— This article is by Jacob Apenes, an organizer with Sunrise PDX.
My bus commute to work is very long. Two buses – forty minutes each – with a ten-minute wait in between and a ten-minute walk to work. It’s not ideal, especially given that my second bus is a commuter bus which only arrives three times per day. However, it’s much cheaper than owning a car. This is a personal case where our region’s transportation system fails to provide good options for its users.
Here’s another personal case. Growing up in southwest Portland, it wasn’t uncommon for me to walk on streets with no sidewalks or to prefer ditches instead of walking next to high-speed SUVs. Being surrounded by low-density housing also meant infrequent or non-existent transit service. And I think my mom would have killed me before a car did if I ever decided to bike on Barbur Boulevard. Unsafe streets. Poor transit. No sidewalks.
Let’s do a systemic case where our transportation system is failing. Given the increase in vehicle weight and size and the poor design of our major arterials, Portland is experiencing an epidemic in traffic fatalities. One death is too many, but this issue continues to get worse and worse each year. We also have crumbling roads and bridges due to a lack of funding, a climate crisis that cannot handle the number of cars on our streets, and potential transit cuts… also due to a lack of funding.
Portland’s transportation system needs a serious overhaul. Portlanders deserve safe, affordable, and useful options for traveling our city and state. We need to be reducing the amount of cars on our roads by offering alternatives that are comparable to driving. We should be taxing car driving for the damage they do to our roads, our air, our climate, and our lives. We should be using that new income to build the alternatives that are comparable to driving, not for more freeway megaprojects.
With so much wrong with our region’s transportation system, we have a lot of work ahead in making the changes that benefit us all. I know that I began organizing with Sunrise PDX two years ago because I felt called to help change the city for the better. You might be reading this and are already part of a group like BikeLoud or Families for Safe Streets or Depave. Or maybe you’re reading this and are fighting for change in your own way. However you’re showing up to fight, we need all hands on deck if we want to transform a transportation system and provide equitable options for all. And we need to fight now.
Portlanders (and Oregonians as a whole) are hungry for change. The Urbanist Happy Hour, which started last week by Strong Towns, joins the choir of transportation and urban planning themed community events. Move Oregon Forward, the statewide coalition fighting for a people-centered transportation package, brought OVER 100 PEOPLE from across the state to Salem and held more than 45 constituent meetings demanding better streets, better transit, and sustainable funding. So many Portland-based organizations—including Verde, BikeLoud, Portland DSA, and 350PDX—are actively collaborating for statewide reform. Could you imagine what could get done in Portland if we were unified and fighting as one? Could you imagine what we could get done if there were more of us?
At Sunrise PDX, our transportation team is working to build a Portland where all can travel through our city quickly and safely without a car. We want a city where our bike network is complete and protected, where transit arrives every 5 minutes instead of every 15, and where we’ve achieved Vision Zero. Most importantly, we need our city to be taking immediate action to improve the state of our streets: our elected leaders should be the ones paving the way, not pulling us in the wrong direction.
Our upcoming Transit Town Hall, hosted by Sunrise PDX and Portland DSA, is one step of many for Portlanders and our elected leaders to become aligned and return to the forefront of transportation justice. Scheduled this Saturday at 2pm, the town hall is a chance for people to share issues and offer solutions on our current transportation system. With the first hour of the town hall set for public testimony, Sunrise and Portland DSA encourage all to share their ideas, large and small, and to be constructive when building off the ideas of others.
The last 30 minutes of the town hall is reserved for a panel Q&A with elected officials from multiple levels of government. There will be a representative from the City of Portland, Metro, and the Oregon State Legislature each ready to answer questions about our region’s transportation system. The goal is to have the collaborative energy from public testimony translate into an energizing discussion from electeds. We are fortunate to have over 12 elected officials planning on attending! We hope the public testimony offers them tangible ideas they can bring back to their offices.
On behalf of fixing my work commute and building sidewalks where I grew up, I’ll be there on Saturday. I hope to see you too.
Thanks for reading.
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Great guest article!
As a former member of EPAP and someone who is now trying to build a similar coalition of existing advocacy groups here in Greensboro NC, I encourage y’all “to focus on your passion” in small community-based groups and nonprofits, but also to form grand coalitions and dark unholy alliances on common policies and visions that includes government agencies, corporations, local businesses, and non-aligned individuals. One ally we’ve used are realtors – they too want well-connected bikeable and walkable communities, if only to sell homes to richer clients – but they have a lot of savvy in dealing with politicians and are driven type-A people.
