It’s not 2008. But for the first time in seven years, Portland’s bike believers seem to have the wind at their back.
The latest evidence showed up Thursday in new Census Bureau estimates showing that 2014 brought the city to its highest bike-commuting rate on record: 7.2 percent.
In general, I despise backtracking. Loop or die is how I usually roll. But today we learned that backtracking can be beautiful.
A half-hour city council hearing Wednesday on Portland’s proposed bike sharing system raised some questions but, seemingly, few serious concerns.
With a formal vote lined up next week, Commissioners Steve Novick and Nick Fish, along with Mayor Charlie Hales, all spoke warmly about the proposal.
Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Dan Saltzman didn’t seem to be raising major objections, though both asked pointed questions: Fritz about safety and Saltzman about money. Saltzman in particular seemed upbeat about the plan. Neither offered a closing comment Wednesday, leaving themselves plenty of room to back away from the deal if they decide to.
Surrounded by about 200 worried tenants, by a contingent of local media and by zero elected officials, Portland’s most prominent renters’ advocacy group declared a “renters’ state of emergency” Tuesday.
Saying that they’ve seen a wave of no-cause evictions and huge rent hikes throughout the city, the Community Alliance of Tenants called for two actions that its staff admitted might not be allowed under current law: a one-year citywide moratorium on no-cause evictions and a requirement that landlords give one year’s notice to tenants of any rent hike larger than 5 percent.
The theme of this year’s Cycle Oregon is “Hell on Wheels.” So, despite the major change in plans I shared last night, today we were given the option of biking into Hells Canyon. So you better believe we took it.
One of the big obstacles to biking in south-southeast Portland has once again been bridged.
Along with the opening this weekend of the new Orange MAX Line and the Tilikum Crossing, TriMet opened a new Lafayette Street pedestrian bridge across the Union Pacific Railroad tracks in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
One of Portland’s longest-serving neighborhood association board members survived a recall vote Monday night by the thinnest margin possible.
Doug Klotz, a member of the Richmond Neighborhood Association since “around 1993” and a longtime advocate for Portland to become more walkable, bikeable and transit-oriented, won the right to stay in office by a single ballot out of 252 cast.
The neighborhood association’s bylaws require a 2/3 majority to agree with the recall proposal. According to a count Monday night and a recount Tuesday by the Southeast Uplift neighborhood coalition, opponents of Klotz found 167 votes out of the 168 they would have needed.
The company planning to bring a private, free-floating bike sharing service to Portland is asking for input.
In a short web survey launched this month, Spinlister asks Portland residents how often they’d expect to rent bikes using the proposed Smart Bikes service, what they’d pay, how far they’d walk to reach the closest bike and what service area they’d like to see.
“We’re not doing this for fun or verification of a system already created to make them feel good,” Spinlister chief marketing officer Andrew Batey said in an email about the survey. “We’re building the platform to allow for variable business rules – which allows us to make fast and systemwide changes to various inputs (price, geo-fence, payment structures, support, etc.).”
As every bike-lover knows, it’s not really about the bike.
For Jason Washington and DeMarcus Preston, 40ish Portlanders and friends who were fed up with local shootings last summer, a bike ride seemed like a natural way to wipe aside a cycle of gang violence and bring the community together into “one gang” in the best sense of the word.
For the first time in Cycle Oregon history, the ride has been forced off its planned course. The reason for the change is the Dry Gulch fire which started Saturday near Richland, Oregon, a town close to Halfway, where Cycle Oregon was headed tomorrow.
Cycle Oregon is much more than just a bike ride; but sometimes when the road and the landscape all come together it feels like the ride is the only thing that matters.
When we woke up this morning for our 53 mile jaunt from Farewell Bend State Park to Cambridge, Idaho, the light was perfect. A friend here on the ride called it “Jesus light.” Clouds filled the sky as the sun tried to peak through them, sending rays of light over our heads. And we just so happened to be cycling through a gorgeous section of the Snake River canyon (on Porter Flats Road just west of Weiser, Idaho).
Fun in the snow remains huge on Mount Hood. But there’s growing consensus that the mountain’s future is likely to be elsewhere.
With average snowpack levels ebbing and mountain biking booming in popularity, Mount Hood Meadows is reorganizing its team to emphasize this new market, among others.
The company recently dropped “ski resort” from its official logo. On Monday, it followed that up with an announcement of that three new company vice presidents have been tasked with focusing on new facilities, programs and staff for year-round — that is, non-snow — recreation.