Video: BikeLoud advocates on SE Powell & 79th crossing

Earlier today I talked with advocates Kiel Johnson and David Binnig from BikeLoud PDX. We talked about the crossing of SE Powell on 79th and Kiel shared a few updates on BikeLoud’s lawsuit against the City of Portland, and a few other projects they’re working on. Please note: This is sort of a new format I’m working on where I can quickly jump onto a video call with newsmakers and story subjects and then turn it around and share it as a video.

The transcript of our conversation is below:

[00:00:00] Jonathan Maus: Hey everybody. Welcome into the shed. I’m here with, uh, Kiel Johnson and David Binnig from BikeLoud PDX. They have agreed to come on and chat a little bit about the crossing project on Southeast 79th at Powell and who knows what else other BikeLoud updates might be on the table as well.

So David and Kiel, thanks for being in here.

[00:00:19] Kiel Johnson: Glad to be here.

[00:00:21] David Binnig: Thanks for having us.

[00:00:22] Jonathan Maus: So David, you’ve taken a special interest in this crossing, right? Can you get me up to speed on why and sort of where things are at right now?

[00:00:31] David Binnig: Sure, , I, I got involved really as part of the, uh, Southeast Powell work group that, that, , largely Senator Taylor organized after Sarah Pliner was killed in 2022. , someone who does live in, in the South Tabor neighborhood reached out to me a little over a year ago about that intersection. , she knew I was on the work group and wanted to, , check in on what, what crossing improvements were being made there.

So that’s really when I started looking into. That particular intersection, But when I started asking questions about basically from my point of view, how, how does, how do people on a bike use this? Um, it was really hard to get answers.

You know, TriMet would say, well, we’re meeting with PBOT, we’re meeting with ODOT. So things are, things are still changing. So every month or two I would, I would check back, um, and kept hearing, well, we don’t know yet what the, what the designs are going to be. At the same time, obviously 82nd has become a big PBOT project, so I started going to the 82nd open houses that PBOT was holding and asking folks there, since the 70s Greenway is meant to be the, really the main bike route through that area, um, started asking, okay, what’s the, what’s the plan?

What does the bike route look like for this project? Quite dangerous crossing of Powell and then the folks with PBOT would say well, you know, TriMet’s running that project So we don’t know exactly what it would look like and that that was kind of up until about two months ago That was the status was just getting passed back and forth between agencies because no one no one could commit to what those designs were going to be Then as of a couple months ago finally got from PBOT a I think 30 percent design for the intersection and that’s where we could see Okay, there’s there’s a definitely a crosswalk closure on the east side.

There’s a median extension through there so there’s not going to be a direct bike route through and the type of signal was going to be a Rectangular rapid flashing beacon RFB the flashing yellow lights and that’s something that you know Even as of two month two months ago, PBOT was still telling me.

Well, we think it’s going to be a a hawk, uh, you know, the pedestrian hybrid beacon, the two, two red lights next to each other. So until very recently, no one was able to answer questions. When people were able to answer questions, it became clear that this wasn’t, uh, you know, up to the standard of safety or usability we would hope.

And that’s when we started writing letters, really.

[00:02:53] Jonathan Maus: Kiel, what can you, what can you bring into this? I feel like, um, David’s been really watchdogging this on a very, very close level back and forth. Uh, what, what can you, can you help us maybe zoom out a little bit in terms of the, the bigger context or some of the history of, of this crossing in terms of how you’ve seen it,

[00:03:11] Kiel Johnson: Yeah, I mean, this crossing really represents a collective failure of our transportation agencies to really address safety in a meaningful way. And this project has been funded for five years. Uh, you know, we’ve had staff turnover during that time. The The policies, uh, and guidance have been, have changed during those five years.

And, uh, and nobody really knows what’s going on. And, and because of it, we’re sort of getting this very mediocre crossing. That’s not up to, to safety standards, especially for such an important Greenway connection. Uh, you know, that, uh, uh, on a street that’s, we know is very dangerous.

[00:03:55] Jonathan Maus: David, can you put a finer point on. The sort of what we’re getting now question, what’s your main concern is it, is it the things that they might end up putting in are not going to be adequate or what are your main concerns with the design right now?

[00:04:07] David Binnig: So it’s really three things. And I should say the, the intersection badly needs work right now. There are legal crosswalks, but there are no markings. So it is a place where we need, need improvements. And I understand why people are eager to get something in. Um, the, the three issues really are one, the East side crosswalk closure, which is, so if you’re standing, there’s a, there’s a tram at bus stop at the Southeast corner of this.

If you’re getting off a bus, they’re trying to go to the grocery store across the street. You would have to cross west across 79th, north across Powell, east across 79th, and then be where you, where you want it to be to begin with. And this is what, you know, ODOT has forced at a lot of places, uh, we have those three legged intersections at, uh, 50th and Powell, at, uh, Milwaukee and Powell, you know, places where pedestrians are, are just given the least respect where, where they just have to take the long way around.

The, the second issue, and the one that really impacts biking, um, is because of that east side crosswalk closure, there’s no direct path through the intersection, and there will be a median extension through that, that part of it, so people who are biking will have to do the same thing on what’s, again, meant to be the 70s Greenway route if you’re going northbound, have to cross You know, cross left to cross 79th, get up onto the sidewalk, cross at least to the median of Powell.

And then a frustrating thing is that TriMet and PBOT don’t actually agree, as of last word I’ve gotten from anyone, on how anyone will use it. PBOT thinks that it will be a three way crossing just like for pedestrians, where you’ll actually cross to the sidewalk on the northeast side, cross again, and then TriMet thinks that people will just angle across the, across the north half of Powell.

Um, I think the problem there, which they agree with when I pointed it out, but because there’s no, no crosswalk before that, drivers aren’t going to expect anyone there. So you’re setting up, you know, a situation for pedestrians where people either have to make a long, very long way around or are going to make a, and technically illegal crossing, , rather than wait.

You’ve got a situation for biking, , where no one No one at the agencies agrees on how it’s going to work at this really key crossing. And then the final issue that I know Kiel has, , been, been really focused on is that what type of signal they’re going to be using. , and again, using, , just a flashing beacon there, it draws attention to the, to the, the crosswalk marking.

But it doesn’t, it doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t create a walk light for a pedestrian or, , it’s safe to bike light for, , for someone biking through. And it also means that drivers don’t have to stop across all four lanes for, for someone who’s crossing. And I, I mean, I think about this now, cause I have a, I know Kiel’s got, I think a five year old kid.

I’ve got a four year old kid who loves to get around on her push bike. We go down to Creston Park, across Powell, and it’s really important to know that all four lanes of Powell are going to be stopped when I start across with a four year old. , at a flashing beacon crossing, if we start at an intersection, the folks on the, the, from the south, the folks on the north side, legally don’t actually have to stop driving.

They can keep going through at speed, you know, while someone is there with the child. So that’s why I know we’d really like to get any, any kind of signal that makes all the, all the drivers stop at once. So that, so that people walking or biking can know, know you can cross safely.

[00:07:34] Jonathan Maus: , go ahead, Kiel. You have something to add to that.

