BikePortland

‘OCVA’ film is about more than an epic bike ride

“How fast can you move until discovery is lost? How much slower do we need to travel to really see? How do we slow down but still arrive, and if not rediscover what is missing, at least be aware of what was lost?”

That’s not a typical opening line for a bike movie, but OCVA — released by Portland software coder, artist and composer Ryan Francesconi on March 27th — is anything but typical. OCVA stands for Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc, the geological term for a connected range of volcanic peaks that Francesconi turned into a 400-mile mixed-terrain cycling route in 2016. When Francesconi isn’t creating music on his computer, he creating art on his bicycle, by carving lines in forests throughout Oregon. A master route-maker and accomplished rider, he’s one of the main organizers behind Our Mother the Mountain (OMTM), a large community of cyclists who prefer unpaved adventures deep in the woods.

OCVA is a 30-minute film narrated by Francesconi that mixes his deep love of the natural world captured in long clips, a poetic and politically-charged script, his original score punctuated by natural riding sounds like tires crunching through snow and disc brake squeals, and footage from a ride on the OCVA route completed with riding partner David Wilcox in 2022.

In an interview with Francesconi Monday (watch it below or on YouTube), he said his inspiration came from a sense of urgency after seeing the devastation of the 2020 Oregon wildfires. “So much is fragile right now. We were locked out of these areas for a couple of years. And then when I got back out to the Clackamas River area, I just couldn’t believe what was gone… I was so intimate with that particular landscape and it was, it is just, gone.”

Francesconi, 51, sat on the footage and the concept for three years before he began to mold it into the OCVA film. He said the current political climate, with the Trump Administration running roughshod over federal land agencies and public forests with policies that cut management positions and give away logging rights to timber companies, spurred him to act. “Suddenly there was this extra weight about these particular places that I’m looking at that are now endangered from a new angle,” he said.

Listen to the film and you’ll hear a healthy dose of transportation politics in Francesconi’s script. Part of that is formed from his political views, but it also comes from his experience as someone who’s lived without a car for 11 years. The opening scene is of his train ride to the starting point of the ride in Klamath Falls. “Traveling by train changes your relationship to time by requiring you to let go of control,” Francesconi’s voice proclaims. “This is at odds with the abrasive ego of transportation and entitlement in the US.”

When it comes to travel modes, “I think walking is the best, honestly,” Francesconi acknowledged in our interview. “But it just takes forever to get anywhere, and the bike is sort of the perfect balance from my point of view, because it’s actually not very slow, but it affords you the simple thing of being able to just stop anytime you want.”

Asked what he hopes people will take away from the film, Francesconi said humbly, “My only hope is that, people will make it to the end and I think that’s a pretty ambitious hope in this day and age when attention spans are so fragmented.”

OCVA comes out at the perfect time, when many riders are plotting their late spring and summer bike adventures. Francesconi says his film is a “call to be on your bike in in nature” and if possible to, “ride there and see what it feels like to look at everything before the trailhead rather than just driving to the edge of the wilderness and get out of the car and walk into it.”

“I feel like [riding to the trailhead] is the thing that gives you the respect from A-to-B and also gives you the respect for the land. That’s what I’ve learned being out of the car.”

Explore the OCVA route and consider joining others in tackling it on June 21st.

You can watch OCVA in the player below or on YouTube or Vimeo.

Citybikes sale listing marks end of era and messy legal battle

(Source: Real estate listing from Kidder Mathews)

The iconic structure at 1914 SE Ankeny Street that has housed a bicycle shop for nearly half a century is up for sale. There is brown paper covering the windows of what used to be Citybikes and a soulless listing on a real estate website where it’s priced at $625,000. The only way prospective buyers would know the 50-year history of bicycle culture this building represents is the “Citybikes” name scrawled on the outside.

The sale marks the end of an era and one of the final steps in a messy, three-year legal battle between current owners of the Citybikes Cooperative who had sharp disagreements over the fate of the business. One of the four former owners, Noel Thompson, didn’t want the business to close at all, but he was overruled and out-maneuvered by other owners, led by Citybikes Board President (and Bantam Bicycle Works) owner Bob Kamzelski. Thompson, and many other former owners, believed that any remaining assets at the time of closure — which could be about $1.3 million based on the sale of two buildings and any remaining tools and fixtures — should be distributed equally among the co-op’s 50 or so owners (going back to its founding in 1990).

