the top five reasons to move to Portland
by Willamette Week readers.
(File photo)
In case you hadn’t noticed, local weekly newspaper The Willamette Week put out their Best of Portland issue today.
Inside are the results of their staff picks in a variety of categories and results from a Readers Poll that picked Portland’s best places, people and things (based on surveys from 2,178 readers).
Here’s a look at where bikes turned up in the Readers Poll.
In the Public Life category:
“Up with bikes!” was chosen as one of the top five Best Political Causes (although in my opinion bikes are not political I prefer to de-emphasize that bikes are a “political cause” ).
In the Shopping category:
Bike Gallery was chosen as the Best Bike Shop. River City Bicycles was the runner-up.
In the Outdoor category:
The Springwater Corridor Trail was voted the Best Bike Path. The Waterfront bike loop was the runner-up.
In the Everything Else category:
- BikePortland.org came in as runner-up for Best Local Blog (winner was PortlandFoodandDrink.com)
- Bike-friendly streets were one of the top five Best Reasons to Move to Portland.
And the Willamette Week’s staff created a special category for the Community Cycling Center’s executive director Susan Remmers. They called here the “Best Dyke With Bike”. Here’s an excerpt:
(File photo)
“Remmers” has won so many fans and supporters in her storied career in Portland nonprofit management, you’d think she was launching a bid for City Council (she’s not—yet). At the Cycling Center, she oversees bike safety, mechanical programs and youth programs like “Create a Commuter,” as well as the center’s popular Summer Bike Camp.”
One last bike mention in the Willamette Week. Bike thieves and specifically the crooks that ransacked Weir’s Cyclery in St. Johns last week were named their “Rogues of the Week”.
Thanks for reading.
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Bikes political? Of course they are!
We are competing for dollars, power, and recognition. We achieve those things through various combinations of the carrot and the stick, and we make friends and enemies in the process. That is politics.
To say that bikes are not political is like saying that health care is not political. In an ideal world it wouldn\’t be, but here and now, it sure is.
tonyt,
the bikes/politics thing is a separate post I will write… but for now, I should have been more clear … Yes, I think bikes are sometimes a political issue… but I prefer to de-emphasize that relationship as much as possible because I think it sets up a winner/loser situation that I find to not be productive in the long run.
Jonathan,
Suggestion for next sticker press run:
I Ride a Bike
And I vote
or
My Other Car
is a Voting Booth
I\’m not sure exactly what it means to say that something is or is not political. As tonyt points out, almost anything can be political. Obviously, it partly depends on how you define political. But it seems equally obvious that there are many political issues that involve bikes, right?
For example, a \”debate\” about \”bikes v. cars\” (that is how the organizers framed it) moderated by a politician… I\’m pretty sure the organizers and other participants would say it\’s political debate and it involves bikes. Aren\’t you furthering the idea that bikes *are* political (whatever that means) by participating in such a debate?
My view is that encouraging more people to bike is a very important public policy (i.e., political) issue because it ameliorates so many of our most pressing social problems: hazardous air pollution, global climate change, peak oil, rising transportation infrastructure maintenance costs, and the obesity epidemic. When we acknowledge the impact that all these problems are having on our world and that bikes can help solve those problems, I think biking goes beyond \”just\” a political issue and becomes a moral issue.
I agree. Bikes should be a \”no-brainer\”, but since we share resources, funds and facilities with other people that have competing agendae, the topic of bikes and anything regarding them is highly political.
It\’s a shame, since the issues we\’re usually discussing with those people have nothing directly to do with bikes – the issues are a whole meta-level of discussion above where we actually discuss them.
It\’s not bikes per se, it\’s (as James Kunstler would say) about the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of man. It\’s about the separating and dehumanizing effect of 300\’ road right-of-ways, 12 lanes of traffic, and a culture where everything is paved, managed and manicured – unless you\’re not in the top 2 income quintiles: then it\’s just paved (with cracks, and grass trying to grow through and reclaim the land)
Bikes shouldn\’t be political. But they are, and they will be as long as effcient movement of automobiles is the dominant transportation paradigm, and as long as \”eternal growth\” remains the holy grail of economics and urban planning.
Ok – time to stop foaming at the mouth and go back to work.
Maybe you can move your #2 comment after my #4 comment; you beat me to the punch. But I want to say that emphasizing the political value of biking doesn\’t have to make it a win-lose issue. Just because I think it is a moral issue, doesn\’t mean I\’m going to get all holier-than-thou. I just think it helps people understand what\’s truly at stake from continuing to drive single-occupancy vehicles as though nothing is wrong. And I can\’t emphasize enough how important it is to help people understand that — it\’s the greatest political challenge of our time. Bikes *can* save the world…in addition to being fun.
Second for best local blog?
You were robbed!!
PortlandFoodandDrink is an excellent blog but they\’ve got nothing on you, Jonathan.
Robbed is right.
I demand a recount! Send in the lawyers!
thanks for the comments guys. It would have been cool to win and I considered putting up a \”vote for me\” type of post… but it felt like that would have been pretty shameless.
In the political arena there IS a winner and a loser, and if some of the powers that be have their way with bikes we would be the losers. Let\’s beat them gas hoggin\’, road crumblers to the piggy bank. Say yay to BikePortland, free pizza, springwater trail and PBR…and nay to bike thieves, red light runners and Cup & Saucers slow service and cold food!
Say nay to faux union PBR (made by Miller) and yay to local beer.