BikePortland

Die-in protest against Zenith Energy marks 20th World Naked Bike Ride

Riders “die-in” next to Zenith Energy headquarters on NW Front Ave. View a video of the protest on our YouTube channel. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Hundreds of people joined the World Naked Bike Ride Saturday afternoon in a flesh-filled spectacle that marked the 20th year Portlanders have come together for this mass protest and celebration.

World Naked Bike Ride is a global event launched in Spain in 2003. It has roots as a protest against oil dependency and has morphed and grown into a larger movement that encompasses many goals and ideas. Portland has held a version of the ride annually since 2004 (large rides were not organized in 2020 or 2021 due to the Covid pandemic).

This year a new crew of leaders branched off from the group that had been leading the ride since its inception. Compared to previous editions, Saturday’s ride was much smaller and the general vibe as I observed the crowd at the meet-up spot at Colonel Summers Park in southeast was different than years past. There was less partying. It felt more like a gathering than a festival. I didn’t see anyone consuming alcohol. And the usual legions of novice riders who seem to dust off their bikes just for WNBR, mostly stayed home last night.

[Story continues below photo gallery.]

At the meet-up spot in Colonel Summers Park, pink vests of volunteers and naked bodies dotted the grassy field as mobile sound systems filled the air with music.

On the park’s pavement next to the tennis courts, a place that has hosted so many bike cultural moments over the years, I met someone named Jasmine wearing underwear and roller skates. She was first inspired to join big group rides after randomly coming across the Opera Ride on her way home from work one day. “I was like, these people look like they’re having a lot of fun,” she said. “So I grabbed my bike and joined them.”

Bill Chin, who I once referred to Pedalpalooza’s iron man for his prolific ride attendance, was also there. The 64-year old said he’s done several naked rides. “I think it’s interesting. It’s fun to be free,” he said, as he stood wearing nothing but shoes. For Bill, the ride is, “all about protest and visibility, body positivity and inclusion.” “I’m an older person, but I fit in just fine with everyone else,” he shared.

That sense of inclusion is important to the organizers of the ride. One of them, Moorland Moss of Nakedhearts:PDX, took to the mic before the ride began. “It’s a huge deal that you decided to come out,” they said to the crowd. “No matter what the reason, you’ve chosen to come out and be naked and vulnerable with strangers. You are all welcome here.”

“I hope that during the ride you can feel a sense of belonging to Portland, America and the year 2024,” Moss continued. “It is increasingly difficult for a lot of us to feel that way… Your body speaks the truth, and we need to stop letting our politicians and all these things lie to us. We need to start listening to us, and I hope you can feel a sense of belonging to yourself, because that’s where the truth lies.”

Moss then shared messages about consent, respect, and safety before handing the mic to three speakers.

Hearing about activism and important issues in speeches before the ride was another big shift from previous years. It underscored a key goal of this year’s naked ride leaders: to make the protest aspect — which had been largely absent from the ride for years — much more prominent.

The first speaker (who didn’t give a name and I forgot to ask) urged the crowd to get engaged with the fight to prevent climate change. “I want to encourage everyone to expand their thinking outward on a more global scale, because our struggles against climate change and fossil fuels here in Oregon, are connected to what’s happening all over the world right now,” she said.

Specifically, she pointed to the global week of protests against Chevron that begins Sunday. The event is organized by the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement that works to negatively impact corporations that are benefiting from what she calls the “Illegal occupation and apartheid and genocide in Palestine.” The speaker said Palestinian sovereignty is a threat to Chevron’s off-shore drilling operations and that all the bombs Israel has dropped in Gaza, “Have contributed more to climate change in the past year than anything else going on.” “That’s something we should all be yelling about today and every day.”

Next up was a woman named Alyssa who shared a poem from “those who are harmed or negatively affected by objectification and sexualization.” “Society and relationships can sometimes either treat us like an expendable commodity or a footnote, while they impose, objectify and sensationalize projected idealism,” she shared. “AKA, it sucks facing life with all this patriarchal bullshit and relentless sexual and societal harassment.”

Then Dineen O’Rourke took the mic. O’Rourke works with the nonprofit 350 PDX and leads their campaign against Zenith Energy. She told the story of how the company came to Portland seven years ago and, “sneakily” bought a facility in northwest Portland to transport and store crude oil and tar sands oil from North Dakota and northern Canada. “Once that happened, we saw quadruple the amount of oil trains coming into this region,” she shared. Despite this, O’Rourke blamed Portland city council members for being “bought out” by Zenith and betraying Portlanders. “It’s despicable,” she said, as she reminded folks to prepare for an upcoming comment period and public hearings by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Then it was time to ride!

The group massed onto SE 20th and headed toward the wide, wonderful downhill of SE Hawthorne Blvd toward the Willamette River. The bodies flowed and spirits rose as legs powered bikes, boards, and skates. We rolled onto SE 7th southbound as spectators began to spill out of businesses to watch the sea of skin cycle by. Then it was on to the Tilikum Bridge and Naito Parkway.

We rode miles north on Naito until it turns into Front Ave. Our destination was the Zenith Energy Terminal — the facility O’Rourke warned us all about.

“We can’t take 4 ounces of hand sanitizer on a plane,” Moss said as the group neared the location of a planned die-in protest. “But they [Zenith] can bring millions of gallons of chemicals into our city.”

Once the group arrived on the street adjacent to Zenith’s massive oil storage containers and train cars, everyone laid down on the pavement. The music stopped. Skin pressed onto pavement as a planet earth flag waved silently in the breeze.

Cheers and bike bells rang out as protestors stood and mounted their bikes. View a video of the protest on our YouTube channel (it’s age-restricted so I can’t embed it here.)

As the sun set, the ride continued back into downtown Portland. The group rolled over the Morrison bridge into the central eastside and ultimately to the Eastbank Esplanade where dancing, live music, and a rising full moon marked the end of the the ride.

