BikePortland

Sheriff hopeful wants to ride into the job

[Meet your new Sheriff (maybe).
Click to enlarge]

Last week, the Willamette Week ran a photo of Multnomah County Sheriff write-in candidate Paul Van Orden holding a helmet. Since then, several people have emailed and called me saying this guy is the real deal and that I should interview him. I eventually heard from Paul himself. He sent this photo of him and five of his bikes (he owns eight).

The photo is great, but there’s a big difference between being a bike geek and making an impact on Portland cyclists from within the Sheriff’s office. I figured, if this guy really stands a chance of winning (which apparently he does) the bike community should know specifically, in writing, how he felt about several important issues. So, I sent Paul some questions that I hoped would shed light on how he sees bicycles in the mix of law enforcement and safety issues.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

[Coming to the Westside]

With all the talk of bicycle tourism in Oregon, here’s a three-day itinerary that would give someone a fantastic look into Portland’s creative and fun bike community.

It would start early Friday morning with Breakfast Off the Bridges. Yes, the B on B crew is going to the Westside for the first time ever, spreading the love to bike commuters with free pastries, coffee and smiles.

Then, after a relaxing day you could make your way to Filmed by Bike at the Clinton Street Theater. After taking in some bike films you’d be ready to warm the flask and join the Midnight Mystery Ride.

[Captain Marty Rowley]

According to a statement on the Police Bureau website, Interim Police Chief Rosie Sizer has just named Central Precinct Captain Marty Rowley the new Commander of the Traffic Division. Rowley takes over for a retiring Bill Sinnott and the change is effective April 13.

The Commander of the Traffic Division is a very important position to the bike community. Sinnott, the outgoing Commander, had a positive impact on many issues including Critical Mass, traffic violation enforcement, bike safety and crash response. In addition to this, he was open and sincere in his dedication to traffic safety and worked to build effective working relationships with many citizens and advocates.

[Click to enlarge]

SK Northwest, a seller of boats and personal watercraft currently located on NE Sandy Blvd, has filed an application to construct a new building on the Willamette just south of OMSI between SE Caruthers and SE 4th Ave. (see map). In their application to the Bureau of Development Services the company has requested an exemption from an existing greenway trail easement that runs across the property on the riverfront.

According to a representative from Portland Parks and Recreation, SK Northwest has “several concerns with the trail and trail users.” These concerns likely stem from the fact that they want to build a new dock to store their boats and they don’t want to deal with trail users coming onto their property.

Six Portland Police officers from the Traffic Division recently underwent a comprehensive, 40-hour pedestrian and bicycle crash investigation course offered by the Institute of Police and Technology Management (IPTM) in Jacksonville Florida.

According to IPTM literature, the course addressed the special dynamics involved in pedestrian and bicycle traffic crashes. From reaction times to victim injury analysis to environmental factors. In addition to classroom instruction, the officers participated in staged crash situations that gave them hands-on experience.

Fat Tire Farm is hosting the premier of “Roam”, a new movie from The Collective, a group of filmmakers, photographers and mountain bikers from British Columbia.

Far from a couple of riding buddies with a camcorder, these guys do amazing work. They do for mountain bikes what the BBC does for nature, combining stunning visuals with innovative camera techniques and an engaging soundtrack.

Hard to believe it’s been a year since my first post.

740 posts later I want to say thanks to all of you for your support and feedback.

Because of your participation, this site has had a real impact on the bike scene. Here are just some of things we’ve accomplished in the past 12 months:

[Wyatt and Lauren
have reason to smile.]

Lauren Donohue and Wyatt Baldwin of byCycle.org just released a very cool feature of their Trip Planner that lets webmasters and bloggers copy/paste a bit of HTML code into any website to give visitors street-by-street, bicycle-friendly directions.

It’s just like Mapquest or Google Maps…for bikes!

You can give this a try over in my sidebar right now. Or, if you’re a webmaster or blogger, here’s the page with the code you’ll need to put it on your own site.

[Karla Keller makes her case,
under the watchful eyes of Evan Manvel
and Mark Ginsberg.]

Karla Keller, ODOT’s Maintenance Manager for Portland, brought along all sorts of stuff for the presentation of her proposal to ban bicycles on metro area highways. She passed out 18 pages of impressive, full-color aerial photos, maps, and internal memos. But unfortunately she forgot the most important thing of all…sensible justification for her proposal.

You’ve seen the classy flyers, you’ve read about it on your favorite blogs, your friends keep talking about it. It’s Filmed by Bike, a smattering of bike film shorts (some of them made right here in Portland) coming to you this Friday night at the Clinton Street Theater.

This is the little film fest that could; growing from 80 people its first year to an expected crowd of over 500 this year. For Festival Director Ayleen Crotty, it’s all about the filmmakers. She says that, “60% of them put their pieces together just for this festival, and there are always a handful of submissions from people who had never before made a movie.”

The bike move crew was it again today…and this time, it was all about puppets. Bruce Orr and Carla Forte are local artists and puppeteers who needed to move their stuff (which included a bunch of silly puppet props) from the Mississippi area to St. Johns.

The puppets definitely added to the usual silliness and fun. Here’s a few notes and links to photos:

I think there were about 25 people (here’s a fun group photo).
Two reporters showed (here’s the Oregonian story).
Sara Stout showed up with her massive, green sidecar-go bike. She brought along a game of tennis, a few harmonicas, and her lovely dog, Betty.

[Posted by “Wendy”]

If anyone comes across a new silver Brentwood KHS bike, serial #441162203 please contact me. If you bought it recently, not knowing it was stolen, I will buy it back from you. It was perfect for me, good fit and size.

So sad.

iflourish_art@yahoo.com

Sheriff hopeful wants to ride into the job

Weekend of bike fun begins with breakfast

Interim Chief names new Traffic Division Commander

Springwater development may nix trail improvement

Six officers get certified in bicycle crash investigation

MTB movie to premier at Clinton St. Theater

BikePortland.org turns one!

Major development in byCycle’s Trip Planner

Bike ban proposal back to the drawing board

Filmed by Bike coming this Friday

Puppet parade bike move

Stolen: Silver KHS

Latest Headlines

The bills I’m tracking this legislative session

District 3 councilors talk transportation at City Club forum

Weekend Event Guide: Winter Light Festival, big bike sale, and more

A showdown looms over robotaxis on Portland streets

From the Archives

With six kids and no car, this mom does it all by bike