November 2024 Archives

Portland’s largest ever street mural is on NE 131st Avenue

A street painting in east Portland has earned bragging rights as the largest in the city. In September, people who live in the Argay neighborhood partnered with the Portland Bureau of Transportation on a mural that spans 835 feet on Northeast 131st between NE Shaver and Prescott. The mural is 44 feet wide and a total of 36,000 square feet of painted pavement.

PBOT has granted permits for street paintings for many years and while research shows they have positive safety impacts, PBOT says much of that safety comes from the relationships people make with others in their community while coming together to make the projects happen.

The new mural on NE 131st emerged as a priority after the City planned to address speeding and other safety concerns on the street. In a survey of several dozen residents on the street 75% of them said the street is unsafe and 80% of respondents blamed speeding and aggressive driving as the main culprit. Gun violence has also plagued the area — much of it from people using cars to launch their attacks.

The concept for the mural design was created by local youth from Parkrose High School. The nonprofit Pathfinder Network helped connect PBOT to students impacted by gun violence and the City provided $10,000 for a nine-week training where the students helped design and build a traffic safety project. PBOT staff won a $25,000 Bloomberg Asphalt Art Initiative grant and worked with 200 volunteers to set the mural into motion. The design includes a river and natural landscape scene with clouds and butterflies. In addition to the painting, PBOT has installed a traffic circle and speed bumps.

“It’s pretty awesome to be part of something this big with a powerful meaning behind it,” said Mariah, one of the Parkrose HS students who worked on the project. “I’ve never done something this big before, let alone in a public space.”

In a recent email newsletter about their public plaza program, PBOT wrote, “The NE 131st Place mural not only adds beauty but reinforces the power of collaboration, local engagement, and youth leadership in addressing critical neighborhood concerns.”

Check PBOT’s website for more info on the project.

Job: Lead Mechanic – bike works by p:ear

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Lead Mechanic

Company / Organization

bike works by p:ear

Job Description

Position: Lead Bicycle Mechanic
1 FTE: Tuesday-Saturday. Requires occasional evenings and Sundays
Reports To: p:ear Works Director & Shop Manager
Compensation: $50k (Fluency in Spanish – $55k): Benefits include 3 wks. paid vacation, health, dental, 2% Simple IRA match, short-term disability, 8 paid sick days
Bike Mechanic Job Description
As our lead bicycle mechanic, you are a dynamic individual who will help support our non-profit community bike shop and youth internship program in East Portland. bike works supports Portland’s Eastside communities, providing low cost, low barrier access to bike education, repair and sales of refurbished bicycles and parts.
Required Qualifications & Competencies
● Committed to personal growth with a high degree of humor + emotional intelligence
● Creative Visionary
● Must be a positive and strong role model, have a collaborative, team-oriented
work style, and strong strategic and problem-solving skills
● Must be committed to non-violence, trauma informed care compassionate
responses
● Must have awareness of one’s own identity, an understanding of differences,
and an excitement about building relationships cross-culturally
● Strong commitment to advancing equity and inclusion and creating and
maintaining a diverse environment
● Ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of p:ear youth and the p:ear donor community
● Self-initiating, independent and highly motivated
● Strong leadership skills and capacity to work in a deadline-oriented, chaotic
environment
● Willingness to take risks and seek innovative solutions
● BBI/UBI or similar certification or equivalent work experience
● Excellent customer service and communication skills
● Able to work independently, problem solve and complete tasks with minimal
oversight
● Must possess a valid driver’s license
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
● Exemplifies compassion and understanding around the barriers of homelessness and underrepresented populations in the community
● Maintain an organized and efficient work environment
● Proficiently execute assembly, repairs and maintenance for all types of
bicycles, particularly used and older bicycles
● Represent bike works and p:ear and its mission positively and professionally
● Identify barriers and recommend solutions to better serve the community
Mechanics
● Properly assess and determine bike repairs and recommend customer options
● Repair and refurbish bicycles to be sold in the shop, as well as to be donated
● Track parts used per repair/refurbishment
● Maintain a neat and organized workspace
● Maintain a high level of professionalism
● Perform quality control checks and 2nd checks on bikes built
Shop Operations
● Assist Shop Manager with a variety of tasks, including maintaining an inventory of new and used parts, placing orders with distributors as needed, maintaining shop tools and restocking as necessary
● Assist customers in the shop with purchases and bicycle repairs during sales
● Strong proficiency with bicycle tech
Community Programming Liaison
● Help maintain and support programs with community partners
● Build and sustain relationships with the East County community
● Represent p:ear and its mission positively and professionally

● Work on integrating and developing long term proposed strategies: community outreach, youth and adult classes and bicycle programs
● Participate in Sunday Parkways, Free Bikes 4 Kids, as well as the occasional Community bike ride events (Safe Routes to School, Oregon Walkways etc.)
p:ear Intern Support
● Develop healthy, mentoring relationships with youth interns
● Maintain appropriate boundaries
● Help youth set and achieve individualized professional development goals
Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.
● Able to sit or stand and walk throughout the scheduled work shift
● Ability to lift and/or move up to 75 lbs
Travel
Some local travel expected for this position.
AAP/EEO Statement
It is the policy of p:ear to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, p:ear will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.
Other Duties
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

How to Apply

Bike Works by p:ear promotes the bicycle as a vehicle for social change to leverage possible opportunities for homeless youth and build resilient and diverse communities. p:ear’s non-profit bike shop works to make bicycling accessible and affordable to Portland’s east side communities. Our full-service bike shop provides an array of services, from minor adjustments and tune-ups to full bike overhauls.

p:ear’s Bike Mechanic School serves as a conduit from which our shop’s intern mechanics became educated and trained in the art of bike mechanics. Under your guidance p:ear youth interns will continue to build their mechanical hard skills as well as develop the soft skills of customer service, time management, problem solving and independence to name a few.

