Building great parks and paths – BikePortland

I hope you can come out to Rainbow Road Plaza on Wednesday for Bike Happy Hour. During open mic at 5:30 we’ll talk about parks and have special guests from the Intertwine Alliance and the Portland Parks Foundation. Why? Because parks and paths are the backbone of Portland’s cycling community — and there just happens to be a renewal of the City of Portland Parks Levy on the ballot next month.

The Intertwine is a nonprofit coalition with over 100 partner organizations (including BikeLoud PDX, DePave, Friends of Gateway Green, NW Trail Alliance, Salmonberry Trail Foundation, and many more!) from Oregon and Washington who are committed to building a world-class system of parks and trails. They reached out to me a few months ago to see if they could host one of their “Intertwine Connect” quarterly get togethers at Bike Happy Hour and it seemed like a natural fit.

I recall back in 2009 when the Intertwine launched with great fanfare and was spearheaded by former Metro President David Bragdon. Coming off a very inspiring Policymakers Ride where we learned about new parks and trails in east Multnomah County, I’m eager to hear the latest on the Intertwine’s efforts and learn more from Portland Parks about how bicycling figures into their vision.

I think parks need to be more responsive to community needs and we need to think outside the box by considering building linear parks, building more carfree trails and paths that connect parks to one another, and that every park must come with ample, year-round public restrooms! Parks matter more now than ever as places where we can gather with our communities, experience nature in the city, stretch out and be active — all with no price of admission.

What do you think?

If you care about parks and want to hear more about exciting new trail and path projects, don’t miss Bike Happy Hour this week. And if you’d like to do some homework, learn more about Measure 26-260 at PortlandersForParks.org.

As per usual, I’ll show up at 3:00 for more chill conversations (or heated ones, if the topic warrants it); then I’ll order some appetizers (probably mostly french fries) at 4:00, then we’ll hop on the mics at 5:30 for announcements and the chat about parks.

I can’t wait to see you there and hear what’s on your mind.