BikePortland

Where are we adding residential capacity in Portland? The Northwest District

Q21 at NW 21st and Quimby, replacing a warehouse with 163 apartments

This guest post by contributor Ted Timmons is part of NW Portland Week.

Since it’s “Northwest Portland week” here on BikePortland I thought I’d give a quick tour of my neighborhood, which is what I think of as “NW Portland”: north of Lovejoy, west of 405. There are several names for it- Nob Hill, 23rd, Slabtown- but “NW” seems to be the easiest. Sometimes I say “west of Pearl” or “west of Downtown”, but that’s awkward because people think of Beaverton.

No more space on 23rd at Overton as of a few minutes ago.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Part of NW Portland Week.

Sometimes a street just fills up. Northwest Portland’s most famous street has.

If you want to force someone to think for the first time about the solution to traffic congestion in cities, take them to Northwest 23rd Avenue and ask what they would do. Knock down the buildings that all these people are happily popping in and out of all day, every day? Add a turn lane to every intersection by tearing up the curb extensions where people are gathering to laugh, to smoke, to flirt?

Exposed rails on NW 12th Avenue near Irving.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Part of NW Portland Week.

Our reviewer hard at work.

This is a guest post by Kiel Johnson.

A specter is haunting our cities — the specter of street life!

Our streets make up the vast majority of our public space in cities. How these spaces are designed have profound impacts on how we think about communities and the policies we create. Janette Sadik-Khan’s “Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution” is a necessary chronicle and persuasive argument for giving street space back to people. She writes “streets are the social, political, and commercial arteries of cities … These are the spaces where life and history happen.”

Last week, I presented to a group of business leaders in the Lloyd District, most of whom commute by car from the suburbs. I was talking about the Better Broadway project that will open one auto lane of Broadway up for businesses and people for one week next month.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

A comfortable fit will keep you smiling.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

This post was written by Kevin Schmidt (MSPT, CMP, Bike PT), licensed Physical Therapist, bike fit specialist, and owner of Pedal PT on SE Clinton.

With the sunny spring weather thousands of new riders are taking to Portland streets. Although pedaling a bike can be a wonderful, empowering, and rewarding experience, more than 80 percent of riders* experience some form of cycling-related pain, numbness, and/or injury- even with short-distance commutes. The good news is a lot of these symptoms are preventable by looking at basic bike fit and pedaling techniques.

Here are some quick tips to help keep you riding more, and hurting less when getting back in the saddle for the first time of the year.

Pedal contact

The OG1 from The Vanilla Workshop in southeast Portland is the biggest move company founder Sacha White has made yet.
(Photos: The Vanilla Workshop)

Now you can a bike designed, developed, and made in Portland from the legendary Vanilla Workshop in two weeks or less. It’s called the “OG1” and it’ll come fully-built for just over $5,000.

That’s huge news. Here’s why:

Portland mayoral candidate Ted Wheeler.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Portland mayoral candidate and seeming frontrunner Ted Wheeler could imagine using decongestion charging to unclog Portland roads but isn’t ready to back a dedicated bus lane on Powell or Division.

He’s also a fan of dedicated bike signal phases and supports “rationing” auto parking as long as it’s done in conjunction with improved transit and biking options, but isn’t willing to specify how that rationing might take place.

Those were the takeaways from a blog post Wheeler put up Monday in response to questions that BikePortland and the advocacy group Oregon Walks relayed to him on Twitter after he was among the candidates to miss a mayoral candidates’ forum about transportation issues last week.

Here’s the full text of Wheeler’s responses. Some of the questions seem to have been paraphrased a bit, but not so much that their meaning was changed.

A man rides north on NW Naito just south of the Fremont Bridge.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Part of NW Portland Week.

There’s simply no better way to understand a place than to experience it first-hand. That’s why each day this week I’ll be biking around northwest Portland to observe street life and infrastructure. I’m on the look out for the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Median household incomes by Census tract.
(2009-2013 data via Census Explorer)

Part of NW Portland Week.

Portland’s glittering Pearl District has about three times as many income-restricted units as the 82-acre New Columbia community in North Portland, Oregon’s largest affordable-housing development.

Sunday Parkways on Northwest 13th in 2011.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Kicking off NW Portland Week.

No part of Portland has more untapped biking potential than its smallest quadrant.

Team Grave Neutral kept riders fed while the Belligerantes bike club grilled in the infield.
(Photos: Josh Roppo)

The Ladd’s 500 went off without a hitch on Saturday. And given the reactions we’ve seen so far, it appears the organizers have hatched a grand new Portland tradition.

(Image: Fortifiedbike.com)

This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Green Zebra Grocery, celebrating the grand opening of their new store in the Lloyd District (808 NE Multnomah) on April 21st!

Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

Bicycle as a service: A company has created a “theft-proof, weather-proof” city bike and, instead of selling them, is renting them out for $17 a month.

Unanesthetized violence: In 1938, Washington DC and the Washington Post used to raise skull and crossbones flags every time a car driver killed someone.

Where are we adding residential capacity in Portland? The Northwest District

NW 23rd is really annoying to drive on and there is only one solution

NW Portland has a problem with exposed rail tracks in the street

Book review: ‘Streetfight’ by Janette Sadik-Khan

New to biking? Been a while? These tips will comfort you

Pedal contact

The Vanilla Workshop unveils ‘Ready-Made’ OG1 Speedvagen

One week after forum, Ted Wheeler fields transportation questions

NW Portland street tour: Naito, Front, Thurman, 15th and more

NW Portland is beautiful, but that doesn’t mean it’s just for rich people

Why NW Portland matters so much to the future of local biking

The inaugural Ladd’s 500 – Portland’s version of NASCAR – gets rave reviews

The Monday Roundup: The $17/month bike, skull-and-crossbones fatalities and more

Latest Headlines

‘Better Sheridan’ project brings safer street to South Waterfront

Your guide to finding the ‘Wildwood’ crows by bike

My journey to that ‘Hard Rock glow’

Off-Road Cycling Master Plan: A decade later, what has changed?

From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland