Kenton Business Association supports parking removal, bike lanes on Lombard

The project will result in no parking on North Lombard between Fiske and Boston.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Last week I got one of those emails I dread: Proposed bike lanes could be in jeopardy because a business group is making a fuss about parking removal. Making matters worse was that the project in question was Oregon Department of Transportation’s Lombard Safety Project, which we know is giving major heartburn to the City of Portland Freight Committee.

To learn more I tracked down a letter (PDF) dated November 7th to ODOT from the Kenton Business Association. The letter confirmed my fears. “On behalf of the Kenton Business Association (KBA) and the more than 200 businesses we represent,” it read, “we urge you to reconsider elements of the Lombard Multimodal Safety Project… We believe the current design of this project presents a serious safety risk to cyclists, puts an undue burden on our vital small businesses, and will have a profoundly negative impact on our neighbors on this stretch of N Lombard.”

Oh no. Here we go again, I thought.

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Job: Bicycle Mechanic – Bike Clark County

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Bicycle Mechanic

Company / Organization

Bike Clark County

Job Description

Bike Clark County is a non-profit organization that creates opportunities for empowerment, education, and social change through bicycles and bicycle repair. As a nonprofit, we run a full-service bike shop and repair bicycles donated from the community, and redistribute them through our charitable programs and affordable bike sales. As a community-focused bike shop, we teach the community how to repair their own bicycles in our shared-use shop space. Our charitable programs seek to make bicycles, and bicycle repair/safety education available to the entire community regardless of income.

BCC’s many charitable bike safety education programs are made possible by its community oriented shop operations. BCC’s mechanics work on a variety of bikes from the early 1930’s to modern full carbon race bikes.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:
>Contribute to a fun, friendly, and welcoming environment for customers and coworkers.
>Maintain a clean work environment for customers as well as other mechanics
>Intake, assess, repair, and check over new bicycles.
>Refurbish used bikes in a timely manner so that they can then be purchased
>Educate customers on how to properly maintain their bikes
>Examine parts donated to ensure quality products will be on the floor for sale
>Organize parts room
>Help customers pick out the right bike for what they intend to use the bike for

Qualifications needed to do the job successfully:
>Excellent mechanical skills (preferable two years hands-on, professional shop experience working with a variety of bicycles)
>The ability to work with a wide variety of clientele
>Excellent people skills that will enable you to work with a wide variety of clientele including those new to bicycling.
>Ability to interact in a friendly manner with all customers regardless of their bicycle knowledge.
>Good communication skills
>The ability to think creatively and keen problem-solving skills
>Good organizational skills & Multitasking in an extremely fast-paced environment

Part time & full time positions $13.50-17/hour DOE.

How to Apply

To apply email cover letter & resume to : info@bikeclarkcounty.org

‘Brown Bike Girl’ in Portland to offer anti-bias seminar

Courtney Williams
(From her website)

Courtney Williams wants cycling advocates to change on the inside before working to change what’s outside.

Williams, a bicycle advocacy consultant who lives in Brooklyn, New York and is also known as The Brown Bike Girl, wants more organizers and community leaders in the cycling space to think not just about bike lanes, but whether or not their own biases and privilege prevent people from influencing projects and policies that relate directly to the institutional and physical barriers they face while getting from place to place.

Williams will host, Outside Advocate: Anti-Bias, Anti-Privilege Seminar, on Saturday (1/25) at The Street Trust headquarters in northwest Portland.

While here, Williams said via email this week that she wants to, “Help the Greater Portland bike community begin to work through eliminating some of the repetitive racial faux pas and internal biases that have been a roadblock to unification of diverse communities over time.”

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Job: Mountain Bike Mechanic – Fat Tire Farm

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Mountain Bike Mechanic – Fat Tire Farm

Company / Organization

Fat Tire Farm

Job Description

The Fat Tire Farm is the Northwest’s premier mountain bike shop. We’re a small friendly shop with a highly-skilled, tight-knit staff, and are looking for a mechanic who’ll be able to mix well with our crew. This is a full-time, year-round position. We’re a mountain bike shop, but we ride and work on everything: DH, road, DJ, trail, XC, BMX, ‘cross, and don’t judge riders of any discipline.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Previous bike shop mechanic experience (at least 2 years).
Extensive current knowledge of a wide variety of full-suspension mountain bikes.
Ability to bleed and rebuild multiple hydraulic brake systems
Ability to perform 50 hour service on Fox and RockShox forks and shocks.

How to Apply

Please email your resume to barry@fattirefarm.com

Cleaning up my neighborhood bikeway

Before and after.

Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I did something on Monday to make my community better. In the process, I got some exercise, met my neighbors, and made biking and walking in my neighborhood a little bit nicer.

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Becky Jo’s Carfree Life: WTF Apple? (and other route questions)

Becky Jo’s bicycle phone mount sans phone.

Let’s stop for a second.

During this adventure, I’m going to be reconciling a lot of my previous car-driving lifestyle with my current carfree lifestyle. I’m excited to have a new world to learn about, and while I’m not technologically or mechanically inept, this is a whole new world of application. Also, yes, some of you will really want to send me to LMGTFY. Normally I would too – but there’s so much out there, and a lot of it is completely contradictory. There’s some serious analysis paralysis happening in my melon. I realize I’m in over my head, and if I’m coming up with these questions, there’s likely a hundred more out here too scared to ask, not to mention among yourselves it can’t hurt to info-share. I’m just the one with a keyboard and zero shame. OK. Let’s get going…

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Comment of the Week: The problem with inconsistent, “chaotic” street design

(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Our story based on a report about public sentiment and perception of transportation and the Portland Bureau of Transportation led to some interesting reader feedback. One part of the report several readers related to was the feeling expressed by focus group members that the city’s bikeway designs are not always consistent or intuitive.

Reader “chris” shared a thought that was nominated as Comment of the Week by several readers. Here it is (note that he begins by quoting parts of the report):

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From the Archives

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