But Kamzelski, who was once Thompson’s close friend, saw things differently. He said the business had been losing money since 2008 and it was time to stop the bleeding, so he closed the business back in September. Unlike Thompson, Kamzelski has no intention of disbursing funds to former owners because the co-op’s own bylaws prohibit it. Kamzelski’s interpretation of the articles of incorporation are technically correct, but former owners say it was just a clerical mistake that the language was never changed (one source told me the board once voted to change the bylaws so that, upon closure, assets would be distributed to all former owners, but they never filed the changes with the Secretary of State). Most former owners believe the spirit and intention of the collective was always to share assets among all owners, even if the articles of incorporation state otherwise.

“I’m really disheartened about the whole thing. It seemed like we could have figured something out in a cooperative way without bringing in lawyers.”
– Noel Thompson
(Photo: Wizard Cycle Service)

Kamzelski doesn’t see it that way. “I’m honoring the intention of the founders, which was to not distribute [assets] to the former owners,” Kamzelski told me in an interview in February. “Because that’s what they wrote in the articles of incorporation.”

After the shop closed its doors late last year, Kamzelski, Thompson, and the two other current owners went through a mediation process with their lawyers to settle disagreements about the asset disbursement issue and a wrongful termination claim by Thompson that was outlined in the 2022 lawsuit. Thompson said he was fired on a technicality when he claimed sick pay but never took days off (because he says there was no one else to cover his shifts), and he feels the real reason was retaliation for not being on board with Kamzelski’s plans. Kamzelski told BikePortland back in February he and the board voted to fire Thompson because of timesheet fraud.

That mediation avoided the cost and stress of court proceedings. It also finalized an agreement for Kamzelski and two other current owners — Claire Nelson and Bryce Hutchinson — to split 75% of the proceeds among the three of them, while Citybikes would distribute the other 25% to Thompson and all former owners based on the hours they worked at the co-op.

“I’m really disheartened about the whole thing,” Thompson shared with me back in February. “It seemed like we could have figured something out in a cooperative way without bringing in lawyers.”

“I think that I have been treated very poorly by these former owners, and I have no interest in helping them.”
– Bob Kamzelski
(2013 photo by Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

For his part, Kamzelski says Thompson and former owners are spreading misinformation. “They’re just trying to bad-mouth me and make me seem like a bad person because they’re upset.” When asked why so many former owners stood by claims that Kamzelski was behind the “Musking of Citybikes” and trying to pull of a “heist in broad daylight,” Kamzelski said, “I think it’s because there’s a bunch of money on the table now, and it’s real obvious to them that they are not legally due to get any of it — and they just need a scapegoat. People need to be angry about something and I’m the most convenient target.”

Kamzelski then flipped claims of financial greed back to former owners. “Now that there’s money on the table, they’re like, ‘I want that!’ even though it was never their intention from the get-go. So if you’re waving a check in front of somebody’s face, somebody’s like, ‘Oh, I want that now!'”

When I pressed Kamzelski about abiding by the spirit of the co-op (versus a literal reading of the bylaws) and asked if he’d consider distributing his assets among former owners like Thompson has chosen to do, he said the public acrimony influenced his decision. “I think that I have been treated very poorly by these former owners, and I have no interest in helping them… they make it sound like I’m doing something illegal, which I’m not. I don’t really like that I’m being turned into the community punching bag by people who are just irate because they fucked something up and it’s not my fault.”

For the founder of Citybikes, Roger Noehren, the idea that the shop would close is something he never allowed himself to consider. “I assumed that it would carry on in perpetuity, with young, enthusiastic cooperators seguing into the co-op to take the reins from others who were moving on to other endeavors,” he wrote in an essay typed out on the eve of the mediation and shared with BikePortland. “Ideally, I would like to see Citybikes revived with Noel and a new group of idealistic stewards. The remaining proceeds from the sale of the Annex [the other Citybikes building 12 blocks west on Ankeny that sold for $1 million after it closed in 2016] could be an endowment or rainy day fund, to underwrite another apprentice program, keep workers employed through the leaner winter months and cover any losses they might incur as they reestablish the business to become profitable again.”

That plan is all but impossible now. Not just because of how the settlement agreement turned out, but because Thompson recently opened a new shop of his own. After 26 years at Citybikes, Thompson is now sole owner of Wizard Cycle Service on NE 12th Avenue, just 14 blocks from the old Citybikes repair shop.

