem that other cities like San Francisco or New York have (www.carfreecentralpark.org). All of our parks are solely for recreation and fun. The only suggestion I can think of is the Sellwood Riverfront park. It has lots of parking which removes from the peace of the area. But a more central place would be the Rose Quarter.
I hope your enjoying your camera over there. The photos I see are nice, so I’ll assume everything worked out.
One of the major roads popular with cyclists near where I grew up in California did just that—one weekend day a month was car free. Needless to say it was very popular. It would be the equivalent of closing Marine Drive, if Marine Drive didn’t already have a nice bike path.
wow…
sounds like we have some people doing some good things
hope there was a warm response on The Hill