[00:07:35] Kiel Johnson: Yeah, we found a study, uh, that found that, uh, the rapid flash beacons have a compliance rate of, , 19 to 95%. So there’s a high degree of variability in sort of the compliance of people. So the stopping at the, the blinking yellow lights, , and that’s really concerning, especially on a street as busy and dangerous as pal.

[00:07:59] Jonathan Maus: So David, are these changes. That you’re tracking. Are they, are they imminent? Is this something that’s like going to construction soon? Is this something where you think there might be ability to pause? Is that what you’re working on to try to spread the word about like where things at right now?

[00:08:14] David Binnig: Uh, that’s a good question. As of. Two months ago, PBOT said the project was at 30 percent design. , TriMet said they’d be presenting 60 percent designs last week, I believe. ODOT, in their response to the letter that BikeLoud, APANO, and OregonWalk sent, um, said that it was already at 90 percent design. So again, you’ve got, you know, different, different agencies saying different things.

It’s been very challenging to sort out. I think, you know, I think it is fair to say that from all the agencies, there’s a sense of, you know, we’ve been working on this forever and would like to not have any more, uh, obstacles to getting something on the ground. I think the, as far as what, what I’m hoping for, at least personally.

I hope that we can, best case would be that we could get a safer design that lets, lets people make a direct straight line crossing, that everyone understands how to use it, and the drivers will have to stop. That’s what I’d like to see. Um, I think there are a lot of, uh, other things that we could hope for, you know, if there are limitations on what’s possible.

One, , you know, there is this, this 82nd project going on. So can we, can we build something and make sure that it’s going to be compliant with making it a greater, greater crossing in the future? , even if that’s not happening right, right now, there’s also just being able to get answers about how this happened, what the process is, how this impacts any other crossings going forward.

, so on the crosswalk closure. I know P BOT has said throughout the process, we wouldn’t have done it this way, but it’s an ODOT road. And so I asked ODOT, why are you, why are you requiring the crosswalk to be closed? And they said, we’re going to refer you to P BOT for, for any, any answers on this project.

, so just, it’s very hard, you know, as an advocate, it’s hard to ask for better things in a helpful way. If the agencies won’t tell you why they’re doing it, The way they are. , so that’s at the minimal level, you know, if ODOT would say, here’s, here’s, here’s the policy basis for this. And right now they’ve just been stonewalling, frankly, and trying to avoid answering any questions about why the design is the way it is.

[00:10:19] Jonathan Maus: Yeah, that’s interesting or frustrating. You have not just a tricky design on a big arterial crossing of a bikeway, but you have the multiple jurisdictional crossings. Boundary issue that seems to come up a lot. That’s really frustrating. Um, Kiel, can you zoom out a bit and help people understand sort of like the context of this within like the 82nd Avenue, the huge investment that the city’s making an 82nd Avenue.

I know that a few months ago you and someone else went and tried to bike Like north south, right? Because the, the thinking is that there’s not going to be a big dedicated bike lane on 82nd. Uh, so the, so you and other folks have been wondering, okay, well then what are the options, right? And this, this crossing at 79th would be a big part of that.

So can you help folks on like, what’s the context within the 82nd Avenue project

[00:11:07] Kiel Johnson: Yeah. I think that the seventies Greenway, which is the Greenway where this connection is happening. Is really important to sort of improving bike ability and livability around East Portland. , and having that full connection is really important. And right now we basically have two separate greenways, , and they’re divided at Powell because you can’t safely cross a Powell.

So,, we have these two very. , separate systems that, that aren’t connected, and if we don’t have a safe crossing, they’ll continue to not be connected. , and that will just make them a lot less useful.

, and I think that, you know, one of the things that we’re also very concerned about is, uh, repeating the same mistakes that we made at 26th and Powell. Where Sarah Pliner was killed and we see a lot of the same sort of decision making and thought processes going into these crossings as happened there, where ODOT is trying to redirect people onto sort of narrower streets and say like, Oh, you’re not going to be crossing at, at, at several sections and, and making those sections less safe by saying, putting, crosswalk close signs.

, for instance, uh, and what happened at 26th and Powell was the state required or told the city that you have to remove the bike lane on 26th, remove that bike box that created a lot more visibility for, for people riding bikes. And then two years later, somebody was killed at that intersection. And so we really don’t want to see a repeat of that.

We want to see the state should be. You know, incentivizing cities and local jurisdictions to make even safer improvements. But what’s happening is the opposite, where the state is requiring cities to make less safe improvements.

[00:13:01] David Binnig: I would agree with that. As someone who’s been really focused on Powell, um, the way that this seems to be echoing what happened at 26th, I know, , Bike Portland’s reporting, Michael Anderson wrote a story back in 2015 where he talks about. Asking ODOT, , officials, you know, why, how does it make it safer to close this crosswalk?

And Shelly Romero says, well, I would, I would go to 28th if I were biking. And I, I had really hoped, you know, with that, that moment of willingness to talk about making Powell safer, that we would see some, , change from ODOT and how they were approaching it. And instead, you know, nine years later, we’ve got the same people saying, well, people, people will just go around to the other side of the street.

[00:13:42] Jonathan Maus: well, but in this case, I mean, it’s an interesting analogy. Um, in this case though, David, right. If they, they do want to build actually something, I’m curious from your perspective, the thing that they’re planning to build, can you just be clear? Do you think it’s an actual, is it an improvement? Is, in other words, would you see it as maybe one of the things that could happen here is like, okay.

It’s better than nothing, but we’d like maybe some verbal commitment that it’s going to get even better in the, in the very short term or where are you at with the

[00:14:08] David Binnig: Yeah, I think, I think both of those, I think both of those are true. I think the current design plans are absolutely an improvement over what things look like right now, because right now there are unmarked crosswalks across a place where we know people speed through four lanes. I think the concern about, , building, building the current design is that it’s taken, you know, a decade to get this project.

So if we, if we build something, it’s going to, I think, likely lock in whatever gets built. For a long time to come. So if there’s, and that’s why, you know, that’s why I’m, I’m hoping that, , Peabody is looking seriously at this as well, because. , if this is going to be the route for people biking through the area for, for years to come, um, you know, building it this way, I think, is going to set up a situation where there’s not a lot of, of, uh, interest necessarily in improving it, unless that commitment is happening, uh, pretty quickly.

It’s gonna set up a situation where, you know, folks are pouring concrete to close off, uh, that east side crosswalk and block, , a likely bike route across it. You know, how easy will it be to reopen after the fact, Hey, we need to, you know, open up a gap in this median. Cause if you ask ODOT about current crosswalk closures on Powell, in some cases, the reason for the crosswalk closure is, well, there’s a, uh, Jersey barrier that blocks access.

Like ODOT will say, even the fact of a Jersey barrier being sitting in a crosswalk, like I could push it out of the way if that were the problem, but they will use that as an excuse to not make it better. So, yeah, , the current plans absolutely would be. Would be an improvement over what things are.

, and my worry really is that they would, you know, building them as they are without a commitment right now to do something better makes it likely. I think that that will be stuck with something that doesn’t work, , nearly as well as it should for people biking, for people walking, for people crossing with families.