Oh David…I can tell you live in Greensboro, NC. These local groups (DSA, Verde, Sunshine, 350 PDX,Bike Loud, Street Trust,DePave, etc) are a far cry from what you would see in NC. For example, the DSA is a Socialist/Communist group primarily interested in the elimination of capitalism and radical income distribution. Alliances? No way….they are like the far right MAGA folx…my way or the highway.
We have lots of vague nebulous groups like the Street Trust (ex-BTA), both locally and statewide (for example Sustain Charlotte, the National Cycling Center, and WakeUp Wake County), here in NC. Verde I worked with when I was still in East Portland, very progressive. Bike Loud I’m familiar with, I admire some of their past work. The others are new to me, but I admit I haven’t lived in Portland for nearly 10 years. We have groups on both the left AND right who are pro-bike, including corporate trail-building groups, born-again Christian bike coops, the usual local advocacy groups, and so on.
My point was to not get bogged down with the internal politics and instead build upon useful commonalities between groups who might not otherwise think of working together.
A born again Christian bike coop! Wow you do live in a different world. Almost certainly they would be canceled in Portland….it’s no longer the tolerant city you left.
http://www.brakingcycles.org
I think they have a Christian lean to them, but maybe I’m wrong
The fact that you call the DSA a “Socialist/Communist group” is very funny to me. Two different things, one of which the DSA is obviously committed too, one of which it obviously isn’t. It’s also essentially a political party, which is sort of a different thing from a non profit advocacy group (though sure, there are similarities and the DSA isn’t a traditional political party in the sense that they don’t really run candidates in the usual sense).
There’s also something hilarious about calling the DSA unwilling to make alliances when everyone left of them calls them filthy collaborationist scum (or something to that effect)
Are we talking about a different Portland DSA?
“ the DSA isn’t a traditional political party in the sense that they don’t really run candidates in the usual sense“
According to them they are all about running candidates
“While corporate Democrats fell to crushing defeat, socialists won elections across the country. Portland was a bright spot. We elected two endorsed city councilors after an incredible campaign of door-knocking and organizing — and voted in four democratic socialists to city council. Five of the twelve winners signed our Renters’ Bill of Rights.”
https://portlanddsa.org/
I mostly mean that they won’t be listed on the ballot as a separate party, and that candidates are often part of the Democratic Party too. Other political parties don’t operate in that way
There is no DSA party full stop. “DSA candidates” means people endorsed by or who happen to be in DSA.
I’m not the one referring to them as a party although I’m posting from my phone now and can’t get the nice effects like bold or slant and have to rely on quotes which when there are a lot of them can get confusing.
I wish they would have the courage to form their own party though since at least locally I think they’d do pretty well.
If they do well locally then that would weaken the two party system which would be a good thing.
I agree and I think there is some debate within DSA about doing that. We’re in dire need of breaking the two party grip on politics. And not some midpoint between MAGA and MAGA with DEI party. Sadly it tends to be basically baked into our systems.
I don’t think the DSA is capable of “doing that” because if it committed to the long tradition of DEMOCRATIC* electoral socialism, many of the centralist “revolutionary” factions would split off to their original sectarian formations. The DSA is an organization with a leadership where (“democratic”) centralism is very greatly over-represented and a largely soc-dem/dem-soc membership base. This contradiction is, IMO, the main reason it’s membership has continued to decline since Sanders’ first run.
*not as in democratic party
To the left of the DSA? You’re kidding right? They have a subgrouping called the Red Caucus which is straight up communist. Portland DSA co-chair is a member (Olivia Katbi Smith).
Oh and here are a few choice quotes from Olivia:
“Israel was founded via ethnic cleansing.”
Olivia Katbi-Smith, Twitter, Jul 15 2018
“F**k Israel…From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Olivia Katbi-Smith, Facebook, May 14 2018
“hey just popping in to remind you that Israel is an apartheid state.”
Olivia Katbi-Smith, Facebook, Jul 19 2018
“Long live the intifada”
Olivia Katbi-Smith, Facebook, May 15 2018
“Solidarity with all my comrades in JVP who have been blacklisted from Israel. I am proud to know and work alongside you.”
