My little girl who was just two years old when I started BikePortland will graduate from high school today. ❤️😲🥲
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There’s no community if no one knows where and when to show up for it.
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The rumors are true: BikePortland is growing and we’re looking to hire someone to help us cover events.

And when I say “us” I mean me. That’s because I’m currently the only staff person keeping this thing afloat. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s hard being the writer, videographer, photographer, sales and biz dev manager, publisher, social media creator, spokesperson, and community moderator all at once. Every day. I absolutely love this job and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I’m long overdue in building a team to help me do it.

Thankfully, a very generous BikePortland reader has stepped forward to help grow this thing into the type of community news and information resource I’ve always dreamed of. I’ll share more details about what that means in a separate post. For now, I want to focus on our need for an Events Editor.
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The old days when we left comments in person at Get Together events like this one in 2009.
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Back in February, serious concerns from the community forced me to take a harder look at our comment section.

If you recall, the concerns were based on my moderating style that let too many mean and inappropriate comments get through. I’d known for years that some folks had stopped reading the comments because of the tenor of BikePortland commenters, but I didn’t take those concerns as seriously as I should have. It took getting called-out on Twitter and some pointed private messages and conversations for me to finally understand why our comment section wasn’t just disliked by some people, but in need of immediate intervention. [Read more…]

We are looking for the best route forward.

Hi everyone.

As we near our 17th spring together, I cannot think of a better time to learn more about who follows our work and how we can do it better. [Read more…]

On Saturday, Tony Jordan, a parking reform advocate I’ve known and respected for years and who’s written stories for BikePortland, posted something on Twitter about a BikePortland comment. The conversations and concerns triggered by his Tweet (which I’m still responding to, three days later) have made me think deeply about our comment section.

Here’s Tony’s tweet:[Read more…]

I haven’t posted mugshots here on the Front Page for many years now. I don’t recall the exact date but I remember it being an intentional decision.

More recently, major newsrooms around the country have also started to question the practice. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my reason for not posting these arrestee photos was because it just didn’t feel right. People sometimes make bad decisions, or they’re in a bad place in life and they get caught up in bad stuff. I don’t want to be a part of a culture that kicks people when they’re down or that wishes harm on someone because of a bad decision they made — especially when they’ve been caught by a system that is set up to prey on poor people, those who live on the streets, and people with dark-colored skin.

Why am I sharing this now? Because of an email I received on Saturday.[Read more…]

Screenshot of BikePortland Forums front page.

We’ve got forums!

I’ve been holding back on this announcement because I didn’t want to waste your time if they didn’t pan out. But after launching quietly at the end of March, today we’ve passed the 100-user mark on the new BikePortland Forums and that gives me the confidence to officially announce them here on the Front Page.

BikePortland has always been about fostering good conversations, sharing information, and inspiring people to go out and use it. It’s why we invest so much in our comment section and maintain daily discussions here on the blog as well as on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (not to mention old-fashioned emails and all those private messages).

So why add forums into that mix? Let me count the ways…[Read more…]

Screenshot. Or just scroll down to see it and use it IRL.

Hi everyone.

A quick break from our regularly scheduled programming to share some housekeeping news: We’ve just made a major upgrade to our commenting system.

You know how much we appreciate and value your voices, so this is super important upgrade for us.

Our current system needed to go. After 474,185 comments in the past 15 years it was dated, buggy (reply function was always breaking), and it didn’t have any formatting or editing features. We’ve made a few minor upgrades in the past, but this is the largest by far: A wholesale fresh start! We have heard your cries for help and hopefully this new system answers them. [Read more…]

Things were so innocent back then! And sorry, but that sweet little girl is a junior in high school now.

Can you believe this site started with an innocent, 100-word post about biking to an ice cream shop with my wife and daughter 15 years ago? I can’t.

On April 8th, 2005 I hit “Publish” and had no idea I would spend nearly every day of my life for the next 15 years thinking and writing about biking and other transportation issues in Portland.

I had only lived in Portland for about a year or so before starting the site. But that was enough time to understand that this place was different. That it mattered. And that these things called blogs would be the perfect place for a “citizen journalist” (which is what people used to call me) to capture it all. From those first days my goal was to create a central place where our community could gather, learn and be inspired, then go out and do more amazing things for me to document. It was — and is! — the best kind of positive feedback loop I could ever imagine. [Read more…]

Yours truly rolling in the Willamette Valley last week en route to a Cycle Oregon event.
(Photo: Lars Larson)

You guys did it again.

For the second year in a row, your votes helped earn BikePortland the title of “Best Local Blog” in the Willamette Week Best of Portland Reader’s Poll.
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