[00:16:01] Jonathan Maus: if people are concerned about this or want to learn more, would they just, uh, go on the bike cloud website? Like how, how can folks get engaged with this?

[00:16:12] Kiel Johnson: We have the BikeLoud Slack, we have a Powell channel, , you know, connecting with that, sending us an email. Um, and , we’ve got our eyes on it and we’ll, you know, continue to look for opportunities for people to, to have input in, in this planning process.

[00:16:28] David Binnig: I think getting involved with by cloud or with Oregon walks, who’ve also been great at following Stefan Powell. Um, you know, I would recommend to anyone who cares about this stuff. Uh, I do also appreciate that, uh, you know, elected, uh, officials, especially Representative Pham, has been, been really, , reaching out on this.

I know, you know, Rob Nosse wants to get, get involved on this as well. So I appreciate that we do have, you know, some folks in government who are, who are trying to get, get some eyes and, and get some clarity on what’s happening as well.

[00:16:58] Kiel Johnson: Yeah. And I think that we have a big opportunity in the upcoming, you know, legislative session where they’re going to be hopefully bringing up a big transportation funding package. And you know, if that’s our time to advocate for, you know, jurisdictional transfers and more state funds to go into these, uh, really dangerous high crash corridors.

[00:17:20] Jonathan Maus: Uh, since I have you here, Kiel, , are there any updates on the bike bill lawsuit?

[00:17:25] Kiel Johnson: Yeah, yeah, we’ve got a, , a trial date for the bike bill lawsuit, , for people that maybe are, are new. , the bike bill was a bill that was passed in 19 , 70, , that sort of requires whenever a street gets rebuilt in Oregon that it has to include bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure. , and we’ve found a list of a bunch of streets where the city has failed to do that.

And so we’re suing the city to hold them accountable to, , The laws that they’re supposed to be following, , and we should be getting a bunch of documents, the bike lab will be sort of looking through, the planning documents for a lot of these street designs, , and we’ll be engaging the city in some sort of mediation over the next year, , and if we’re not able to resolve it by then, we’ll go to trial on April 7th, , 2025.

Um, yeah, so it’s a really big thing that BikeLoud’s working on, uh, and holding the city accountable to its existing laws. , another really big thing that we’re working on is Sandy Boulevard is getting rebuilt in the next two years from about 14th to, I think, 27th. , and we’ve been working with a PSU team, , to sort of help figure out how to advocate around that.

And they’ve just finished a, about 40 page existing conditions report, , that we hope to publish and get out to people soon. So Stay tuned for that as well.

[00:18:51] Jonathan Maus: Great. Thanks, David. Are there any next steps on the, on the crossing thing we were talking about?

[00:18:57] David Binnig: Uh, right now on the crossing, I know that, uh, Representative Pham’s office is reaching out to ODOT and to the agencies to learn more, and the street trust, uh, Sarah Anne Arone is coordinating a conversation, uh, tomorrow getting some of the agencies together. So I think those hopefully will, uh, be some good opportunities for people, people out, you know, other than by cloud, uh, to ask, ask questions of those agencies.

And again, hopefully find out more about what the plans are, what the constraints are, what those options are going forward.

[00:19:29] Jonathan Maus: Good. I really appreciate your work on that. Thank you. And then, uh, either of you or Kiel, what about summer plans? Anything folks should look forward to from BikeLoud in the summer? Sure.

[00:19:40] Kiel Johnson: Uh, yeah, we’re working on, we’ve got two things. Uh, one is we’ve applied for a Portland Clean Energy Fund grant for our bike buddy program, uh, that would fund that for three years and give us our first employee to sort of help manage and grow that program, which would be really exciting. And so we’ll find out about that in June.

, and then we’re also looking to, create some bike ambassadors or one bike ambassador position that could really help organize and, you know, create more bike social groups, , around town, , especially around the different districts, , as we approach the city council election.

[00:20:17] Jonathan Maus: Cool. Sounds good. Uh, before we go, David, I gotta, I gotta just shout out your really nice map in the background that I see. Nicely

[00:20:24] David Binnig: Oh yes.

[00:20:26] Jonathan Maus: available

[00:20:26] David Binnig: it from bike Portland. You can get your own for

[00:20:29] Jonathan Maus: nice, nicely done. It’s a good, good looking frame there. I appreciate you coming on. Thanks for sharing. And, uh, we’ll see you out on the streets. Hopefully maybe at bike happy hour this week, if not next week.

[00:20:41] Kiel Johnson: Cool. Thanks so much, Jonathan.

[00:20:42] David Binnig: having appreciate it.

This is a new way of sharing information. I would appreciate your feedback on how to make it better! Thanks. – Jonathan

City Council candidate Rex Burkholder on why he’s running

Rex Burkholder at Bike Happy Hour, April 10th. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Portland City Council candidate Rex Burkholder wants one of the three seats in District 3, and he visited Bike Happy Hour on April 10th to tell us why. As I do whenever a candidate shows up, I handed Burkholder the mic and let him share his stump speech.

Under sunny skies on the Gorges Beer Co patio overlooking the SE Ankeny Rainbow Road Plaza, Burkholder grabbed the mic and stepped up onto a bench. Below is most of his speech (edited slightly for clarity):

“Despite some of the noise that we hear, especially from some of our downtown business owners, Portland is still a rockin’ place. You try to go out for dinner or something, you can’t get a seat. And the theaters are full. And I went to music last night, at the Old Church, and it was jammed. I mean, this is a great place to live! And I think we have to remember that.

“I’m running because I’m not ready to garden for the rest of my life. This town needs help. It needs work.”

This is a great place to work and it’s a great place to live because of actions of people like you who got involved in the community.

I got started as a member of my neighborhood association… I ended up being part of a bicycle club with a bunch of people who basically said, ‘Shouldn’t we be able to ride our bicycles without being killed and threatened? Maybe bike lanes would make sense.’ Those were radical ideas.

And that group actually got launched by Jay Graves, who used to own the Bike Gallery stores. He sent us a $300 check with a note saying, ‘You get one of these every month, as long as you keep doing your good work.’ And we looked each other and go, ‘What the hell are we gonna’ do with $300?!’ I’m saying, well, let’s hire somebody. Let’s go professional. And that was the start of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

I’m running because I’m not ready to garden for the rest of my life. This town needs help. It needs work. It needs people who know how to organize and bring peoples’ voices to the table. And that’s why I’m really excited with this new form of government — and also kind of a little worried that we get a lot of people who are just really just gung-ho advocates for an idea. I think they’ll get bamboozled by the bureaucracies.

We have lots of plans, don’t we? We’ve got to put them in into action. And that’s why I’m running.”

— RexForPDX.com. Browse more of our 2024 City Council election coverage here.

Lents neighborhood road safety activists make some noise

Screenshot of @whatstherushlents on Instagram.

I am often asked the question: “There’s a traffic safety issue in my neighborhood, what steps can I take to raise awareness and fix it?”. I feel like a grassroots effort in southeast Portland’s Lents neighborhood is a great model for how to answer that.

Launched in March, 2002, the Whats The Rush, Lents? website has an impressive amount of timely, relevant information. The Instagram account is also worth following. I wanted to learn more, so I asked the person behind it a few questions via email. (They wanted to remain anonymous, “for the few neighbors who think we’re anti-freedom.”)