Cover letters and resumes can be sent to: nathan@bikeworkspdx.org with “Bike Works Mechanic” in the subject line. This position will remain open until full. Email only, no phone calls please – phone calls will not be returned.

Portland’s new city council bodes well for bicycling

With nearly all ballots processed, we can say with confidence who will sit in 11 of our 13 City of Portland positions next year. Local media outlets have called 10 of the 12 city council seats and the mayor’s office and the remaining two aren’t likely to change. So, how did cycling, walking, transit and transportation reform in general fare? Pretty good. While a few of the true bicycling believers didn’t get elected, there’s a solid majority of folks who “get it” when it comes to the need for making Portland a place where people drive less often. And maybe even one or two who might emerge as the next great champion for cycling.

And we’ll have a very diverse city council. Politically-speaking we’ll have a mix of five progressives, three centrists, and four moderates (give or take). But let’s start with Mayor-elect Keith Wilson.

You should have a good sense of where we stand with Mayor Keith Wilson based on my story last week. The only other thing I’ll add about him is this: Now that he’s got the power, will he follow-up on his promising background and actions on the campaign trail and become a strong champion for transportation reform? There’s a big gap between being a vocal supporter of something and actually helping move the needle once you get into office.

My questions right now are: Will Wilson spend real political capital to push cycling and discourage driving? Or will he become a “let’s make the system work for all modes” kind of guy and take the easy road of incrementalism for cycling, walking, and transit — while driving continues to dominate? How will he deal with the the significant block of voters who voted for candidates (Terrence Hayes and Noah Ernst in District 1) who ran on pro-driving messages? We’ll have to wait and see.

Let’s turn our attention to council districts.

District 1

Candace Avalos (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Winners: Candace Avalos, Loretta Smith, Jamie Dunphy* (*small chance that Noah Ernst or Terrence Hayes could take Dunphy spot)

Cycling advocates in Portland have long hoped to gain ground in the eastern part of our city. The story in District 1 is what could have been. I was very surprised that neither Steph Routh or Timur Ender earned a seat. Based on their personal and professional backgrounds, those two were among the top transportation reformers in the entire election. Despite that, and rather surprisingly in my opinion, neither candidate made transportation a key big of their platform or campaign conversations. Perhaps they felt bike lanes and road diets are too unpopular with many District 1 voters?

Thankfully, we still have a strong advocate in Candace Avalos, who won her race by a wide margin. Avalos made transportation one of the six pillars of her platform and she’ll be the standard-bearer for active transportation in District 1. She also had very strong answers to the BikeLoud PDX candidate questionnaire, calling for a protected bike lane network, expansion of Biketown, and bike purchase subsidies for people in need. Avalos is the only District 1 winner endorsed by Street Trust Action Fund. She owns an e-bike but doesn’t ride it much.

I was surprised to see Loretta Smith win, but her name recognition and firm public safety stance likely carried her through (as did supportive rankings from people who voted for other moderate candidates like Noah Ernst and Terrence Hayes). She’s also a known quantity with voters after having served seven years on Multnomah County Commission; but she had lost her last three races for local office and didn’t earn a single major media endorsement in this race. Smith doesn’t have a transportation background and it wasn’t part of her platform.

Jamie Dunphy could be a strong voice on transportation. His professional background is in government and nonprofit leadership and his passion lies with the local music scene. His first contact with BikePortland was in his role as an organizer of the lawsuit against Live Nation and their desire to build a venue in the Central Eastside. He was concerned the development might have a negative impact on nearby bike routes. That being said he doesn’t own a working bike at the moment and he’s not someone who bikes regularly. During the campaign he signed a pledge to support the Green New Deal and said he would not take money from police or fossil fuel organizations.

No one in this district rides a bike regularly and two candidates with strong support in the bike community fared very poorly in the vote count. Add in the fact that blatantly pro-driver candidates Noah Ernst and Terrence Hayes not only finished in front of Routh and Ender, they are close to taking Dunphy’s seat. Regardless of how that last spot shakes out, transportation advocates who want progress for cycling and transit in this district will need to remain on high alert.

District 2

Winners: Dan Ryan, Sameer Kanal, Elana Pirtle-Guiney

The big shock in this district was that Nat West finished 5th, with only half the votes of the winners. Given the number of contributions he amassed, his business background and strong brand behind his name, I expected him to win one of the seats. Similar to the absence of Routh and Ender in District 1, West who would have been a loud voice for transportation reform and the community lost the possibility of a true cycling champion on council.

Thankfully, D2 still has a cycling and transportation majority. Sameer Kanal and Elana Pirtle-Guiney are both solid on the issues and were both endorsed by Street Trust Action Fund. Kanal and Pirtle-Guiney both included transportation in their platforms. Kanal called out Safe Routes to School in his voters pamphlet statement. Pirtle-Guiney could be the strongest cycling champion in D2. She’s a former daily bike commuter who biked during the campaign and has biked with her young child (now 8 years old).

