I had a chance to witness this remarkable cohesion yesterday evening, when I rode out the the Portland Police Bureau's SE Precinct office for a Shift meeting. The topic at hand was

I guess what impressed me the most was that this meeting happened so fluidly, everyone was receptive and honest, and most importantly, people were looking for a pro-active solution. This is a phenomenon that I have never seen before! My perception of police has always been that they are rigid and unforgiving when it comes to things that are not the norm, things that are often times perfectly safe and controlled, because they are new and different. But here we have leaders of law enforcement actually encouraging these kinds of events, doing what they can to help them!
This is what makes Portland a bicycle holy land. It's not the relatively flat landscape, the picture-perfect summers, or the masses of hipsters with nothing better to do. It's the willingness and encouragement of all of it's people to validate the bicycle's role in a healthy and thriving society.
Pictured : Officer Robert Pickett, cycling's best badged friend.
Hallelujah!
ReplyDelete- Pasture Ted
Note the little pig head on the handlebars :))
ReplyDelete