What is your goal?

I want Lents (and all of East Portland) to be a pleasant place to live, walk, and bike. 

What inspired you to create this website and IG account?

I didn’t set out to create a website initially. I was on a simple fact-finding mission to see what went wrong in Lents, and what, if anything, could be done to address some of the hyper-local pedestrian/traffic safety issues I was seeing. 

A little background on me: I moved to Portland in 2007 and have lived in NW (23rd area), NE (Killingsworth/26th), and SE (first on 67th and Steele and now near 104th/Harold). In 2015, Lents was one of the only neighborhoods where I could afford to buy a home. My best friend had also recently bought a home here, so Lents is where I landed. Overall, I love Lents and want to see it thrive. I also love to walk. I have walked home to Lents from PSU, and also to the South Waterfront to take the tram up to OHSU. In 2019, I also explored nearly every neighborhood in Portland while taking photographs for a client project (yes it was for a client, but mostly I did it because I really love exploring Portland and I just wanted to do it).

Having had these experiences walking in other parts of the city really solidified my sadness around what we lack. It’s also disheartening to know that long-term residents have never had access to some of the most basic pedestrian infrastructure (e.g. sidewalks) that residents in other areas simply expect. I think many neighborhoods in east Portland are in a similar boat. Still, I do love it here, it’s just that safety is a real concern. My closest friend who lives in Lents used to cycle everywhere, but since moving out here, she very rarely feels comfortable biking to PSU (where she occasionally teaches), or to the grocery store, so she relies on her partner to drive her.

Ultimately, I knew that to get anything done, I would need more voices, and we would need a focused, cohesive narrative to share with PBOT and elected officials.

Screenshot of What’s The Rush Lents homepage.

Who’s behind this effort?

After doing some independent research and putting together an outline of possible solutions, I reached out to neighbors (most were acquaintances, a couple were strangers) to get their feedback, suggestions, and anecdotes. My first concern was my own street (104th) where a car crashed into my neighbor’s yard but then the project quickly expanded as I spoke with more neighbors who had good ideas and felt like there was nothing that could be done. Overwhelmingly, people said the same things: It’s not safe to cross 103rd, people ignore stop signs, people don’t stop at crosswalks, people drive extremely fast on Harold. I met a neighbor on Instagram who lived at 111th (who has since moved) who confirmed that neighbors living near that intersection were experiencing the same frustrations with the lack of regard for pedestrian’s safety, so I added that intersection to the outline. They provided suggestions for that specific intersection based on conversations with neighbors and what they were seeing. An acquaintance (now a friend) living on 103rd provided some great feedback and suggestions for that street, and so on. Once the website was live, I sent it out to more neighbors and asked them to spread the word and share a quote or anecdote that I could publish on the site. 

Why is this not just going through the local neighborhood association? 

To start, we decided to focus on a very small area of Lents (92nd–111th on Harold and a few specific streets South of Lents Harold where there have been major issues). We limited it so that (1) the work would be more manageable (2) we could see if it’s worth the hours of unpaid effort, and (3) we could better create a specific foundation for like-minded folks to build upon.

There is a lot of time that goes into researching what PBOT projects are (theoretically) in the works, and gathering information from neighbors on what would work on specific streets, and specific events that have occurred because, at least in part, traffic calming measures are missing on their streets. I hope that we will expand someday, but we would need more people with a similar level of dedication to make that happen. Currently the website is also a hub with links to resources for neighbors so that they can independently put pressure on the City to make changes on their streets if they see a need. I am very open to expanding it as more people express interest in being involved.

The downside of doing this independent of, say, a neighborhood association, is that there are still a lot of people in the neighborhood that do not know about us and haven’t had the opportunity to comment on what they’d like to see happen on their streets.

We did reach out to Green Lents to see if they had any suggestions for some of the specific areas we were focusing on, and they were able to share some useful information and feedback to help improve our case.

And anything else you’d like to share? 

We are getting speed cushions on SE Harold this week! I truly do not know if the existence of the website helped push PBOT to get the project moving, but I don’t think it hurt!

This is a great example of how someone can build awareness and connect with other neighbors around road safety issues. And yes, I can confirm that PBOT has just installed a bunch of new speed bumps on SE Harold between 92nd and 122nd. So far, I’ve heard rave reviews. One reader called them “A very welcome addition,” to the neighborhood.

— WhatsTheRushLents.org

Corking, joy, and community at PICA’s ‘Policing Justice’ exhibition

An installation in the Policing Justice exhibit at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. (Photo: Lois Leveen)

— This article is by Portland-based author, Lois Leveen.

The community protects the community. That is the very essence of corking.

Most BikePortland readers are familiar with corking from our participation in group bike rides: individuals intentionally block cross-traffic at an intersection until all the ride participants have passed through, to prevent motor vehicles from endangering riders.  Perhaps you are someone who loves to cork. Sensing a need to ensure the well-being of the community. Assuming a space of vulnerability. Practicing skills of de-escalation while demonstrating to drivers how we engage in bike fun.  

Or perhaps you are someone who appreciates not having to cork, knowing as you move along with the group that other members of a ride are keeping you and everyone else safe.

As vehicular violence increases locally and nationally, there is something truly beautiful about the fact that a bunch of random Pedalpaloozaing strangers who meet up in a park dressed as cats, or dressed in teal, or fanning it up over Angela Lansbury — can calm traffic. 

The community-oriented act of corking contrasts with the refractory and dangerous stance of the Portland Police Bureau, which has repeatedly declared that reckless driving is so out of control in Portland, there is nothing they can do about it. This claim encourages illegal and dangerous driving. It also obscures how effective and how radical the simple act of corking can be.

Corkers protect a protest march in the Hollywood neighborhood. June 8th, 2020. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

In the summer of 2020, when the group rides of Pedalpalooza were canceled due to COVID, some bicyclists brought the corking practice of community care to Black Lives Matter protests, eventually developing corking protocols specifically for supporting racial justice activism. I can remember how moved I was when, after months of pandemic isolation, I crested a rise on my way to a racial justice rally at Fernhill Park and saw a coordinated group of bicyclists and motorcyclists positioning themselves to protect the marchers. The community protects the community.

That same summer, a racial justice march passed by the home of June Knightly, and she was so inspired she began corking regularly, taking the moniker T-Rex as her nom de cork. Knightly, who walked with a cane, didn’t cork on a bike. As protests grew larger and the logistics of keeping them safe became more complicated, the focus and strategies for protest corking evolved to include cars along with bicycles and motorcycles.  This wasn’t the only adaptation made to protect large protest marches. Whether I am corking a bike ride or relying on corkers when I lead a ride, I define the purpose of corking as ensuring vehicular traffic pauses long enough for bicyclists to pass safely. Dajah Beck, who became friends with Knightly as they corked together, describes protest corking differently: “Our entire purpose is to prevent chaos. And it’s something we always try to reiterate to people. We’re not blocking streets, we’re redirecting traffic. Our whole purpose is to keep traffic moving.” 

