Vandals hit several Biketown stations

Rose City Saboteurs take credit for the damage.
(Photos: Jeff Mayeur)

Vandals have hit several Biketown bike share stations in the past week.

So far we’ve heard about seven locations where vandals have damaged bikes and rendered them useless. The City of Portland is aware of some of the damage and has crews responding to fix the bikes and return the stations into operational status.

At least two of the incidents appear to be the work of the same suspect: A flyer has been posted on the stations that says the damage was inflicted by Rose City Saboteurs.

“This Biketown is now closed,” reads the sign. “Our city is not a corporate amusement park.”

Here are the station locations where readers have reported vandalism so far:

NE 24th and Glisan
N Interstate and Willamette
N Williams and Fremont
33rd and Belmont
12th and Division
30th and Division

The damage includes slashed tires, spray paint on the LED displays, cut spokes, and sliced seats.

This isn’t the first time Biketown stations have been vandalized. It has been an intermittent problem since the system was launched last summer.

We’ll update this story with a comment from Biketown operator Motivate Inc. as soon as we hear back.

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

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