“I’m sad to see Citybikes go,” Thompson told me in a recent interview. “I did everything I could to try to keep that place open and stick to the values that I understood Citybikes had.”

CORRECTION, 3:27 pm: This story originally stated that Kamzelski alone chose to close the shop and fire Thompson. It has been clarified to state that those decisions were made by the entire Citybikes board. The story has also been edited to clarify that Citybikes will distribute all funds, with Thompson getting his legal fees paid for as well as a disbursement based on his hours worked at the co-op. I regret any confusion.

E-bike rebate bill could pass as part of larger package, chief sponsor says

House Rep. Mark Gamba, seen here in 2019 as Mayor of Milwaukie, knows a thing or two about the value of e-bikes. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon’s second attempt at providing a cash rebate to encourage electric bike purchases is far from a sure thing in the current legislative session. Despite several existing rebate programs for electric cars and electric motorcycles, for some reason lawmakers don’t seem to have the same enthusiasm for a cycling-related subsidy.

As I reported back in January, House Bill 2963 seeks to set aside $5 million from the General Fund to create a program administered through the Department of Human Services that would supply a $1,200 rebate on the purchase of an e-bike to about 4,000 to 5,000 Oregonians. The bill is crafted so that only folks who currently receive food assistance from DHS would qualify.

The bill is currently in the Joint Committee on Transportation (JCT) and received its first public hearing back in March. On Friday I called up the bill’s chief sponsor, House Rep. Mark Gamba (D-Milwaukie) to get an update on its chances for passage.

Rep. Gamba (who, in our video interview you can see is quite tired from a long week at the capitol!) said he feels the bill is an “important opportunity” to get “good, reliable, low-cost, and relatively fast transportation” into the hands of Oregonians who are least likely to be able to afford it.

Unfortunately, he said there’s not much chatter about the bill among lawmakers. Its best chance for passage, Gamba believes, is to get the bill inside the $2.2 billion transportation funding package revealed earlier this month. JCT Co Vice-Chair Rep. Susan McLain has told Gamba she will add it to the bill if he wants her to. “I will probably do that,” Gamba said.

Once the e-bike rebate bill language is ensconced into the larger funding bill, it’s unlikely to get veto’d out. If it stays in the JCT, it would likely just get voted out with majority support, only to die in the Ways and Means Committee (where all bills with a fiscal impact must go).

Gamba said one issue that prevents an e-bike rebate from gaining momentum is that we still have many legislators who simply don’t respect bicycles (in any form) as serious transportation tools. “As much as we can talk about bicycles being a form of transportation, a lot of legislators — particularly older legislators — see it as a toy, not as a form of transportation.”

That outlook is unfortunate and misinformed. Thousands of older Oregonians could reap huge benefits from cheaper electric bicycles and tricycles. A recent article in The Washington Post documented how, even people as old as 90-plus years old are buying up e-bikes and embracing a newfound independence. And imagine the application in rural Oregon, where transit service is nonexistent yet distances from home to businesses is relatively far and there’s hardly any unsafe traffic: Those conditions are perfect for e-biking!

Gamba said if people want an e-bike rebate passed this session, they should call or email members of the JCT (available here) and tell them how important the program would be.

Watch and/or listen to my interview with Gamba below:

Street plaza on SE Division removed as fate of other carfree blocks remains uncertain

When the pandemic hit in 2020, one of the most consequential actions taken by the Portland Bureau of Transportation was to create a process for restaurants and cafes to quickly transition into sanctioned, outdoor dining areas (what PBOT called the Healthy Business Program). Fear of the virus was widespread and having seats outside was one way business owners held on during those chaotic years.

For transportation reformers, it was an exciting time because the tables and chairs provided natural traffic calming and helped give many people a new perspective on how we could use streets. And on blocks where a full street closure was permitted, we saw community life emerge as it always does when people are given space that’s free from cars.

That’s what happened at SE 31st and Division. Imperial Tap Room was eager to have the extra space and customers flocked to the carfree block. One reader who contacted us recently said the plaza, which accommodated patrons of Imperial and other restaurants in the area had been, “a great carfree gathering space, attracting large crowds, families, etc. with live music, food pop-up events, and a place to sit.”

The same location as above, before the plaza went in.

