BikePortland

Job: Project Coordinator – Swan Island TMA

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Project Coordinator

Company/Organization
Swan Island TMA

Job Description
The Swan Island TMA is hiring for a Full Time Program Coordinator to work closely with the Executive Director in carrying out the SITMA ’13-’15 Metro Regional Transportation Options grant to develop and promote commuter options programs to Swan Island employees. *Opportunity for ongoing employment beyond June 30, 2015 is contingent upon organization funding.

This position will remain open until filled; interviews commence the week of February 2, 2015.

How to Apply
Please review the qualifications for this position carefully as we will only consider those who meet the listed criteria. Further information is available on our website at:
www.swanislandba.org/get-here/the-swan-island-tma-is-hiring.

Please submit letter & resume electronically, ATTENTION Sarah Angell to: sarah.angell@swanislandba.org. Hard copies also may be mailed to: PO Box 4773, Portland, OR 97208 – or- hand delivered to: 4810 N Lagoon Avenue, Suite 400, Portland, OR 97217 between 8am-5pm, Monday – Friday.

City issues bike parking code violation to Jantzen Beach Home Depot

Not going to cut it.
(Photo: Todd Boulanger)

Last week we shared the unfortunate story of new bike parking at the U.S. Bancorp Tower. It’s unfortunate because — despite a brand new, million dollar plaza renovation — whoever installed the bike racks got it completely wrong (we’re still waiting to hear back from the architecture firm that led the project).

That story had us checking the City of Portland code to see if the new Bancorp Tower racks were in compliance (they appear to violate at least one Administrative Rule). On a similar note, a few weeks back we heard from reader and former City of Vancouver (WA) transportation planner Todd Boulanger. Boulanger cc’d us on an email to Sarah Figliozzi, a bicycle program specialist at PBOT.

His emailed contained that photo above and this message:

(Image: DEIS for I-80N – a.k.a. Mt Hood Freeway – via City of Portland)

When you step back far enough, the history of transportation starts to look less like a river — constant progress toward a final, permanent destination — and more like waves crashing against a beach.

That’s the point of this chart. It pops up in the world of Portland planning from time to time, most recently in a slideshow by city planner Mauricio Leclerc about the history of parking in Portland. If you’ve never seen it before, it can be a mind-bender.

Stepped up production means you can get a Renovo in just a few weeks, instead of a few months.
(Photos: Renovo Bicycles)

Welcome to Industry Ticker, a new column where we’ll share news from the local bike industry.

Southeast Portland based hardwood bicycle makers Renovo are moving beyond custom frames with their new “Ready to Ride” line. Now you can get one of their bikes with just a few weeks wait.

Male? Female? The comb seems hiply unisex. Either way, it’ll now have a safer time crossing the road.
(Photo: Terry Dublinski-Milton)

Portland’s famous bike lane characters keep getting more colorful. As we wrote in December, this unique and wonderful tradition has been making a comeback, thanks to creative city staffers.

Barbur, last summer.
(Photo J Maus/BikePortland)

Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick has responded to a volunteer advocate’s letter about the dangerous bicycling conditions on SW Barbur Blvd.

Last week we published a letter from Kiel Johnson, a man who has pushed for a road diet on Barbur through the grassroots Friends of Barbur group. The letter came after the Oregon Department of Transportation revealed results of their traffic study on the street that was conducted last fall during a construction project. While Novick had promised that PBOT would use the study to assess safety concerns, ODOT staff said safety wasn’t a priority of the study.

Commissioner Novick responded to Johnson via the email below (dated January 30th, emphases mine):

From Portland’s first Kidical Mass in 2008.
(Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Kidical Mass PDX, the tradition of family bike rides each month exploring neighborhoods around Portland, will hold its annual planning meeting one week from Saturday and is inviting anyone who might have ideas to join in.

“We’ve had a pretty stable leadership the last few years, and that’s been great,” said Katie Proctor, who took the handlebars of Kidical Mass in 2010. “But we also are feeling a little set in our ways, so we’re looking for new blood to come in and shake things up.”

