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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!kehoe
From: kehoe@reed.UUCP (Dave Kehoe)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle,net.politics
Subject: Bicycle Route Passes in Portland, Oregon
Message-ID: <1583@reed.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 31-May-85 01:41:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: reed.1583
Posted: Fri May 31 01:41:11 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Jun-85 00:15:45 EDT
Reply-To: kehoe@reed.UUCP (Dave Kehoe)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 68
Xref: watmath net.bicycle:1225 net.politics:9183


Yesterday our bicycle route proposal was passed by the City
Council, and construction will begin shortly.  Some of you
on net.politics may be wondering why I'm telling you this,
and why 2 months ago I posted an article about the bicycle
route proposal to this newsgroup.  The reason is that I'm
interested in and active in the local political process,
and I'm hoping to compare notes with persons involved in
local politics in other cities.  While lots of people have
posted replies regarding bicycling with obnoxious/violent
motorists, no one has replied regarding local politics.
From all the postings on net.politics, you people seem to
be only consumers of politics.  I realize that we're living
in the age of the consumer, but don't you people do anything
but passively watch the TV news and read the newspaper?
Aren't any of you involved in politics?

Back to the bicycle route:  This proposal would seem to be
something that no one could object to (a 3/4 mile bicycle
route through a residential neighborhood in relatively
progressive Portland, Oregon, proposed by the City's Office
of Transportation Engineering, supported by our new Mayor
Bud Clark, who rides a bicycle to City Hall), but the
proposal just barely passed,  after a hard and sometimes
bitter fight.  The opposition consisted of most of the
residents of the 19 houses on the bicycle route, and several
owners of businesses one block off the bicycle route.  The
business owners testified that bicyclists will hurt their
businesses, and the home owners testified (and paid a realtor
to testify) that bicyclists will lower their property values.
They also said many things even more ridiculous (see
my previous postings).  Many of these people are retired and
probably senile, but several are middle-aged or young.
Most of these people are lower middle-
class, but not all.  At least one of the business owners is
very well-off.  The only thing they have in common is that they
hate bicyclists.  I tried to discover why.  I couldn't, until
I talked with a bus driver.  Ten years ago the bus garage didn't
have any parking for employees, so the drivers had to park their
cars on the streets.  The residents hated this, and many bus drivers
had their tires slashed.  The driver I spoke with said that one
morning he parked his car in front of a house, and the homeowner
(a retired man) came running out yelling, "Get away!  Don't you
park your car there!"  The driver politely said that it was a
public street, and started to walk away.  The homeowner ran down
and put a board with nails under the tires of the car.  Anyway,
this bus driver explained to me that my neighbors don't hate
bicyclists: they hate everybody.

I learned that I couldn't argue with these people.
Nothing I or anyone else (e.g. the city attorney) said could persuade
them that the bicycle route will benefit (or at least not hurt)
everyone.  Their minds were made up.
As I found it useless to discuss the proposal with those opposed
to it, I found it most useful to reach the people who didn't know
about the proposal or were undecided.  I wrote an article (not a
letter to the editor) in the Oregonian (Portland's daily newspaper),
I got PSA's on the public radio station, and I passed out flyers
to bicyclists.  The former two methods seemed to be highly
effective; the third I'm not sure about.  I suspect that the mass
media was more effective because people tend to have more faith
in what's printed in the newspaper or read on the radio than
what some guy hands them on the street.

Anyway, if you've had similar experiences with local politics,
please let me know.

-- Dave		tektronix!reed!kehoe