So when he heard PBOT had ordered the removal of the plaza and noticed the tables were gone and car drivers were back in the space, he reached out to BikePortland. Why? he wanted to know: “The removal of a carfree public space on a heavily pedestrianized corridor is a bummer,” he shared.

I agree!

According to Megan Doherty, part of the public realm and street activation team at PBOT, the plaza outside Imperial Tap Room was never an official plaza. It was one of the last holdovers from the pandemic when PBOT would allow one restaurant to close a full block to car traffic. PBOT’s new Outdoor Dining Program (the permanent version of the pandemic’s Healthy Business Program) allows businesses to use only the parking lane.

Similar to the situation I reported on in Kenton, where an adjacent business owner fought back when his pandemic-era plaza was at risk of being lost to the new, updated policy, PBOT says they were initially willing to work with the owners of Imperial Tap Room to transition the space into a more permanent (carfree) plaza. However, according to an email from Doherty to another BikePortland reader who asked about the status of SE 31st and Division, city fire codes deemed the location unfit for a plaza.

“A fire in the duplex behind the building of Imperial [Tap Room] set off a Fire Review of the site and it was determined not feasible for a street closure. Imperial will still have some space in the street and have sidewalk café seating as well,” Doherty wrote.

As much of a bummer it is to lose this plaza, it’d be an even bigger one if the City of Portland cuts funding for the entire program. At a meeting of the Portland City Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on April 21st, PBOT staff said their plaza program could be eliminated as part of a $5.3 million reduction required to balance the budget for their project planning division. ~~(In locations where plazas are feasible, like the one coming to SE Hawthorne and 37th, they can happen regardless of the city budget because their funding comes from outside sources.)~~ UPDATE: I’ve learned since publishing this post that, even if private funding can be found, PBOT would still need some funding to oversee the plaza since it’s on public right-of-way they own. That means if the plaza program is fully defunded, there can be no plazas. In the case of SE Hawthorne and 37th, it’s on a six-month pilot, so if the plaza program is not funded in the budget, that plaza would be taken out at the end of the six months.

The fate of PBOT’s plaza program is still uncertain. All eyes will be on Mayor Keith Wilson’s budget, which is expected to be released May 5th.

CORRECTION, 5/2: This article originally said the plaza on SE Hawthorne would be at SE 34th. That was a typo. The correction location is SE 37th. I regret the error.

Monday Roundup: Duffy is wrong, transit’s last stand, Mt. Hood Freeway explainer, and more

Hi again everyone! Slow but surely I’m recovering from my first (of two!) total knee replacement surgeries. I’m at just over two weeks post-op and have made a lot of progress. I’m still limping around and the pain and stiffness remains annoyingly persistent, but I can work a bit more more now. I just can’t bike yet so my ability to get stories is limited to what I can do online. I’m hoping by start of June I can bike around and attend more events. We’ll see.

For now, here are the most notable stories that came across my desk in the past week…

Carfree downtown is key: Nice to see someone from outside the transportation reform sphere make a clear argument for more carfree spaces in downtown Portland. This time it’s noted architecture critic Brian Libby. (Business Tribune)

More than free breakfast: Portland’s fun Breakfast on the Bridges tradition got the major props it so richly deserves! (NPR)

Punishment and crime: The British Parliament is considering an update to their criminal law that would add a new penalty of life in prison for cyclists who kill someone while riding. (BBC)

Duffy is wrong: Not that it matters because the Trump Administration doesn’t care about facts; but just for the record, our current USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy has no clue what he is talking about when it comes to bike lanes (and just about everything else) . (Streetsblog USA)

Road rage assault: A cycling advocate in Chicago called out a driver for parking in a bike lane and a passenger in the car hopped out and whacked the advocate over the head with a crow bar. (Streetsblog Chicago)

Another one: A person who authorities had a history of mental health issues drove their SUV through a street festival in Vancouver, Canada and left 11 people dead. (CBS News)

Transit turning point: The more I read about the state of transit in America, the more it feels like this next year could be an inflection point: Either we find a way to maintain and expand service, or it takes a devastating nosedive. Read this article to find out why we must prevent service cuts. (Bloomberg)

Video of the Week: An entertaining retelling of the Mt. Hood Freeway saga by YouTuber “Road Guy Rob”.

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week. The Monday Roundup is a community effort, so please feel free to send us any great stories you come across.

