The Community Cycling Center, an institution in Portland’s nonprofit advocacy scene since it was founded on Northeast Alberta Street in 1994, is in a financial tailspin and its leader says they’ll be forced to close for good unless the community donates $115,000 in the next three weeks.
An email to members and supporters sent Saturday relayed the news: “The Community Cycling Center has been grappling with an escalating financial challenge over the past five years,” reads the email. “This issue has now reached a critical point, and without swift, decisive action and the support of our community, we face the very real possibility of shutting down by October 1st.”
They’ve launched a “Save the Community Cycling Center” fundraising campaign and say they must raise at least $349,000 by January 1st, 2025 to stay afloat.
The CCC celebrated its 30th anniversary at the end of July with a carnival at Alberta Park. That same month they hired a new executive director, Ruben Alvarado — their sixth leader in less than five years. That high turnover is one of several reasons cited in a document released by the organization today. I have an interview scheduled with Alvarado in a few hours to learn more. (I’ll share our conversation in a separate post.)
In an email to BikePortland over the weekend, Alvarado said,
“When I assumed the role of executive director in July, I was hopeful that our organization was on a path toward growth and innovation. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that the financial challenges accumulated over the past 4 years following the pandemic were far more severe than anticipated. Despite implementing immediate cost-saving measures, emphasizing transparency, and strengthening our community relationships, we find ourselves at a crossroads where the possibility of closing our doors is becoming a harsh reality.”
One recent budget bright spot for the CCC is over $700,000 in grants they’ve won since 2022 thanks to two separate awards from the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF). In 2022 the CCC won nearly $500,000 for a three-year grant that would fund 900 bikes and, “14,000 hours of staff time and provide stipends and logistical support to Black and Latinx community leaders so they can engage in transportation-related system improvement discussions.”
And just last week the organization won another PCEF grant for $443,000 over two years to, “increase access to cycling infrastructure and promote sustainable transportation in underserved communities.” (In documents shared at city council this week, PCEF said their financial vetting process invovles, “examining the past three years of financial documents and relevant narrative responses in the application to assess the organization’s financial health and governance.”)
But in a statement today, the CCC says this grant funding requires up-front reimbursements and costs the organization cannot afford because revenue from their programs and donors has dwindled in recent years.
The CCC says their financial challenges began in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic. Adding to that are the issues of frequent executive director turnover, high administrative costs, and “challenges within our bike shop due to industry changes.”
In a document that provides an overview of reasons their financial crisis, the CCC says their “top heavy” org chart had too many leadership positions that could have been done by lower-paid workers. They also say keeping employees on year-round and providing them benefits and annual cost of living increases contributed to these high administrative costs. In April 2023, the CCC’s bike shop became the first in Portland to form a worker’s union.
In July 2023 we reported that the CCC closed their retail shop because it wasn’t creating enough revenue. In its place they offered just a few select parts and accessories and launched a new model that allows paid members the ability to work on their own bikes. “While this new model has potential,” the CCC shared in a statement. “It has not yet replaced the revenue lost from bike sales.”
One number that jumps out in recent financial records is the 14 percentage point drop in contributions from 2021 through this year. That shows fewer people are donating to the CCC and combined with the loss of income from the bike shop, further complicates their financial outlook.
All of these factors paint a bleak picture. The CCC says if they don’t meet four funding goals by January 1st, 2025 (including $115,000 by October 1st), “we will have to shut down our beloved organization.”
For more on this story see the CCC website and stay tuned later today when I share an interview with Alvarado.
See video below for interview recorded this morning with CCC Executive Director Ruben Alvarado (also available on our podcast feed):
Thanks for reading.
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Yeah, this sucks. There’s a pit in my stomach thinking about the demise of the community cycling center.
For context I’m in the photo at the top of this article. I also appear in the photo announcing the staff union. I left the ccc after several years in both the shop and programs but before the shop operation was gutted.
I could go deep in my criticisms of the organization, it’s structure, toxic workplace culture and terrible decisions by leaders who left as quick as they came. But that’s not the point here. I want to support the front-line workers who have stayed and the new folx who have pitched in and are trying to salvage this community institution that has been a positive force for so many.
I’m a career bike mechanic. I don’t have much money and I do have gripes with the ccc. But I’m gonna pitch in a small donation because I think portland is better off with the work the ccc does.
Wasn’t city council candidate Steph Routh one of those recent EDs?