Podcast: In the Shed #26

So good to be back the the Shed. Eva and I were up to old tricks with a wide-ranging chat about everything from riding bikes naked to Portland’s new WNBA team. Here’s a list of most of the stuff we touched on that I jotted down while I edited this episode:

Eva’s trade show scheme
World Naked Bike Ride (drama, 20th anniversary photo gallery)
Correcting the record on trains and coal
Eva explains her preferred bike route from north Portland to Colonel Summers park
IBR SDEIS basic findings (Official project website)
Eva’s time at Cycle Oregon Rally ride
Park(ing) Day, why isn’t it year-round?
CCC and their financial crisis
New path alongside Benson High School via NE Glisan?
New WNBA team in Portland!
Eva is in love with Philadelphia, PA.
PDX Trophy Cup and if a Brompton would survive it.

Thanks for listening! And we appreciate all the paid subscribers and BP advertisers that continue to make this podcast — and all the things BikePortland does! — possible. Please become a paying supporter today at BikePortland.org/support.

PBOT Director opts to dissolve bureau’s budget advisory committee

“Reducing transparency will make it harder to gain support for the types of changes that will be necessary.”
– David Stein, former committee member

The Portland Bureau of Transportation will no longer have a dedicated advisory committee to watchdog and help flesh out its budget. It’s a step the City of Portland is taking as a cost-cutting and efficiency measure as it leans into the new form of government that will begin January 1, 2025.

But those dynamics are precisely why two former members of the PBOT Bureau Budget Advisory Committee (BBAC) we’ve spoken to are not happy about the decision.

On September 16th, bureau Director Millicent Williams sent an email to people who follow the work of the PBOT BBAC and its members, stating, “I am writing to let you know that PBOT will be dissolving the committee and we will not reconvene this September… The city budget process will be different moving forward, among many other changes,” Williams explains in the email.

Williams also mentioned “severe fiscal constraints,” “staff capacity constraints” and a, “need to continue to seek efficiencies” as reasons for her decision.

The BBAC costs the city money because it has a PBOT staff liaison and there’s also time and resources involved in prepping and holding the frequent meetings. Williams pointed to an August 5th memo from Mayor Ted Wheeler that laid out another grim financial outlook for the city budget in the upcoming 2024-2025 fiscal year.

Wheeler’s memo said bureau budget advisory committees are no longer required, but he left the option of dissolving them up to individual bureau directors.

Williams opted to get rid of the BBAC, an active committee that had 17 members representing different modes, labor unions, and interested citizens. She said, “this decision was not made lightly” but that she looks forward to the city’s “new engagement structure” once the transition is complete.

One former member of the PBOT BBAC, David Stein, said he thinks Williams made the wrong decision. “It was surprising to hear that the committee was being dissolved. In light of the Mayor’s unusual warning just last month about the dire prospects for the coming fiscal year, this would also seem to be an unnecessary risk,” Stein shared in an email to BikePortland.

Stein said since the two other bureaus in the Public Works service area — Environmental Services and Water — haven’t dissolved their budget committees, “now puts PBOT at a distinct disadvantage.”

Without assurance about what the new engagement process will look like, Stein feels that the change in government — which includes an expansion of city council members from five to 12 and an entire new wing of government under the city administrator’s office — makes the need of the PBOT BBAC more important than ever and “add uncertainty” to the process.

“None of the structural problems with PBOT’s funding were solved last year and reducing transparency will make it harder to gain support for the types of changes that will be necessary if the bureau, and Public Works more broadly, is going to provide the services that people expect,” Stein said.

But beyond Wheeler’s blessing, Williams has the City’s transition team to lean on. A report released this month from the Government Transition Advisory Committee titled, Recommendations to City Leaders of the New Government included 17 specific recommendations.

One of them was to, “dissolve bureau-specific budget advisory committees.” Their recommendation seems to be based, not on whether or not the committees are valuable and necessary, but because feedback from members and staff, “Consistently found the committees ineffective due to lack of training, information, time to do their work, and authority.”

That tracked with one former PBOT BBAC committee member who asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely about the committee. “It’s unfortunate… But on the other hand, PBOT did seem to just treat the committee as obligatory rather than a place to truly get advice or ideas. So in the end I guess we’re all just getting our time back.”

NSFW: My favorite World Naked Bike Ride photos from the last 20 years

Drama about who’s leading Saturday’s big naked bike ride aside, one thing we can all agree on is that riding bikes naked in a mass of other people is an amazing, unforgettable experience. And did you even realize that this year is the 20th anniversary of Portland’s version of the World Naked Bike Ride?

When I first came to town, WNBR was one of most intriguing events I would cover. I watched it go from about 170 riders at my first one in 2005, to the 10,000 or so riders in 2014. The ride started as a grassroots, DIY celebration of the human body and resistance to car culture and Big Oil, then eventually transcended our little community to become a Portland institution. It ended up at a scale and with a cultural footprint I doubt those initial ride leaders could have ever dreamed of.

And just like with our bodies, events like this go through growing pains. There’s the exuberance and innocence of the early years when we think we are invincible, and then reality and responsibility creeps in as the years fly by. But unlike our bodies, community organizing always renews itself and — hopefully — always gets better.

While I’m sad about how our community is momentarily split over how we manage these inevitable changes, and the way some folks are treating each other is a huge disappointment, I’m excited and optimistic at all the energy and passion there is for the important tradition of riding bikes naked through our streets (!) en masse.

On that note, and in honor of the 20th anniversary of Portland’s World Naked Bike Ride, I went through my archives to pull out my 20 favorite images from Portland’s World Naked Bike Ride (read the captions for more information on each one):

(*By the way, I’ll be out there recording audio interviews for an upcoming episode of our podcast, so flag me down if you’d like to share on the mic!)

(2005) I am always a sucker for clever signs, especially when they’re painted on a body and the theme is anti Big Oil.

Have fun out there! And don’t forget, I’ll be out there Saturday recording audio interviews for an upcoming episode of our podcast, so flag me down if you’d like to share on the mic.

Weekend Event Guide: Sunday Parkways, Naked Bike Ride, Alice Awards, and more!

There’s been a major vibe shift out there. The summer sun is gone and we’ve moved squarely into something else. In many ways it’s the most beautiful time of year (but I say that all the time to do with that what you will).