Advocate for nondrivers, Anna Zivarts, will speak in Portland Wednesday

Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) will host Anna Zivarts on Wednesday, April 30th. Zivarts is an author and advocate for nondrivers whose known for her book, When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island Press, 2024).

Here’s more about Zivarts from event organizers:

One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver’s license. The majority of involuntary nondrivers are disabled, lower income, unhoused, formerly incarcerated, undocumented immigrants, kids, young people, and the elderly. They are also largely invisible due to a mobility system designed almost exclusively for drivers. Zivarts explains how improving our transportation system with nondrivers in mind will create a better quality of life for everyone.

Anna is a low-vision parent, nondriver and author of When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency(Island Press, 2024). Anna created the #WeekWithoutDriving challenge and is passionate about bringing the voices of nondrivers to the planning and policy-making tables. Anna sits on the boards of the League of American Bicyclists, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium and the Washington State Transportation Innovation Council. She also serves as a member of TRB’s Committee on Public Health and Transportation (AME70) and the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center Coordinating Committee.

Zivarts was invited to speak as part of PSU’s annual Ann Niles Transportation Lecture. This series has previously featured YouTuber Ray “CityNerd” Delahanty, reporter Angie Schmitt, urban planner Tamika Butler, for Los Angeles DOT leader Seleta Reynolds, and others. The event will take place at Lincoln Recital Hall on Wednesday, April 30th at 5:30 pm. Tickets are free and you can learn more here.

Police team up with park rangers to patrol paths

Portland Police officers and a Portland park ranger talk to a man in Waterfront Park. (Photos: Portland Police Bureau)

The path through Waterfront Park and the Eastbank Esplanade will see more effective police patrols, thanks to a new collaboration between the Portland Police Bureau and Portland Parks & Recreation.

According to the PPB, members of its Central Bike Squad have been doing walking beats in Portland parks every week for the past several months. It came about when a sergeant on the Central Precinct Bike Squad would do hikes in Washington Park and Forest Park during his on-duty wellness time. (Each PPB officer is given one hour per shift to focus on personal wellness.) During those hikes, the officer met City of Portland park rangers and struck up a friendship with them.

It took a few years of conversations and on-again, off-again partnerships for specific crime issues, but the PPB says the idea was recently rekindled by a park ranger supervisor.

The problem for Portland Park rangers is they often get pushback from some park users when the request identification for various rule violations. And since rangers aren’t law enforcement officers, they have no legal mechanism to compel someone to identify themselves. That’s where police officers come in.

“So the Rangers asked the Officers to go out with them from time to time and patrol Pioneer Square, the North Park Blocks or Couch Park because that’s where most of the issues were,” wrote PPB Public Information Officer Sgt. Kevin Allen in an email about the initiative sent to local media outlets today. “It’s a powerful partnership because some problems can be dealt with by the Rangers, others are better handled by Police, and sometimes a combination of both. And it shows inter-Bureau collaboration and alignment under our shared values of public safety for the community.”

Sgt. Allen said there have been numerous examples of how this collaboration has led to the ability of both bureaus to more effectively reduce crime and address issues in parks.

Safety on central city paths has been a big concern for many bicycle riders over the years.

Have you seen these new walking beats in action? Have you noticed any improvement in safety in Waterfront Park or the Esplanade?

Tow truck driver hops onto I-5 bike path to skirt traffic

Car abuse continues on a section of the I-5 bike path north of Marine Drive.

Last Thursday, BikePortland reader Israel L., was headed back to Vancouver from Portland and had just left Delta Park en route to the Interstate Bridge. As he crossed the I-5 offramp toward the bike path he noticed the driver of a large, black tow truck turn left (west) from N Union Court. That seemed odd to Israel, since the truck driver was headed onto a one-way off-ramp. “I thought, ‘Oh they might be doing some kind of weird highway access maneuver,'” Israel shared.

“Then to my horror, they did not go onto the off-ramp, they went onto the bike path.”

Truck in the distance in this photo looking northwest from entry of path just north of Delta Park.

Israel was on an electric bike and kept riding while he tried to process what he was seeing. “Then it dawned on me: The truck driver just used the bike path to get around traffic.”

Israel said the driver was honking their horn to warn possible path users of his presence.

The driver stayed on the path and headed north under NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd and then twisted around toward the underpass of the I-5 freeway ramps. Israel didn’t think the truck would fit under the short tunnel, but it did. He pulled out his camera and took video of the driver on the path inside the cloverleaf of freeway ramps just as he exited the path and continued onto I-5.