I thought it was curious how they took on the ED job, proposed huge reforms, advertised multiple new positions, and then left with absolutely no fanfare.
I believe that like Jonnie Ling, Steph was named Interim Executive Director. I don’t know if either of them wanted to stay or if either of them were offered the opportunity to stay, but I don’t think it should be held against someone who steps up to take on the interim role if they don’t convert to the permanent ED, nor would I expect a lot of “fanfare” when a permanent ED was hired. That said it is a bit disappointing how short the tenure of the “permanent” ED’s who replaced them was.
They jump to something else before their incompetency is observed. Routh only had a couple months before the failure of strategy was obvious. This group has no earned revenue and thinks they can exist on handouts.
Look the ymca for how things should work . Just close the identifed loser of money and hope down and move on.
CCC started as a soulful place to help people ride or keep riding with minimal participation in the doom loop of brand-new retail. But it’s become something quite estranged.
Considering the ratio of used inventory over new, the incredible programs they are still conducting, and the community-accessible benches, I find it hard to agree with your statement!
The CCC is an important pillar of the cycling community in Portland and it is terrible to hear they are in such dire straits. I hope we can all rally around them and help this beloved institution get back on its feet so it can continue to provide valuable programming.
But see, a soulful, mostly non-brand-new-retail shop _wouldn’t need_ an “executive director” or a ~$2 million annual budget. CCC clearly has gone in some different direction. But it appears you may be spot on in describing “the…programs” as “incredible” — that is, not credible in terms of not being sustainable. Possibly a pitfall of doing government-program-type stuff while being quite a few steps removed from reliable government funding.
Exactly. Alvarado even says explicitly in the interview that they “grew too fast“ as a result of all the free money they were getting from grants and what not. Seems like the typical nonprofit bullshit jobs bloat that comes from thinking you’re a peacock when you should be satisfied with being a pigeon. I mean, what do they actually do, that is complicated or impressive in any way that would require so many people who are not just wrenches? It’s embarrassing. From the outside it has the appearance of a scrappy bike co-op. Seems like none of this should’ve happened and if they’re going to survive, they should get rid of all the extra garbage, including this executive director, and not try to constantly be “growing their business” like some yuppies.
I’d imagine the directors typically come in around 11, check their email, step out for lunch, quick nap and then out the door by 3:30
Sad news, as a former ED of a 501c3, I can concur that the pandemic is still causing massive financial shock to non-profits operating in the transportation / mobility space nationwide, especially in the bike world.
As a past community partner for the CCC [Vancouver once had a CCC outpost in our Downtown], I hope for the best …[especially as there may be a way to leverage new funding to bridge the cash flow challenges to activate the grants mentioned.]
If I was their ED (and be thankful I’m not), I’d go shopping for another 501c3 that is currently flush with cash and ask nicely to borrow $115,000 until next payday, and ask them further to lend some $500,000 cash for cash-flow issues during the PCEF grants. The 501c3 doesn’t even need to be in Oregon or in the bike coop business.
A demographic shift in bicycle customers has been happening since at least 2010, and continues to create ripples across the industry:
— fewer customers getting their hands dirty and doing their own repairs, even on bikes with older, more accessible technologies;
— manufacturers digging in and entrenching the decades-long standard “trickle down” from racing — which does not bear enough meaningful resemblance to the real world needs of commuters and recreational riders.
— more bikes being made that require more specialized mechanical training and knowledge (i.e., e-bikes, disc brakes and hydraulics) than the average consumer possesses.
— **Remember that the average consumer doesn’t generally work on their own bikes, not even to fix a flat tire.**
— continuing low wages for bicycle mechanics, and a lack of subsidized training, have depressed the marketability and attractiveness of the job to younger workers.
— Infrastructure gains during the 1990’s and early 00’s are being rolled back in response to rising demand for automobile infrastructure and population growth, plus pushback in favor of more remote working — means fewer people are commuting to work by bicycle in cities across the country, including Portland.
The market for used bikes and tools has tanked since the pandemic, and prices for these items remain mostly depressed from where they’d been in 2019.
When CCC shifted to a membership-based workspace model and away from an emphasis on retail, a majority of their customer base simply did not follow.
That they are in this position today is sad, but not at all surprising to me.