Whatever the weather, we have an absolutely packed weekend. There’s just too much good stuff to choose from. Hopefully, this guide is some help in sorting it all out. Below are my picks for the best things to do by bike this weekend..

**Sponsored by VVolt E-Mobility**

Saturday, September 21st

District 2 City Council Candidate Walk – 10:00 to 11:30 am at Peninsula Park (N)
Oregon Walks will lead this excellent opportunity to meet and greet candidates from D2. Expect guided discussions about pedestrian-related issues and infrastructure in north Portland. More info here.

Bike Milwaukie Historical Ride – 10:00 am at Spring Park Natural Area
Come learn about historic sites in Milwaukie (cool city just south of Portland) with folks who live there. This will be a chill, six-mile ride with a lemonade stop in the middle. More info here.

End of Summer Bike Swap – 11:00 am to 2:00 pm at Baerlic Brewing (SE)
This will be good as I’ve heard all the vendor spots are full and there’s a waiting list. Get there and find great deals on used parts and bikes, then enjoy a drink at Baerlic for all your hard shopping work. More info here.

World Naked Bike Ride – 3:30 pm at Colonel Summers Park (SE)
The big one is back! Yes there’s been a bit of shuffling among leadership of the ride, but from what I can tell enthusiasm remains very high and we can expect a huge turnout and a refocus of this ride as a protest against Big Oil, the Zenith Oil Terminal project, and a celebration of beautiful naked bodies of all types! More info here.

The Street Trust Alice Awards – 5:00 pm at Oregon Zoo (SW)
Annual fundraising gala for one of Oregon’s largest transportation advocacy organizations. U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer will be the guest of honor and will receive a lifetime achievement award. More info here.

Sunday, September 22nd

Portland Zine Symposium Ride – 10:30 am at Irving Park (NE)
Zines are to books like fixies are to fat tire e-bikes — they’re just simpler and less full of themselves and often a lot more fun. Not to mention lighter! This ride will gather zinesters for a group ride to this annual symposium that takes place at Portland State. More info here.

Sunday Parkways: Southwest Portland – 11:00 am to 4:00 pm (SW)
Our last, city-sanctioned open street event of the year — and it coincides with World Carfree Day! As if this event could get any more perfect. Roll over to southwest and enjoy the beauty of community, vendors, music, lots of activities, great food, and much more. More info here.

Fresh Hop Beer Bop – 4:00 pm at Stormbreaker Brewing (N)
It’s fresh hop season and everyone knows that beers go well with bikes. Add the bounty of local fresh hops and you’ve got a sublime Sunday cycling activity. 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.

Portland Police will spend $500,000 on new bicycles

Members of the Portland Police Bureau Central Bike Squad will soon be rolling around on sweet new rigs. That’s because the agency is poised to spend $500,000 on new patrol bikes.

According to the City of Portland’s procurement services office, the funds will be spread out over five years and will go toward the purchase of 15-30 bicycles per year. There are currently eight officers and two sergeants on the PPB’s Central Bike Squad who regularly use bikes on patrol. According to PPB Public Information Manager Mike Benner, in addition to the Central Bike Squad, a few North Precinct officers ride bikes occasionally and as staffing allows.

A company named Volcanic Bikes won the contract. Volcanic was based in Skamania, Washington before moving to Omaha, Nebraska in 2022. The specialize in police bikes and are well-reputed across the law enforcement industry. The International Police Mountain Bike Association, a nonprofit that trains bike-mounted officers, reviewed a Volcanic Bike and said, “The toughest patrol bike on earth.”

Volcanic Bike models as shown on their website.

A document posted online by the City of Portland Procurement Services office touts Volcanic’s lifetime warranty and special frame features that add strength needed to carry an officer’s gear: “The chain stay and seat stay yokes are machined from solid alloy bar stock, which is far superior in strength to other processes.” Large tires on 29-inch wheels are also a selling point for their “better traction, angle of attack, and the ability to ride over obstacles, such as curbs.”

According to a Procurement services staffer, an initial purchase of 88 bikes costing $2,447 will be made. “After initial purchase we plan to buy 15-30 bikes per year, over 5 years, to meet Bureau demands and cycle out old bicycles,” the staff person shared via email.

And the money won’t go to a local builder or bike shop because it was awarded as a “sole source procurement” without a competitive bidding process. Oregon law allows sole source contracts when, after completing market research it’s determined that “only one known capable source of the needed product” is available. This purchase fit that definition, said the city’s procurement office in response to questions from BikePortland.

Benner says the bikes can be used bureau-wide and will also be available to the Rapid Response Team for use in working large events and protests. The new contract will also allow the bureau to replace some of their current bikes that Benner says are over ten years old. They also plan to have a fleet of bikes for training purposes and for use during the hiring process.

Asked whether the new contract means we’ll see an increase in full-time bike squad members, Benner said, “Chief [Day] Chief is incredibly proud of the work conducted by the current Bike Squad. If resources allow, he’d consider expansion in the future.”

While it’s a lot of money for bicycles, $100,000 (the per year expenditure which will happen for five years for a total of $500,000) represents just .03% of the PPB’s $295 million annual budget.

The Street Trust Action Fund rescinds endorsement of mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio

After revelations in the media about a long record of parking tickets and an incident in a parking lot Friday where City Commissioner Carmen Rubio hit another car and then walked away from the scene, The Street Trust Action Fund has decided to rescind their mayoral endorsement.

After the first story about Rubio’s parking infractions hit the news last week, TST Action Fund expressed disappointment about the news, but stood firm in their support, saying, “We believe Carmen Rubio remains the best candidate to deliver on the transportation safety issues that matter most to our community.” But now they have changed their tune.

Here’s the statement just released by The Street Trust:

As The Street Trust Action Fund expressed earlier this week, we were disappointed to learn of Carmen Rubio’s traffic infractions and upset that she failed to disclose those past infractions to us during the endorsement process. However, we were willing to forgive past mistakes in service of a candidate seeking to make change in how the city approaches traffic safety and investments in a complete, multimodal system that serves all street users.