Olivia Katbi-Smith, Facebook, Jan 9 2018
https://keywiki.org/Red_Caucus
https://canarymission.org/individual/Olivia_Katbi-Smith
“The Red Caucus is a coalition of Revolutionary Marxists within the DSA”. Maybe you don’t see a difference between “Revolutionary Marxism” and “Communism” but I do. Democratic Socialism by definition involves working through existing democratic institutions (elections, etc.) rather than agitating directly for social change via extra-institutional means. Evidently, the Red Caucus may seem slightly at odds with itself from this perspective but there’s a rich tradition of leftism in the US operating in both spheres – Eugene Debs comes to mind.
The chief editor of Key Wiki writes books that document the rapid Marxist takeover of the US Government. That is not a reputable take or person. That’s a McCarthyism website, and it’s not something I’ll take seriously (except as evidence of you being a John Birch Society member).
Yes, but nothing you quoted was untrue. And the views are gaining traction, not just in DSA, but basically everywhere.
True, untrue… it’s hard to evaluate subjective statements like that. What is indisputably true is that the history of the conflict is very, very complex and reasonable people can look at the same set of facts and come to very different conclusions.
None of which actually helps resolve the fundamental problem that people there need to figure out how they can live together. Somehow.
I wish that instead of making hit-and-run declarations about the situation based on a narrow selection of facts (and fictions and slogans), folks would propose some actual solutions.
We don’t have to come up with a solution that fixes things for all eternity and makes the area into a perpetual utopia to see some obvious facts and short term solutions.
I don’t think reasonable people actually can disagree with much of what those quotes said. I mean, people can be indoctrinated from birth and have huge blind spots, but seem otherwise reasonable. But I wouldn’t call that reasonable.
Anyway, I don’t want to drag this out again. I just reflexively respond when someone like Mary comes in and spews the usual one sided nonsense without having the counterpoint in the replies. People need to know they’re not alone when they read those quotes and think “but this all makes sense”.
A short term solution is far far better than no solution at all. We can worry about “all eternity” later.
A lot of reasonable people would (and do) disagree with those quotes. You may label them as “unreasonable” for not agreeing with you, but then you’re just defining terms.
Anyone who responds reflexively and in short bursts to this situation is going to spew nonsense, especially those issuing proclamations of the moral superiority or rightness of one side or the other.
Everyone is behaving badly, and can claim “he started it”, and everyone is both right and wrong and it is all just fuel for the fire. It doesn’t help.
All that matters is finding a workable, practical accommodation, regardless of past wrongs and victimizations. Pointing fingers is not helpful (and yes, I’m pointing at you, as well as others).
Claiming reasonable disagreement is also just defining terms. It’s a weasel word. You say they’re reasonable, I don’t think so. I say they’re programmed / indoctrinated.
Saying both sides are behaving badly is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
One example, among a huge number I could select from: I consider Joe Biden a reasonable person, and I don’t think he would accept all of the above statements at face value. I’m not defining terms to achieve a particular outcome.
I am saying that all that matters is finding a workable accommodation. If assigning blame will bring the sides together, then I’m all for it. Otherwise, it’s counterproductive.
As an ex-member it’s not obvious to me. I think the larger DSA membership is mostly soc-dem/dem-soc in the vein of Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez but a large segment of leadership are, indeed, “communists”. I think the main issue is that most ‘murricans don’t have a clue about the difference between a lib-soc caucus anarcho-communist and a MLM entryist.
” I think the larger DSA membership is mostly soc-dem/dem-soc in the vein of Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez but a large segment of leadership are, indeed, “communists”.”
Agree with you on this. The people who actually think the various types of socialism are a good idea are the idle rich (Sanders) and the desperate poor (of which there are few here in the states) who are willing to try anything to change their status, but don’t have time to waste with political organizing or clubs.
If you or anyone here wants to try bonafide socialism and live the socialist, close to communist lifestyle you should join the Army. After experiencing communal living, communal thinking and manual labor with your comrades with a top down structure you’d be better educated on what socialism actually is.
Until you try it yourself, its all just supposition fueled by books written by wealthy, entitled folks on the planning committees, isn’t it?
You have not tried it yourself. The military has more in common with an authoritarian nationalist state. It’s not remotely reminiscent of “bonafide socialism”.
I’ve been to DSA meetings, used to go more often, and it’s absoltely full of people who believe in actual socialism, not idle rich, and definitely people from the states. It is very democratic, if people just wanted to talk about scandanavian style social democracy, they would.
“The military has more in common with an authoritarian nationalist state. “
And real world socialism doesn’t?
