East Portland Week

East Portland reporter’s notebook: Pump track, a shop on the ‘Outer Rim’, Halsey sidewalk, & more

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Michael and I had a great time riding and reporting all over east Portland last week. While we’ve posted over 150 images in our photo gallery and nine front page stories, our notebooks still have plenty of items worth sharing with you…

A visit to The Outer Rim, Portland’s easternmost bike shop

Brandon Fite, manager of the The Outer Rim.
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)

Unlike in neighborhoods that ring Portland’s central city, where it sometimes feels like there’s a bike shop around every corner, there are very few bike shops east of I-205. In fact, there are only two.

Jim Chasse became excited about bike transportation while working on the 2010 city bike plan and is part of the very successful East Portland Action Plan bicycle subcommittee.
(Photo M.Andersen/BikePortland)

When East Portland biking advocate Jim Chasse met the young state legislator who had just ousted incumbent Patrick Sheehan, he got right to the point.

“I told Shemia Fagan, ‘This is what we need: We need Powell Boulevard,'” Chasse recalled Thursday. “‘We need $80 million, $60 million. And if you can’t get it for us, we’re just going to fire you.'”

A person bikes past Lentz Automotive, an auto shop whose owner objected to bike lanes added to outer SE Holgate in 2009.(Photos M.Andersen/BikePortland)

This post is part of our special, week-long focus on east Portland.

It was one of the boulders that broke Portland’s bike wave: a redesign of SE Holgate Street that converted one mixed traffic lane in each direction to a huge buffered bike lane between I-205 and 122nd Avenue.

This is Haider, a 32-year-old Iraqi man I met on his daily commute
from SE 82nd & Division to downtown Portland.
(Photos J Maus/BikePortland)

This post is part of our special, week-long focus on east Portland.

Maybe we should hire Walmart parking lot engineers to design our streets.
(Photos M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Sunset atop Rocky Butte during 2010 Pedalpalooza. Join us
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

We hope you’re enjoying our special coverage from east Portland. I think I can speak for Michael (he’s nodding next to me here at our remote office in the Starbucks at Gateway Town Center) and say we love being out here. New streets, new people, and new perspectives.

From barflies to neighborhood officials, most east Portlanders seem to agree on the highest-priority biking improvement for east Portland: a few really good neighborhood greenways.

Consensus has benefits. The 130s Greenway is scheduled to be built next fall, and the 100s and 150s greenways are in the works.

The East Portland Access to Transit project, including the 130s Greenway and sidewalk improvements along Division Street.
(Image courtesy City of Portland. Annotated by BikePortland.)

Employee parking at Texaco, SE 122nd and Stark.
(Photos J.Maus and M.Andersen/BikePortland)

This post is part of our special focus on east Portland this week.

In yesterday’s Monday Roundup, we linked to the most comprehensive listing I’ve seen of privileges that many people who start biking enjoy. But one item on its list is more complicated and interesting than it might seem: geographic privilege.

This post is part of our special focus on east Portland this week.

Not every bike trip east of I-205 is terrible. In fact, parts of Kathleen McDade’s daily commute from Gateway to Ventura Park are downright pleasant. But as is often the case here in east Portland, it’s the crossings of major arterials that really make her nervous.

122nd Avenue between Stark and Market.
(Photo M.Andersen/BikePortland)

122nd Avenue is part of Portland. But it doesn’t look like “Portland.”

Instead, it looks like America. And that means it’s a pretty big opportunity.

NE 102nd in Gateway.
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)

In case you missed the few minor announcements, today is the kickoff of East Portland Week here on BikePortland. That means Michael and I are focusing our time and coverage on bike issues and news that impact people who ride bikes east of I-205 — and hoping to enlighten those of you who don’t.

Right now, we’re both working from the Starbucks on the corner of NE 102nd and Halsey (Gateway Town Center).

Why do this? Many reasons: For starters, both of us live in neighborhoods relatively close to downtown. This means that our mental mobility maps are much different than folks who live further out (in other words, our perspectives on bicycling are central-city centric). It also means that we don’t know as much about the roads, the people, and the issues in outer east Portland — which is a huge part of our city that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.

East Portland reporter’s notebook: Pump track, a shop on the ‘Outer Rim’, Halsey sidewalk, & more

A visit to The Outer Rim, Portland’s easternmost bike shop

The Friday Profile: Jim Chasse, East Portland’s quiet, conquering bike warrior

Five years later, buffered bike lanes are a fact of life on outer Holgate

People on Bikes: East Portland edition

What we could learn from the Walmart parking lot at 82nd and Holgate

Join us tomorrow for an east Portland meet-up atop Rocky Butte

A north-south lifeline: The 130s Greenway is coming soon

Four things east Portland teaches us about central city biking privilege

Ride Along with Kathleen McDade: Gateway to Ventura Park

What would it take to make 122nd Avenue great?

It’s East Portland Week on BikePortland!

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