Commissioner Saltzman will demand congestion pricing of I-5 before widening project starts

Include congestion/value pricing before the project breaks ground to ensure maxim congestion relief and overall environmental benefits.
— from a statement drafted by Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s office

Will the City of Portland sit idly by and allow new lanes to be added to a freeway in the urban core? Not if the commissioner in charge of the transportation bureau has his way.

Prior to a public hearing on the Central City 2035 Plan slated for Thursday (September 7th), City Commissioner Dan Saltzman will issue a statement about the Interstate 5/Rose Quarter freeway project. According to his Senior Policy Director Matt Grumm, Saltzman has been watching the dialogue on the project unfold over the past week. Among the work they’ve done to understand the issue is to meet with leaders of the No More Freeway Expansions coalition — which includes Joe Cortright, an economist and expert on congestion pricing.

While Grumm hasn’t said Saltzman will agree to remove the freeway project from the Transportation System Plan (as No More Freeways wants), he will do something that many activists feel is just as important: Require congestion pricing before the tractors roll in and construction starts on the new lanes.

Here’s a snip of an early draft of the statement Saltzman’s office is working on:

Include congestion/value pricing before the project breaks ground to ensure maxim congestion relief and overall environmental benefits

Congestion/Value pricing is a proven congestion and carbon reduction strategy and it is an essential part of the project. The recently passed HB 2017 – the state transportation funding package – mandates that value pricing be implemented as part of the I-5 Broadway/Weidler Interchange project. Not only can value pricing relieve congestion and help our region lead on climate, but it can be implemented with social equity as a founding principle. Congestion/Value pricing can help bring improved mobility and pricing solutions to those traveling through the corridor. We are working closely with the state of Oregon and multiple regional partners to evaluate how to ensure this tool brings the most benefits to our city and state.

Many local electeds, insiders and transportation policy leaders are saying that the time has come for Portland to try congestion pricing. And given the politics and context of this I-5 project, it could be a great opportunity to implement a pricing pilot project. Cortright is a strong believer that congestion pricing should happen before any shovels hit the ground on I-5 at the Rose Quarter. He points to examples in other cities where lanes were added before tolling was implemented only to see traffic — and with it, the need for the infrastructure — drop significantly.

ODOT has been issued a mandate by House Bill 2017 to come up with a “value pricing” program by next year. Skeptics recall that the 2009 transportation bill also called for a pricing program, yet it never moved forward. But this time around might be different. In a sign of their seriousness, the agency posted three new jobs just week: a “value pricing study manager“, a “value pricing project coordinator” and a “community engagement coordinator.”

Saltzman’s statement is stronger regarding the need for congestion pricing than a statement made this week by The Street Trust. While Saltzman clearly calls for “pricing before the project breaks ground,” The Street Trust said, “the project must include congestion pricing”.

If City Council is looking for a way to respond to community concerns about the I-5 project but doesn’t want to take the relatively bold action of removing it from the TSP , voting for a local ordinance that requires pricing before construction could be a politically prudent compromise.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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The Street Trust says “compromises with legislators” are why they won’t sign I-5 widening opposition letter

In a blog post yesterday The Street Trust (formerly the Bicycle Transportation Alliance) offered further rationale for why they’ve chosen to not sign onto a letter opposing the a freeway widening project on Interstate 5 at the Rose Quarter.

In a post titled, “The future of the Rose Quarter” written by newly hired Communications Director Romain Bonilla, the group said, “While we have chosen not to sign this coalition’s letter, we share advocates’ concerns and wholeheartedly agree that widening highways will not reduce congestion.”

The No More Freeway Expansions coalition has written a letter to Portland City Council and the Oregon Transportation Commission that has been signed by over 25 organizations including the Audubon Society of Portland, Neighbors for Clean Air, the Urban Greenspaces Institute, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon and others. Their letter strongly opposes the I-5 widening project and demands that the project is removed from the City of Portland’s Transportation System Plan.