You have to give me an example of where it’s not authoritarian. Who’s growing the food or making clothes in these society’s you’re discussing? I know it’s no one at the DSA meetings you’re going to.
I lived in Changsha in China for awhile and that was as authoritarian AF!
I actually grew up on a commune out in the boonies. The adults grew goats, chickens and pigs, grew veggies and I worked with them (as much as a little kid could of course) It only lasted a few years. In the adult world socialism doesn’t work as of yet.
Socialism is easy to talk about when there is the plenty provided by a capitalist system. It gets hard when there’s not enough.
The idea that Nordic model is “just supposition fueled by books written by wealthy, entitled folks on the planning committees” is a great example of how ‘murrican exceptionalism rots brains.
Not a fan of war crimes, so no thanks.
The Nordic model exists cause they are rich with Petro money that they keep for themselves with a stringent immigration policy. Are you really calling that any kind of socialism?
Oh, and war itself is a crime.
Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands are enormous producers of oil — but only in the fantasy land of ‘murrican exceptionalist brain rot. The Nordic model also predates Norway’s petro economy so please don’t let history or fact get in the way of your ‘murrican brain rot.
I think the profound social welfare state that dominates GDP in Finland and Sweden is a direct lineal descendant of socialist politics. It’s an indication of how socialism can help create societies that are less cruel, amoral, and violent — less like the USA.
Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, etc. are all highly capitalistic countries. They also have a strong system of social welfare, proving the two are not incompatible.
What they absolutely are not is socialist.
Government expenditure is 57% of GDP in Finland and 48% of GDP in Sweden so your claim that both are highly-capitalistic governments is baldly false (as are so very many of your unsupported claims here). I also never claimed that any of these nations are highly “socialist” but that their pervasive social welfare system was a direct result of socialist politics, which is also a fact.
Fair enough, and perhaps that’s a point of agreement; I believe we could have a much stronger safety net here without diminishing the significant benefits we get from capitalism. If people espousing socialist views can attain the power and demonstrate the governance needed to bring that about, then great.
So your moving goalpost definition of socialism is centered around how much of a welfare state the government delivers to the citizens? Hmm, sounds pretty authoritarian (as is all socialist/communistic organizations) as the people only receive what the government is willing to provide.
Or maybe thats just an example of ‘murrican brain rot, the same rot that denies co-ops have any form of state or federal statues?
You know Finland happily supplied volunteers that formed an SS division (not german army, but SS that swore personal allegiance to that one guy) during WW2 that participated in many massacres of jewish people?
But hey, what authoritarian government model back then didn’t massacre people? The germans loved it, the italians did their best in Africa, the russians loved it and the chinese definitely remember the horrors inflicted on them by japan. Those nordic places seem to be in good company and not really a stellar example of a less cruel, amoral or violent place.
Describing social welfare (e.g. caring about children and old people) as “authoritarian” is the epitome of ‘murrican totalitarian brain rot.
Bravo!
It’s impressive how you can utterly avoid any debate where ideas (and not TikTok blurbs) are exchanged while still getting some of the same repetitive insults in.
Jacob,
Sounds like you want a LOT of money for improved infrastructure and safety projects. So do I. How do we do that? By having a robust economy where businesses flourish and taxpayers want to stay here as they see their money being put to good use. We don’t have that currently in Portland. We have the opposite…a growing doom loop.
The groups you list…Sunrise, Verde, 350PDX, Street Trust, DSA have been instrumental in fomenting conditions that created our doom loop….radical politics aren’t gonna restore a vibrant Portland. It’s gonna make us the next Detroit.
You and the marmalade mussolini need to update your urban decay talking points.
‘It’s buzzing here’: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decayThe tech scene is booming in the US’s largest Black-majority city, with foreign investment and a recent population boost.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/04/detroit-revitalization
Weird flex but okay. Yes, Detroit got so bad that the billionaire owner of Rocket Mortgage has been able to invest in the city at pennies on the dollar to revitalize things along with Ford (a $40.5B company). So, surprisingly, via austerity and then capitalism there has been a revitalization in Detroit.
Imagining that a few small nonprofits and a smallish political movement that had seen little electoral success before November 2024 are somehow “instrumental in formenting conditions that created our doom loop” is such a stretch. I get it, you read one WW article and one Oregonian article summarizing and EcoNW report about economic indicators and now you’re an expert on it, but give it a rest.
