Portland bicyclists and bike supporters set a record last week when they sent in the third most comments ever received by the Mayor’s office on an issue (behind Chief Derrick Foxworth, and school closures). Thank you, everyone, for making it clear that bicyclists are paying attention, and expect more from the Mayor! The story was picked up by local media and all of city hall heard us loud and clear. For more background, check out the excellent coverage on BikePortland.org.
And yet the Mayor is inexplicably unmoved. He responded to the 300+ people who emailed and called him last week by saying that this budget cycle was very difficult, and it was just not possible to come up with $100,000 to invest in strategic planning for bikes, even once he saw how very important this is to the community. The Plan hasn’t been updated in 12 years, and without an up-to-date plan we’re stymied on a number of fronts as we try to move Portland forward for bicyclists. This year there’s a budget surplus, so there’s no excuse for not spending a tiny bit of it to plan for strategic and smart spending in the future!
Are we deterred? No!! There are a few more things we can do. First among them…
Come on the monthly Bicycle Master Plan ride tomorrow evening (Tuesday), starting at 5:15 pm at Terry Schrunk Plaza (SW 3rd and Madison). Check out the route map and ride description for more details.
This is a fun way to show your support for the Plan update. It’s a sociable, relaxed, informative ride to look at current biking conditions and to think about what we want in the future. And it’s part of the Update process that will stop if Mayor Potter doesn’t restore funding. It’s not a protest, nor is it a parade, so it’s a traffic-law-obeying, stopping-for-discussion kind of event. It might rain, so bring your jacket. We expect a record number of bicyclists out to show support for the Update – please be one of them!
The next thing we’ll do is to testify, en masse, at the Mayor’s Community Budget Hearing, in the Robert Gray Middle School Cafeteria, 5505 SW 23rd Ave, on Thursday May 10th in the evening. Community outcry at these hearings has worked in the past (like for the Buckman Pool) and can work again. We’ll post more details about that next week.
Hope to see you tomorrow evening! With your help, we will make this Bicycle Master Plan update happen.
One more thing – we’re not sure where Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Erik Sten stand on this issue. If it’s important to you and you want them to know it, email them (at dsaltzman@ci.portland.or.us and erik@ci.portland.or.us) and ask them to support the Bicycle Master Plan Update funding.