I guess it’s just my axe to grind, but this new revelation to me still boggles my mind. Either bike tires are actually more reliable than I thought (e.g. tubeless, or e-bikes with overbuilt tires that don’t flat), or people just aren’t using bikes as a serious transportation option. I fear the latter given mode share numbers and possibly reduced commuting. If you rely on a bike to get places, I don’t think you can refuse to fix a flat tire.
In my experience working in a shop the “fix a flat” people were typically casual riders. Often it was springtime and the tube had been flat since the previous summer, and they’d just hung their bike up for the season after flatting. Of course there were also exceptions, like commuters who didn’t want to mess up their work clothes, etc.
That’s a good point about e-bikes, though. I see many with very overbuilt knobby tires and wonder why you’d want to waste efficiency, powered or otherwise, rumbling around on tractor rubber. I’d also expect these to be very difficult to remove and re-mount in the field.
Yeah that was my assumption too until a recent comment thread on here where people, seemingly seriously, said they would rather not hassle with it and I dunno, give up getting to their destination if they have a flat? Maybe they don’t go anywhere with a particular schedule, but for me one of the benefits of cycling is how unbelievably consistent the timing is to get somewhere. Down to the minute usually, but could be 15 minutes off if I get a flat.
I converted my solo bikes to tubeless, so I have yet to deal with that. I carry bacon strips to hopefully plug serious holes and a small tube of sealant. But on my big e-cargo bike, next time I get a flat (hasn’t happened yet, I guess they’re good tires), I’m going to try patching it without removing the wheel. The people at the bike shop didn’t seem to think I needed any special tools to fix a flat (nor were they aghast that I might want to fix one). But just to see how easy it can be. I had the realization that you don’t even need to remove the tire or wheel completely and I want to try it. Could get a flat fix below 5 minutes!
I just keep going on about this because I really don’t like all the people spreading the misinformation that it is a challenge or messy or yucky to fix a flat yourself. It is very easy and makes a huge ordeal of a flat tire into a low stress non-issue. I think people should be encouraged to learn how and try it, not told they shouldn’t feel bad for having no curiosity to try it themselves.
I think that many, many people no longer consider riding bikes a real option. They had a fancy bike stolen, or they never thought of having an older bike that is unlikely to be stolen. They play video games and sit on their phones instead of bike riding. People don’t want to be bothered with finding safe commuter/chores/shopping routes on bikes. They’re isolated from other people and their community. Then they wonder why they’re depressed!
I still have an old sock that carries a spare tube and tire irons under my seat for fixing flats. I couldn’t imagine not carrying something as over the years I’ve sometimes biked to places that would require a very long walk back.
Despite my efforts my partner has never taken to learning to change a flat. They are bike only and on the occasions they got a flat they walk to the nearest shop or home, or call me for a ride. Average flat timing for them is about 2 per year on semi performance road tires and cyclocross tires both running butyl tubes.
However, they never leave the city nor transit range so there is a decent backstop. Slightly aside, I do wish that services like Uber, Lyft, or taxis were more obvious about being able to transport a person and bike(s).
I guess my point is even at an everyday rider scale there are enough options to save yourself without knowing how to fix a flat yourself especially if you are staying in the bubble TriMet’s higher volume lines.
Radio Cab has never hesitated to let me throw my bike in the trunk. Uber / Lyft being privately owned vehicles, not so much.
Don’t most cab drivers here actually own their own car?
Depends. Often times multiple drivers will team up tp buy a vehicle and then rent it out to other drivers.
Obviously nobody wants a bike to scratch their paint / etc. but the Radio Cabs are all painted in the company colors anyway so it’s less of a big deal in my experience.
“If you rely on a bike to get places, I don’t think you can refuse to fix a flat tire.”
LOL.
I’ve been happily married for over twenty years. One of the secrets of our success? Don’t require your Sweetie to get in your lane on every little thing.
My Sweetie (who used to ride infrequently but now cannot ride at all) figured she didn’t have to learn if she was with me. That wasn’t a mountain I needed to die on, and I was happy to fix her bike.
You would be amazed at how many customers I helped over the years who didn’t want to learn, or get their hands dirty, and who were more than happy to pay me to fix their flats. Many didn’t even want me to patch the old tube so they could carry it as a spare.
Yes, like I said, know how to fix it yourself, or frequently ride with someone who can.
A person who used to ride infrequently and now cannot ride at all isn’t in the “If you rely on a bike to get places” group either.