Portlands got issues, but you are saying the Street Trust formented the conditions for Detroit level urban decay in a city where property values in most of the city are still appreciably increasing. It just doesn’t line up with reality.
It’s been a long time since The Street Trust fomented anything. It’s astonishing that anyone gives them money anymore.
What StreetTrust leadership seems somehow–off? Crazy.
They live off some type of government grants–its always government grants, they usually are multi-year also.
And BlumDrew, DSA did all the legwork for two tax increases that are the primary talking points about the upper-income population loss that the city is experiencing.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/POXRSA
-Down in February from January, still down from 2022.
Its cool though, it is definitely a marker of a successful city when they have nearly 9 figure budget deficits, schools are losing students left and right, population is in decline, there is a 35 year supply of office building space available, condo market it is shambles, it must just 3 wacky articles that are skewing peoples perceptions of a place.
It’s down a hair from the all time peak in April 2022 and is still double what it was 10 years ago. Not exactly the signs of a market bottoming out. That graph is pretty strong evidence that Portland is doing fine in the real estate market (which is of course an over simplification, but whatever).
The condo market in shambles is when prices are steady for 5 years? Okay man.
School enrollment is down, especially in elementary and middle schools, but it was up 23.7% in high schools from 2012 to 2022. Its disingenuous to talk about school enrollment without considering the demographic profile of the district, and housing cost plays a larger role than most other factors in where families choose to live. It would be difficult to imagine a situation where housing costs continue to rise (as you clearly want them to), where apartment construction continues to favor non-family units, and where PPS has a stable demographic of families to serve.
Most people don’t spend their time deep in the weeds of urban economics, so I think it’s fair to assume that wacky articles from the major news publications play a large role in framing the narratives around what is happening in Portland. It’s bad for our city when everything is doom and gloom.
The graph is the Case-Shiller, so it compares the price of houses sold from the last time they sold, not all sales overall. That is a meaningful distinction because down/flat is pretty bad for anyone selling, it means they are seeing a 6-8% loss on the sale not on an inflation adjusted basis, with inflation, it is much worse.
Same thing for the condo market, flat prices for 5 years mean someone selling after a 5 year hold is likely seeing a 30-40% inflation adjusted loss.
I think most people who make the largest investment of their life do not want that investment to go down, not just me. They especially would like to know that the place they live has characteristics that they will have people to sell it to down the line, hence the willingness to make that investment. Knowing you are buying a house in a place with declining population and fewer kids in the schools, historically a pretty solid feeder for population and creating the stability of a community not reliant on transplants for population growth, gives just about anyone with a sense, pause.
There should be no prerequisite that one be an urban economics wonk to know how things are actually going in the city they live in and pay dearly for the privilege. So, the publications you note have no journalistic integrity left (debatable) or your preference is that they obfuscate reality because letting people know how things are really being run, and the overall outlook of the city is fraught, is bad for the brand of Portland? It is bad for our city when it is all doom and gloom, it is far worse if we pretend telling people about it is inappropriate.
Lost me at Portland DSA
Protesting the war in Gaza as your main focus won’t help our transportation
system in Portland?
Why not?
Pretty sure one of their main focuses was successfully electing 4 DSA members to city council.
As someone who pretends to be opposed to MAGA authoritarianism in the USA, it’s fascinating to see you casually dismiss opposition to the genocidal authoritarianism of Netanyahu.
PS: I’m no fan of the DSA so don’t @ me about them
My comment had nothing to do with MAGA or Netanyahu.
My views on the Middle East conflict matter as much as Mitch Greens do which is Zero.
It has Nothing to do with being a member of the Portland council or living in Portland Oregon.
DSA were/are profound critics of the Biden admin for their Israel support.
Well Israel just announced they are going scorched earth in Gaza with the Blessing of MAGA and they will accomplish their goal.
Very astute politics for the DSA.
Your comment had everything to do with Netanyahu’s genocidal war.
Kind of like they did under Biden?
4 socialist councilors seems pretty ****ing astute to me. Or did you think that the local Portland DSA had some very special power to determine the national election.
200 minutes a day for commuting (plus time from home to bus stop, plus any waiting time at the start of your trips, and assuming everything runs optimally) — that’s dedication!
A big role in our climate and transportation problems are people living MILES away from where they work.
I have no idea what his situation is but that is a seriously crazy commute.
The major problem in Portland is people commuting between Vancouver and Beaverton for employment.
MOVE!