As Oregon’s only complete streets and transportation safety Action Fund, we cannot say that we will endorse candidates to hold them accountable and then not do so; for this reason, in light of allegations that last week Rubio damaged a parked car and walked away, we are withholding further support of her campaign until we see real change. We still believe her positions are the best in the race, but her driving has become a distraction – one which flies in the face of our values.

We hope that Carmen Rubio – and everyone running for Portland mayor this November – remains committed to prioritizing full funding for street safety and implementing critical active transportation and safety measures. Moving forward this election cycle, The Street Trust Action Fund’s focus will be on our statewide, regional, and city council champions for our mission.

This decision will likely dampen spirits at The Street Trust’s annual Alice Awards fundraising event set for Saturday evening, where Rubio was set to be celebrated along with the Action Fund’s other endorsees. And it leaves our largest transportation advocacy group without a horse in the mayor’s race.

I’ve heard from many folks that they’d like to see mayoral candidate and trucking company CEO Keith Wilson considered. However, according to Wilson, he was never notified about TST Action Fund’s endorsement process. Wilson tells BikePortland he was very interested in receiving their endorsement and regrets not being part of it. In response to this claim, The Street Trust (and TST Action Fund) Executive Director Sarah Iannarone sent BikePortland a screenshot of an email sent to Wilson inviting him to participate. I’m still working to gain clarity on this and will share more when I can.

Focusing back on Rubio, this is just another part of a very challenging two weeks where she’s seen her campaign for Portland’s highest office crumble just as the race heats up.

(Video) In interview, Rubio addresses record of tickets and parking lot incident

“I don’t define people by their failings, and I hope that people don’t define me by mine.”
– Carmen Rubio

As I sat down for my interview on Wednesday with City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio to talk about her shocking number of parking tickets, the latest story about her troubling record as a driver popped up on my screen.

According to The Oregonian, this past Friday Rubio hit another car with her small Nissan SUV as she pulled into a parking space. Rubio then got out of her car, glanced at the cars, and walked away. The incident was caught on video cameras installed on the car she hit (a Tesla). And despite relatively significant damage that’s clearly visible in photos shared with The Oregonian by the victim, Rubio didn’t leave a note and continued on her day.

Rubio addressed that incident and expressed deep regret for her record of parking tickets. “These are things that are mistakes in my life. And they also are things that I’ve learned from and I’ve paid dearly for,” Rubio shared in our 20-minute interview. “It was wrong, and that’s not how how I am operating right now.”

About the recent incident in the parking lot, Rubio said she didn’t think she did any damage to the other car. “I parked my car, I felt the bump, I got outside, I looked, I did not see anything,” Rubio explained. “I went into my appointment and I came back out and I had a note and I immediately called, I immediately texted, and we engaged from there.”

“I did not leave a scene. I did not. Had I known, I would have done something more, but I did not see it,” she continued. “I took accountability. I called right away, and I definitely exchanged information, and was right away trying to resolve this and take responsibility if it was something that I did.”

“I did not leave a scene. I did not. Had I known, I would have done something more, but I did not see it.”

On the issue of her long record of parking tickets, the vast majority of them were given to Rubio between 2010 and 2015 while she was executive director of the nonprofit Latino Network, whose offices were located at the Leftbank Building in the Lloyd District (where N Broadway and Weidler split). In addition to saying parking spaces around that location were known to be “heavily patrolled” and it was common for workers and visitors to receive them, Rubio said that time in her life was particularly challenging.

“During that time I was really focused on making sure that no matter what tough times I was experiencing in my family side — and I’m going to keep it at that — the priority for me was the organization and the work,” Rubio shared. “And I let my personal responsibilities on that side get put off. And that was wrong, and I regret that.”

“At that time I just made the bad choice to prioritize my work responsibilities, to the exclusion of my time that it would take to go and deal with that [the meters] immediately.”

Rubio also wanted to clarify that she received 90 tickets since 2006, not the 150 that has been reported by BikePortland and other outlets. Of those, she says she paid 50 of them, and that 20 of those were ticketed again the same day because she overstayed the parking meter.

Asked why she felt like she didn’t have to pay to park, Rubio said, “I always knew I was going to have to pay for them. At that time I just made the bad choice to prioritize my work responsibilities, to the exclusion of my time that it would take to go and deal with that [the meters] immediately.”

Rubio said back in those days when Latino Network was growing quickly, she lost focus on other responsibilities, including parking her car legally. “I now have done so much personal work and have learned about work-life balance, and I have these skills about how you need to take care of yourself first so that you can do this other stuff even more effectively. And so I learned those hard lessons.”

When asked if it was a financial problem that led to her lack of settling these tickets in a timely manner, Rubio referred to how this was a time in her life that was, “really tough” and she was experiencing private matters that strained her ability to take care of this issue.

“And I think that for most women,” she continued, “and anyone who provides or cares for family members when they’re going through rough patches probably knows the various kinds of things that are hard that I’m referring to. So there were other costs associated with that as well. I’m gonna leave it at that, because that involves other people, and that is not my story to tell.”

It’s only been in her past few years in her role as a city commissioner, Rubio said, that she’s made the connection between something as ostensibly harmless as a parking ticket or an expired registration tag, with the erosion of norms and lawless culture among many Portland drivers that has a real impact on public safety.

“I’m human and I made mistakes, and I’m taking accountability for them.”

“I did not make that connection so directly until… this role,” Rubio said. “I absolutely do in terms about the social contract we all have to uphold and and are being responsible to the system… it does have a connection to that sense of, you need to be responsible, and it is interconnected in a way that didn’t crystallize for me until this job.”

“I’m not perfect, that’s not something that I’ve ever professed to be. I’m human and I made mistakes, and I’m taking accountability for them. I took accountability years ago, and I’m taking accountability now.”

With her campaign for mayor on the ropes, Rubio hopes her past accomplishments at Latino Network and track record on City Council overshadow her mistakes.

“I don’t define people by their failings, and I hope that people don’t define me by mine,” she said.