The average consumer purchases a bike/e-bike and lets it collect dust in their garage.
I think the majority of people who regularly ride bikes know how to change flats.
What is the source material establishing the fact of at least some of these? For example, was there some survey by BRAIN, CABDA, etc.?
Every year or so BRAIN publishes statistical summaries of accumulated data they publish throughout the year. If you look at the numbers over a period of decades, the data largely supports what Beth H is saying – there are in fact much fewer IBD (independent bike dealers), usually a loss of 50% every ten years.
I would add that only about 1% of bicycles sold in the USA are actually built in the USA, most often custom-built, with most parts on them imported from overseas. (It is possible to build a 100% USA-sourced bike, but really really hard and expensive to do it.) The other 99% come from mostly third-world low-wage countries, increasingly from Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia, and less so from China and Taiwan as their wages are rising, and hardly at all any more from Japan or Europe.
I am basing the customer-bike interface on my thirty years as a professional mechanic: twenty in a shop and ten as an independent at community events and charity rides. The fact is that fewer people felt like fixing their own bikes in 2023 than in 2003, and I watched that progression happen in real time.
I agree with everything else in your post (and gave it an upvote), but am unsure what you are referring to by this comment. The only “old” infrastructure I that has been undone in recent years is the traffic circle on NE 7th, and that was a relatively minor item more closely tied to racial politics than anything else.
Is there any significant infrastructure that has been rolled back?
“Rolled back” mat not have been the term I was looking for. Perhaps a better way to describe it is that automobile usage has surpassed the perceived need for growing non-auto infrastructure. I’m not policy wonk so perhaps this can be better described by someone who is.
All I know is that riding a bicycle in many parts of inner N-NE Portland has gotten more dicey since emerging from lockdown, as demand for car space on the roads seems to have increased, and drivers have grown less patient with road users on bikes and on foot. My experience is experiential.
I think “less patient” is too charitable. imo, drivers in NE Portland have become increasingly HOSTILE to people walking or rolling.
The safety in numbers effect in sharp reverse.
The used market tanking since the pandemic is a correction from the market’s crazy bubble *during* the pandemic.
Sad news, but I gotta say, even living close by, I haven’t really used CCC much. The tiered memberships seem to really not make a lot of sense and have been frustrating for me as a customer. It is generally more cost effective for me to just buy a new tool when I need one than to pay for the upgraded membership options.
Breaking it down by the numbers provided, it looks like last year to this year they’re down about $60k in sales (approximately one month’s worth, so that could get made up), but down about $300k in contributions. From my perspective as a consumer (and someone with lots of volunteer/board experience with coops), I think this is related to the new membership model. Paid memberships may smooth out your expected revenue, but you really miss out on the contributions from walk-in customers and people outside of your core members. Kinda hard to blame this on the pandemic too, since their numbers are worse now than previous years (I’m assuming much of the FY23 expenses were related to the remodel). I wish them the best, but their closing would honestly not have much of an impact to me.
After a couple of bad experiences there in the 00s I’ve barely spent a dime there. Even when it was the closest option to me it became my shop-of-last-resort. I’d visit if I absolutely needed a cable or tube to finish a project, but otherwise I went elsewhere.
I used to contribute to them, but stopped doing so as they started feeling less relevant. I share the sentiment of your final sentence exactly.
Oh you’re still contributing just via taxes instead of direct donations. “This is the way” (in Portland)
They refused to work on my bike. I think they deemed it and me insufficiently profitable.
It would be interesting to see their balance sheet details. I’m guessing they never downsized their leadership payroll to adjust for the loss in revenue. Closing the retail shop was an indication that this organization was on death’s doorstep. That should have driven massive internal changes. Outside of the PCEF slush fund, who is going to donate to a non-profit bike shop that doesn’t sell bikes?
The elephant in the room is that CCC’s core audience, commuters, are largely no longer commuting.
Those who still ride regularly are likely on e-bikes which as others have pointed out, use a bunch of new, and often disposable technology. (Can you see the CCC selling 15-year -old Rad Powers sometime in the near future? Me neither, they’ll all be scrapped.)
A smarter model would have been to appeal to a wide range of cyclists across multiple disciplines. Instead the retail side of the CCC limited itself to the cat-litter-bucket-pannier crowd, a fragment of the demographic that doesn’t spend oodles of money on bike stuff anyway.