In their blog post yesterday, The Street Trust wrote that, “We share advocates’ concerns and wholeheartedly agree that widening highways will not reduce congestion,” and that, “We all have a role to play in this political ecosystem and we are grateful for our partners and others who are doing their part to help us get there… we encourage these advocates to make their voices heard as we fight together towards our shared priorities.”

But even with that strong note of support for the coalition’s position on the issue, The Street Trust decided to not sign the letter. Here’s why: “To remain consistent with the compromises reached with legislators and stakeholders in the bill.”

Curious about that passage in the blog post, I asked The Street Trust’s newly hired executive director Jillian Detweiler if indeed a deal was made. And if so, whether she’d like to share more details about it.

Detweiler said no, her organization didn’t cut a deal with lawmakers or stakeholders.

“We opposed freeway projects throughout and got them significantly reduced,” she wrote BikePortland via email last night. “It is inaccurate to say we ‘couldn’t’ sign the letter,” Detweiler continued. “If you are trying to imply some sort of silence was ‘bought’ or agreed to by investments in transit and sidewalks that’s not correct. We just think it demonstrates integrity to not take a lead throwing pot shots at an element in the overall package we supported. We don’t oppose those who do and and in fact we encourage it.”

The bill funds public transit and updates to streets around schools (to the tune of about $12 million per year for the next 10 years). Detweiler said The Street Trust supported those investments, “Because we want people to have safe and convenient alternatives to driving and we want to save lives. There’s no direct benefit to The Street Trust if that is what you are trying to imply.”

If there was no deal made, I asked, what exactly does it mean when they say, “To remain consistent with the compromises… we have chosen not to sign on to this coalition’s letter”?

“Our ideal bill would have no freeway improvements,” Detweiler responded. “To urge legislators to support HB 2017 was to urge support of a compromise.”

Local activists and supporter of the No More Freeway Expansions coalition Steve Bozzone said via a Twitter thread last night that he understands the political game of compromise; but he wants The Street Trust to take a more aggressive stance. “Oregon is burning, Texas is flooding, our children have asthma, and we’re going to support expanding freeways because of safe routes to school money?!,” he tweeted. “When do we draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough? Where is the leadership from our big NPOs [nonprofit organizations]? Now is the time.”

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Cycloross Crusade organizers retract new logo after negative community feedback

Organizers of the Cyclocross Crusade, a Portland-based race series founded in 1993, have shelved a new logo design.

The logo debuted at a kickoff event for the 2017 season on Sunday and was met with negative feedback from some in the community.

Late Thursday night the organization posted the following statement to their social media accounts:

We released the new logo for the Cyclocross Crusade on Sunday in hopes it could convey the fun and inclusive spirit of our bike race series.

We apologize for not recognizing sooner that the design may be too closely associated with symbols used by those who promote hate, racism, divisiveness and fear.

The Cyclocross Crusade series wouldn’t be what it is without our community. To be clear: yes, you belong. The logo will be retracted immediately.

I only saw the logo briefly. I flagged it while scanning my social media feeds and planned to post it eventually. I don’t recall the design in enough detail to explain why it was offensive, although based on comments I’ve seen the contours of the new logo appeared to some people to be akin to a swastika. The Cyclocross Crusade has deleted the new logo from their internet presence.

Community reaction to the move has been mixed; but the majority of people commenting so far support the organization and their decision. Here are a few of the responses:

“It never crossed my mind that it could be misinterpreted. However, looking at it from the perspective from someone who has no idea what Cross Crusade, I totally get it. You see someone wearing a shirt with a logo that says “Cross Crusade” and then what appears to be a variation of an iron cross, the first thing a lot of people’s minds would go to is that it’s some sort of far right wing group. Looking at it from that perspective, I think it’s a good call.”

“Oh for fucks sake.”

“Thank you so much for listening to the concerns of your community even though it meant taking a harder road for your organization. Please know that we appreciate it, and we’ll see you at the races.”

“Thank you for being responsive to the concerns of your community! It takes a lot of guts and maturity.”

“I kinda liked it. Didn’t see anything too alt-right about it, but it pays to be cautious I guess.”