“And hopefully balance their perspective with the good I’ve accomplished. I also believe in a world in which people can run and win elected office without being perfect. But everyone has a right to their own opinion will cast their vote accordingly, and that’s their right.”

Listen to the full interview in the player above or on YouTube. It should also be on our podcast feed by the end of today.

A World Naked Bike Ride will happen Saturday, but it’s not the one you think

Riders at the 2022 World Naked Bike Ride on the Blumenauer Bridge over I-84. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

“There is concern this [ride] might provide confusion.”
– Adam Zucker, Umbrella board president

Back in June, organizers of Portland’s version of the World Naked Bike Ride decided to take the year off. Making this massive event safe and enjoyable is a major undertaking, and the leadership team behind the ride didn’t feel like they had the personnel to pull it off in 2024. So the decision was made to retrench, put out a call for volunteers and leaders, and bring it back better in 2025.

Then a few weeks later, on July 9th, Nakedhearts:PDX posted a surprise announcement on Instagram: “The World Naked Bike Ride Portland is on. We have a constitutional right to gather and protest and we are doing just that.”

The post seemed odd since I had recently spoken directly with Meghan Sinnott, one of the lead organizers of many previous WNBR rides (and the person who runs Bike Summer/Pedalpalooza), about how it was cancelled this year.

I soon learned that World Naked Bike Ride Portland (WNBR PDX) is completely separate from the traditional Portland World Naked Bike Ride (PDX WNBR), even though the names are nearly identical. Not only that, but the person who initially spearheaded the ride planned for this Saturday, Moorland Moss of Nakedhearts:PDX, was explicitly urged to not organize a ride that might confuse some in the community who aren’t aware of the split between the two groups.

Instagram post of Saturday’s ride, which is unaffiliated with the WNBR that has happened in Portland since 2004.

The original PDX WNBR, the one that’s happened in Portland since 2004, is an official project of Umbrella, a 501c3 nonprofit that provides financial and legal support to a host of cool things in our community — from the naked ride to Shift (host of the Bike Summer calendar), Breakfast on the Bridges, The Ladd’s 500, and so on. As the legal entity (a.k.a. fiscal sponsor) behind PDX WNBR, they are concerned people will assume the upstart WNBR PDX is their event. The legal concerns are amplified because the organizers of this year’s ride — the one unrelated to Umbrella and the traditional naked ride — are asking for financial donations.

Put another way, if something goes awry with the WNBR PDX — is a real possibility given the inherent complexities of an immense naked protest event with thousands of people that takes place on public streets — PDX WNBR could be negatively impacted. At the least, the creation of a ride with a very similar name, with similar plans and goals, in the same community, seems in poor taste — especially since the leader of it was explicitly asked to clearly differentiate their ride from the original one.

On June 12th, Umbrella Board President Adam Zucker sent an email to Moss of Nakedhearts. The message was sent by request of Sinnott, an Umbrella board member, and the PDX WNBR leadership team.

Here’s an excerpt from that email:

“WNBR requests that other rides refrain from using ‘world naked bike ride,’ ‘WNBR,’ or similar to describe or promote their Bike Summer, aka Pedalpalooza ride. This is in order to avoid confusion for participants that may mistakenly think a similarly named ride is associated with WNBR, Umbrella Project, or otherwise connected to Umbrella’s, 501c3, nonprofit status.”

Umbrella and organizers of the original PDX WNBR have no problem with another naked ride happening in Portland (there are dozens of them every year that are unrelated to PDX WNBR), they just want Moss to take their concerns seriously.

As of this morning, there’s nothing on the @worldnakedbikerideportland or @nakedhearts.pdx Instagram profiles (above) that makes it clear the 2024 naked ride is unrelated to the original ride, and someone would have to read to the final line of an official press release sent out yesterday to learn, “This ride is unaffiliated with PDX WNBR, Pedalpalooza or Umbrella.”

During a phone call Tuesday, I asked Zucker if Umbrella remains concerned about how the upstart naked ride is being promoted. “There is concern. Yes. There is concern this [ride] might provide confusion.”

In their press release, organizers of the newly launched WNBR PDX say their event, which will start this Saturday (September 21st) at Colonel Summers Park at 3:30 pm, “Celebrates 20 years of joyful protest and body positivity.” The ride will host opposition to the Zenith Oil project and participants will stage a die-in to symbolize, “the devastating impacts of oil dependency on the environment and communities.”

The ride was initially organized by Moss, the person behind Nakedearts:PDX. Since late 2022, Moss has created a large and loyal following as a ride leader. Moss — often in an all-white pantsuit or colorful, mis-matched tights — has led hundreds of group rides under the Nakedhearts moniker while pulling the ubiquitous, heart-shaped mobile sound system named “Gertrude” behind them in a bike trailer. Moss is revered by many in our community for their dedication and creativity. Just three days ago, friends of Moss hosted a Nakedhearts:PDX Appreciation Potluck Picnic & Ride. “Moorland has managed to create an inclusive space where people from all walks of life feel welcome and connected. So many of us would have never imagined having these sort of spaces and friendships,” the description read. “Moorland is a beacon of positivity and brings us all together through these shared adventures.”

Because of this track record, Moss was welcomed onto the PDX WNBR planning team in 2023 and was named official ride leader. Moss was poised to lead the ride again in 2024, but as time passed, the PDX WNBR leadership team grew uncomfortable with Moss’s plans for the ride and their organizational style. When it became clear some members of the leadership team wouldn’t return in 2024 if Moss was involved (or if he didn’t agree to bring on additional volunteers, which apparently was a sticking point), the decision was made to cancel the ride.

Asked for their perspective on all this, Moss said they’re not the leader of the 2024 ride and deferred my questions to other ride leaders they’re working with. When I said my questions are directed at them personally, Moss declined to comment.

When asked if they were honoring concerns about confusion expressed by Umbrella, 2024 World Naked Bike Ride Press Liaison Máximo Castro said via email this morning, “We are not affiliated with PDXWNBR, Pedalpalooza or Umbrella and we clarify any confusion of that when asked. Our website and social media page also state that as well.” “WNBR is not owned by any one person or entity… it is a movement that belongs to everyone,” he continued. “Here in the Portland area, our World Naked Bike Rides have gone through many ride leaders and groups at the helm.”