Asked by BikeLoud what she would do to make Vision Zero succeed, Pirtle-Guiney said,

“We need to make a decision about whether we are a safe city for all modes of transportation, or a fast city to get through. Realistically, making streets safer for bike and pedestrian users means we have to slow cars down and make more spaces and more space (different things, and both important) for bike and pedestrian users. This will be inconvenient for a lot of people but we don’t get safer without it.”

I don’t think current City Commissioner Dan Ryan will oppose bike-related policies or projects, but he won’t be a shoo-in either. Ryan has spoken ill of the SE Division project because the center median and bike lanes make it hard for him to make u-turns while driving his car. He also campaigned with law-and-order moderates and is the most well-known councilor-elect who was endorsed by Rene Gonzalez. An interesting dynamic to watch with Ryan is how his relationship with Mayor-elect Keith Wilson will play out. Ryan might not have a majority behind his policy approaches on council, but he and Wilson have been friends for over 40 years and Wilson called him someone he trusts deeply in his acceptance speech last week.

District 3

Steve Novick (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Winners: Steve Novick, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo

This district, perhaps not surprisingly, elected the most progressive slate of candidates. They also happen to be the strongest trio when it comes to bicycling and transportation issues we tend to care about here on BikePortland.

You already know a lot about Steve Novick thanks to his former turn as city commissioner and I shared recently how he’s still thinking creatively about how to make streets work better for bike riders. He made transportation a part of his platform and approaches it from a climate change lens.

Tiffany Koyama Lane has commuted to school on a scooter, so she intimately understands what it’s like to be vulnerable on our streets. She also earned the Street Trust Action Fund endorsement and goes into detail about safe streets, vision zero, transit expansion and more on her campaign website.

Angelita Morillo bought and began riding a bike during her campaign (it had a flat last I heard, so I hope she’s fixed it!). I have no doubt she will be a strong voice for cycling and low-car life on council. She grew up without a car, is a daily bus rider, and she brought up transportation reform on the campaign trail many times.

Southeast Portland transportation needs are in very good hands with these three. I’ve also noticed that Koyama Lane and Morillo have become good friends and they have a nice rapport with Novick too. If this trio works together on transportation, and perhaps form a bloc that attracts four other councilors, amazing things could happen.

District 4

Winners: Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, Eric Zimmerman (Eli Arnold)

Just like we expected D3 to be the most progressive, District 4 (West/Sellwood) ended up most moderate. It also has one of the strongest champions for cycling on council in Mitch Green. Green doesn’t bike exclusively, but hops on his RadPower e-bike about three times a week for commuting or errands. He’s also a frequent transit rider.

Green told the Bike Happy Hour crowd back in March that,

“If we want more folks in the city getting on their bicycles, we need to make serious capital investments to change the built environment. You have to feel safe on a bicycle. You can only do that by making investments from the budget, not just little nudges on the margins. You have to show up and make the expenditures. That’s something worth fighting for.”

We’ll see how much Green is willing to have that fight — and whether he can get others to support him — come January.

Clark and Green might see eye-to-eye on street policies. Like Green, Clark was endorsed by Street Trust Action Fund and she’s ridden bikes before (although not regularly like he does). I haven’t spoken to Clark yet, her platform didn’t include transportation, her answers to the BikeLoud PDX questionnaire were very short and superficial, and she hasn’t spoken to the media much so I don’t have much knowledge about her transportation views.

Zimmerman is a bit of a wild card to me. My hunch is that he’ll be great on transportation. Zimmerman has deep experience in local government and has gotten hard things done before (like setting up homeless shelters at the County and working on tough issues in Portland City Hall under Ted Wheeler). His website calls for more protected bike lanes. And instead of bashing PBOT or their projects, he offers constructive criticisms to make their approach work better on the ground like calling for more standardization of lane designs, more education for e-scooter users, and so on.

Overall

Portland’s council election gives progressives a lot to be excited about. There’s five that should be reliably progressive: Avalos, Kanal, Koyama Lane, Morillo, and Green. That leaves them in the minority and means they’ll have to find votes from centrists (Dunphy, Pirtle-Guiney, Novick) and moderates (Smith, Ryan, Clark, Zimmerman) to get anything done. The electorate and the candidates moved a few steps to the center from 2020, but not far enough to begin the Rene Gonzalez era that felt imminent months ago.

Green in D4 is the closest thing we’ve got to a councilor that will ride to work and be a true champion, but it’s not clear if he’ll want to assume that role. With West, Routh, and Ender not making it in, I don’t see anyone at this point who bike advocates can lean on as their councilor. But overall, I feel like the issues BikePortland cares about are in really good shape — especially if Steve Novick is elected council president (a real possibility in my opinion).

It’s also fun to note that we have a strong Bike Happy Hour majority in City Hall with 8 of the 13 elected officials (12 councilors and one mayor) having attended and/or spoken at one of our events: Kanal, Pirtle-Guiney, Novick, Koyama Lane, Morillo, Green, Zimmerman, and Mayor-elect Wilson!

How are you feeling about the new city council? I’d love to hear from you.

Mitchell Point Tunnel in the Gorge open to the public for first time in 71 years this weekend

New Mitchell Point Tunnel path with light coming from arch windows (on the right) as photographed by Jerry “AJ” Zelada last month.