Why can’t they just be a normal-ass bike co-op, and get into the more ambitious stuff as they are able? The top heavy management aspect of their financial issues sets off my bullshit sniffer.
Not to nitpick, but “threatens” seems an odd choice of words in the headline.
why is that odd?
Isn’t that what they are doing?
How about “CCC is going to close if they don’t get $350,000 by the end of the year, but even if they do, will probably end up closing in the near future anyway”?
They’re really missing out on having regular shop service and mechanics. Just $20 flat fixes like most other shops is a boost.
It’s a shame and as much as I support this store and it’s mission, I can’t help but think that us donating money without deep structural changes to their organization would just be us throwing away our money.
They need to reduce costs, and that means employees costs since most of their inventory is donated. They need to reconsider if they can afford a executive director salary or even staying in their current location, unless they own the building.
They need to look at their overhead and make some tough calls about how much money they are bringing in and how much they are paying for employees and rent.
Unfortunately without some serious changes to their business practices I don’t see things looking good for them in the long term. They are spending more money on expenses than they are bringing in as revenue, they need to fix this in order to survive.
Call me crazy but paying $600 a year to do your own maintenance, parts not included is kinda bonkers when the vast majority of my commuting customers (over 12 years working as a mechanic) on average would be paying around $400 parts and labor a year for your typical ridden to hell and back hybrid. Professional service at a shop, not “hope it works this time!” There’s no value I can see. The top heavy assessment rings true for me. I read the job listings and honestly wonder who they are trying to hire. I used to go to CCC if I needed some part to get a bike together cheap for myself or a friend, and would throw extra bucks at them because it was a great deal anyway. Random stem, saddle, handlebar, crank… stuff that normally costs a lot! It was my favorite place to “shop” because they would put some kooky stuff out too. I think they threw their bread and butter in the trash… The refurbished bike sales were the thing that made the most sense to me, and to rip through a bunch of donated bikes you need a handful of mechanics, not a hundred administrators lol. The workshop should be for the community on a sliding scale in my opinion, not an exclusive club but whatever. I hope the CCC figures it out, because I used to think it was pretty darn cool! And my two cents might be worth less than I think, but bikes should be cheap fun and accessible, if that’s not their mission anymore then yeah I suppose they cut off their constituency maybe. There is plenty of high priced bike crap out there. They really should be getting grant money, in order to get people on bikes, fix bikes, sell bikes(cheap and subsidized) sell leftover parts, help people with little $! Pretty cool, I thought that used to be the model. Not for an exclusive weird repair club. I’ve just been generally confused by their approach lately.
Holy crap, $600 a year is what they charge to use the workshop? That price will buy you a very nice tool kit; enough high quality, durable tools that your typical home mechanic would be able to do 99% of their own work for the rest of their life. I’ve had plenty of customers balk at a $200 – $300 repair bill (parts AND labor) for a bike they’ve ridden into the ground; I can’t imagine asking $600 just to borrow the tools and workspace.
At $600/year I think most people would be financially better off just buying a new bike every few years.
They can donate their old one to the CCC.
For sure. The last bike I bought cost me $450 and it has been a great bike, but I’d rather ditch it after a year or two and buy a new bike than pay $600 a year just to use a space and tools I don’t even own.
“Call me crazy but paying $600 a year to do your own maintenance, parts not included is kinda bonkers when the vast majority of my commuting customers (over 12 years working as a mechanic) on average would be paying around $400 parts and labor a year for your typical ridden to hell and back hybrid.”
Well, yes.
AND quite a lot of folks who used to ride those typical hybrids have moved on to e-bikes, which are harder (or almost impossible) to maintain at home.
Demography changes all the time.
I agree there are a lot more e-bikes now, and I have been involved with them since 2012 but there are plenty of “hybrid riders” out there still. By that I mean normal bikes that have relatively easy and lower cost replacement parts. I’d even throw Sora/tiara rim brake bikes in there too. E-bikes are a different game, and they don’t replace a dirt cheap hybrid for the type of rider I’m thinking of. I’m not blaming anything on e-bikes, I like them for multiple reasons and I used to have one, but unless any individual is trying to spend a lot of time learning how to work on bikes, at home or in a workshop messing with your own e-bike is a steep learning curve and potentially dangerous no matter where you do it. For that reason having guidance at a community workshop would be a great thing for the e-bikers that would change their own chains and brake pads etc. ✌️
Presumably the $600/year is a lot more like a club membership whereby you gain the camaraderie of working with other like-minded people, some of whom may have more knowledge or skills that you might lack or need improving on. It works out to $50/month which in many communities would be regarded as a bargain. Plus you don’t have to have a wall of tools in your living room (since the ones in your unsecured garage were stolen years ago during the various break-ins), the dropped grease and oil won’t stain your carpet or hardwood floors, and those poisonous chemicals used to lubricate your bike won’t linger in your home’s air. Broken and lost tools will presumably be paid for by the shop rather than you having to order them on Amazon, plus all the parts you need are right there rather than a warehouse in England or Germany.