The World Naked Bike Ride is definitely a global movement. And Portland’s bike community thrives because of people who take initiative and organize big, awesome, fun things. We can all agree on that. So for now, Portland has two World Naked Bike Rides. One on hold for a year, the other marching full steam ahead.

‘Policymakers’ gather in Beaverton for first ride in five years (Video)

Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty addresses crowd in front of Beaverton City Hall Friday morning. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

When you think of our region’s trails, paths, and bikeways, you might envision that as a network. But what’s even more important than the bike network is the networking it takes to build it. I’m talking about good, old-fashioned relationships — the ones forged by real-life conversations between like-minded professionals.

At the Policymakers Ride on Friday, those conversations took center stage. Also known as the Voyage of the Visionaries, this invite-only gathering began in 2005 with a ride from the Eastbank Esplanade to Champoeg State Park to draw attention to what would become Oregon’s first-ever State Scenic Bikeway. The rides were held each year in a variety of locations until 2019 when they became victim to the pandemic.

With a nudge from the ride’s creator Jonathan Nicholas (the former Oregonian columnist who helped start Cycle Oregon), the event has been reborn thanks to expert wrangling and organizing by Steph Noll, leader of the Oregon Trails Coalition. Noll and her partners from Metro and other transportation agencies and organizations around the region, opted to begin this year’s ride in Beaverton — right in front of City Hall within steps of TriMet’s light rail line.

“I want to welcome you to the coolest city, the raddest city on the west wide,” boasted Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty to a crowd of about 80 participants from behind wraparound sunglasses on a perfectly sunny morning. “I’ve done policymaker bike rides twice in Portland, and I said, ‘Why don’t you come to the west side?’ And some of the organizers told me, ‘Why? There’s nowhere to ride a bike on the west side.’ And so here we are. Thanks for taking the challenge.”

Going waaaay out of our way to cross SW Farmington Rd on the Westside Trail.

Beaty was just one of the elected officials who turned out. She was joined by Metro President Lynn Peterson, Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (she didn’t ride), a staffer from U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley’s office, and Beaverton City Councilor Kevin Teater. Also among the crowd was Portland City Council Candidate Steph Routh and the leaders of nonprofits like Oregon Walks, Verde, BikeLoud PDX, Bike Summer, and many other transportation-related organizations from around the region.

I caught up with Jonathan Nicholas on the ride and asked him what it felt like to be here, 19 years after the first Policymakers Ride. “It feels great to get everyone back out together,” he said. “You know, we spend so much time in our offices, planning things and talking about things and looking at PowerPoint presentations… it’s so much better to just actually get out here with your peers and other folks you’ve heard about, but have never even met and you get on a bike and you actually ride through the infrastructure that we’re all so committed to building.”

The route (above, and here on Ride With GPS) was a mix of chaotic stroads, suburban neighborhood backroads, and carfree paths. We pedaled by Nike World Headquarters up to Highway 26 at Bethany Blvd, and then back south on the Waterhouse Trail to cross Tualatin-Valley Highway and SW Farmington Road. Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation District (THPRD) and its staff and off-street paths figured prominently all day.

Organizer Noll said the route was a “study of contrasts” between scary suburban streets and lovely trails and cycle tracks. The goal of the day, she added, was to, “Have community leaders and advocates all ride together and have the same experience of both experiencing inspiring infrastructure and experiencing the difficult gaps — and hopefully building that culture of collaboration for how we can can move forward to build the communities that people deserve.”

After a short address from Congresswoman Bonamici, we rolled out from central Beaverton. The route took us west on SW Jenkins where we hugged a buffered bike lane on a busy road until we picked up the Westside Trail (which felt more like a glorified sidewalk) at SW 158th. According to THPRD Planner Gery Keck, once completed, the Westside Trail will be 25 miles long and connect King City to Portland. Of the 10 miles in THPRD, eight are already built.

The trail soon gave way to an unexpected, tree-lined path inside the Howard M. Terpenning Recreation Complex, where we stopped for a short break.

We then hopped onto the Waterhouse Trail, another jewel in the THPRD crown. It’s a 10-mile paved path that stretches from Tualatin Hills Nature Park (near SW Jenkins Rd), north across Highway 26 to PCC Rock Creek. But there’s one huge gap, and in a parking lot in an industrial park just off the trail about a block from Highway 26 at Bethany Blvd, we heard a presentation about that gap from BikePortland contributor and independent advocate Tina Ricks. (You’ll recall two years ago, I met Tina at this same location and did a video about it.) Ricks shared every maddening detail of the dangerous gap — from the confusing, overlapping jurisdictions; to the terrible behavior of many drivers and the very car-centric road designs.

Up next was a brief chat from a THPRD planner about the exciting Westside Trail Bridge project that will build a crossing of Highway 26 just a bit east of Bethany Blvd. That’s a “fantastic plan,” Ricks shared during her presentation. “But it is realistically at least five to ten years in the future*. This crossing on Bethany is the best bike crossing we have, for now, but it needs some help.”

[*THPRD says construction of the $28-35 million bridge could be finished by 2030 if funding is acquired soon.]

After her talk, Ricks led a large group of riders on foot (because it was deemed too dangerous to bike!) to see the gap first-hand. As we negotiated through windshields with drivers in a slip lane and felt the roar of the freeway, I think Ricks’ message or urgency finally sunk in.

As the sun gained strength we made our way back to our bikes and saddled up with a rumor of fruity Mexican popsicles at our next stop floating around. We had a three mile ride on the Waterhouse and Westside trails to the Tualatin Hills Nature Center in front of us.

This section of the Waterhouse Trail (between NW Bethany Ct and Jenkins) is quiet and carfree, but the quality of ride isn’t exactly what the region is striving for. The street crossings are disrespectful of bicycle travelers and there are steep, sharp corners to navigate. According to THPRD Nature & Trails Manager Bruce Barbarasch, (who I finally met on this ride after seeing his name pop up many times over the years) that’s because it was built by different developers.