On February 19, 2022, as Knightly, Beck, and other corkers gathered in Normandale Park before a march demanding justice for Daunte Wright and Amir Locke (Black men killed by police officers in separate instances in Minneapolis-St. Paul), a white supremacist wearing a t-shirt proclaiming, “Kyle Rittenhouse is a true patriot” approached and began verbally harassing and threatening them, using a misogynist slur. Enraged by their refusal to engage, he charged at one of the corkers. Then, in that dark corner of the park, he pulled out a gun, killing Knightly and shooting four others, one of whom remains permanently paralyzed.

“The Murder of June Knightly,” a video produced by a team of researchers working collectively under the name Forensic Architecture, reconstructs the events leading up to and following the attack. It is currently on view at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), as part of a larger exhibition entitled Policing Justice. (The quotations and other details I’m including in this post are taken from the video – which includes footage of the shooting recorded on a helmet camera – and from an article about it that was published in The Guardian). “The Murder of June Knightly” and the PICA exhibition as a whole provide a disturbing, moving, and ultimately hopeful understanding of our city, one that all community-minded Portlanders should experience. 

The exhibition situates the recent years of racial justice protests and the Normandale Park shooting within a larger history of abuses by Portland police.  It also addresses decades of local policies and practices like redlining, land forfeiture, and environmental racism that have targeted Black Portlanders in particular. The harm resulting from these practices extends far beyond those who have been directly targeted, as “Tear Gas Tuesday in Downtown Portland,” a second video by Forensic Architecture included in the exhibit, methodically documents. If you were bicycling, walking, playing, living near, attending school, or working in areas of Portland proximate to where Portland police and federal forces deployed tear gas at protestors, you were exposed to highly toxic substances banned by the Geneva Convention. In one night of June 2020 alone, our air contained levels of toxins hundreds and even thousands of times higher than the levels that federal agencies have determined are “immediately dangerous to life and health.” These toxins entered the soil and the Willamette River, doing lasting damage to the entire ecosystem.

Grim as such details are, the PICA show simultaneously reflects the dedication and the determination that drives social justice activism:  a belief that we the people can improve our city and our country. As journalist and activist Mac Smiff notes in the exhibition catalogue, “Policing Justice” seeks to “explore Portland’s history of policing in relation to racial, environmental, spatial, and juvenile justice; give voice to the lived experiences of those most directly impacted by police misconduct and the criminal injustice system; and create space to imagine a multitude of possible futures for public safety that are intentionally inclusive and driven by community.”  

Given the urgency of those first two goals, it is notable that they are integrally linked to the third. During a symposium at PICA, Kayin Talton Davis, who works for the Albina Vision Trust and who collaborated on several pieces in the exhibition, reminded the audience that for many Portlanders (and many Americans), asking, “what does my future look like?” is “a radical and essential question.”  Another of the artists, Robert Clarke, posed an equally radical and essential question: “What is your vision for a world where you are not policed, where you don’t have to fear for your lives?”  

Compared to other nations, America incarcerates a far higher portion of our population; prioritizes spending public dollars from on policing and incarceration rather than fully funding healthcare, education, affordable housing, clean water, and other basic necessities; and sacrifices more than 1,000 Americans who are killed by the police each year (a number that continues to increase even after outcry following the murder of George Floyd), amounting to execution without trial or conviction. Despite these evident failures, policing is so ingrained across our society that most Americans cannot begin to envision an alternative. Bicyclist, pedestrian, and public transit activists, deeply concerned about America’s deadly addiction to car culture, must counter a similar inability of most Americans to envision and embrace safer, more healthful, and more community-oriented alternatives. (This analogy between dismantling car culture and dismantling the carceral state is especially relevant because, as the book Cars and Jails shows, America’s dependency on cars and car culture dramatically contributes to America as a carceral state.)

And yet, the alternatives we need to envision begin with the same simple truth:  The community protects the community. 

Ben Smith, the white supremacist shooter, intentionally targeted June Knightly, Dajah Beck, and their friends as they stood far from where racial justice protestors were assembled on the other side of Normandale Park. As corkers, they had cared for and protected fellow community members countless times, and on that night, it was community members who came to their aid. Trained volunteers who were supporting the march disabled and disarmed Smith (without harming any bystanders), and immediately began administering medical aid to everyone who had been shot, including Smith. By contrast, when ambulances arrived, they were delayed in treating anyone because the 9-1-1 operator dispatched Portland police who insisted on first interrogating those who had been targeted, treating the racial justice activists with open suspicion. Despite the testimony of the victims and witnesses and the helmet camera footage provided by the corker, in the hours that followed the Portland Police Bureau intentionally released a public statement with misinformation about what had happened.  The police crafted a false narrative to make it seem like the incident began with armed protestors threatening a homeowner. Two years later, the Portland Police Bureau continues to promote this false and dangerous version of the event.

During my most recent visit to PICA, I watched “The Murder of June Knightly” along with two other people, a young man and an older woman who (based on their responses to the video) may have known one or more of the people who were shot. We were the last three people in the gallery that day, and the quiet of the space made the weight of what we were seeing even heavier to bear. But the video doesn’t end with the shooting, nor with the police circulating the false report that was picked up across local and national news and right-wing social media. It ends with June’s friends corking again, as they have regularly done in the two years since they were attacked. The footage of this more recent corking includes a joking exchange with an annoyed driver, one that deescalated the driver and made all three of us viewers laugh out loud (thank you, corker). The final image and sounds in “The Murder of June Knightly” are of teens chanting and marching, demonstrating once again that we the people have the power and the responsibility to make our city and our country better. The community protects the community.  

— Policing Justice is on view Thursday & Friday, 12:00 – 6:00 p.m. / Saturday & Sunday: 12:00 – 4:00 p.m., through May 19, at PICA, 15 NE Hancock Street, Portland. Exhibit website.

On Wednesday, help us celebrate one year of Bike Happy Hour!

Back in January 2023 I got an email from Travis Preece, owner of Gorges Beer Co and Ankeny Tap & Table. In addition to those two spots on Southeast Ankeny, he owns the main Gorges location in Cascade Locks in the Gorge. He’d heard about how bicycling will boom in the Gorge once the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail is finished and he wanted to make sure all his restaurants were on the map when it comes to bicycling.

When a business owner contacts me with words like, “We really want to be an ally of the cycling community and be a welcoming place to stop in,” I can’t wait to get back in touch with them.

My first reaction is usually a business-minded one that involves an advertising pitch. But if that isn’t a good option, I’ll consider other possibilities. In the case of Travis and BikePortland, we came up with the idea of weekly events and I called it Bike Happy Hour (BHH). He would share his venues, make them as bike-friendly as possible, and give us a discount; and I’d tell everyone to show up once a week for good drinks, good food, and good times.

It worked! One year later and Bike Happy Hour is going strong. Now let’s have a party to celebrate what we’ve all done together!