This isn’t the first time local cyclocross race organizers have gotten int hot water with the community due to offensive promotional materials. In December 2016 organizers of the Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships event deleted social media posts and lost at least one advertiser due to what some people felt were a series of sexist Instagram posts.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Long Island Iced Tea

Let’s clarify one thing I wish I had known when I was younger: there is no iced tea anywhere in the Long Island Iced Tea. It is simply the color of iced tea.

This is critical knowledge to have if you plan to drink one. Or three. Because not knowing this will get you in a whole heap of trouble.

Continue reading "Long Island Iced Tea" »

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Neighborhood of Good®: Lesson Plans!

This post was sponsored by State Farm®

Summer is coming to a quick close (I can’t believe it either!!) and so is our summer program that we are teaching for The RightWay Foundation— a foundation that helps foster youth and former foster youth with job training and placement. (If you missed our introductory post about this program, you can read about it here.)

I’m very excited about today’s post because I’ll be outlining our whole course with you and sharing our lesson plans, should you feel inspired to replicate the course or use any of the ideas to help inspire/teach/train folks in your community. For this course we focused both studio art and business/marketing for artists. The age range of the students was 17-28.

For this program, we’ve been meeting one time per week. There are a total of four sessions and each course is about 2.5 hours long. Our course will culminate with an art show where we will display and sell the work we’ve created together. Proceeds from the show will go back to The RightWay Foundation (Save the date Wednesday the 13th if you want to come!)

Class 1.0

Teacher and Student Introductions (30 minutes)
Share a bit about yourself and ask students about their own ‘creative history’ 

Branding Lecture & Discussion (30 minutes)
Review of brands that are recognizable: List a few brands that are easily recognizable in your community and ask students to identify what colors, symbols or tag-lines are associated with those brands. Discuss, how as artists, we need to think about these aspects as well. Ask students to think about/write down answers to the following questions:

• What artists do you feel have a recognizable brand? Share some adjectives of what that brand looks/feels like.
• What separates or distinguishes your style/feel from the masses?
• How do you want people to feel when they encounter your brand or your art?
• How can you work to illicit that feeling through things like colors, symbols and tag-lines for your own brand or business? 
• Do you think about the ‘voice’ you use on your social media channels? Who is talking? What is the ‘style’ of your brand?
• How can you weave yourself and your personality into your branding? Remind students that the more authentic the message, the more it will resonate with others.

Discuss student answers to the questions.

Objective: Get students thinking about how they can be deliberate about the look/feel and messaging as artists. 

15 minute break 

 

Studio Session (1 hour)

Materials: Pens (Sharpie® markers work well), paper, and a stop watch (or stop watch app)

30–Second Sketches

Give students 30 seconds to sketch the following things without taking their pens off of the paper (or invent your own subjects):

• face
• mountain with a forest and a moon
• person sitting near you
• last thing you ate
• still life (we did a plant in a pot on a podium)
• self-portrait
• boat at the beach and a sun

Objective: This creative warm up is meant to get students thinking on their toes and get them into the process of making art without being too results-oriented. 

Now give students 60 seconds to do a self-portrait. Ask how that process felt different from the 30-second one?

Next, ask students to do another 30 second self-portrait. Stop them after 30 seconds and then let them work on the same one for another 30 seconds. Continue for 2 minutes.

Ask them to compare the three self-portraits side-by-side and discuss what it felt like to have 30 seconds, 60 seconds, or 2 minutes (without knowing that 2 full minutes would be given). Which portrait is their favorite? Why?

Next, ask students to do another 30-second self-portrait, but this time they can’t lift their pens from the paper.

Have each student select their favorite pieces of the day. Hold each one up to the rest of the class and have the class throw out adjectives that describe the work. Have the artist of the piece write down these adjectives.

Objective: Help students to begin to think about how others see their work and begin to identify their personal style

 

Class 2.0

Discussion/lecture: Think about your client  (30 minutes)

Getting to know your target demographic: Inventing an ideal client can help you to build a brand for that client that eventually can help lead that person to you.  Think about your ideal client and answer the following questions:

What did she study in school?
What does she read?
What does she listen to?
How much does she make annually?
Where does she do her grocery shopping?
What does she do for fun?
Where does she like to travel?
What are her favorite magazines
What’s her favorite movie?
Where does she live? City? Country? Suburbs?
What type of work does she do?
How dies she exercise?
What are her favorite colors?
What’s her favorite food
What’s her ‘uniform’?