Here’s the path the driver took (according to Israel):

Driver entered from bottom (N Union Ct) and exited at the top (dashed line).

Despite being on an electric bike, Israel said he wasn’t able to catch up and get close enough to get a license plate.

Chalk this up to yet another breach of what is supposed to be safe infrastructure for non-drivers. The Oregon Department of Transportation must do more to prevent drivers from using these paths. What’s next, it shows up on Google Maps as a way to bypass traffic?!

According to readers, car and truck drivers use these paths very often. This is the third instance I’ve shared. In July 2024, someone was driving northbound on the path over the Columbia River, and earlier this month a BikePortland reader was forced off this path by the driver of a large SUV. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is aware of this problem, but has so far not shared a plan to prevent it from happening.

Peer into future of I-5 freeway covers at community work session

There’s been a lot of talk about the highway covers that are planned as part of the I-5 Rose Quarter project; but there hasn’t been much chance for the public to look under the hood and have a say in what might happen on top of them.

That will change this coming Monday, April 28th as the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) co-host an event dubbed, Future I-5 Highway Cover: Lower Albina Planning Session.

These covers will play a crucial role not only in what type of neighborhood ultimately emerges on top of them, but also in how the bikeway network connects on key surface street routes.

The event will bring together staff from PBOT and ODOT, as well as the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). They’ll have an interactive work session with members of ODOT’s Historic Albina Advisory Board (HAAB) and Community Oversight Advisory Committee (COAC), and some invited guests. The session will be facilitated by ZGF Architects, the firm that helped prepare the project’s Independent Cover Assessment in 2021. Here’s more about the event:

“This session continues the exploration of how potential highway cover uses relate to public spaces and the surrounding street network, building on visioning work previously done by Albina Vision Trust in collaboration with HAAB, COAC, and community stakeholders.”

Meeting organizers will allow public comment at the end of the work session, which will be held both online and in-person. The event will be held at New Song Church Community Center from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on Monday April 28th. More info here.

Weekend Event Guide: Birds by bike, block party, flute fun, and more

I grabbed this shot while riding on the Columbia Slough path in October 2013. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Hope your bike, body and brain are ready to ride because there are all manner of fun things to do this weekend. I’d do the Bike & Bird thing Sunday for sure if I could. The Columbia Slough and Smith & Bybee wetlands are hidden gems and there just happens to be a carfree path along the entire way. Whatever you do, enjoy your weekend. You earned it!

Friday, April 25th

Breakfast on the Bridges – 7:00 am to 9:00 pm on the Blumenauer, Steel, and Tilikum bridges
Come out and enjoy free coffee and yummy treats in beautiful places made by wonderful folks who are just happy to see you. More info here.

Saturday, April 26th

Vvolt Warehouse Sale – 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at Vvolt HQ (SE)
Get great deals on great bikes at Portland’s home-grown e-bike brand. Sale items will also include Showers Pass apparel. More info here.

Co-Motion Cycles Open House – 10:00 am to 3:00 pm in Eugene
Yes I know this isn’t Portland, but I’m breaking my own rule because Co-Motion is such a great Oregon bike company… And they’re having an open house! See American bike making at its finest with a behind-the-scenes factory tour, group ride, bike swap, and more. Definitely worth a trip to Eugene. More info here.

Cycle Oregon Bike Block Party – 11:00 am to 3:00 pm at Baerlic Brewing (SE)
It’s a big bike party from Oregon’s beloved nonprofit that’s spent almost 40 years spreading biking statewide. Enjoy a carfree street with fun games, vendors, and other shenanigans. Read the backstory. More info here.

The Flute Ride – 1:00 pm at Salmon Street Fountain (SW)
I love rides that are inspired by sounds! This one seeks to unite lovers of woodwind and brass instruments for an aural adventure that will include playing and pedaling. More info here.

Sunday, April 27th

Gorge Gravel – All Day in Dufur (South of The Dalles)
The first of three race events in the Oregon Gravel Series, this event is a great excuse to hit the road and sample some of Oregon’s finest unpaved routes. Choose from 47, 64, or 95-mile courses. More info here.