This coming Saturday, the Oregon Department of Transportation will cut a ribbon on one of the most extraordinary infrastructure projects in our state’s history for the second time. The reconstruction of the Mitchell Point Tunnel in the Columbia River Gorge.

After six years of design and three and-a-half years of construction, the $31 million project will finally be open to the public — but unfortunately just for the dedication ceremony. ODOT is billing Saturday’s event as a preview because a minor rockfall has caused a delay and there’s still a need for crews to make “finishing touches” that will likely be wrapped up before year’s end but could extend into 2025.

The original tunnel — carved out of basalt and featuring five arch windows where Model T drivers could gaze out onto the Columbia River — was a feat of engineering when it was first built in 1915. It was closed in 1953 when Interstate 84 was built and then destroyed and filled with rock in 1966. ODOT resurrected the tunnels in 2018 as part of their ambitious Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail project that looks to reconnect the famous old highway between Troutdale and The Dalles.

The segment that includes Mitchell Point Tunnel is one of the last pieces of the puzzle and has been a massive undertaking. The new tunnel is 1.5 miles long and is carved through 655 feet of a basalt mountain. The arched windows are back and folks who attend Saturday’s event will be able to peer out of them just like people did over 70 years ago.

ODOT has promised the tunnel would open in 2024 and with nasty winter weather approaching fast, officials say they wanted to give the public an opportunity to see it at least once before spring. The location of the tunnel is also inaccessible at the moment due to the construction closure of the I-84 off-ramp and gaps that exist in the historic state trail route to its east and west. There’s no parking for bikes or cars near the tunnel, so ODOT has organized a free transit shuttle and hike-and-bike routes for Saturday’s event.

To be clear: While this tunnel has been built as a bike path, cycling will not be permitted at Saturday’s event. (One advocate I spoke to who follows this project very closely said, “There’s a moat around the tunnel.”)

If you want to be among the first people to see his amazing new piece of trail, here are the instructions on how to get there whether you are driving, taking transit, or biking to the venue:

Take Transit:

Take the Columbia Gorge Express operated by Columbia Area Transit from Gateway Transit Center, Cascade Locks or Hood River.

All Eastbound Columbia Gorge Express buses from Gateway Transit Center, Troutdale and Cascade Locks (run by CAT) will drop off at Mitchell Point on Saturday, Nov. 16. See bus schedule information.

From Portland, take the 8:50 a.m. bus from Gateway Transit Center to make it in time for remarks and ribbon cutting. Estimated arrival at Mitchell Point Tunnel is 9:50 a.m.

Tickets one-way are $10, for a total of $20 for a round trip. Alternatively, Gorge Passes are $40 per year and valid for this trip.

From Hood River or points east of Hood River, take the event shuttle. Details below.

The last two westbound Columbia Gorge Express buses to Portland depart Hood River at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m, arriving back at Gateway at 5:10 and 6:40 p.m. respectively.

Free Event Shuttle:

Starting from 9:30 a.m., free event shuttles will run from Viento State Park (I-84 east Exit 56) and CAT’s park and ride at 224 Wasco Loop, Hood River.

The last shuttle from the event will run to Hood River at 3:30 p.m. and return to Viento State Park. The last two westbound Columbia Gorge Express buses to Portland depart Hood River at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Shuttles will circulate continuously and will arrive about every 15 minutes.

Shuttles are free to ride and there is no parking fee.

Bike and Hike:

Bike to the end of the Historic Highway State Trail from Viento State Park and walk the final 0.7 miles. Free and hosted bike racks will be set up at the end of the existing trail segment. Bikes are not allowed on the temporary unimproved trail that links the existing State Trail to Mitchell Point.

Drive and Shuttle or Hike:

Limited parking is available at the Viento State Park day-use lot on the north side of I-84. From I-84, take Exit 56 to Viento State Park where signs will direct visitors to the parking area. From here, you can catch the shuttle or walk 2 miles on the State Trail and 0.7-miles on a temporary unimproved trail that links the existing State Trail to the Mitchell Point trail head.

Free shuttles will drop off/pick up between Viento State Park and 224 Wasco Loop, Hood River between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Once parking is full onsite, the next closest location is about 6 miles west on I-84 to Wyeth Trailhead at Exit 51 where additional parking may be available to access the event via bicycle to transit.

While we wait for the permanent opening this spring, there will even more urgency to complete the remaining trail gaps on each side of the tunnel. According to ODOT officials, the 0.7-mile gap to the west of the tunnel between Viento State Park and Mitchell Point is expected to begin construction in 2026. On the east side of the tunnel, the trail segment from Ruthton Point to Hood River (which will cross under I-84) is currently in design phase and will also begin construction in early 2026.

Check out ODOT’s website for more information on Saturday’s dedication event and the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail project.

Monday Roundup: Vape bike, Senegal’s surge, and more

Welcome to Monday. There’s an international flair to this week’s Roundup. But before we get started…

Today’s Roundup is sponsored by River City Bicycles, who reminds you that they’ve got what you need when it comes to bikes, e-bikes, apparel, and accessories.