Discuss the answers and what insights this information might give to you about

 

15 minute break 

 

Studio Session (1hr. 30min)

Materials: Pens (Sharpie® markers work well), paper, a stop watch (or stop watch app), water colors, water, and brushes

30-Second Sketches (with eyes closed!)

 

Today’s creative warm-up is more 30-second sketches, but this time the students must draw with their eyes closed.

Share the drawings and discuss with the class what it felt like to do these drawings with that constraint.

Pair up in the class. Paint 30-second portraits of a classmate without looking at the paper (only look at classmate’s face).

Do an exercise with the whole class where you guess whose  portrait was painted.

Watercolor exercises. Have each student paint two rainbows. One should be with bright, saturated colors. The other should be watery and faded.

Pick one of the drawings (from this week or last week) to paint using watercolors

Give the students 30 minutes to paint one of their drawings with watercolors.

Have students take turns being the ‘model.’ Take turns posing and do 30-second sketches of peoples full bodies in different poses.

Objective: Familiarize students with watercolors, and get students to focus on observing subjects and intuitively.

 

Class 3.0

Discussion/lecture: Introduction to Face the Foliage project  (15 minutes)

Face the Foliage is an art movement that I began a few years back creating portraits out of leaves and flowers. I was able to proliferate my message by inviting others to participate through the #FaceTheFoliage Instagram hashtag. A great way to get your work ‘out there’ is to join existing Instagram communities or start your own!

15 minutes to Walk and Forage

We gave the students 15 minutes to go outside and forage leaves and flowers to make portraits.

Studio Session (2 hours)

 

Materials: Paper, scissors, markers, leaves, twigs, flowers, paper plates (or other vessels to hold foraged items), phone or camera (to take pictures of the works since these pieces don’t get saved, they get photographed and composted.

Draw vessels with markers (vases, planters etc.) and use foraged materials to “fill” vessels.

 

Create portraits using only the leaves, twigs and flowers.

Have students write something (a word, quote or phrase) and use the foraged pieces to embellish the “sentiment art.”

Objective: Empower students with the idea that anything can be material to create art and that building a community around art is a great way to proliferate your work and message.

 

Class 4.0

 

Studio Session (1  hour). 

Free paint/draw collage session. Each student has 45 minutes to geek out and use what they’ve learned to make whatever they want.

Discussion/lecture: Introduction to curation and pricing (1 hour)

For the last class we will go through all of the art pieces and pick the strongest group of pieces to be framed and displayed for the art show. Together we will choose pieces, frames and discuss the show layout.

Pricing: Discuss prices for art and why/how to price art. Why is some art so much more expensive than other art? What makes some art “worth more” than other art? How can we elevate our works to ask as much as possible for our pieces?

Objective: Create the strongest group of art for the show and think about the way framing, curation and art placement (context) can affect the way that art is seen and sold. 

Studio Session (30 Minutes)

Each student will create a poster for art show promotion and pick one piece to create art prints from to be sold at the show. Every student must present their work to the class and share why they picked the pieces they did.

This post has been sponsored by State Farm®  – Here to help life go right.™ Turn caring into doing and find volunteer opportunities in your neighborhood at Neighborhood-of-Good.com

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Jobs of the Week: Surly, Velotech, Stages, and more

Looking for a new place to spread you cycling wings? We’ve got four great job opportunities that just went up this week.

Learn more about each one via the links below…

–> Brand Marketing Manager – Surly Bikes

–> Service Manager/Asst. Manager – Confidential

–> Shipping Specialist – Velotech

–> General Accounting Clerk – Stages Indoor Cycling

For a complete list of available jobs, click here.

Be the first to know about new job opportunities by signing up for our daily Job Listings email or by following @BikePortland on Twitter.

