I hope you have some extra time this weekend because we’ve got a solid slate of things to do.
And take a look at what’s up tomorrow: An all-woman panel at City Club, a women’s support group campout, and a ride that partners with The Street Trust’s Women Bike program. See anything in common?
Scroll down for our selections. And have a great weekend no matter what you end up doing…
A man who was well-known among many in Portland for his cycling and musical prowess has died.
40-year-old Boyd Littell was found early Tuesday morning in Colonel Summers Park. The police confirmed his identity a few minutes ago and said he likely died after falling from his bicycle.
A performance piece that “extols the liberating power of the bicycle for women over the last 150 years” and “a theatrical song cycle about the bicycle as muse, musical instrument, and agent of social change,” will make its Portland debut on November 10th.
Portland theater company Boom Arts is hosting Canadian artist Evalyn Parry who will perform her solo work, “Spin”. In addition to her three shows there are bike rides and other events planned throughout the weekend. Local organizations, businesses and personalities including Gladys Bikes, The Sprockettes, Microcosm Publishing’s Elly Blue and PBOT Sunday Parkways manager Linda Ginenthal will be involved.
Here’s more about the show:
What happened in lower Manhattan is a nightmare.
Unfortunately it’s a recurring one for many of us who ride bicycles in cities.
The idea that cars are weapons is not new to us. What’s new — now that even more innocent lives have been lost — is that thinking of cars as weapons isn’t as radical of an idea as it was 24 hours ago.
Cars are weapons. When someone drives one it becomes a loaded weapon. But unlike guns, cars are used by nearly everyone, everywhere, everyday. And unlike guns, cars don’t attract attention from authorities and they carry none of the constroversial stigma that guns do. On the contrary, cars and trucks are incessantly glorified in ways that normalize reckless disregard for everyone on the road except the all-important, all-powerful person behind the wheel. “Keep streets mean,” is Dodge’s irresponsible tagline.
Yesterday everyone saw just how “mean” streets can get when a man opened fire with a rental truck on that bike path. It has been officially tagged terrorism by authorities, making it just the latest in a disturbing global trend. Terrorist groups like ISIS encourage followers to use cars to inflict mass murder. These extremists have found our gaping weak spot. Like a Trojan Horse, weaponized automobiles are an easy way to breach America’s trillion dollar homeland security complex.
Job Title *
Outdoor / Lifestyle / Bike PR Agency Seeks Intern
Company/Organization *
ECHOS Communications
Job Description *
ECHOS – echoscomm.com – is a brand communications agency focusing on outdoor, lifestyle, fashion and consumer tech clients. We offer our world-class brand-communications, PR, marketing, and advertising services, whether as digital, video, print, events, or guerrilla. From media relations to corporate-communications strategies to flawless event execution, we are known for always exceeding our clients’ expectations and over delivering on their objectives.
The internship position is a significant team role to fill at ECHOS, with the opportunity to build a strong foundation of PR and first-hand experience within an agency. Must be able to come in 2-3 times a week (10-15 Hours).
Internship Role Overview:
• Support PR team with media research, list building, media coverage report research and
development, copywriting and editing, scheduling, etc,
• Develop press releases, press kit materials, blog posts, fact sheets, etc.
• Assist in coordinating and implementing events, interviews and meetings
• Support all media relations initiatives including developing creative story angles
• Make pitches and informational media calls
• Maintain files and reports
• Track media coverage and develop monthly client reports
• Format and post blogs using WordPress
• Maintain and produce support materials such as photos, press kits, and other collateral
Desired Qualifications:
• Experience in an office environment, preferably in a PR/media relations-specific role
• Understanding of public relations, and the roles and responsibilities of a PR professional
• Flexibility to work in a fast-growing, dynamic environment
• Professionally driven to build relationships on clients’ behalf
• Ability to think creatively and strategically about individual pitches and campaigns
• Sound judgment and proven problem-solving capabilities
• Positive, confident, and personable
• Excellent organization and planning ability
• Sharp eye for detail in all internal and external communications
• Excellent time management; ability to prioritize with flexibility
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills, particularly in Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as Google
Drive;
• Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop, InDesign and other design suites preferred
• Experience with WordPress
• Knowledge and interest in tech industry trends and events, in outdoor lifestyle (cycling,
snowsports) and/or consumer products
Compensation commensurate with experience.
