We’re excited for the Portland Bike Theft Summit tomorrow (12/10) and hope you are too.
As I mentioned last week, I’ve put together three panel discussions that will be the meat of the event. The discussions will tackle key pieces of the bike theft puzzle including: prevention, recovery, enforcement, parking design, and more.
Today I want to highlight a few other things I’m looking forward to.
The same way I approach your comments here on the blog — as having equal weight and importance as the words we type in stories — is the way I like to approach events. What I mean by that is, I want people in the crowd to participate and contribute just like the panelists. On that note, I’ll be calling on people in the crowd to be a part of the event.
In addition to Q & A sessions, there are two parts of the agenda where this will happen most: the Solutions Slam and Bike Theft Storytime.
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It seems like everyone has a bike theft story. If you have one and would like to share it on stage, please sign up at the event. There’s only one catch: Stories must be 30 seconds or less.
I know there are a lot of ideas about bike theft solutions out there. We will likely touch on some of them during our panel discussions; but there’s simply not enough time to go into detail about all of them. (My thought is that this Summit will help create an advocacy framework where we can start to pursue solutions in a more organized and prioritized way.) The Solutions Slam will be a chance to give a shout-out to your big idea. I’ll share a few of my own and call on audience members to do the same.
The final feature of the event will the Lock Stars Competition. Five contestants will battle to see who is the most proficient locker-upper. They’ll be timed for speed and also judged on their locking method. The combination of those two factors will decide the winner.
See you there!
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Portland Bike Theft Summit
Wednesday, December 10th – 6:00 to 9:00 pm
Velo Cult (1969 NE 42nd)
Check out our event page for more info and you can RSVP via Facebook.
Thanks for reading.
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I rode up SpringWater yesterday and there was a sketchy looking guy with a MB pulling 2 trailers of frames/wheels and offloading to another in a green/white Ford pickup on the parallel near street (near 96th). The truck was full, so evidently it wasn’t his first stop.
Another guy was coming with a bike across his handlebars.
This isn’t just casual theft. These guys are organized. Why is PPD uninterested ?
I don’t disagree with the sentiment, TOM, but look at it from the cop’s side for a moment. What’s their probable cause to stop the people and how’s that going to hold up in court? Assuming they get past that hurdle, they have to start checking serials, a tedious job even with great apps. They can only make the pinch if they find a bike reported stolen, and I’m guessing that the odds on that are fairly low (loads of stolen bikes don’t get reported). They’ll only be able to charge for possession of stolen property, not the theft itself, and the perp will be out in hours. If they can even seize the rest of the bikes (no evidence that they’re stolen) they still don’t have a way to get them back to the owners (no serial registration) and they’ll take up time & space in the warehouse until they’re auctioned off at a net loss. Grrr!
you are probably correct. Maybe the PPD could at least pretend to be interested to slow it all down a bit ?
The frames looked like MB or kids bikes so I doubt the serials are recorded anywhere.
So I would guess that the owners just claim the loss on their homeowners policy and go buy a new one that lasts till it is stolen ?
I got to wondering … is all that metal rebuilt to make more bikes or sold to the scrapers ? That MAY be a good topic for the conference to look into ?
They sure did mobilize when Leah Trent’s cruiser was taken . Did she have a serial recorded ?
Seems very selective responses from those who “serve & protect”
what do you mean lock upper?
who can lock up a bike the fastest and most securely…
Will there be another one of these in the future? I can’t go due to holiday-related stuff…
I can not attend tomorrow, but my short theft story is that someone stole my locked bike off my porch in Tennessee while I was at the birthing center, in labor.
Thanks for coming out everybody – super great crowd last night and it gives me tons of hope for fighting bike theft in Portland 🙂 Respect to everybody who came out to talk and hear about the problem!
Seconded, and huge thanks to Jonathan and anyone else who helped coordinate it (that’s probably you, Bryan ;). I hope Jonathan posts a write-up of the whole thing. I missed the first panel and I’m really curious what the prosecutor and the cop (sorry, I’m forgetting names) had to say.
Hey Alan! Thanks for coming out to the summit – It was awesome meeting you and I’d like to pick your brain sometime – as you and I noticed some obvious conceptual parallels in the work we do 🙂 You can get in touch w/ me through the site, no hurry but it would be great to talk again sometime!