Hope you can swing by Bike Happy Hour tomorrow (Weds, 4/10), because we’ve got two special guests and ample opportunities for activism. We’ll hear from Portland City Council candidate Rex Burkholder, learn about an exciting project from a group of Portland State University students, and activists from BikeLoud PDX will meet up for their bi-monthly Bike Loud Action Mixer (BLAM).
Burkholder is running for a seat in District 3, which encompasses (roughly) southeast Portland from the Willamette to 82nd, and I-84 to the southern border. Burkholder is an advocacy veteran and former Metro Council member who’s well-known in local cycling circles. In late 1990, Burkholder co-founded the Portland Area Bicycle Coalition, which in 1992 incorporated as the nonprofit Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) which grew to prominence in the 1990s. The BTA changed its name (and its mission) to The Street Trust in 2016.
After he left the BTA, Burkholder was elected to Metro Council in 2000 and held that position for 12 years. He ran for Metro president in 2010 but didn’t win the race. After that, he went into consulting and worked on various environmental advocacy issues. Burkholder now finds himself in a highly competitive race to represent southeast Portland on city council.
At Happy Hour, we’ll give Burkholder the mic to tell us why he deserves our votes and he’ll be open to a few questions from the crowd. Show up around 5:00 to hear Burkholder’s speech.
After Burkholder, we’ll learn what Strategic Minds Consulting Group is up to with their Future Sandy project. Strategic Minds is a group of PSU Urban and Regional Planning students that includes: Afroza Hossain Misty, Anchal Cheruvari, Heather Rector, Holly Querin, Katelyn Dendas, and Symeon Walker. They’ve teamed up with BikeLoud PDX to flesh out a plan to re-think Sandy Blvd as a multimodal corridor.
Sandy is currently a high-crash corridor without any dedicated space for bicycling; but its diagonal layout has long made it a very attractive candidate for a bikeway. With repaving plans in the near future, advocates want to make a potential bikeway project shovel-ready if the opportunity for a big redesign presents itself. The scope of the Future Sandy project is from NE 14th to 28th.
Members of Strategic Minds will be at Bike Happy Hour from 4:00 to 6:00 tomorrow. They’ll be conducting an interactive map exercise, so please take a few minutes to check out their table and information. They’ll ask folks to identify bike routes around Sandy and which destinations are important to them. The more folks they hear from, the better. Speaking of which, be sure to take their online survey (closes April 30th).
And if all the talk about the future Sandy bikeway gets your blood pumping, hook up with BikeLoud PDX for their BLAM session. The BLAM is a meet-up where all ideas are welcome. Show up with your idea for how Portland can reach 25% bicycle mode share by 2030 and connect with others who can help you put it into action.
Can’t wait to see you all tomorrow! In addition to this stuff, we’ll have some time for open mic, so come and promote your ride/product/business/idea/song/poem, or whatever.
— Bike Happy Hour is every Wednesday from 3:00-6:00 pm at Gorges Beer Co patio (SE Ankeny & 27th). Join us for great food, drinks, and company. Everyone is welcome!
Thanks for reading.
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I’ll never forget the time at the Towards Car Free Cities Conference in 2008 in front of a crowd of hundreds…
Rex was asked about how we can mobilize to stop the 16 lane Columbia River Crossing highway expansion mega project…
And he said that he was FOR the project which would add many wider lane miles for over 10 miles.
The crowd (Of cyclists, environmentalists, smart growth planners, public transportation wonks, and neighborhood activists) gasped in horror.
That said, he’d most likely be a better candidate than most in any district in the city.
I was at Bike Happy Hour yesterday, and I took one of the “Future Sandy” flyers from the group there. It had a QR code for a survey, but “this QR code has been deactivated for some reason.”
Does anyone know a direct way to get to the survey?
Hi Gil, You can find the survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDBzkqb1xw-Qy45Vq6DB_Em0-RxTfYueN0NruV8V_xKQ0i0A/viewform
Was nice to see you last night and thanks for taking the survey
Shadow transportation planning departments have scored some wins in Portland, notably on Naito Parkway. On NE Sandy Boulevard the complexity of the project means they had to select a limited area to work with. The need for a diagonal bike boulevard worthy of the name goes way beyond NE 28th, and it’s a project that cries out for a large organization to take on.