Month: October 2014

Smith Optics to move 35 employees to new Portland office

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
smithlead

A significant chunk of global eyewear brand Smith Optics will move to Portland early next year.

The news was confirmed today via a story posted this afternoon in the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper.

Here’s more from the IME:

Safilo [Smith’s parent company] CEO Luisa Delgado came to Ketchum from Italy this week to discuss the results of the location study with Smith employees, local government officials and media, among others. Delgado announced the relocation plans today, Oct. 20.

As part of Smith’s integration within its parent company, it will be controlled out of the global Safilo Group headquarters in Italy.

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Bike Theft Chronicles: Shop reports thieves are cutting cables to steal parts

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

This installment comes from our friends at Metropolis Cycle Repair on N. Williams and Page.

The shop owner Nathan Roll emailed us to share an alarming trend they’ve noticed at the store lately. Here’s what he posted to Facebook (emphases mine):

A heads up to all of our friends in the neighborhood. We have had 2 bikes come in during the last week that had significant parts stolen off of them. In both cases, the thief cut the control cables (brake and shift) to facilitate the theft. One had an expensive front rack taken while parked outside a workplace, the second had the handlebars and stem taken while locked outside the owners house. The first was at Thompson and Vancouver, and the second was at Williams and Morris. Unfortunately, a good lock is no defense in these situations. Stay watchful, and don’t leave your bike locked in public longer than necessary.

This really sucks. And I can relate. A few months ago while parked on the side of the EcoTrust Building in the Pearl District, someone cut the wire to my dynamo light and stole it.

Bomb squad disarms tripwire device found on trail near Forest Park – UDPATED

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Newton Rd in Forest Park

(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Portland Police called in the bomb squad Saturday night to disarm an explosive device connected to a tripwire strung across a trail that leads into Forest Park.

According to a statement released this morning by the PPB, the tripwire was strung across Firelane 3, a wooded and overgrown old fire access road located east of NW Thompson Rd and accessible via Skyline Road from Thunder Crest Drive. Firelane 3 is open to bicycling and walking.

Here’s more from the PPB:

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The Monday Roundup: Bingo, a cargo bike park, sex with cars, and more

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Shared space in downtown Minneapolis, 1920.
(Photo via Peter Norton)

Here are the great bike links that caught our eyes this week:

“A hundred years ago it was called Safety First”: Streetsblog’s two–part interview about Vision Zero with traffic historian Peter Norton is a must-read. The campaign for safe streets can learn a lot from the century-old campaign to make them unsafe.

“Customer code of conduct”: A bike shop in southern California is making all customers who wear their team uniform commit to obeying traffic laws.

Onshoring bikes: The Wall Street Journal takes a close look at the new factory in South Carolina that, with wages of $12 an hour, expects to produce $120 Walmart bikes more cheaply than China can by 2017. (Click the first link on the search page.)

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Raising the profile of Portland’s bike theft problem

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Putting bike theft on their radar.
(Photo: City of Portland)

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that Portland has a serious theft problem when it comes to bicycles and bike parts. For all of you that feel hopeless about it, I wanted to chime in and say I think there are some signs that the tide is finally starting to turn against the thieves.

We’ve been focused on this issue for over nine years — ever since we first launched our Stolen Bike Listings in September 2005. Since then we’ve helped recover so many bikes I stopped counting a long time ago (I’d guess it’s well into the 100s by now). Back in the early days I actually used to list bikes manually while taking information from aggrieved victims over the phone!

Almost 6,000 stolen bikes later, our listings have become a key part of the local fight against thieves.

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LEED apartment building lacks cargo bike parking, so family rents an auto space

cargo bike wide angle

The apartment building where the DeLaneys live was designed with lots of parking for small bikes but none for the sort that lets families with children live car-free.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

When their name came up this year on the waiting list for a rare below-market two-bedroom apartment in one of Williams Avenue’s new apartment buildings, the DeLaney family was thrilled.

It had enough room for their growing family — Bijou, their second daughter, is four months old — and was a short walk to the 35 bus that carries Chris DeLaney to his job at the Bike Gallery in Lake Oswego.

But it lacked something else: a place to park the cargo bike that lets them avoid car ownership and thus afford to live where they do. So, after some negotiation, the DeLaneys are paying $40 a month to park their cargo bike in one of the building’s auto parking spaces.

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Readers share concerns as Williams Ave traffic spills onto Rodney greenway

new bike lane on Williams Ave

The lane redesign isn’t done yet, but the
change is already impacting traffic.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Yesterday I got two separate reader emails about the same issue just a few hours apart. Whenever that happens it gets my attention.

In this case, the issue is the increased amount of auto traffic diversion onto NE Rodney as a result of construction and lane configuration changes on Williams Avenue.

Most of you are well-aware by now that the Bureau of Transportation has finally begun construction on the North Williams Safety Project. With the redesign on Williams there is less space for driving and the backups of cars in the past week or so has been a lot worse that usual (and that’s saying something on a long-chaotic stretch of road).

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Weekend Event Guide: Freak bikes, urban singlespeeding, levees, and more

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Freak Bike Fall is back and there’s a ride, race, and other fun stuff all weekend.
(Photo: J Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.

Finally fall has really set in. After a summer that just didn’t want to go away, we’ve seen our first real rain and wind of the season. I’m actually happy for the change. With all the climate change weirdness these days, it’s reassuring when relatively normal weather patterns return.

Assuming you don’t mind getting wet and/or you’re prepped to deal with it, there’s still plenty of fun to be had on two wheels this weekend. Check out our listings below…

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Latest Headlines

A bike summer camp roundup

Guest Opinion: Vision Zero is possible, but focus must change

Weekend Event Guide: No Kings rally, bike swap, Thorns, and more

This week at Bike Happy Hour: Bike Lane Uprising Founder Christina Whitehouse

From the Archives

With six kids and no car, this mom does it all by bike