Here are the most notable stories our community came across in the past seven days…

From puff to power: To make a point about waste, a brilliant YouTuber took 130 used vape cartridges and built a 1,500-watt e-bike battery that powered a bicycle with almost no pedaling for more than 20 miles. (Ars Technica)

Bus bike rack blues: Interesting issue in New Zealand as riders grapple with a nationwide ban on bike racks on the front of buses due to concerns that bikes block headlights. (RNZ)

Route options: I like this article because it reminds us to have an open mind about choosing our routes and how sometimes trying a new way of getting somewhere can really change your life. (LA Times)

Cycling surging in Senegal: A boom in urban and recreational cycling in the capitol of Dakar is a symbol of the need for more progress on bike infrastructure in Africa. (Reuters)

Mass ride in China: Cycling for fun went viral in a city in China and 100,000 students on bikes overwhelmed a city to such an extent the authorities had to step in! (The Guardian)

Parking enforcement’s next phase: The City of Chicago has launched a pilot program where camera-equipped vehicles will monitor bus and bike-only lanes for illegally parked cars and automatically send violators a ticket. This seems like the obvious next step for PBOT’s parking enforcement division right? (WBEZ)

Screen time kills: I’m extremely happy to see that at least some folks are talking about moving away from touchscreens on car dashboards in favor of safer tactile knobs and buttons. (IEEE Spectrum)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week. The Monday Roundup is a community effort, so please feel free to send us any great stories you come across.

Podcast: In The Shed Episode 31

Eva and I are back with another fun and illuminating weekly chat.

This week:

Eva shared her experience leading a vigil and meeting the mother of Damon Cousins, who was killed while bicycling on October 21st in northeast Portland.
We talk a little about the election and my intention to lean into local.
I share my experience at Mayor-elect Keith Wilson’s acceptance speech
Why it’s OK to critique memes about old white men winning Portland elections.
“How’d She Get There?” segment – Peninsula Park to Roosevelt HS (3.7 miles) and how I got there in just 12 minutes!
I rode to Hillsdale and lived to tell about it (even though Terwilliger was full of leaves — but it was swept today!).
Update on BikeLoud’s Bike Lane Sweeper and why we both think bike lane sweeping should be privatized. Come on someone, make it a business!
After finally checking out the Firelane 1 entrance project, I get mad about Forest Park and how terrible it is for biking and how it should be better.

Thanks for listening!

Watch city council races play out with round-by-round animations

The Portland mayor’s race has been finalized, but results of Portland’s 12 city council races are still being tabulated. So far, just two seats have been called: Olivia Clark in District 4 (W/Sellwood) and Steve Novick in District 3 (SE). And while there are still ballots to process, it seems like all 12 seats will remain the same from the initial results.

While we wait, I thought it’d be fun to share animations created using data provided by Multnomah County. This ranked choice voting system is so much more interesting because we can see in real time how the rankings impact each race. With each round of tabulations, the votes of the candidate that was eliminated are transferred to other candidates still in the race. This has had a big impact on some of the contests.

Thanks to a friend I talked to a Bike Happy Hour (thanks JR!), I found a website that allows you to take the County data files and do fun things with them. Check out animations of each race below…

Mayor

In the mayor’s race, we’ve already shared how voters who supported Liv Osthus were so opposed to Rene Gonzalez, that he didn’t get nearly as many of her 16,000 votes (so far) as Carmen Rubio, which effectively doomed his chances. You can see that play out in the animation below. Use the bar at the top to go round-by-round or to pause. Or you can play the animation all the way through (although I find that to be too fast).

District 1

In this race, the four candidates who battled just out of the top three were split between two folks who are on the left of the Portland political spectrum (Steph Routh and Timur Ender) and two candidates on the center-right (Noah Ernst and Terrence Hayes). As they are eliminated, watch who in the top three benefits most from their votes. Avalos was the clear winner and she staked out the progressive left in the race. Loretta Smith is definitely center-right (she’s very supportive of more police for instance) and Jamie Dunphy is center-left. Dunphy benefits great from votes from Ender and Routh, while Hayes’ votes went mostly to Smith and Ernst. Ernst voters were clearly more aligned with Smith than Dunphy. Check out the animation below and see for yourself.

District 2

Dan Ryan and Elana Pirtle-Guiney seem to have the top two spots locked up in early rounds. Sameer Kanal was relatively far behind, but his vote total increased in later rounds thanks to being ranked high by voters who supported other left-leaning candidates like Jonathan Tasini, Marnie Glickman, Michelle DePass, and Nat West. If a more centrist candidate like Maria Hudson would have finished higher, Tiffani Penson might have benefitted from her vote redistribution enough to edge out Kanal.

District 3

This race has the least amount of drama of all four districts. The top three of Steve Novick, Angelita Morillo and Tiffany Koyama Lane were never threatened. It’s still interesting to see how political alignments play out among the left, center, and right-leaning candidates who finished below them. For example, almost all of Harrison Kass’s votes went to fellow “public safety candidate” and Rene Gonzalez network member Kezia Wanner, but there were simply too many progressive voters in southeast for her to break into the top three.

District 4

This race had one clear winner in Oliva Clark. And there was some nail-biting among three candidate below her. Watch how the voters who supported Bob Weinstein, Chad Lykins, and Sarah Silkie impact the top four. Eli Arnold is very close to winning that third seat, but the redistribution from more left-leaning candidates Lykins and Silkie sealed his fate

There are so many lessons and insights to glean from how this election shook out! Remember, if the animation is too quick, you can pause by clicking in the round window. Or just go round-by-round by hitting the arrows. If for some reason these don’t embed well in your browser, the direct link to each one is below:

If this intrigues you, I highly recommend checking out RCVis.com. Get a free login and find the Portland election and poke around the other voter data tools and tables they provide.