“It’s kind of fun, it’s kind of funky,” Barbarasch said. “In the long-term we’d love to get it to meet trail standards so it’s accessible to the whole community… If we built that today, we would have made really gentle back and forth turns to get over or through some of those humps.”

In addition to getting existing trails up to standards, a big issue on the west side is how to balance recreation, transportation, and natural area conservation. THPRD Board Director Felicita Monteblanco welcomed us to the Tualatin Hills Nature Park, a 220-acre preserve of wetlands, forest and streams teaming with newts and birds and all manner of habitats. With bikes parked near a lush meadow of reeds, Monteblanco urged riders to keep in mind, “How goals of connectivity can combine both wildlife and human uses of these places.”

Then it was time for popsicles — a perfect treat to spur low-stress conversations. I roamed around and watched people from all walks of this planning, political and advocacy ecosystem interact productively with each other.

After we had our fill of frozen fruit, we continued south on the Westside Trail where we experienced two of the worst elements of west side cycling: crossing major roads.

I could tell ride leaders were nervous about getting this large group across Tualatin-Valley Highway, one of the deadliest roads in Oregon with a disturbing history of crashes. They stopped for a safety talk beforehand and had monitors in hi-viz vests in the crosswalk as they waved platoons of people across each green signal cycle. All this as drivers roared by like we had no business even being there. Oh the indignity!

The next crossing to make my blood boil was SW Farmington a few tenths of a mile south of TV Hwy. The Westside Trail is gated off at Farmington and you’re forced to cross at a signal at SW 160th, which is about 300 feet to the west. In total, trail users have to go about 800 feet out of direction just to cross this road.

I hope all the policymakers and bigwigs on this trip remember locations like these when it comes time to talk about priorities and project funding.

Safely across those roads, we wove through neighborhoods back to Beaverton for a stop in front of the library. That was the end of the journey for me and a lot of other folks, who opted to roll over to a food cart pod and call it a day.

Event Emcee and Metro Accessibility Planner Will Cortez.

Before we went separate ways Metro Accessibility Advocate and ride emcee Will Cortez (who’s also one of the founders of BikePOC PNW) gave us one last bit of inspiration. Cortez likened the ride to foraging for mushrooms with friends. “You go out in a group, pick them, and come back together to make food with them,” he shared as we stood under shade of the impressive sycamore tree in front of the library. “So what will you do after you leave this space today? What will you do with what you foraged today?”

Hopefully, all this networking by bike will soon lead to a stronger network for bikes.

The Street Trust maintains Rubio endorsement after citation revelations

“After careful consideration, we believe that no other candidate in the race is as poised as Rubio to advance the The Street Trust Action Fund’s mission.”
— The Street Trust Action Fund

Leaders of The Street Trust Action Fund say they are “disappointed” and “dismayed” in City Commissioner Carmen Rubio, but they will not rescind their endorsement of her for Portland mayor. The organization says Rubio has made several policy promises in order to keep the endorsement.

“While this incident is disappointing,” reads the statement from The Street Trust Action Fund shared on Instagram Monday night. “We believe that Carmen Rubio remains the best candidate to deliver on the transportation safety issues that matter most to our community. We continue to support her candidacy because we know that her leadership will make Portland’s streets safer for everyone.”

The Street Trust Action Fund is the political (501c4) arm of The Street Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for transportation and road safety issues. Rubio announced the endorsement just days before a story in The Oregonian reported that the vehicle registered to her name had amassed 150 tickets since 2006 and that her license had been suspended six times for failing to pay fines and/or not showing up to a court date.

Here’s the statement from TST Action Fund:

The Street Trust Action Fund is disappointed by the news of Carmen Rubio’s traffic infractions, and we are equally dismayed by her failure to disclose this issue to us during the endorsement process. This behavior falls short of the safety, transparency, and accountability we expect from leaders we endorse. However, after careful consideration, we believe that no other candidate in the race is as poised as Rubio to advance the The Street Trust Action Fund’s mission or the urgent transportation safety reforms Portland needs.

While we do not in any way excuse Rubio’s behavior and we unequivocally condemn her repeated infractions, we believe that her life experiences can teach her directly (albeit the hard way) the urgent need for reform and significant investment to ensure safe, equitable, mobility for our most vulnerable system users, and how we can adopt a more equitable approach to transportation justice.

Moving forward, Carmen Rubio has committed to creating safer streets for all Portlanders and has made it clear to us that she understands that Portland’s traffic fatality crisis requires bold, immediate action. In response to this incident, she has committed to leading by example, not only by improving her personal behavior but through concrete policy measures.

To maintain The Street Trust Action Fund’s endorsement, Carmen Rubio has pledged that she will:

Prioritize full funding for street safety and active transportation through her role as mayor;

Engage directly and in an ongoing basis with vulnerable street users and victims of traffic violence to better understand their experiences and system needs;

Implement critical safety initiatives within the first 100 days of her administration including daylighting intersections (as promised by previous administrations), fully fund the Bicycle Plan for scheduled completion by 2030, and reducing speeds to 20 MPH 24/7/365 around schools and parks.

A closer look at Rubio’s record (view it below) shows that since being hired to work in Portland City Hall as a staffer for a former mayor and city commissioner in 2006, she has racked up 150 citations. Of those, 116 appear to have been issued because Rubio (or someone driving her car) parked too long in a spot and didn’t pay the required fee. 20 of the citations are related to overdue registration tags, five are for “failure to obey a traffic control device” and just one was for speeding. Since becoming a city commissioner in 2021, Rubio has been ticketed four times: one for parking in a “No Parking Anytime” zone, two for outdated registration tags, and one — on July 18th of this year — for parking in a loading zone.

In an answer to a question about how she’d help Portland reach Vision Zero that was asked in a candidate questionnaire by BikeLoud PDX earlier this summer, Rubio was strong on traffic enforcement and personal responsibility. In order to reduce fatal collisions between drivers, walkers, and bicycle riders, Rubio said, “… there must be… responsibility by drivers.”