Bike & Bird the Columbia Slough – 9:00 am to 12 noon at Vanport Historical Marker/Delta Park Dog Park (N)
Roll out to Smith & Bybee lakes with birding experts from Columbia Slough Watershed Council. You’ll hit the best habitats along the way for prime spring viewing. One lucky attendee will win a pair of binoculars! More info here.

Sunday Social Ride – 10:00 am at Woodstock Park (SE)
If you’re looking for a medium-paced (13-15 mph), 20-30 mile long group road ride, consider this urban meander with Portland Bicycling Club. More info here.

Bike Dykes Fiber Arts Ride – 1:45 pm at Laurelhurst Park (SE)
Ride to a shop to buy yarn, do about a 10-mile loop, and then hang out in the park. It’s what Sundays are made for. More info here.

— Did I miss your event? Please let me know by filling out our contact form, or just email me at maus.jonathan@gmail.com.

Checking in after my knee operation

Hello everyone. It’s been 12 days since my total knee replacement surgery (which I wrote more about here) I want to check in.

First I want to say thank you. I have received so many nice well-wishes and notes of support. I loved the card everyone signed at Bike Happy Hour last week, and all your messages make recovery so much easier. I’ve heard so many stories about other folks in our community who’ve had joint replacements and other injuries that I’m thinking of leading a Joint Replacement Ride during August.

Why wait until August? Because unfortunately I plan to have my other knee replaced on June 20th. I know, right?! I could have picked a better time to do all of this, but once the condition of my knees sunk in and I found a doctor to help fix them, I didn’t want to wait any longer. (I’ve had bad knees since my first (of two) ACL surgeries when I was 15!).

So far the recovery has been a roller-coaster. The best thing has been how my amazing wife Juli is taking care of me and I enjoy being at home more with her and my kiddos. The first week was really hard, but now I’m in a more predictable and manageable cycle of pain and PT. My docs and PT guy say I’m progressing well. I know it’s healing and I should be patient, but I still get frustrated at the pain and tightness and my physical limitations. Overall this is (another) very humbling experience for me as I enter my 50s. Let’s just say I underestimated the impact this would have on my body and what it would take to fully recover.

During my operation on April 11th, the doctor shaved down the surface of my upper and lower leg bones. He then attached a 3-D printed titanium implant and a polymer cushion between them. Right now, my existing bone is growing directly into the titanium. The process takes six weeks, so I don’t want anything to disturb the very crucial healing process taking place.

I’m so bummed to miss all the cool things going on! I can’t wait to get back into the full swing of working and creating stories and covering events and all the other things I took for granted for so many years. For now, I’m able to work a few hours a day and I’m trying to stay on top of things as best I can. I hope I have a window of time before my next operation on June 20th when I can get back out there.

Speaking of which, I will get back out there today for Bike Happy Hour. I’ll be at Migration Brewing on North Williams Ave from 3:00 to 6:00 pm. I’d love to see you and chat. Tell me what you’ve been up to! Pitch me stories! Let’s talk about the latest news! Share your injury journey with me!

Thanks again for all your support and understanding. Knowing that I have such an awesome community to return to is all the motivation I need to make a full and fantastic recovery.

Person on foot dies after being hit by car driver on Swan Island

On Monday night someone was hit and killed by the driver of a car while walking in Swan Island. Portland Police say it happened around 10:20 and the driver remained on the scene.

According to video from local news outlets, the vehicle was a four-door Subaru Forester. It showed severe damage to the center front hood and windshield. The car was facing east on North Channel Street just west of N Port Center Way, in a right-turn only lane that led to a driveway into a fast-food outlet.

This section of N Channel/N Going is 105-feet wide and has eight general traffic lanes with no shoulder. The posted speed limit is 40 mph. Swan Island is an industrial hub and N Channel/N Going is a high volume freight truck corridor. There is no residential zoning in the area and no local businesses would have been open at the time of the collision.

Star marks location where police found car.

This is the eighth fatal traffic crash so far this year, and fifth that killed someone on foot. This is the lowest year-to-date death total since 2018. At this same date last year Portland had 19 fatal crashes.

Last night a group of safe street advocates rode bikes to the location of the crash. They laid flowers and hung a memorial sign created by the local chapter of Families for Safe Streets.

If anyone has further details about what happened, please let me know. You should also contact the PPB at crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov, attention Traffic Investigations Unit, and reference case number 25-103320.

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Person on foot dies after being hit by car driver on Swan Island

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