(Photos: Ted Timmons)
The Cycling Against Hate ride, planned in response to an ugly pepper-spraying incident in northeast Portland last week, happened on Sunday. BikePortland correspondent Ted Timmons was there and shares the following recap…
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About 90 riders showed up; including familiar faces like former mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone, Community Cycling Center CEO Mychal Tetteh and author, publisher, and activist Elly Blue. Organizer Taz Loomans had a family emergency to attend to so Elly stepped in to lead it.
We started with a moment of silence, then community members and leaders spoke.
After being introduced by Mychal Tetteh of Community Cycling Center, Sarah Iannarone spoke, challenging us to become a more inclusive city and especially a more includive bike community. “Get educated, further educated. Please, read a book, talk to your colleagues”. Here’s video of her speech:
Longtime friend of the family Wendy Williams also spoke about how this hate crime has impacted the children, then thanked the bike community for showing up to support the family.
A few local news crews, who kept a low profile, were there: KATU, KGW, KPTV.
It was nice that they didn’t overwhelm the event, but tried to quietly report on it.
– Ted Timmons, @tedder42
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