Weekend Event Guide: Gateway Green clean-up, goats, and more

Relatively quiet this weekend on the events front. But still some heart-strengthening opportunities. Here are a few suggestions.

Also… This is a great time of year to get your bike dialed-in, whether that means weatherizing it for winter riding, finding a good set of lights and fenders, or giving it TLC after a long season of riding. And our sponsors, Bike Tires Direct have everything you need. Check out this local stop for all your gear and component needs.

Saturday, November 9th

The Belmont Goats Ride – 10:00 am at Wilshire Park
Join veteran ride leader Bud Rice from Portland Bicycling Club on an urban foray that will include petting of goats (the Portland version of “go touch grass”). More info here.

Sunday, November 10th

Cyclocross Crusade Finale – All Day at Portland International Raceway (N)
Soak in the vibes of Portland ‘cross at the last stop in the Crusade series at a classic Portland venue that’s close to our homes and hearts. More info here.

Gateway Green Fall Clean-Up Day – 10:00 am at Gateway Green (NE)
Come out to support this amazing place that gives us so much joy. Time to blow out those leaves and help the trails survive the oncoming winter with the great folks from NW Trail Alliance. More info here.

King Farmers Market Ride – 10:00 am at King Elementary School (NE)
What better way to cope with election anxieties than be on bikes in a community of artisans, farmers, and neighbors?! Oh, and there will be a pug. More info here.

— Did I miss your event? Please let me know by filling out our contact form, or just email me at maus.jonathan@gmail.com.

Portland’s new mayor Keith Wilson is steeped in transportation

Wilson at Bike Happy Hour in October (he always showed up with detailed notes). (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

It’s official: Keith Wilson is Portland’s next mayor. A relative political newcomer who received just 5% of the vote when he ran for a seat on Portland City Council in 2020, he walloped his incumbent competition and will finish with about 62% of the votes.

Many Portlanders know Wilson for his plan to end unsheltered homelessness and as the CEO of a trucking company. But Wilson also has arguably the strongest transportation background of any mayor in Portland history. He speaks clearly about the need for a cleaner, safer system with less driving and more cycling, he’s a frequent (fair weather) bike rider, and his words and actions demonstrate that he’s a transportation reform activist who’s passionate about issues like safety and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. And he’s a policy wonk when it comes to high speed rail, road usage charges, trucking and freight movement, shifting mode share away from driving, and using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve driver behaviors.

Wilson doesn’t just talk about these things, he’s been actively pursuing them in his personal and professional life. He’s an executive board member of the nonprofit U.S. High Speed Rail Association and has traveled the globe to observe and learn about how rail can reduce car use and give people more mobility options. Earlier this year, Wilson co-presented an update on the Cascadia Rail HSR project with Barack Obama’s Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (whom Wilson calls a “friend”) at the Oregon Legislature. And at a City of Portland Freight Advisory Committee meeting back in February, he shared an update on the Cascadia project and said he planned to ask the legislature for $10 million in the forthcoming session that would unlock $90 million in federal rail program funds. In his role as a director with the International Road Federation, Wilson traveled to Dubai in 2022 to deliver a speech on reducing GHG at his trucking company.

Slides from Wilson’s presentation about SE 26th and Powell.

After the tragic collision with a truck driver that killed Sarah Pliner as she biked to work on SE 26th and Powell in October 2022, Wilson swung into action. He spoke candidly with me about the role the truck and its driver played in the crash and said bluntly that trucks like the 53-foot rig that rolled over Pliner should not even use SE 26th Avenue in its current state. Before our conversation, Wilson visited the site so he’d understand the issues better. He then joined the Powell Blvd Safety Working Group and created a slide presentation about the intersection. It was detailed and specific. He’d measured lane widths with a tape measure, researched City of Portland transportation plans to include applicable stats and policies, explained National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) guidelines, and he even coordinated to have three of his Titan freight trucks on at the site so he and his staff could do real, detailed observations about potential lane configurations that would allow truck drivers to continue to use the street, but make it safer when they do so.

If you’re familiar with how Wilson speaks about ending unsheltered homelessness, the above example is just one illustration of how he approaches other issues with similar intensity, earnestness, and infectious optimism that he — and we — can succeed.

At Bike Happy Hour back in February of this year, Wilson said his campaign staff urged him to stay on message and not talk about high speed rail, but he couldn’t resist. “The biggest issue today is unsheltered homelessness, but [high speed rail] is my passion,” he shared during a speech and Q & A to a crowd of several dozen folks at Ankeny Tap & Table. Then he shared his vision: “This [high speed rail] is what we’re going to deliver to our kids, and as soon as the federal government agrees to our statement of work, they’re going to give us $90 million to begin the planning process. We’re on our way… but that just means it’s still 15-20 years away that’s why my advisors don’t want me to talk about it. But that’s my dream and I want that to be your dream too.”

Then Wilson added, “Because that’s how we get rid of cars.” And I think he realized how that sounded, so he pivoted. “We don’t get rid of them. We make high speed rail so attractive…,” then he went into a comparison with Italy where he learned about how a rail line between Rome to Milan now has an 80% share of trips between the two cities. “Imagine [high speed rail] from Portland to Seattle. All those cars go away because nobody wants to drive anymore. Now they’re biking down to the terminal, they’re taking transit. Nobody wants to drive at that point, right? That’s called the transformation.”

