BikePortland

80 percent of Portland’s top-ranked restaurants have one thing in common

DOC on Northeast 30th, Lincoln on North Williams, Paley’s Place on Northwest 21st.
(Images: Google Street View)

In a splashy report on KGW.com last week, the much-loved Portland chef Andy Ricker of Pok Pok lamented the recent lack of off-street auto parking on the street where he built his fame.

Developers of Portland’s future Division Streets are “going to need to lose some commercial space to parking,” Ricker told the news channel.

If that were to be the case, it’d be a big shift for future players in Portland’s nationally famous restaurant scene. Of the 93 Portland restaurants in Willamette Week’s “Restaurant Guide 2015” list released this month, 74 — Pok Pok among them — chose to set up shop in buildings that don’t have any car parking at all.

Planet X was on the left.
(Photos: Vincent Rodarte)

A fire in Oakridge early this past Sunday morning has completely destroyed the headquarters of Planet-X USA. The company sells bikes under the Planet-X, On-One and Titus brand names and is owned by its parent company which is based in Sheffield, England. Vincent Rodarte, the company’s operations manager, moved the business to the mountain biking mecca of Oakridge on August 1st of this year. Planet-X USA opened in Portland in 2011 and expanded significanly in 2013.

Planet-X’s Portland location had 10,000 square feet (we visited them back in 2013), but much of that inventory had been crammed into the 1,200 square foot showroom and office in Oakridge. Fortunately the company is insured against fire, but it’s a huge blow to Rodarte and his effort to strengthen the U.S. business.

Rodarte, who lives in Portland, just published photos of the damage and his thoughts about the fire at ORBike.com:

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Bailey was a fighter for cycling when he
first became a state legislator in 2009.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Multnomah County Commissioner Jules Bailey has told the Willamette Week that he’ll enter the mayoral race.

This surprise announcement means current candidate Ted Wheeler won’t have the easy ride into City Hall many expected when Mayor Charlie Hales recently decided he wouldn’t run for re-election. Bailey, 36, has a significant political background from his stint as an Oregon state represenative and he’s very well-known among many Portland voters — especially voters who care about active transportation issues.

Welcome to today’s pre-Thanksgiving video roundup! I’ve been riding around town but the fancy carbon bike is relegated to the trainer right now. Still, there are plenty of great videos to inspire us. We start with the European Bike Stealing Championships 2015 video above. The audio is a little busy, but it’s worth watching (action begins past the two minute mark).

Sorry, this job has been filled. Browse more great jobs here.

New signals on Couch at Broadway and first-ever ‘pedestrian scramble’ are up and running

One of the first people to wait at the new signal at Broadway and Couch.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Portland Bureau of Transportation just flipped the switch on new traffic signals at Northwest Couch and Broadway, 10th and 11th Avenues. The signals on Broadway are on a major bike route where they were first flagged as necessary four years ago. At the intersection of Couch and 11th, PBOT has installed Portland’s first ever “pedestrian scramble signal.”

The Portland area has invested $4.8 billion in a regional public rail network, and currently spends $313 million a year to hold down ticket prices on the system.

Another several million dollars each year go toward expansions of the region’s biking network.

Despite that investment, at least one Portland city council member has been arguing in the lead-up to a hearing next month that the public should also be subsidizing downtown car trips.

His reasoning: some of the people who drive downtown are poor.

Fruitcake challenge at Community Cycling Center-2.jpg

Rep. Blumenauer at the Community Cycling Center this morning.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Looking to make his famous holiday fruitcake last even longer, Portland’s representative in the United States Congress, Earl Blumenauer, has issued a citywide challenge: He wants Portlanders to help provide 1,000 bikes for kids in the month of December.

Sorry, this job has been filled. Browse more great jobs here.

This blog will put you inside a TriMet bus operator’s head

Perspective is everything.

If I’ve learned anything in 10 years of blogging about bikes it’s that empathy for other people’s views is the key to quality discourse, policymaking, and reporting. Heck, I’d even say that walking, riding, and driving in someone else’s shoes might be the most powerful way for us to improve road culture in general.

That’s one reason I’m happy to have come across a new (to me) blog written by a TriMet bus operator.

For two and-a-half years now the From the driver’s side blog has offered what its author, The Deacon in Blue, calls, “Musings from a contemplative bus operator’s point of view.”

From what I’ve read so far, the blog offers important insights into what it’s like to operate a TriMet bus on Portland’s busy streets.

I first heard about it thanks to a reader who emailed us an excerpt from a post published yesterday titled, Blame sharing for tragic incidents. In that post The Deacon (I don’t know his/her real name) offers thoughts after a woman lost her leg following a collision with a MAX train on November 16th.

A bike placed on NE Broadway to market
a new gym in the area.
(Photo via Tim Dowell)

A new gym that opened recently in Portland’s Lloyd District is following its national marketing playbook and distributing a handful of orange-painted bikes on nearby streets.

It’s the same phenomenon we covered in January when the same chain, Orangetheory Fitness, had recently opened locations in Beaverton and Tigard.

In an interview Monday, Orangethoery Oregon Regional Director Amanda Goolsby said her team plans to keep shifting them around nearby streets indefinitely.

“They don’t just stay out,” she said. “We take them down daily. We move them around.”

80 percent of Portland’s top-ranked restaurants have one thing in common

Oakridge fire destroys headquarters of bike company with Portland roots

Jules Bailey says he’ll run for Portland mayor

Wednesday Video Roundup: Jeff Jones, Dream destinations and Detroit’s renaissance

Job: Bike Shop All Rounder – Metropolis Cycle Repair

New signals on Couch at Broadway and first-ever ‘pedestrian scramble’ are up and running

Very few poor people drive to work downtown

A congressman, ice-cream, fruitcake, and 1,000 bikes for kids

Job: Painter – Cielo Cycles/Chris King Precision Components – FILLED

This blog will put you inside a TriMet bus operator’s head

Here’s what those orange bikes around Northeast Portland are all about

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