The New Columbia skills park directly serves
the development’s 2500 residents.
(Photo: Community Cycling Center)

The residents of North Portland’s public, mixed-income housing development New Columbia now have one of the city’s handful of bike skills parks in their backyard.

Enhanced with paths, wood ramps, a berm and a bicycle teeter-totter, the park at the corner of North Wolsey and Trenton got an official opening ceremony Wednesday from its creators at the Community Cycling Center, the nonprofit Northeast Portland bike shop with a mission to make bicycles “a tool for empowerment and a vehicle for change.”

Thousands of Portlanders will get a chance to check out the result two weeks from now: It’s right on the route for North Portland Sunday Parkways on July 28. The $15,500 park, funded by a mix of private and public sources, is now open to the public during daylight hours.

[Read more…]

PUMP will host an off-road
advocacy presentation tonight
in Northwest Portland.
(Photo © J. Maus)

As Portland moves in on creating more off-road, urban riding areas, interest in skills parks and pump tracks is growing. However, unlike in the transportation cycling realm — where Portland is often looked upon as a leader — when it comes to off-road advocacy, we still have a lot to learn.

With that in mind, the Portland United Mountain Pedalers (PUMP) will host the Evergreen MTB Alliance at an event in Northwest Portland tonight. Evergreen is a Washington-based advocacy group that received national accolades for their success in building the Colonnade MTB Skills Park (check it out on YouTube). That riding area is located under I-5 bridge overpasses in downtown Seattle.

At the event tonight, Evergreen will discuss the Colonnade and other projects, as well as how they grew their organization from a regional MTB club into a statewide advocacy group with more than 1,000 members.
[Read more…]