How to Apply *
Send resume and cover letter to Jacob@echoscomm.com, and tell us why you’d rock as a member of our team!
In just one day last week over 415 Portlanders signed a petition calling for safer cycling conditions on North Willamette Boulevard. And Commissioner Dan Saltzman (who oversees the Bureau of Transportation) agrees with them.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation has finished an update to the intersection of Southeast Holgate and 41st/42nd.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office will not pursue criminal charges against the man who was driving the garbage truck that ran over and killed Tamar Monhait on August 21st.
Deputy District Attorney Nicole Jergovic, in a memo released on Thursday (PDF), wrote that, “After a complete and very thorough investigation by the Portland Police Bureau’s Major Crash Team, it is apparent that Tamar Monhait’s death was an accident and the facts do not support a criminal homicide.”
This decision was reached despite the fact that a PPB investigator concluded Monhait had the legal right-of-way and that the garbage truck operator, Paul Thompson, did not use his turn signal (contrary to what he told PPB officers at the scene), admitted to trying to beat an oncoming train, cut the left turn sharply, and was described by a witness as taking the left turn “fast”.
In order to pursue charges, the DA would have to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Thompson’s actions were willfully negligent and reckless.
This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Showers Pass. Don’t miss their annual warehouse sale on November 11th.
Welcome to Monday. Here are the stories that caught our eyes last week…
Problematic panacea: Victoria Transport Policy Institute Founder Todd Litman shares his top reasons to be skeptical of autonomous vehicles, including the Zombie Kangaroo Costume Challenge and the Titanic Safety Dilemma.
Wolf Whistles and Creepy Compliments: The Safe Routes to School National Partnership has resources that will help decrease and prevent the all too common phenomenon on harrassment while biking and walking to school.
It’s a big weekend for cyclocross as the River City Bicycles Cyclocross Crusade series heads to Bend for their annual Halloween festivities.
This year — in addition to the usual two full days of racing, legendary costume contest, and huge blowout party sponsored by Deschutes Brewery on Saturday night — organizers have something new up their sleeve: an adaptive bike race.
The Crusade’s Halloween party has been a benefit for the nonprofit Oregon Adaptive Sports for the past several years. According to Sherry Schwenderlauf with the Cyclocross Crusade, the Bend chapter of OAS reached out earlier this year in hopes of allowing its members to try their handcycling skills on the ‘cross course.
Schwenderlauf says about six people from Bend will take part in the event. Using handcycles, they’ll race for 30 minutes on a modified section of the course’s grassy bowl area near the brewery on Saturday afternoon after the other races have finished.
Powered by leg muscles and fire, the SaunaVelo is the manifestation of many passions for southeast Portland resident Simon Lyle. At its core, the cedar wood structure that sits atop a bicycle trailer is simply a place to warm up. But it’s also a mobile community builder. After all, it’d be difficult to enjoy its warmth — usually done wearing only your skivvies — without getting to know the people huddled next to you.
For Lyle, the 37-year old builder who grew up near the Buckman neighborhood of inner southeast Portland where I met him yesterday, the SaunaVelo is a fun side-project. But it’s also much more than that.
Something’s happening in north Portland. And it will have a profound impact on street safety for years to come.
People in all 11 neighborhoods that make up our city’s northern peninsula are sick and tired of living next to unsafe streets. And they’re coming together to do something about it.
Last night about 60 people crowded shoulder-to-shoulder inside Madrona Hill Cafe on the corner of Ainsworth and Greeley for a “traffic safety open house”. The meeting came five days after 50 people donned raincoats and rallied for safer streets at an unrelated event in St. Johns.
At the open house last night there were babies and kids and senior citizens and young professionals. And everyone had a story to tell. By the end of the night there were well over 100 post-it notes stuck to two large maps where people had written things like, “dog hit” “car hit” and “son cannot cross street w/ bike in the morning”. The event came after months of planning from a nascent group of volunteers from the Arbor Lodge and Overlook neighborhoods who are focused on traffic safety issues.