This week (Wednesday, 4/17 from 3:00 to 6:00 pm) we’ll have a special BHH to mark our first anniversary. Here’s what’s planned so far:

  • The Boom Bike is coming! It’s a human-powered sound stage fitted onto the back of a trike. You have to see — and hear! — it to believe it.
  • Free Fries at Four! Show up at 4:00 for free, fresh, hot french fries. (If anyone wants to sponsor this, get in touch.)
  • Open Mic at 5:00: Have a memory to share about Bike Happy Hour? Have you met a special friend (or three)? Want to say something nice about our community? Step up to the mic! All voices are encouraged and welcome.
  • Big Prize Raffle: Get a free ticket and be present at 5:30 or so for a chance to win great prizes. So far we’ve got:
  • We’ll do a big group photo at 6:00, so please try and make that. I want to squeeze everyone into the frame and do a proper photo.
  • Lady Max of Flat Tire Creations will bring her wares and a fun ring-toss game.

And who knows what else might be added between now and Wednesday. If you or your group wants to show up with a special table or sign, feel free! This is a community space and everyone is welcome. You don’t need an invitation and there’s no cost. Just show up and be cool. And if your company wants to participate in the raffle, please get in touch with me via email maus.jonathan@gmail.com.

I can’t wait to see all of you! Thanks for making this event so special.

Bike Happy Hour Anniversary Party
Weds, 4/17 (and every Wednesday rain or shine)
3-6:00 pm at Gorges Beer Co patio (SE Ankeny & 27th)
$2 off drinks / All welcome

Follow @bikeportland on Instagram for the latest updates.

Monday Roundup: Pooch effect, police chases, the new Earl, and more

Happy Monday friends. Hope you enjoyed the weekend and that you can still feel the sun on your skin. I’m eager to get started on the week and I can’t wait to see everyone Wednesday night at the Bike Happy Hour Anniversary Party. I’ll kick things off by sharing the best stories we’ve collected in the past seven days.

I also want to shout out all the BP readers who send me Monday Roundup suggestions. It’s very helpful. Thank you.

Dog power: It takes a very cute little pup to humanize a bicycle rider in lycra — and to transform drivers into respectful, caring human beings. (The Guardian)

Drive-through cities: I’m glad Portland has relatively few drive-throughs, but after reading this article about how terrible they are it validates my inclination to fight against the ones we have and support an even stronger ban on them going forward. (Vox)

E-scooter lessons: City staffers should have learned a lot by now about how to get the most transportation and environmental bang for their buck from shared e-scooter programs. But if they haven’t, this article should be required reading. (Grist)

The enforcement question: The conversation around police and traffic citations has evolved a lot in the past years and I feel like this article demonstrates how San Francisco is in a similar situation as Portland when it comes to ramping enforcement back up. (The San Francisco Standard)

Pursuing danger: It behooves road safety advocates to understand the high cost of police pursuits, especially given that our local police bureau recently relaxed restrictions aimed at making them safer. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Buses over bikes: This story from London about how that city’s bikeway promises have been watered down in favor of buses feels way too relatable. (Road.cc)

Say nice things: If you need a shot-in-the-arm of optimism as we head into prime cycling season in Portland, don’t miss this article about how riding here is still “magical.” (Portland Mercury)

Earl’s successor: Northern California U.S. House Rep. Mike Thompson has taken over leadership of the Congressional Bike Caucus from Portland’s Earl Blumenauer, so you might as well get to know him. (Streetsblog USA)

Give ’em hell(cat): Banned from driving his own car is way too light of a punishment for someone who repeatedly drives recklessly and is guilty of noise pollution. How does he still have a license? (The Drive)

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.

7th First Annual Ladds 500: Video, photos, and recap

(Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The 7th First Annual Ladds 500 took place in southeast Portland today and it was absolutely amazing. Well over 500 people (estimated!) pedaled circles around Ladd Circle Park until they hit 100 miles. They began at 10:00 am and some of them are probably still pedaling as I type this.

Fears of the event becoming too big were calmed a bit as organizers realized within minutes of the green flag being waved that the sheer volume of riders created slower traffic overall — which means less likelihood of crashes; but also that it might be dark before some teams finish.

Today’s turnout was by far the most the event had ever seen since the first year in 2016 when about 40 people attended. The perfect weather and an eagerness to emerge from winter and dive head-first into cycling season brought out all of Portland’s vaunted bike clubs and bike lovers. The riders, fans and friends packed nearly every inch of the circular park, every inch of the street around it, and every inch of the sidewalk and median along the edge.

A mobile feast for the eyes on an unending loop was available to everyone lucky enough to be there. Folks wore costumes and makeup and rode every type of bicycle imaginable. There were unicycles, skateboards, scooters, runners, roller-skaters, and even a karaoke bike or two. Local radio station X-Ray FM boomed music from the east while they broadcasted live from the middle of the street. Clubs and teams set up elaborate picnics on the infield. There were too many BBQs to count, and some of the items they cooked were being offered as free hand-ups to any rider who rolled by.

And the teams! They were so creative and fun. There was Lamps 500 (they wore lampshades on their head), Friends of Steve Irwin (in honor of the late Australian zookeeper and conservationist), Team Mario Kart, The Lefty Lucys (all men who dressed up as well-known Lucys), and even Cruising to City Council — a team made up of Portland City Council candidates.

I’ve got interviews with fun folks, lots of riding and other great footage in a video I’m working on. Stay tuned!

I focused mostly on video this year, but also managed some stills. Check out the photo gallery below. See if you can find yourself or your friends!

UPDATE, 11:05 on Sunday April 14th: Video is now up! Features interviews with riders (thanks to Shawne Martinez and BikeLoud PDX for pulling me in his trailer), including: the West Side Cycle Cats, Team Florida, Friends of Steve Irwin, Lefty Lucys, Bored Torus, Beth Hamon, Team Tie Dye, and many more. Also don’t miss the chat with the team made up of six Portland City Council candidates, Team Cruising to City Council, that featured: Timur Ender (D1), David Linn (D1), Elana Pirtle-Guiney (D2), Nat West (D2), Rex Burkholder (D3), and Jesse Cornett (D3). (HD version still uploading so might look lower-quality for a few more minutes.)

Podcast: In the Shed with Eva & Jonathan – Ep 17

Happy Friday! Eva Frazier and I are back on our regular schedule. Hooray!

This was a really fun episode and it’s the perfect listen for the weekend. There’s even sound effects of sandhill cranes (only because Eva was too shy to do it herself). Here’s a taste of what we talked about:

  • PDX Sidewalk Joy map
  • Eva’s report from her trip to Nebraska to see sandhill crane migration
  • Bike Happy Hour Anniversary Party is coming Wednesday, 4/17!
  • Eva’s old commute route on Barbur from southeast Portland to Tualatin
  • My ride with Chad Lykins
  • Nails in the bike lane story from 2019
  • Eva’s fear of riding over bridges
  • Food in New York City
  • Our review of the CityNerd event 
  • Sandy Blvd potential as BikeLoud eyes a bike lane and Eva dreams of depaving it.
  • Will Ladds 500 be too big?
  • Why artists make great BBQ chefs
  • Eva is going sailing this weekend
  • Water-related rides during Pedalpalooza

Thanks for listening, thanks to our paid subscribers, and thanks to Brock Dittus (of Sprocket Podcast fame) for our theme music. Listen in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.

‘PDX Sidewalk Joy’ map is a guide to roadside curiosities

Roll onto the sidewalk for even more fun.

We can all use a bit more joy in our lives. And what better place to find it then on the streets in our neighborhoods by bike?!