$600 a year is a lot to pay for a social club.
The new ED sounds like a great fit but WOW leadership really hid the financial reality from him in the interview process.
Lies were a part of the ccc leadership culture for years. In the spring of 2023 the interim ED held an all staff meeting where the staff were asked to envision the future of the org. We got to give input about what we wanted to accomplish and how the org could better serve the community. We were told that we were the most engaged and supportive staff the ccc had ever had. This was a lie because just after that the staff announced they had formed a union. A month later the staff were told the org was broke. After that the shop staff were told they were being laid off but could apply to work under the new model. An under performing business model was replaced with an unproven and ultimately destructive membership model that bankrupted the organization. The secrecy and hubris coming from the leadership of the time left little opportunity for front line workers to make insightful recommendations. So most just left.
I still hope the ccc survives
Who was the ED at that time? I really can’t keep track of their turnover
Was interim ED, Steph Routh, a union buster?
This question seems very much relevant to their campaign for city council.
No, it was Stefanie Galen
We get it, you don’t like Steph Routh
Looks like forming a union really worked out for them.
I have supported the Community Cycling Center over the years in multiple ways. I appreciate the interview with Jonathan and Rueben and I think it provides some context for what the organization is facing. However, it does not provide the WHOLE context. I don’t know that an interview ever will. I can’t help but wonder if perhaps it is time for this organization to sunset?
I know at least one other local bike organization is doing an AMAZING job of giving away bikes and receiving donated bikes from multiple warehouses around the metro area. They have made a real impact on the lives of people that I love and I’m happy to recommend them to other Portlanders.
I have personally interacted with Washington County Bikes on multiple occasions, and they are fiscally responsible, community-minded, and worth our support. Perhaps the Community Cycling Center can reach out to WashCo Bikes and come alongside their organization.
Who is the other org?
As Scott said he is talking about https://washcobikes.org/
Hey I’m the director of what Scott is talking about Reborn Bikes and our fellowship of the chainring affiliates WashCo bikes, Free bikes 4 Kidz Portland, orca bikes on the coast etc. we have become the largest free bike distribution to those in need on the west coast. We collected refurbished and distributed 8000 plus bike last year to 75 title one and in need school, 50 social service organizations churches, refugee programs. Etc. We have 6 warehouses, violunteers opportunities, run bike summer camp programs, repair clinics, classes workshops. We pick up donations and are financially solvent. There is a way to run a nonprofit like a business and grow responsibly and keep the focus on delivering on the mission. http://www.rebornbikes.org
Super helpful link, thank you!
Our cost/bike at our NC shop averages around $23 not including labor.
Appreciate you cracking open the financial statements and asking some pointed questions, Jonathan.
My understanding after looking at the 990’s myself is:
That tracks with Mr. Alvarado’s assessment that reducing payroll liabilities, ditching the strange membership model, and generally getting “back to basics” is the path to financial solvency.
At the same time, the mismanagement in FY23 and FY24 certainly needs to be answered for by the board.
*Also notable large increases in insurance ($26k or 165% YoY increase), IT ($18k, 163% YoY) and professional fundraising fees ($10k, 6844% YoY). Officer payroll and inventory costs did increase as well, but only totaling ~$20k altogether.
Who was director of the CCC in 2023 during this period of crazy staff-cost inflation?
Momoko Saunders is listed as ED, Stephanie Routh as Interim ED, and Jonathan Ling as Associate Director on the FY23 990
According to her LinkedIn page, Momoko Saunders stepped aside in March 2023, so Steph Routh probably because ED at that time, and it sounds like she stayed in that role for the remainder of the year and perhaps on into 2024.