That “transformation” includes a city where fewer people drive and more people ride bikes.

“Imagine [high speed rail] from Portland to Seattle. All those cars go away because nobody wants to drive anymore. Now they’re biking down to the terminal, they’re taking transit. Nobody wants to drive at that point, right? That’s called the transformation.”

During his 2020 city council campaign, I asked Wilson why it’s important for cycling to remain a high priority issue in City Hall. “My two core values are livability and mobility,” he said. “And biking is key to improving both… we need to value our biking community, our pedestrian community much higher, because it reduces congestion and emissions. And and it improves livability dramatically.”

We were in the throes of the pandemic at that time, and Wilson strongly supported making some resident streets carfree so that more people could walk and bike safely. “We should reduce and remove traffic from neighborhood greenways,” he shared with me. “These bike and pedestrian-centric roads need to be a priority to encourage safe mobility and our community’s health is our top priority right now. Closing some roads signals that we are in this together and safety is our top priority,” he added.

Wilson rode to Bike Happy Hour on July 8th.

Wilson has also studied various forms of road pricing like weight-mile taxes for trucks and vehicle miles traveled taxes. On a trip to Amsterdam he observed their low-emission zone. “They limit who comes in,” he explained excitedly at Bike Happy Hour earlier this year. “And if you’re going to come in, you’re gonna pay a higher rate… because they really value pedestrian, they value transit, and they value bicyclists. And that’s what we should be doing as well.”

As mayor, Wilson will have many pricing options to choose from and plenty of advocates just waiting to bend his ear about them. Or he could just dust off Portland’s already adopted Pricing Options for Equitable Mobility plan. One thing is for sure: Wilson likes to push his visions, often over the status quo or current practice. I’ve heard he pushed his Powell Blvd safety idea over what some advocates in that space wanted. And back in 2020 he told me that spending millions on road infrastructure to reach vision zero was “not working as evidenced by our growing fatality rate.” Instead, he wanted use an AI to help drivers be less distracted — and he’d already lined up a supplier in Australia that could provide a device he wanted to implement in Portland.

If you care about transportation in Portland, Wilson is a very intriguing new leader.

At a meeting of the city’s Freight Advisory Committee this morning, veteran Portland Bureau of Transportation staffer Mark Lear sounded optimistic about Wilson. During an exchange about whether or not PBOT staff is able to analyze complicated trucking projects (a person on the committee said outside freight experts should do the work), Lear said, “I’m really looking forward to our new mayor. He’s helped describe safety challenges related to trucks and the experience of a truck driver to the community. We have a massive opportunity to make our teams better and understand these issues in really productive ways.”

Last night’s winner? Single transferable vote

Straight-out-of-the-gate, District 3’s Steve Novick and D4’s Olivia Clark received more than the (25% + 1) of votes needed to win a City Council position, making them last night’s only candidates to “win” the count on first choice rankings alone. Other candidates also received a winning (25% + 1) votes, but they needed many rounds of transfer votes to arrive at that tally.

Keep in mind that this is only the first day of vote tabulation, the D4 tabulation was based on about 45,000 verified ballots, or 38% of approximately 120,000 eligible voters. More ballots will be coming in over the next few days, and the Multnomah County Election Division will be rerunning the ranking calculation fresh each day, on the entirety of all verified ballots.

Also worth noting is that there were not any Council District upsets in which a candidate was dislodged out of the first place position by another candidate’s accumulated transfer votes.

Multnomah County has posted detailed grids of the rankings and vote transfers, making it possible to trace through, round by round, how “winners” accumulated their votes. Anyone who has followed my posts knows that this is catnip for me. And after going through the table of transfers I can declare a winner: ranked-choice voting (RCV), with single-transferable vote (STV) in multi-member districts.

It’s a mouthful, but a closer look at some of the D4 transfers shows that, yes, the method successfully gives a voice on council to voters who hold minority positions on issues.

This is going to be another one of my dweeby posts which gets into the weeds with the STV algorithm and some numbers. But by the end of it I hope to show how a minority position in D4, namely a deep discomfort with jailing campers who refuse to accept relocation to city-provided alternative shelter or treatment, found its expression in candidate Mitch Green through transfer votes. (At least after day one of tabulation).

As an example, I’m going to look at the fate of three of the top-ranked candidates — Eric Zimmerman, Mitch Green and Eli Arnold — and show how the transfer votes of much lower-ranked candidates Lisa Freeman, Chad Lykins and Sarah Silkie dealt Portland police officer Eli Arnold a blow in the final rounds. At play is the issue of law enforcement’s role in enforcing Portland’s camping ban. Clark, Zimmerman and Arnold advocate a “Shelter for all” approach to camping, in which the possibility of being arrested acts as a “backstop” to requiring a range of other living situations, including treatment and Portland’s Temporary Alternative Shelter Sites (TASS).

Green, Freeman, Lykins and Silkie are more acceptable to voters who prefer Multnomah County’s “Housing First” model, which advocates for permanent housing without treatment requirements or sobriety barriers.

