Armando (center) at the Photo Booth ride Thursday night.

Armando Luna is everywhere. From monthly advocacy meetings to late-night party rides — this guy soaks up the cycling scene.

During Pedalpalooza — the month-long, grassroots festival of creative bike rides and events — he kicks it up a notch. So far this month (we’re 21 days in), he’s attended 29 rides.

I recently asked a few questions to learn more about him and his impressive Pedalpalooza prowess…

I moved to Portland in 1996, fell in love with it and then fell into a job at OHSU, where I still work. I commute by bike every workday from my home in Hollywood. I am grateful for being able commute by bike, for OHSU partnering with Go By Bike bike valet, and for my work paying bike riders to ride to work. (And the tram rides!)

I don’t really know! I don’t remember the early years, mostly because I was a new dad, that sort of took everything over. When the kids were young they ended up attending a daycare downtown, so when they were old enough I’d pull them in a trailer to daycare, then ride to work.

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Got a project you want to build? Check out PAZ.
(Photos: PAZ on Facebook)

As affordable space to live and work becomes scarce in Portland’s inner neighborhoods, higher rents are forcing many people and organizations to move further out. As this trend continues, Portland Autonomous Zone (PAZ), a member-supported space for making and fixing things — especially bike-inspired things — is struggling to hold onto their space at SE 16th and Woodward.

PAZ was founded by Brian Smith in 2013 with a “focus on bike fun and DIY sub-culture.” Smith, who likens PAZ to “an Eagles Lodge, but with a focus on DIY tinkering and bikes,” is a regular in the Portland bike scene and can often be found astride his tall bike. He’s also a computer and audio expert who loves tinkering with mobile sound systems and once dreamed of a tall-bike powered tour with his punk band. Smith has kept PAZ alive for the past four years by pouring his heart (and sometimes his own money) into it. He has also worked to recruit new members, whose monthly rents help pay for the space.
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Public street murals are more than just pretty paintings on walls, they’re signs of a healthy city. By that measure, Montréal is full of life. The city is teeming with such a variety and volume of murals my head was literally spinning nearly as fast as my wheels as I cycled through its streets for the past four days.
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Retired brothers David (L) and Marty Stabler are prepping to embark on a ride across America.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

How do know if your local biking ecosystem is healthy? Take the time to learn about what people are doing.

Are they riding? Are they starting new clubs, programs and organizations? Are they re-thinking the status quo to make biking even better?

This week I met with four people who are doing good things in our community.

The Bike Brothers

David and Martin (“Marty”) Stabler are retired Portlanders who are three months away from the biggest ride of their lives: a 3,650 mile pedal across the country. Their plan is to dip their wheels in the Pacific Ocean in Astoria and do the same thing in Portsmouth, New Hampshire 50 days later.
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Find your thing, then find other people who like it too.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Tuesday was about as wonderful a day for Northwest winter biking as anyone could wish for, and that feels like a sign that the wet, wet winter of 2015-2016 has started rolling away.

(Punxsutawney Phil, for the record, thinks so too.)

While we start to think about spring, it’s a good time to start thinking about where to find good times on bikes. So let’s do something we’ve been wanting to get done for a while and share a list of all the local bike-related Facebook groups we know of.

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It’s coming to Williams Avenue.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

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“Bicyclists are today’s heroes.”
(Photo by Bill Cravis)

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Greg Doctorelo out on delivery for GO Box.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Today is Messenger Appreciation Day, also known by its messenger code name as “10-9 Day.” To mark the occasion the Chrome Hub store in downtown Portland hosted a free breakfast to these unsung heroes of Portland’s economy.
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A bicycle has done much more than simply get musician Ben Weaver to his gigs; the act of pedaling has transformed his music and his mission.

Weaver, who’s set to perform Thursday night at Velo Cult, says something changed deep within him when he stopped touring in a car and started carrying his instruments in bags hooked onto his bike: “Instead of performing in traditional concert settings,” he wrote at BenWeaver.net, “I began building tours around natural spaces, specifically around water. I wanted to give back, build communities, and learn more from the people and places I visited.”
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Los Angeles transportation director Seleta Reynolds.
(Photo via TREC at PSU)

Seleta Reynolds gets results.

As we reported last week, the city whose livable streets program she led for three years, San Francisco, has subsequently delivered the nation’s most consistent string of boosts in bike commuting.

She’s now one year into a vastly larger gig: transportation director for the City of Los Angeles, which turned millions of heads last month when it rolled out a citywide plan to gradually reallocate numerous auto lanes to create dedicated bus lanes and 300 miles of protected bike lanes.

She’s also one of the most reflective transportation leaders in the country, as the interview below makes clear. Ahead of her free Oct. 6 talk at Ecotrust, we caught up with Reynolds to discuss her advice for Portland’s advocates and bureaucrats, the arguments for biking that work best and whether Portland is still cool.

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