“To that end,” Rubio continued, “I would favor increasing camera enforcement along problem traffic corridors – and some patrolling to educate, but also to hold frequent speeding/reckless violators accountable.” Rubio stumped for stronger action from the District Attorney to prosecute drivers for serious crimes like vehicular homicide or assault. “I recognize the fear of prosecution can be a strong deterrent. These crimes are rarely prosecuted, giving the impression that reckless driving is a victimless crime,” she wrote.

Rubio is a leading candidate for mayor. One of her competitors in the race, fellow City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, also has a long record of driving-related infractions. Trucking company CEO and transportation advocate Keith Wilson, who rounds out the top three in current polls, has four (or five) tickets since 2004, all related to overdue parking meters.

If you’re curious what Rubio’s perspective is on all this: Stay tuned. I have an interview scheduled with her tomorrow (Wednesday).

UPDATE, 6:05 pm on 9/18: The Street Trust Executive Director Sarah Iannarone stopped by Bike Happy Hour and shared that, given news today that Rubio hit a parked car and walked away, the organization plans to rescind their endorsement. Expect an official statement Thursday morning.

Rubio-record Download

What I learned at a ranked-choice voting webinar

“You all have this!”

Those reassuring words came from Sean Dugar, a panelist at a recent League of Women Voters of Portland community education webinar titled, “Ranked-Choice Voting: Moving Portland Forward with Confidence.”

The League invited four national and local voting experts to share their experiences educating voters about ranked-choice voting (RCV). One of them was Kali Odell, an elections specialist with the Multnomah County Elections Division. I learned a lot from her about how Portland’s November election will unfold. For example, because we vote by mail, and because ballots postmarked as late as election day are accepted, it takes several days for all our ballots to arrive. How does that work with transferring votes and eliminating candidates? Isn’t there a chance that some candidates will be eliminated only to have a bundle of later votes boost their score? How can updated results be posted?

I learned from listening to Odell that the Elections Division will re-run the ranked-choice tabulation afresh, every day, on all ballots received to-date. In other words, they aren’t jiggering new arrivals into an old calculation, rather they recalculate from the start, and each day’s update reflects the rankings from the ballots on-hand.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. What I’m hoping to do by the end of this two-part post is to convince you that Dugar is right, Portland has got this.

Today’s post covers everything up to now — our large field of candidates, single vote transfer, why Portland is using multi-member districts, and the outreach blitz. Later in the week, my second post will get more technical — exhausted ballots, “last one standing” failsafes, and why you should “go for it” with the ranking.

Portland voters are a little skittish

In District 4, at least, I think when our candidate pool surged from a manageable 18, to an overwhelming 30 candidates, people started getting nervous.

And I’ve got to admit, as bullish as I’ve been about RCV, with 30 candidates even I started to imagine scenarios in which the count might get hung up and not return three winning candidates — particularly if voters became dazzled by the sheer number of people running, or if too many voters did not rank enough candidates to arrive at three winners.

So I set out this week to reassure myself and ended up with this post, a Voter Care Package which hopefully has something to reassure everyone.

Where are we: a recap

If you haven’t been paying close attention this past few years, here are two videos which will bring you up to speed about our new voting format in roughly 11 minutes. Even if you are already up-to-speed and know all about RCV in multi-member districts, watch them anyway, they are entertaining, funny and excellent.

The Oregonian explains single transferable vote using doughnuts. As my friend said to me, “I didn’t understand anything until watching this!” (4 minutes, 53 seconds to enlightenment.)

And if you are wondering why it is we need this newfangled system, (4 districts, 3 members each, council of 12; or 4-3-12) Mont Chris Hubbard tells you why in this classic video he made a couple of years ago (using M&Ms).

If you want to know more, maybe from an official source, check out the Multnomah County RCV website. They’ve got practice ballots and other materials. After all that, you will know more than you need to for voting.

But if the sweets are still leaving you hungry, and you are comfortable with statistics, lets go for the meat.

You prefer meat to sweets

The Mathematical Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG) of Tufts University is a nationally-acclaimed voting research group. They analyzed Portland demographics and modeled several voting and representation schemes to arrive at this 4-3-12 system, and concluded that this method has the best chance of offering the greatest number of Portlanders a voice. It was the MGGG work which informed the Charter Commission’s decision to use ranked-choice voting in multi-member districts (a form of proportional voting).

To better understand what this system means for Portlanders (without having to slog through all the statistics) turn to Kristin Eberhard, writing for The Sightline Institute: Want to Give Portlanders of Color a Voice on City Council? Districts Won’t Help.

Eberhard makes a point about minority representation that is lost on most people writing about our election:

The modeling was about people of color, but the results apply to Portlanders who are in the minority for any number of reasons: small business owners, people who are dependent on transit, those who get around by bike, youth, or parents of school-age children. Most groups don’t all live in just one part of the city, so districts might not help them have a voice, but proportional voting would.

Charter Commission members and advocates who care about better representation on city council—whether for Portlanders of color, or for any other class of under-represented Portlanders—would do well to look to multi-winner races and proportional voting, not single-winner districts.

OK, I get it, but what about everybody else?

Advertisement for Ranked Choice Voting education which appeared on BikePortland.

Starting now, we are about to be on the receiving end of the biggest outreach blitz we have ever experienced, and that’s saying something in Portland. Voter education is considered part of the RCV implementation process. As I write, in fact, I just received the September newsletter from the City of Portland Transition Team, full of news and seven upcoming events.

And have you noticed the RCV ads that are appearing on BikePortland? Yep, they’re coming for you on your favorite news site (maybe this post even has one). Grace Ramsey, of Democracy Rising, told the LWV audience that,

We want to make sure everyone is coming along, and knows what is going to happen on their ballot. The goal that we have collectively is [that] as few people as possible are surprised on election day to see that ranked choice ballot.

She talked about media, radio, door-knocking, and said they are thinking creatively about “how we can reach people where they are.”

Conclusion

That’s enough for now. You should now know how to fill out your ballot, why we are using proportional RCV, and some of the statistics supporting Portland’s choice of this system. Later this week I’ll do a Part II to this post where I get more technical.