🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
This is what downtown #pdx looks like from about 1/2 mile away. #thisisclimatechange #pdxtst pic.twitter.com/rXR7FGRgoW
— Leslie Carlson (@QueenLeslie1982) August 22, 2015
This time last year, it looked as if Portland’s city council was about to grit its teeth and start addressing two problems that Mayor Charlie Hales rode into office pledging to fix: the twin facts that our roads are both consistently unsafe and disintegrating beneath us.
Now, as Portland’s leaders get ready to file back in from vacation, all available signs point to both of those cans being kicked further down the road.
Meanwhile, as BikePortland reader Alex wrote in a comment on Tuesday, bike trips through this town keep getting bumpier.
Bike shops matter. And like so many brick-and-mortar retailers across this country, many American bike shops have been failing.
How scared should we be about this? And if we’re scared, what’s to be done?
A newly minted Portland State University graduate and employee of the (perfectly healthy) Northwest Portland institution 21st Avenue Cycles is advancing that conversation with a senior thesis he published this year. In it, he proposes a typology (“four types of local bike shops”) and interviews five Portland bike shop professionals about the roles bike shops play and how they interact with a bike-friendly city.
Last week we shared how the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department was upping the ante on bike-camping facilities at three popular state campgrounds. OPRD has installed fix-it stations, group shelters, covered gear storage, and device charging stations just for people who show up by bike. The state calls these facilities “modern luxuries.”
I haven’t been able to see them myself, but I just got a few photos from OPRD’s Bicycle Recreation Specialist Alex Phillips. Check them out below…
We’ve had two great jobs listed this week. Learn more about them via the links below…
This menu of delicious rides and events is brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Their support makes BikePortland possible.
Some people are acting like summer is almost over. Wait.. what? It is? Dang. Well, we’ve still got some stellar weather that’s just begging you to get out and ride. This weekend we’ve added a few events that aren’t bike-specific; but they sure are fun and showing up by bike makes them even better.
Enjoy!
NOTE: Since posting this story I have learned more from PBOT. Please see the extended note at the end of the post. — Jonathan
In an ongoing effort to make Sunday Parkways as efficient and cost-effective as possible, the Portland Bureau of Transportation will unveil a new traffic plan at their southeast event this Sunday.
Under the new plan, modeled after open streets events in other cities like Bogota, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, PBOT will use fewer uniformed police officers and more citizen volunteers to control traffic at intersections. This reduced police presence will save PBOT thousands of dollars while freeing up police resources for higher priority assignments.
PBOT’s Sunday Parkways Manager Linda Ginenthal shared in an interview this morning that they’re looking to be “more creative” with their traffic control.
When Sunday Parkways first started in 2008 the events cost about $150,000 each. For the past several years however, as the city has found efficiencies in how they deliver the events, the current budget for each one is about $85,000 — with about $8,000 of that going to pay for police. Using fewer police, Ginenthal says, is likely to save the city another several thousand dollars.
Spencer Boomhower, the Portland-based video game animator and livable streets advocate who created the definitive videos about the case for letting people on bikes treat stop signs as yield signs and the insanities of the Columbia River Crossing freeway expansion, is at it again.
Boomhower’s foray into the business of urban planning visualization, Cupola Media, just teamed up with Massachusetts-based walkable-streets author and consultant Jeff Speck to create a series of simple looping Vine videos that illustrate one of the simplest principles of modern transportation planning: the fact that we can make a lot of big improvements to our streets using nothing but paint.
Job Title *
Finance Assistant
Company/Organization *
Rapha
Job Description *
Rapha is seeking an enthusiastic candidate to help support our Portland based US finance team and rapidly growing market. The role will require flexibility and a proactive approach to improving a variety of our systems.
Finance tasks will include, but are not limited to, the following: entering invoices, filing physical paperwork, processing wholesale credit notes, emailing wholesale invoices and entering monthly employee expense reports
The Role
• Manage accounts payable: Enter Invoices and create weekly payment runs
• Manage accounts receivable: Send wholesale invoices, statements and process credits
• Office organization: filing for finance and other organization projects as needed
• Manage expense reports: Enter employee expense reports for corporate cards and personal refunds.
• Create sales reports and other journals to upload into the finance system from a variety of sources for raw data.
The Candidate
The ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualities:
• Two years relevant work experience
• An understanding of bookkeeping principles
• Strong computer and Excel skills
• Familiarity with Microsoft Dynamics Navision is a plus
• Ability to turn raw data in in reports
• Strong organization skills and excellent attention to detail
• Ability to take initiative and work in an environment with rapid growth
• A keen interest in road cycling and active sports is preferable but not essential
How to Apply *
To apply for this position please email your CV and Cover Letter to: Careers@Rapha.cc
In the last couple years, Portlanders have started noticing something they haven’t been accustomed to for a decade: Auto congestion is getting worse.
“Oregon Department of Transportation reports traffic has gone up 6.3 percent this year, about twice the national average — and it’s still going,” KATU-TV reported last week.