Routh is running for city council in District 1, and her resume makes no mention of her time at the CCC.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/momoko-saunders-9b133934
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephrouth
Interesting. It’s becoming quite clear why Routh didn’t mention it. Isn’t it?
I distinctly remember thinking that the flurry of social media posts advertising multiple new positions seems really weird for an interim ED.
Did the board fire them due to their extravagant hiring spree?
Super weird to link Steph’s linked in page, and then completely misrepresent the time that she was interim ED. According to the linked in page that you posted a link to she was interim ED for 4 months from December 2022 to March 2023, while also teaching at Portland State University and running her own consulting firm. To me this indicates that the CCC badly needed someone to help get them to a permanent ED hire and that Steph was pressed into duty for a short period of time. She didn’t fix all the issues by any means but I doubt that was the job description for a 4 month interim ED. That Momoko also lists herself as ED through March likely means that she announced she was leaving in December and stayed on in some capacity with help from Steph until a new ED was hired in March.
The transition away from a retail shop occurred under Steph Routh’s tenure. I also remember the many job postings that Ms. Routh posted to their social media during their tenure. Perhaps in addition to not fixing all the issues, they may have exacerbated them…
I’m not “misrepresenting” anything; I’m trying to understand who was in charge given the small amount of information publicly available.
Thank you for helping fill in the gaps.
PS Why is it “super weird” to link to a candidate for office’s public social media presence when it’s directly relevant to the conversation?
It was weird that you linked to a page that showed she was there from december 2022 to march 2023 and in the same comment asserted that she had been the ED “for the remainder of the year and perhaps on into 2024”. I found it odd that you didn’t seem to have read the document you linked to.
You also said that Steph’s resume makes no mention of her time at the CCC but again it is listed right there on the document you linked to. I think what has happened is that possibly because they have very similar first names people have conflated Steph Routh with Stefanie Galen who was the ED of the CCC from April of 2023 until June of 2024, but they are not the same person.
As far as I can tell from Galen’s linked in page https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanie-galen/
as well as articles about the transition on bike portland and the CCC webpage indicating that transition took place in October of 2023 it was Stef Galen not Steph Routh who led the transition away from the retail store.
When I look at Routh’s LinkedIn page, I see no reference to the CCC, which I noted in my original post. Perhaps things are presented differently to different users, but that simply does not appear on my view.
Since even people who dislike me here acknowledge that my posts are factually correct, and I readily acknowledge factual errors, perhaps “super weird” was uncalled for.
It’s not like I fornicated with a couch.
It shows as the 4th item under Experience for me:
I believe you, but it doesn’t show for me. It’s not like I’d miss something that obvious. Why would I make a statement that was so trivially refuted?
To be clear, CCC’s Financial Year is February to March, so FY23 is actually February 2022 – March 2023.
Seemed like there was some confusion on FY vs calendar year so wanted to clarify.
And now you too can vote to have Steph Routh lead our city government. Yikes. Can’t make this stuff up.
I think you all might be mixing up Steph Routh who was a short term interim ED with Stef Galen who appears to have been the one who led the transition away from retail. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanie-galen/
Yes
Stefanie Galen was the interim ED
Here’s a fun little website for y’all, for folks who might have an itch to form a bike coop!
https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Main_Page
They even have a section on past bike coops called “Nothing Lasts Forever”, under the Community Bicycle Organizations link. It seems the bike coop blitz was in the early 2000s and has been going downhill since.
I help run a relatively new bike coop in Greensboro NC (I’m the treasurer and parts sorter, two of the most thankless tasks.) We are almost entirely dependent on grants from the health care industry, REI, and in-kind grants from public agencies (they buy us stuff, tools, parts, and locks using left over state and federal transportation grants.)
Save the frankenbike! It was a real blow to see the shop get so downsized that it almost disappeared. In years past the shop on Alberta was buzzing with cool bike activity. It was well organized for used parts. There were evening classes and the Tuesday night volunteer bike building. Sunday cycle salvage! The shop had dynamic people working there doing great stuff. There was the little stuff like staff who took care to stock new/used parts for fixing three-speeds. There was a well thought out recycling system. I miss the mechanic’s hand-made spoke tools (pokey spokes!) and the Super Soap at the sinks, a hand soap made here in Oregon that doesn’t have harsh chemicals. The pandemic really seemed to be a critical stress point that caused this bike-focused idealism to get quashed.