These are paid listings. And they work! If you’d like to post a job on the Portland region’s “Best Local Blog” two years running, you can purchase a listing online for just $50 by visiting our Job Listings page.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Job: Brand Marketing Manager – Surly Bikes

Job Title *
Brand Marketing Manager – Surly Bikes

Company/Organization *
Surly Bikes

Job Description *
Surly marketing. Yeah, we know what you’re thinking. Goes together like oil and water, right? Isn’t Surly’s form of marketing tapping a keg? Well, therein lies the conundrum.

Surly is synonymous with anti-marketing. So how do you go about marketing that? The real question is: how does one not only reach, but also engage the skeptics, the critics, the jaded yet passionate, the ones they call “surly loyalists.” Well my friend, you’ve just stumbled on your mission statement.

The Surly idea has been summarized in various ways throughout the years:

“Bike. Parts. Chaos.”

“Serious bikes for people who don’t take themselves too serious”

“When the industry zigs, Surly zags.”

The right candidate for this job is someone who knows how to engage a very passionate audience with the right message, at the right time, in the right place. This marketing ninja should understand how to distill broad concepts into meaningful campaigns, crafting actionable briefs that outline the creation and connection of campaign collateral across a broad array of marketing channels.

We seek less an individual who can rattle off the nuances of Long Haul Trucker wheelbase benefits (we have that covered) and more of an individual who knows how to craft a content calendar using email, social, website content, blogging, video, retailer training, and event activation, to speak of a few.

Sound like something you’re up for? Give us a shout. Despite our name, we’re actually quite enjoyable people.

Overview

Increase brand awareness and customer loyalty by crafting brand and product marketing strategies and activation plans that implement unified collateral across all marketing channels. Collaborate with Product, Sales, Engineering and Creative team to coordinate the building of smart, effective, and unified marketing materials. This leader will ensure Surly products and services are powerfully placed in the market to connect customers to the brand and drive sales at retail.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
• Brand Positioning – Collaborate with Brand leadership to develop a 3-year strategic plan that places Surly in a distinct marketplace position.
• Marketing Campaigns – Identify, develop and implement campaigns that deliver on shared goals that are developed and identified with Sales, Product, Creative and QBP Leadership teams.
• Collateral and Detail — Identify and deliver appropriate marketing strategy and materials for each specific audience: Internal, sales reps, retailers, and consumers. Collaborate with Product and Marketing to ensure all marketing touchpoints deliver consistent and complete information, from product specification to compelling creative.
• Insights and Opportunities — Understand and be able to implement qualitative and quantitative methods of research to understand Surly and competitor positioning. Understand digital age tools to segment audiences, A/B test images and content, conduct user surveys and deliver insights that help Surly further refine its marketplace position.

Competencies
To perform the job successfully, an individual will need the following competencies:

Passion for Knowing the Customer— Demonstrate deep empathy towards the customer. Identify, acknowledge and remediate the pain points in their customer journey by crafting clear content that engages the Surly loyalist and keeps them engaged with the brand. Develop and deliver insights that reinforce the meaning behind the brand and will help it grow.
Content Connector — Craft a content calendar with the creative team to deliver meaningful, engaging, and differentiating content to connect with all potential Surly customers, at the right time and place, using the right channel.
Organized & Analytical – Uses intuition and experience to complement data-driven decisions to deliver on broadly communicated goals.
Team Attitude – Understands that any team is only as strong as its weakest link. Willingness to nurture team members, drive consistent execution, effectively address challenges and lead a team of peers to solutions.

Job Qualifications:

5+ years of brand, marketing, and/or communications experience
4-year college degree in a related field
Expert knowledge of traditional and digital marketing tools & techniques, including Email, Facebook and Google Analytics
Expert knowledge of brand theory, science, and practice
Demonstrated track record of effective team and people leadership
Demonstrated track record of identifying and solving complex problems
Comfortable working with financial metrics, P&L, and balance sheet

All candidates are subject to a pre-employment criminal background check and a drug screen. Some applicants may be subject to a credit check as well

How to Apply *
Apply online at www.qbp.com/careers

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