Mandatory? Really?
(Photo: J Maus/BikePortland)

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

Mandatory high-viz: A bill requiring every bike user to wear reflective neon and carry a government ID has attracted six co-sponsors in the Wyoming legislature.

PR campaign: The phrase “American love affair with the automobile” dates to a 1961 TV program. Underwritten by the auto industry and narrated by Groucho Marx, it framed the then-controversial demolition of neighborhoods to make way for freeways and parking lots as the normal challenges of marriage.

Normalized danger: “You press a pedal and two tons of metal lurches down the city avenue; you pull a trigger and twenty enemies die; you waggle a button and cities burn,” reflects Adam Gopnik, who recently learned to drive at age 58. But zooming in concert down a road is also “civilization itself.”

What could go wrong? Tesla’s new electric sports car has an “insane” button that lets you accelerate from 0 to 60 in three seconds.

Biking community leader Lisa Marie White, right,
leading an advocacy discussion at a BikePortland
Wonk Night in October.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Of all the conversations we’ve had on the site this week — there have been 1,100 comments on 27 posts — the biggest was about the line between journalism and community.

Many people who we respect disagreed with Jonathan’s decision to delete archived references in past stories to a man who, he’d decided, seemed to be using his perceived status to hurt other people.

~~The~~ One of the most upvoted comments in the thread came from another reader and fellow community member who we respect a lot: Lisa Marie White, a prominent local biking advocate (most recently at Bike Walk Vote) and active community member. Here’s her take on Hart Noecker and, more importantly, on what Portland’s biking communities should learn from this conversation:

Leonard Barrett of Beam Development atop an eastside office building remodeled in 2013 that now houses 350 workers. In 2005, Beam had planned to demolish it for a parking lot, but high biking and transit use changed the owner’s mind.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

While the organization that says it speaks for local business interests continues to oppose major investments in biking, walking and mass transit, actual local businesses are continuing their embrace of the amenities we’ve built so far.

Hillsboro-based Lattice Semiconductor said this week that it’s sold its Hillsboro headquarters and is moving 100 executive and administrative workers to U.S. Bancorp Tower in downtown Portland. The Oregonian described it as part of a “tectonic shift in Oregon technology” that is channeling tech jobs to the central city rather than Washington County.

4807521050_f06f5465dc_o — Not a crime, in case you were wondering.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to the latest installment of Ask BikePortland. Browse past questions here.

Portland is a perennial front-runner in national rankings of top bike cities, and the same goes for dogs. We love them both. But what happens when you demonstrate affection for pedaling and pooches at the same time?

Out comes the pole, off goes the bike.
(Photo from WPVI-TV)

Bike theft is a national problem. I know we’ve focused on it quite a bit here in Portland, but I think it’s important to know that every major city is struggling with the issue.

As part of my daily grind I skim news headlines for bicycle-related items. One story that I think is worth sharing comes from WPVI-TV (ABC) in Philadelphia. I was struck by how it described such a similar situation to what we’re experiencing here in Portland.

What really amazed me was the video the news station shared. In it, a thief wearing a hoodie and gloves unscrews a sign pole, lifts it out of the ground, throws it on the sidewalk and cooly pedals away. All in just 30 seconds.

Check it out below…

Job: Project Coordinator – Swan Island TMA

City issues bike parking code violation to Jantzen Beach Home Depot

130 years of Portland’s transportation history in one chart

Industry Ticker: Renovo launches ‘Ready-To-Ride’ line

On NE Glisan, new bike lane character (and lower speed limit) earn clucks of approval

Novick says PBOT will use state study to address speeding, lack of bikeway on Barbur

Kidical Mass PDX invites biking parents to join family ride planning for 2015

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Comment of the Week: The challenge of speaking up as a woman who bikes

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Ask BikePortland: Is it legal to ride with my dog?

Video from Philly shows thief removing sign pole to steal a bike

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