Hi everyone. It’s been a while since I shared an update on BikePortland and my role in it going forward.
After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to step aside. Stepping aside does not mean stepping away. Like I said a few days ago, the BikePortland website (and social channels) will remain and continue to be a platform. However, I want to be clear that I will not return to my previous role as an active journalist and community concierge.
My goal at this stage is to publish more guest articles and opinions, as well as other light news items and announcements. I am also seeking an intern in the hopes of training someone to grab the handlebars and pedal us forward. Portland still needs quality coverage of transportation, mobility, streets, public space and urbanism. If you or someone you know wants to learn how to do advocacy journalism that puts community first and makes change possible, please reach out and connect with me (maus.jonathan@gmail.com). I’ll share a more formal job listing soon.
I share this with mixed emotions. On one hand, I know in my heart it’s time to move on. On the other hand, I know there’s more work to do, there are more battles to fight, and our community’s advocacy ecosystem is weaker without BikePortland’s voice in the mix. So while I will no longer do that work, I want to help make that work possible.
It took me a long time to share this because doing this work every day was the only life I’d known for 21 years. I wanted to be sure the time was right to move on. And it is!
I’ve started my first season as a college basketball coach and could not be more excited. I’ve been hired as assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at Warner Pacific University (a small school located south of Mt. Tabor off SE Division). As challenging as it is to begin a new career in a completely different community and be “the new guy” at age 51, working around the game of basketball allows me to tap into a passion that’s been buried inside me since I was a teenager. And yes, I know “assistant basketball coach” isn’t the most sensible decision from a career perspective, but neither was starting a bike blog in 2005!
On that note, if you or your organization needs someone with 21 years of experience managing a community media outlet, please get in touch. I’m searching for flexible, part-time work and would love to hear your ideas.
As the next chapter continues, I can’t even describe what doing BikePortland has meant to me. All the people, stories, events, controversies, tragedies and triumphs. I gave everything I could to this community and to BikePortland. Yes, I made some mistakes, but I am very proud of what we built. And for better or worse, all my ideas, decisions and opinions remain part of the public record — as long as you don’t mind clicking through thousands of comments and stories!
And finally, I deeply appreciate all of my subscribers and supporters. There were so many moments when I needed to know people had my back, and the well of support you’ve provided has meant everything. I hope you stick around to help maintain this library-like archive of community information and inspiration — and help BikePortland transition into its next chapter with me in an advisory role.
Stay tuned, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the streets (and gyms)!
Thanks for reading.
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Thank you so much for your 21 years of passion and extraordinary abilities and contributions. You have made our community better in so many ways, and I’m sure you will do so in this next chapter as well. ❤️❤️
Perfect comment which I am sure reflects the sentiments of many others.
Jonathan – thanks so much for your years of great reporting and advocacy. The Portland cycling community is better today because of you. Good luck to you and your team!
Wow…congrats on the new direction you’re taking. I hope you still continue with the photography when you do get out on bike rides. Your lens has captured so much.
Jonathan, big congrats on the career shift. Your love of basketball has always been clear here and coaching sounds like a fantastic way to fulfill the work side of your life. As someone who has had several career shifts — research to journalism to government work — I have loved every twist and turn despite the challenges as you note above. Your journalism is going to be greatly missed, but I’m sure many readers share how excited I am for your basketball (work) future. All the best and I look forward to tuning in here to see what’s going on in the bike world even if you aren’t doing the reporting.
Very sorry to hear this for the Portland biking community, but glad you’re headed in a direction that’s good for you.
Wherever you go, we will follow, on bikes.
I’m glad you’ve found a new direction and have made the decision to move on. Seems as though the advocacy work you were doing with BP was taking too high of a toll – you had put everything on your shoulders so of course the weight became too much over time.
You built something really great in BP and now I hope you will have the wisdom to allow someone else – or a few other someones – to step in and continue the work you started. It will involve a letting go, which I hope you will be able to do, since you invested so much personally in BP. There is strength in letting go.
Best of luck and Go Knights!
Thanks for doing BP for all these years. Good luck in your new venture.
I would like to echo Fred’s point about letting go. I’m not sure that “letting go” is consistent with, as you wrote above, “Stepping aside does not mean stepping away.” Maybe it should mean stepping away. If you really want someone else to do BP with the passion you had for BP, then maybe give them free reign to take the site in a direction they see fit. Maybe that’s the same direction it was going. Maybe it isn’t.
Yes, yes, yes! Maybe it’s time to sell the business to someone else so they can take it where it needs to go. BP under JM was a wonderful and unique organism, but clearly it cannot be the same BP in someone else’s hands. For me as a reader and follower of BP for many years, I had a relationship with the site and the community that has changed radically since JM stepped away. That relationship can be restored only if new leadership is willing to come in and do what JM did, or something like it.
Or, some things just have a lifespan and shouldn’t be permanent.
Good for you JM. Sometimes the old habits and activities no longer provide as much value as new frontiers.
Hello from Paris, Jonathan. I’ll echo what Diane said so well above. I appreciate your hard work over the years, including the time you took to respond to my many emails. I can’t recall any other journalists who responded so personally. I wish you the best in whatever comes next.
Jonathan, thank you, and congrats on following your next passion! I’ve been so impressed with what you’ve created with BikePortland, and have no doubt you’ll be leaving your mark on the basketball world next. All the best!