Today I learned about the Sidewalk Joy Map and couldn’t wait to share it with you. This excellent map includes 65 locations citywide where you can find wonderful, community-made delights like little free libraries, artistic displays, interactive public art, free swaps, and much more. It’s as if Hidden Portland for the Curious (one of my fave Facebook Groups) has been organized into a map.

The Sidewalk Joy map was created by the folks behind PDXDinorama and PDX FLAG, two instagram accounts that highlight front-yard art and little free art galleries throughout Portland.

Just a small sample of the wonderful whimsy waiting for you to discover.

There’s a Google Map where you can find all the attactions and descriptions of each one. And there’s a PDF with all the descriptions you can print out if you want a hard copy.

So grab your bike and a friend if you’d like, and plot a course for the Brooklyn See-Saw (SE 15th and Lafayette), the Comics Cottage (SE 56th and Rhone), the Robot Alley (south of N Skidmore between Borthwich and Kerby), the Tiny Creature Swap (NE 21st north of Knott), or the Puzzle Exchange (near SW Iowa and 45th).

PBOT releases crash report, will bring Vision Zero to City Council next week

(Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Report cover

Portland’s oft-maligned Vision Zero program will make a trip to City Council next week. The Portland Bureau of Transportation plans to update council members and share their 2023 crash report and Vision Zero Action Plan update.

BikePortland previously reported on the plan update when it was released back in November. But I don’t think we’ve covered the 2023 Deadly Traffic Crash Report, which was finalized in February.

PBOT’s crash report is a summary of where and how people were killed on our streets in 2023. The city’s grim tally of fatalities last year was 69 — the highest death toll in at least three decades and a figure that surpasses 2021’s record high. In the opening of the report, PBOT refers to “those killed by traffic violence” as representing a broad cross-section of Portlanders.

Here are a few stats from the report that caught my eyes:

  • East Portland communities face greater exposure to traffic violence. In 2023, East Portland’s traffic death rate per 100,000 was 15 compared to nine in the rest of the city.
  • The average age was 40.
  • 51 of these traffic victims (74%) as male and 18 (26%) as female.
  • In 2023, 74% of traffic deaths occurred on Portland’s High Crash Network.
  • Eighty-seven percent of traffic deaths occur on streets with posted speeds of 30 mph and higher. While only 8% of our streets have speed limits higher than 30 mph, 54% of traffic deaths in the last three years have occurred on them.
  • Half of the pedestrians who died in 2023 were experiencing houselessness (12 of 24). These statistics speak to the extreme risks of persistent exposure to traffic, often on high-speed streets.
  • An average of 16 pedestrians were killed annually between 2018 and 2020, compared to an average of 26 pedestrians in the past three years (2021–2023). But 2023 is the first year that pedestrian deaths are lower. In 2023, pedestrians made up 35% of traffic deaths with 24 pedestrians killed in crashes. In 2021 and 2022, more than 40% of traffic deaths were pedestrians. In 2021, 27 pedestrians died in crashes and 28 died in 2022.
  • Black communities in Portland experienced traffic violence at a disproportionate rate when compared to other racial communities in the city. Eleven people killed in traffic crashes were identified as Black, making up 16% of the people killed this year, much higher than their share of Portland’s population (5.6%).

On Wednesday at 2:00 pm PBOT staff will present these findings to council. In the ordinance that will be discussed at the meeting, PBOT shared the ongoing work they’re doing and a few new approaches they’ll take in their fight to eliminate all road deaths by 2025.

Graphics from the report.

One of the new measures was a traffic safety evaluation adjacent to all temporary housing shelters citywide. This analysis will include cost estimates for safety upgrades.

Another new initiative is an executive working group to be convened by the PBOT director. According to the ordinance it will consist of “relevant Bureau directors from across the City,” who will, “Collaborate on actions that support the City’s goal to eliminate traffic deaths.”

In related news, in a Vision Zero newsletter emailed yesterday, PBOT announce a change to their crash response protocol. Launched in 2019 under former PBOT Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, this protocol included the installation of an illuminated message board sign at the location of every fatal crash in the city. The sign would include a date of the crash and the admonition, “Travel With Care.”

Now it appears they will change that program to save money. Instead of putting the signs at all deadly crash locations, PBOT will set out just four signs — one in each of the four new city council districts. The locations will vary each quarter and will focus on intersections that are on the city’s High Crash Network.  

— View the report here.

Job: Sales – The eBike Store

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Sales

Company / Organization

The eBike Store

Job Description

Are you a biking enthusiast with a knack for sales? We’re on the lookout for a friendly and knowledgeable Bicycle Sales Associate to join our team. As part of our crew, you’ll help customers find their perfect e-bike while sharing your passion for all things cycling.

Responsibilities:
• Chat with customers to understand their biking needs and preferences.
• Take Customers on test rides.
• Show off our awesome selection of e-bikes and gear.
• Ring up sales with a smile and make sure everything runs smoothly.
• Keep the shop looking neat and tidy.
• Stay in the loop on the latest biking trends and products.

Requirements:
• Love bikes? Great! Experience in retail sales? Even better.
• Help Set up the shop in the Morning and Put Away bikes at Closing.
• Know your way around different ebike models and gear.
• Friendly, outgoing, and ready to chat with customers.
• Expect to work weekends.
• Can occasionally lift 50 lbs
Bonus points if you can fix a flat tire on the fly!

Perks:
· Competitive hourly rate! Based on experience
· Vacation and PTO.
· Health / dental plan available after 90 days.
· Sweet discounts on biking gear
· Free Coffee

The eBike Store is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.

How to Apply

If you’re passionate about cycling and eager to deliver top-notch service, we’d love to hear from you. Submit your resume and a brief overview of why you’re the perfect fit for this role.

info@ebikestore.com

Podcast: Riding southwest with City Council Candidate Chad Lykins

Lykins looks for a break in traffic before merging onto SW Vermont from Shattuck Rd. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

If you count the words of every Portland City Council candidate’s platform, it’s likely Chad Lykins would have the highest tally. The District 4 candidate is big on policy. His BikePortland debut was all about him wanting to have the best transportation platform of any candidate in the race. That might be because he has a lot of ideas and is eager to implement them, or because he has a PhD in research and public policy.

I spent a few hours with Lykins in his district yesterday. We rode our bikes and talked about infrastructure and policy — from protected bike lanes to homeless shelters. We both wore microphones as we pedaled around and I’ve shared the conversation above (and on our podcast feed).

Lykins is a leading candidate in District 4. Last month he became one of only seven candidates to qualify for $40,000 in matching funds. He’s a former professor, small business owner, and nonprofit leader. He’s also a proud progressive. It’s a label he defines as the center of Portland politics.

When I asked him how he’d navigate the divisive discourse that defines (and plagues) local politics these days, he said, “I think that for this next city council to be successful — and I’ll borrow the phrase from [Paul] Wellstone — ‘We don’t need to focus on if we’re on the left, or the right, or the center. We need to be out in front where the problems are.’ That’s really what I’m focused on.”

