Bike fix-it session for kids in Lents area needs volunteers
Here’s a way to give back to the community and get more kids on bikes.
The Village Free School in Southeast Portland is having a “bike fix-it” session for 20 kids this Thursday (2/19) from 10am-12pm.
Ashley Mitchell is trying to find a few more people to help out. Here’s what she wrote on the Shift email list:
I’m in a scramble to find some folks to help…They have 2 parent volunteers and want to set up 3-4 stations, fix a flat, seat/handlebar adjustments, tune up staff, safety area, etc…
Are you interested in helping out? Do you have tools you can bring? Email or call Ashley as soon as possible if you can get involved (her contact information can be found here).
Oregon builders announce handmade bike show plans
(Photo © J. Maus)
The Oregon Bicycle Constructors Association (OBCA) has announced preliminary details for their 2009 Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show.
According to Andy Newlands of the OBCA, their show will happen on Halloween weekend, October 31st – November 1st. The two day show will be open to the public and will feature handmade bikes from around Oregon and beyond. Newlands says “selected bicycle businesses will also be displaying their wares.”
NY Times columnist: Americans prefer sprawl
“Amsterdam is a wonderful city, but Americans never seem to want to live there.”
— David Brooks in the New York Times
In his latest piece in the New York Times, columnist David Brooks opines that, while Americans might appreciate the finer points of Amsterdam’s urban life (like bikes and beer), they really would rather have their suburbs.
Citing the economic downturn and recent momentum of ideas about sustainable transportation and livability, Brooks writes:
The time has finally come, some writers are predicting, when Americans will finally repent. They’ll move back to the urban core. They will ride more bicycles, have smaller homes and tinier fridges and rediscover the joys of dense community — and maybe even superior beer.
Join us for our next Get Together in Multnomah Village
the North Willamette Greenway trail
at the St Johns Get Together
last month.
(Photo © J. Maus)
Our first Neighborhood Get Together, in St Johns last month, was a lot of fun and a definite success.
To keep the wheels turning, this month we’re headed to Southwest Portland. Come join us on Tuesday, March 3rd from 5 to 7pm at the Lucky Lab in Multnomah Village, at 7675 SW Capitol Hwy.
On Sundays, Guadalajara es para todos
– Audio slideshow below –
(Photos © J. Maus)
TriMet will host Breakfast on the Bridges to share transit mall changes
you free breakfast next week.
(Photo © J. Maus)
TriMet, in partnership with bike fun promoting non-profit Shift, will host three Breakfast on the Bridges events at the end of this month.
The purpose of the events is to spread the word about how bikes are expected to navigate safely along with buses, MAX trains, and cars on SW 5th and 6th Avenues along the new Portland Mall. TriMet says they’ll be handing out free breakfast snacks, hot coffee, and “information about the new Portland Mall cycling environment.”
Colin Maher, TriMet’s bike specialist, also passed along a new graphic (below) that shows how bikes are expected to turn right from their left-side travel lane (the right lane is reserved for trains and buses).
Guest article: Oregon’s first bicycling governor: T.T. Geer, 1899-1903
[Editor’s note: Eric Lundgren is Oregon’s preeminent bicycle historian. He is working on a book about Portland’s “golden age of cycling,” and has provided his historical perspective to this site in the past. He provided this article about our first bicycling governor in honor of the state’s Sesquicentennial this week.]
When the problems of road repair and good transportation seem most intractable, most stuck in the mud, there is often a temptation to move forward with fancy new gadgets. Today, Governor Kulongkoski leads the charge for electric cars and batteries. A century ago Governor Geer led the way for another kind of high-tech ground transportation.
In 1899 at his inauguration, Oregon Governor Theodore Thurston Geer said:
Few questions demand more serious consideration at your hands than the enactment of some system that will give our people better roads…
The Portland that might have been
I recently came across this image again — it’s the map that might have sealed our fate, developed by Portland city planners in 1966 in response to freeway guru Robert Moses’ vision for the city.
Moses was known for saying “Cities are for traffic,” and he dedicated his career to creating freeway networks inside cities, many of which cut across existing neighborhoods — often the poorest ones.
The Monday Roundup
Happy President’s Day to you all. Here’s the roundup for this week:
After the jump: Scientists call for fewer roads; pimp your ride; environmental racism; transit news; and the masked rider speaks!
– President Obama is creating a panel, rather than appointing a single “car czar” to oversee the auto industry bailout and reform process.
– Streetfilms interviewed bike-friendly US Rep Earl Blumenauer of Portland, and the Oregonian picked it up. In the video, Blumenauer urges bicycle activists to “keep the pressure on” Obama about federal transportation spending decisions this year. Meanwhile, at least one voice in the media is calling for stimulus dollars to be put into bike boulevards.
– The Portland Tribune calls Alta Planning principal and former Portland bike coordinator Mia Birk the “Bike Queen” of Portland, and talks about her work, through Alta, on trying to turn Dallas, Texas into a bicycle city.
In honor of the Hamster Ball
The Ben Hurt Chariot Wars left their mark on Zoobomb’s Mini Bike Winter 2009 yesterday. I wasn’t there (I’m still in Guadalajara), but I just came across an amazing short video from my friend Felix. I knew I was missing something special by not being at MBW this year, but I did not expect this…
Behold, the Hamster Ball:
Awesome.
See more photos from the chariot war action at Felix’s photoset. Learn more about Mini Bike Winter at Zoobomb.net