The screenshots I’m showing come from Multnomah County’s Unofficial Preliminary Election Results. The top segment shows Olivia Clark in first place with 12,315, or 27%, of the votes. Because she is over the 25% + 1 required to win, 1,053 of her votes are “transferred” to other candidates based on who her voters ranked as their 2nd choice. As you can see in the 3rd column, about half of Clark’s voters ranked Zimmerman 2nd, and also favored Eli Arnold. This transfer of 519 votes moves Zimmerman to 2nd place (12.59%), a lead he holds for all but one of remaining rounds.

Clark’s vote transfer puts Eli Arnold and Mitch Green in an even tighter race for the remaining rounds, and they stay in a tight range until the final rounds which eliminated Lisa Freeman, Chad Lykins, and Sarah Silkie. The transfers from those candidates favored Green over Arnold by several-fold, and opened up a five-point lead for Green in the final three rounds.

And that’s how a minority position about enforcing Portland’s camping ban has found an expression in one of the three District four representatives.

Take all of this with the caveat that the total vote is not yet in. Multnomah County will release tonight’s counts at 6:00 PM. I will be looking to see if there is any change in ordering that is associated with early voters versus those whose ballots came in too late for the Tuesday count.

Keith Wilson on road to victory, and I’ll see you at Bike Happy Hour tonight

Wilson speaking at Bike Happy Hour on October 2nd. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Hold on tight everyone, it might be a bumpy ride. Last night’s election saw Donald Trump sweep back into power and it wasn’t even close. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but my timelines are dark. While Democrats were doomed at the national level, Portland elections offered a much different result. Looks like a political newcomer could be our next mayor and we’ve got an interesting mix of candidates poised for City Council wins.

And with our first-ever election by ranked-choice vote, we’re still waiting for ballots to be processed and tabulations to be run. As of this morning, just two of 12 Council positions have been called.

Before I get into a recap of the five local races, I want to remind everyone that today is Bike Happy Hour. I’ll be in the Rainbow Road Plaza on SE Ankeny between 27th and 28th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. Come out and process the election with folks who know your name and will be happy to see you.

OK, let’s go…

In the race for Mayor, trucking company CEO and nonprofit leader Keith Wilson has a lead that is likely insurmountable. He jumped out to huge lead after the first batch of votes were tabulated and has continued to pick up votes from eliminated candidates each round. Wilson is currently leading Carmen Rubio 63% to 37%. Rubio and Rene Gonzalez were neck-and-neck for several rounds, followed by Mingus Mapps and then Liv Osthus. But since many Osthus voters also ranked Wilson and Rubio highly, they benefit hugely once Osthus’ votes are transferred. The fact that Wilson isn’t strongly disliked by many voters — unlike Gonzalez and Rubio — means he’ll likely coast to victory.

Now for Portland City Council races…

In District 1 (East), three candidates are in a tight race: former Multnomah County Commissioner and political veteran Loretta Smith, nonprofit leader Candace Avalos, and Multnomah County staffer (and former city hall staffer) Jamie Dunphy. While Smith and Avalos look the strong so far, the final selection is too close to call. One candidate that has done surprisingly well, and whose votes are helping push Smith up the charts, is political newcomer Noah Ernst. Transportation nonprofit leader former Portland Planning Committee member Steph Routh is still in the mix, but it will be a very tight race between her, Ernst, and former PBOT project manager Timur Ender.

In District 2 (North/Northeast), City Commissioner Dan Ryan looks to be the lone clear winner. Close behind is union organizer and policy advisor Elana Pirtle-Guiney and City of Portland policy manager Sameer Kanal. Those three appear to be the standouts thus far. Behind them are Portland Public School Board member Michelle DePass, former small business owner Nat West, and political advisory Marnie Glickman.

The race for three seats in District 3 (Southeast) appears to be easiest to predict, with former City Commissioner Steve Novick a clear winner and schoolteacher and union organizer Tiffany Koyama Lane and nonprofit leader Angelita Morillo in solid positions for a seat. Experienced government staffer at the local and state level, Kezia Wanner is in fourth, but has only about half the votes of those top three.

Wilson blew away the competition in a lopsided victory in the mayoral race. Much like everyone thought, it came down to a five person race between Wilson, Rene Gonzalez, Carmen Rubio, Mingus Mapps and Liv Osthus. Wilson had a commanding lead from the very first round of voting and his victory was never in doubt. Rubio and Gonzalez ran neck-and-neck for several rounds, followed by Mapps and then Osthus. Gonzalez’s fate was sealed in round 17 after Osthus’ 10,241 votes were distributed almost equally to Rubio and Wilson. Rubio and Gonzalez were separated by only 400 votes before Osthus was eliminated and her votes were spread to the remaining four. Rubio received 3,475 votes from Osthus voters, Wilson received 3,244, Mapps got 1,335 and Gonzalez tallied just 580.

District 4 (West/Sellwood) is the other race where one candidate appears to be a sure thing. Policy and legislative director Olivia Clark has a strong lead. Behind her could be a very tight race for the two other seats between economist Mitch Green, chief of staff to a Multnomah County Commissioner Eric Zimmerman, and Portland Police Bureau officer Eli Arnold. Our D4 expert Lisa Caballero is working on deeper dive into how the voting has gone in that district, so hang tight.

Results of these races could change in the coming day or two, so stay tuned as more votes are tabulated.

Check out Multnomah County’s results page here. And learn more about how votes are counted (something I wish I’d done more of before now!) here.