The BikePortland office was broken into this weekend and Jonathan and I have spent the morning figuring out what’s missing (and sighing a lot). The damage so far; our backup SLR camera, four Nikon lenses (ouch!), both of our digital audio recorders we use for events and interviews…
What did we get in exchange? A crowbar. Nice. We’re figuring out a plan of action and will keep you posted about a possible fundraiser.
In the meantime, the show goes on — here’s the news that caught my eye last week:
cycle track in the Cully neighborhood.
– In Portland, the Hillsdale neighborhood association has unanimously voted in support of installing a cycle track (physically separated bikeway) along Capitol Highway.
– The Columbia River Crossing debate is heating up. Dylan Rivera at the Oregonian lays out some of the dynamics — Randy Leonard is taking on bridge opponents, Metro is urging more aggressive focus on tolls to achieve desired traffic levels.
– The wages of $4 a gallon gas: Exxon Mobil has broken its own record for for yearly profit, despite falling gas prices in the last quarter.
– “Bikewashing” is the term we use here at BikePortland HQ for what Steve Jones rails against this week in the SF Bay Guardian — Mayor Gavin Newsom is touting the city’s first bikesharing program as a groundbreaking step towards sustainability, but it will only include fifty bikes for the entire city.
– Seattle is set to build its first on-street bike parking facilities.
– The LA Bike Coalition (Los Angeles’ version of the BTA) has announced a new Car-Free Fridays campaign, urging members and Angelenos at large to leave their car at home one day a week. They city personal finance, health, environment, and the region’s economy as reasons to drive less.
– The New York Times reports on a new study that proposes turning 42nd Street in Manhattan into a carfree light rail corridor.
– Wired Magazine has a nice write-up of Mark Gorton, LimeWire inventor and founder of the Open Planning Project‘s suite of open source livable streets advocacy and technology.
– Connecticut blog WalkBikeCT has a good editorial about how US bike advocates focus on building infrastructure — but our laws still don’t hold people accountable for hurting or killing others with their cars.
– A Dutch employer has found that employees who ride bikes save their employers a substantial amount of money every year — because they don’t get sick as often (via A View From the Cycle Path).
– A reader passed along this chart from the Economist showing car ownership rates around the world — the US isn’t where you might guess.