I don’t think the market has changed that much (as others have suggested). There’s still plenty of demand for people looking for affordable transportation: used bikes or the parts to build an used bike. If there is a turn around, I hope the shop can be resuscitated back to the dynamic place where you could feel the mission to get people on bikes in Portland.
We had a really great thing here. I hope it’s not too late. I’m going to kick in some funds. I hope others can help rally to save this great Portland institution.
First off, I just want to say how awful I feel for Mr Alvarado and CCC employees and community. They are in a very tough spot and the interview showed, with honesty and empathy, what a difficult spot Mr Alvarado and the CCC are in.
With all that being said, I can’t in good faith donate to save the CCC. Whilst it has.noble mission, the organization has been mismanaged for years. Instability in leadership, staff turnover, poor stewardship of funds, and the closing of the bike shop have all doomed the CCC. I don’t want to minimize the effect of the pandemic on this organization. However, this has been years in the making and goes back before the pandemic.
The nature of being a non-profit is that you do a lot with a little. Yet, on Mr Gallardo’s arrival per the interview with Jonathan, he can’t even find the password to the Salesforce account, claims that volunteer lists were not maintained, all while being top heavy administratively -> all this points to fundamental mismanagement that pre-dates Mr Gallardo. The organization has simply not functioned as a effective non-profit, and there’s no evidence it can going forward.
I understand how hard it must be close an organization, upend the lives of CCC staff, and lose a valuable member of the cycling community. However, I don’t trust that Mr Gallardo can turn this around, not because he lacks ability or leadership, he has those qualities in spades. But rather the hole is too deep. I ask that Mr Gallardo please decline the PCF grants and figure out a way to gracefully end the CCC.
So it sounds like it was Stefanie Galen, not Steph Routh, who was ED while CCC was in a nose dive
Firstly, I’m very curious about the almost $400k jump in expenses in FY2023. What happened?
Anyway, I used to bike the 6 miles across town to buy used & new stuff from the CCC prolly a few times a month. I usually always found what I needed, either used or new.
There was a time, a few years ago, when the shop sales & mechanics were friendly & helpful and every time I went there the store & shop was abuzz and I could tell the staff were challenged to keep up.
What I loved about the CCC is that when I walked in the door, I didn’t feel like I was being stalked by sales people, who wanted to sell my expensive bike industry stuff, like almost every other bike shop in town.
I’m very skeptical about just getting revenue from selling used bikes & parts. Portland is awash in it. Just browse Craigslist.
I think they need a good mix of used & new parts, bikes and shop labor. But if I were the CCC Exec. Dir. I’d try adding a new price level, that’s at least 10% or maybe even more that’s a CCC supporter price.
I know there are plenty of good community minded people who ride bikes in PDX, who’d spend a few extra $ to support a community institution & resource that does so much good.
Hell, I’d prolly even post quarterly revenue & expenses and maybe even yearly financial goals on a big sign in the store so folks could see how the CCC was doing and maybe that’d influence the purchasing, financial & in-kind contributions.
I’ve always thought that bike shops should also have tip jars to put a few extra $ in the pockets of shop workers who often do more to help people solve problems or save them money, time or trouble.
As a non-business oriented person, I really hate to say this, but I think what CCC really needs is some savvy business & marketing people who can figure out some creative/innovative ways to generate the necessary revenue while controlling costs and paying mechanics a living wage.
I refuse to believe a formula for making this all work can’t be figured out in 2024.
Has the CCC even done anything for the community in the past few years? It doesn’t seem like they have any real outreach programs and they don’t offer free shop space or help with access to bikes.
The days of the original Earn-A-Bike program ended over twenty years ago.
Nonprofits are required to keep detailed records of how their financial and Human resources are used, and who they serve, in order to justify their existence (especially when applying for grants). The Original Earn-A-Bike program was deemed not only a money loser, but also occasionally a hazard to staff if the person needing the bike came with mental health or substance dependence issues. At some point, something’s gotta give.
Good riddance!
I went to the CCC on NE Alberta St. today with a new-to-me 1980s mountain bike.
I bought an annual membership at the DIY repair stations. ($600).
https://communitycyclingcenter.org/bike-shop/diy-workspace/
2 hours later I had a nicely overhauled bike. Low stress environment. Bob was happy to help me whenever I needed assistance.
This is a good way to support the CCC. And to keep your bikes in good shape. I recommend it.
Ted Buehler