Biking to the end of the rainbow on the Mississippi River Trail.
(Photos by Erin Greeson)

Welcome to the second installment of a three-part series on bicycling and transportation culture in New Orleans by former Portlander and BikePortland contributor Erin Greeson. Erin currently lives in New Orleans. Read her introduction to this series here.

Part II: Infrastructure and Improvements

Comparing biking in Portland to biking in New Orleans is like comparing the mellow apple cider of the Northwest to the bite of the Crescent City’s signature orange-garnished Sazerac. As diverse as respective bike infrastructure, transit adoptions and cultural acceptance of bikes on the road may be, one thing is certain: New Orleans’ bike community is strong and serious. The options are different, but abundant. And they are growing.

[Read more…]

Bikes are part of New Orleans’ rebirth.
(Photos by Erin Greeson)

Welcome to the first installment of a three-part series on bicycling and street culture in New Orleans by former Portlander and BikePortland contributor Erin Greeson. Erin currently lives in New Orleans.

Part I: Rebirth City[Read more…]

The hot, eerily empty
Springwater Trail yesterday.
(Photos by Erin Greeson)

Today, while commuting home midday to finish my work from an air-conditioned office, a great thing happened. Just when I thought I’d prepared smartly for the 100-degree ride — dousing my head in cold water beforehand and chugging water all morning long — my lack of preparedness on another front led to an unexpected situation.

As I rode down SE Lincoln, I noted an atypically low number of fellow cyclists on this usually busy route. The heat has kept people indoors or in their cars, I thought to myself. I made my way through Ladd’s Addition, under the Hawthorne Bridge and onto the Springwater Corridor Trail (popular bike routes, which were all sparsely populated). [Read more…]

[This article was written by Erin Greeson. You might remember her in-depth examination of the bike messenger industry.]

“Century” Steve Nelson
(1960 ~ 2009)

On the evening of Tuesday, April 14, Team Beer lost a beloved teammate, “Century” Steve Nelson after a battle with illness and a stream of hospital visits from friends and teammates.

Steve succumbed precisely in time to join his beloved Team Beer in spirit. As the call came and news was shared, heads bowed in quiet grief and meditation, and glasses were raised to quietly salute a teammate whose smile, wisdom and support would be sorely missed but never forgotten.[Read more…]

[Note from Publisher: Welcome to the final installment of our three-part series on bike messengers in Portland. This series is written by BikePortland contributing writer Erin Greeson (bio).

In Part One, Greeson laid out the tough working conditions faced by Portland’s messengers. Part Two focused on health care and the negative stereotypes often associated with bicycle delivery professionals. Today, Greeson concludes her story by taking a look at attempts to organize and improve the industry.

Thanks to everyone for the vigorous discussion on this series thus far, and a special thanks to Erin Greeson for her work on this story.]

[Read more…]

[Welcome to Part Two of our three-part series on bike messengers in Portland.

This series is written by BikePortland contributing writer Erin Greeson (bio). In Part One, Greeson laid out the tough working conditions faced by Portland’s messengers. In the article below, she shares finding health care coverage for a messenger who’s also a mom and she delves into the impact of the messenger stereotype.]

[Read more…]

Erin Greeson

[Publisher’s note: This is the first in a three-part story on Portland’s bike messengers by new contributor Erin Greeson.

When her friend Zak Kovalcik crashed and broke his collarbone last fall, Greeson came face-to-face with the tough reality faced by Portland’s bike delivery professionals. In this in-depth, three-part series, Greeson shares how the deck is stacked against messengers and how they are trying to survive in a challenging profession.]

As Portland’s reputation as a green business boomtown gains momentum, bike-centric ventures emerge as quickly and viably as organic brewpubs and cafes. While a new era of entrepreneurs seeks to capitalize on this evolving economy, one of the oldest bike-based businesses, bicycle messenger services, faces challenges that impact workers and business owners alike.[Read more…]