Maybe if CEOs would stop the non-sense of forcing people back to a central office for no good reason, then maybe more could be distant from their work place and not have to commute at all. Think of the savings then!
Oh but wait, Portland/Metro is all about lip service about saving the environment but can’t even bring themselves to do the simple thing that would help. Hey we have to save the downtown business owners because they aren’t smart enough (maybe too lazy) to come up with new ideas.
So when one of the people in your household gets fired and can only find work in Hillsboro:
…One needs to change the kids schools, cut them off from the neighborhood kids who are just teaching them about doing drugs, pay agents 20k, AND WORST risk the evils of new neighbors running businesses out of their homes that make loud noises at night.
Thats dedication to the environment!
What if the partner’s job is still in the same place?
Yeah all those thousands of cars crossing the interstate bridge are just people in Vancouver that lost their jobs and were forced to drive to Hillsboro each day…..
Nothing like waking up at 3:30am to start one’s day with 4 transfer points (one way) with all the stress that missing the transfer points through no fault of one’s own will make one late for work which I suspect you know, but many here might not that that means reduced pay and a step closer to being fired.
And then repeat yo get home, but with less stress as it’s “only” family time one is missing out if late getting back.
And I’ve seen that TriMet is planning to cut even more service. You’ll likely miss even more transfer points.
Oh and standing in a bus shelter out of the rain is a no-go now too with TriMet removing the glass out of the shelters. Shall be a wonderful fall/winter this year for bus riders as they’ll be so encouraged by all the cuts TriMet is making.
Wait, what? TriMet has been removing that glass?!? WTF?
I wrote TriMet to ask about this and was told that as the current glass is being shattered out by our finest citizens, it’s not being replaced, not yet. Supposedly, shatterproof poly-carbonate panels will be installed but there are “supply chain issues”. The guy that replied at TriMet was very nice so I’m not trying to make a dig with my ” ” around supply chain issues. Anyways, I don’ think it’s TriMet that is removing the glass, it’s just the shitheads that run around, unchecked, that are removing the glass panels.
I think TriMet stole that excuse from PBOT and the Bob Stacy elevators.
Which are down again.
I’ve also discussed this glass/shelter removal with staffers who shared that removing stations altogether is part of their intervention strategy when stops become overrun with drugs/guns/prostitution/camping. I don’t know how much is this is directed from the top down, but clearly concerning on a number of levels.
If cities can’t maintain orderly, clean, welcoming public spaces, we should expect to see public sentiment shift in a more insular, individualistic direction. That would be a real loss!
https://www.slowboring.com/p/liberalism-and-public-order
That’s just wrong. Barbur has pretty extensive sidewalks – I’d say Barbur has sidewalk on at least one side over half its entire length. And it has continuous bike lanes (which people walk in) on both sides for its ENTIRE length, except for the Iowa and [forget the other name] viaducts, which are truly horrendous but just a couple hundred feet.
Your characterization of Barbur seems born of ignorance, not reality on the ground. I bike or walk on Barbur every single day. Is it great? No, it’s not. But does it afford cycling and walking? Yes, it does – it really does. Your use of Barbur as an example of human-hostile infra really hurts your argument.
In fact, ODOT recently repaved about a quarter mile of Barbur – the notoriously bumpy stretch from Bertha (in front of Freddy’s) almost to Capitol Hill Rd. That counts as a huge win on Barbur and actually helps to keep it bikeable at a basic level.
Thanks Jonathan! It is so important to shift our auto focused views and encourage more people to use alternative forms of transportation.
It is possible to move all over the city by bicycle pretty easily too. If one sticks to the greenways, often it can be a very safe experience. Yes, even the greenways are not perfect but it has forward momentum. The more people who ride them, the more visible bicycle riders become and safety on bikes is best in mass.
Getting our kids on bicycles more, like with the Bike Bus, helps to get adults to see and participate in other ways than the 1/2 mile drive, adding to motorvehicle traffic around our schools. That can discourage people from riding bikes.
Car free can happen. It is a commitment, but it can feel really good especially in ones savings account.
Ride safe y’all
Strong Towns is right-wing libertarian organization that opposes equitable government planning, is skeptical of transformative urban change, and favors lower-density incrementalism over dense public/social housing.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2023/09/the-strong-towns-movement-is-simply-right-libertarianism-dressed-in-progressive-garb
This kind of exclusionary talk is a recipe for a pure, and purely powerless, one-man-tent political movement. Good luck with that.