The pinch where SW Multnomah goes under Capitol Hwy.
SW Capitol Hwy bike lane through Hillsdale Shopping Center.
SW Multnomah raised bike lane.
SW 45th (I think).
Hillsdale bus only lane.
Corner of SW Multnomah, 45th, and Maplewood.
SW Cameron (or Illinois).
Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy.
Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy.
Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy.
Very sketchy lane taking on SW Bertha transition to Barbur.
SW Barbur Blvd near Terwilliger.
S Corbett downhill.
S Moody.

Lykins says his guiding light isn’t a particular ideology or political label; it’s evidence. “Before I think about ideology, whether something’s progressive or moderate… I just look at the evidence. Trying to win a seat on city council is really trying to elevate a bunch of people that care about evidence-based policy so we can govern.”

But Lykins understands not everyone agrees on the evidence, so some political lines must be drawn to make progress. “In Portland, that means less reaching out to the extreme right-wing and getting them to agree to stuff. The right wing is pretty weak, and they don’t have a lot of viable candidates running this election. It’s more about progressives, and I believe progressivism is the center. You’ve got conservatism on the right, and you’ve got radicalism on the left. Progressivism is what the center is. It’s where most Portlanders are. It’s about reaching out to the more radical members and saying…”

On both sides of the center? I interjected. To which he replied:

“No, actually. I think we can leave the radical sort of right-wing. I don’t actually think we need them to govern. We can listen to them, we can make them feel seen, but I don’t feel that we need to move to the right on things. But we do need to be able to reach out to the more radical [left] people in Portland and say, ‘Hey, like you, I walk and I ride. But sometimes I have to drive my kids a soccer practice and it’s not safe to do that. And I also drive. So let’s bring the volume down when we’re yelling at motorists a little bit.

I’m saying that we can be pro-tenant without being anti-landlord. There are some policies that really help both.

I feel like folks that say, ‘Oh, the problem is capitalism, so we need to uproot capitalism. Or the abolition of private property… I can’t put that on the city council agenda.”

What about the views of fellow District 4 candidate Eli Arnold, a Portland police officer with a tougher-on-crime platform?

“I am so glad you brought Eli on [the BikePortland Podcast]. I thought that was a good thing to do… I think Eli and I have different ideas as to what the evidence says about helping communities that are harmed by widespread addiction and helping people get housed. But I want to win that debate with him. I want to have the debate. I don’t want to try to silence other folks.”

On homelessness, Lykins (like every other candidate), says it’s his top priority.

Our ride began at Baker and Spice in the Hillsdale Shopping Center on SW Capitol Hwy. As we made our way to SW Multnomah, we pulled into the Multnomah Safe Rest Village.

Lykins supports shelters like these, but worries they might sap urgency for more permanent housing solutions. “We have to have answers to homelessness, and right now all we have are bad choices. Living in sheds isn’t anybody’s dream. But living in tents is everybody’s nightmare… We have to make sure that these aren’t a trap. That they’re not permanent rest villages. Because no neighborhood wants to host it forever and no person wants to live in one of these forever. It’s supposed to be transitional and we have to make sure it maintains that.”

After sharing fellow candidate Eli Arnold’s vision for immediate construction of regulated tent camps, I asked Lykins how he’d balance a housing-first mindset with concerns around “free for all” dispersed camping.

“I don’t want to speak for Eli, but as I understand it, his plan is not a shelter plan in the way that HUD [the federal Housing & Urban Development] defines it. It’s just a different place to put the tents. So he’s talking about instead of dispersed camping, concentrating the camping so that they’re all behind a big, barbed-wire fence. It’s just tents packed in very tightly together. I’ve searched as best I can for studies for — has anybody gotten off fentanyl and meth while living in a tent, whether it was dispersed or concentraed? — I haven’t found that that’s very effective or that it reduces crime in the neighborhood around it… I don’t think that that’s a real solution. I don’t think that it helps people get the job training they need, the mentoring they need to move on to services.”

While he’s spent time in academia, Lykins doesn’t speak solely from ivory towers. He says he grew up in Alabama with two teenage parents and his mom suffered from substance abuse and mental health disorders. “Things were not always safe in our house,” he recalled. “There was a night where I was getting something to eat in the kitchen, and I turned around and there was a gun to my head. Uh… I… it was my mom. She thought somebody had broken in the house. She just wasn’t totally, like, with it.

So when I talk about addiction, I talk about it from the perspective of somebody that’s had it in his family, has seen the impact on families, and has some ideas as to what folks that are going through and what they really need.”

Lykins also understands the impact unsafe bike infrastructure has on people in his district. At several points during the ride he checked in to make sure I felt safe.

“This bike lane really sucks!” he said, as his voice bounced with the cracks and bumps of the gutter bike lane on SW Capitol Highway next to the bus lane through the Hillsdale Shopping Center. He supports the bus lane, which has attracted a fair amount of opposition) but I wouldn’t call him a superfan. He thinks it might need some tweaks, but he absolutely wouldn’t support ripping it out. “I still stand firmly by the idea that we need to pass a statute at city council that says we’re not going to remove bus or bike or pedestrian infrastructure until we’ve replaced it.”

Lykins talks like he’s the rare leader who could weave that fine line between compromising his beliefs with a commitment to make significant progress. “The question is not letting the perfect kill the good,” he said, as we stood in the Alpenrose Dairy site that’ll soon be hundreds of new housing units. “I don’t want to be the person who drags things down because they don’t meet a hundred percent of every single objective we put out. You have to be willing to compromise.”

While he’ll listen to other sides, Lykins is unabashedly in favor of more dense development. “If we increase density, we’re gonna reduce vehicular miles traveled, we’re gonna have more people fighting for public transportation and bikes, and [those modes] will be more viable,” he said. “There’ll be more people riding it and our total maintenance for all of our roads will go down.”

And what happens if we don’t build more housing close the the central city?

“If we have to expand the urban growth boundary, that’s just building a time bomb. Because you have to maintain all the roads you build. You have to maintain the sewer system and all that stuff.”

Lykins has strong arguments for moving away from the car-driving status quo. “[My views are] pro driver, pro-motorist, because every time I ride my bike somewhere, I didn’t take your parking space, and you didn’t have to wait behind me. And I also didn’t hit you with my car.”

“I’m not a particularly great driver. So you got me off the road. That’s a good thing!” he added, laughing. “So the more people you get on bikes or taking public transit, the better your life is as a motorist.”

He also thinks building more protected bike lanes — with protection beyond just paint and plastic — is long overdue. At one point while riding he broke into song as we lamented the paint-only status of a bike lane: “They should remake the, ‘I’m Just Ken’ song [from Barbie],” he said, and then began singing, “It’s just paint. It’s just paint. Keeping you safe, it ain’t.”

Lykins is a Portland political newbie, which might be why he’s still in such a good mood. But don’t mistake his demeanor for a lack of seriousness. He understands the stakes are high.

He said he will focus on two things if he’s elected: housing (which he feels “unlocks” many related issues, including transportation), and setting up Portland’s new form of government to be effective.

“We have to govern well and we have to do it right the first time. I don’t know if we get a second chance. It’s a very narrow window.”

— Listen to the full conversation in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch a highlight reel video on BikePortland’s Instagram. Learn more about Lykins at LykinsForPortland.com

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