Meet carfree Portlander Steve “Chezz” Cheseborough (video)

Our latest Carfree Portlander episode will introduce you to local musician Steve Cheseborough. Chezz is a “blues man in exile” who sold his car 16 months ago and has never looked back.

In this video by Amit Zinman, you’ll hear Chezz sing and play his harmonica while riding his bike through Laurelhurst Park, follow along with him to a gig in northeast Portland, and see how he uses his bike to volunteer as a food delivery rider for Meals on Wheels.

“People will commend me that I’m doing a lot for the planet or getting exercise. They think those are the reasons to ride a bike, but those are just side benefits,” Chezz says in the video. “The main reason is to enjoy life. It’s not fun to be in a metal box.”

Thanks to Amit for his great work on this series and to all of our subscribers and supporters for allowing us to share this type of content here on BikePortland.

Watch it above or via this link.

Browse past episodes here.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

4 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley
1 year ago

This is fine if you never venture much beyond your neighborhood, but in real-world America you need a car. Especially in rainy PDX.

Alan Love
Alan Love
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

Thousands of car-free Portlanders who travel all over the city year round would disagree with the word “need” in your statement.

stasia
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

For what it’s worth (if you were actually making a real comment and wanted to engage), my partner and I have never owned a car, and I would say we are able to do real life just fine in real-world-America-rainy-PDX. And I travel pretty far afield–it turns out that with a bike (or, a bike paired with bus or train), you can do a lot of super cool adventure things on top of all the normal-life things. It really just takes thinking about your trips and your time a little differently. I write about it sometimes here: https://www.carfreerambles.org

Shannon Johnson (Family Biking Columnist)
Shannon Johnson (Family Biking Columnist)
1 year ago

This made me smile today. I’m glad to know such people live here.