Rippled Reflections

Another beautiful morning with clear skies & rippled reflections shining through the tress on Olive Park.

from Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery http://ift.tt/2rr3Do3

Chicago Neighborhood : Old Town

Just hanging out in Old Town this afternoon while my bike gets it’s 30-ride tune-up!

Murals making walls better in Old Town.

And some of the best… some organic and some architectural.

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from Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery http://ift.tt/2sphgkO

Double Mug Exchange

Last night in my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthwoing class,
we ended the Spring session with a fun class, potluck snacks and a Double Mug Exchange! At the start of class I challenged my students to make mugs to exchange during the final class. With a small twist… my brand new Beginners needed to make two mugs, but my returning Advanced Beginners needed to make “matching” mugs!!! Here are a “few” of the mugs that were up for grabs last night!!!

And two “individuals” by one of my brand new Beginners… pretty sweet, huh?!

And of course I had to play along too… so here are my contribution
to the Double Mug Exchange… two stamped and cone 6 glaze fired mugs!

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from Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery http://ift.tt/2rlYhrY

Heed this wisdom to be a Pedalpalooza pro

It’s here. Hope you’ve been practicing your high-fives.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland’s epic month of bike rides and events starts tomorrow. Yes, that’s right, it’s time for the annual Pedalpalooza festival. It’s the 16th year in a row Shift has helped us celebrate the social exhiliration and of bicycling with a slate of rides organized and led by people in the community like you and me. It’s a phenomenonal display of community connectedness unlike anything I’ve seen in the cycling world and we hope you plan to be a part of it

If you are going to join in any one of the 262 rides on the calendar (so far) this month, there are a few things you should know to make sure your experience reaches its full potential. And on a more serious note, there are a few things you should do to make sure your experience doesn’t end up making bad memories (or worse) for you, your friends, or the people around you.

For our annual Pedalalooza primer we once again turn to bike funnist and Shift volunteer Chris “Fool” McCraw. He recently shared some important pits of wisdom:

Tips for maximum Pedalpalooza enjoyment

A well-stocked pannier is always a good idea.

Get that tune-up, stock up on spare tubes, and make sure your butt loves your saddle. It’s the last minute NOW because you want to have your bike ready before the fun really gets started on June 1st!

Now get yourself tuned up — do you know where your summer bike clothes are? Been putting off that doctor’s appt? Been to see the barber? Nobody wants to stop riding with a few thousand of their closest friends to take care of stuff that could happen anytime, and you know you wanna be in top shape to enjoy the rides and be looking sharp for the cutie you’re sure to meet on the happy streets. Might not be a bad idea to get caught up on laundry, too.

Next up it’s time to get stocked! Easy frozen meals to heat & eat when you get home exhausted and just wanna crawl into bed? Favorite hangover cure — available in quantity? Portable intoxicant of choice — need to hit costco or stumptown to get enough? Beer is easy on the fly, but if you’re more of a liquor is quicker, candy is dandy kinda person — do it in advance: visit your local dispensary, or anyway get the things you can’t make happen at a quickie mart mid-ride or en-route done on your schedule instead of missing the pre-party for Loud and Lit because you have to find the last liquor store in town still open.

Almost ready — but is your pedalpalooza survival kit all ready to go? Picnic blanket, hearty snacks, condoms, band-aids & aspirin, flat-fix kit, extra headlight batteries, and fliers for your ride to hand out to folks at other rides are all recommended. Got Costumes for the WNBR and beyond? Might as well figure all that out during the calm before the storm!

Help take care of yourself and others: These three steps go a long way toward creating inclusive, safe(r) bike fun!

Pedalpalooza is a wild ride, with too little sleep and sometimes too much booze. While we’re out having fun, I want to ask YOU to help take care of yourself and others. These three steps go a long way toward creating inclusive, safe(r) bike fun!

1) Have a plan & Look out for your own well being

When you go on rides that may take you out of your comfort zone, know thyself – might you end up riding longer than expected without a food stop that fits your diet? Might you end up somewhere you’ve never been before? These are near-certainties, so make sure you’re prepared – have a spare inner tube, have a bike map, have a friend you can call if you get stranded (very few rides will leave the cell service area, and those that do are generally described as fairly long rides), and have some substantial snacks and water. Make friends on the ride so that even if you don’t have what you need – you now know someone who might let you borrow their phone or share their snack or patch kit.

2) Be aware of your situation

Both on and off the bike, be aware of your environment. We are traffic, but we are mortal, so watch out for anyone operating a vehicle erratically and be defensive about not getting creamed or even bumping someone else – on a bike or in a car! Having a dance party on the springwater? Cool! Just be aware of nearby residents and of wandering off by yourself to pass out or even make out – safety first (or third – but think about it as you go!)

3) Look out for each other

This one is a bit less obvious than the other two, but as a community of bike funnists, we have to take care of each other. Specifically, be on the lookout for folks who seem so intoxicated that they won’t be able to ride safely home, and try to help them figure out a remedy – be that getting them a ride buddy or an Uber. On a similar note, CONSENT IS SEXY. This goes for sexual stuff of course – be the person you want to wake up and see in the mirror tomorrow – but also goes for peer pressure and intoxication – if your new friend doesn’t want to drink another beer or take another toke, don’t shame them into it. We don’t need to make any more depressing statistics or have someone’s life get fucked up. Check out these resources on consent that I hope you’ll read – it’ll take 2 minutes and you’ll be an awesomer person for reading them and helping others who haven’t read them keep them in mind even when drunk.

Have fun out there Portland! I’ll miss the first few days (headed to Montréal tomorrow!) but I can’t wait to join you in the streets when I get back.

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

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.

The post Heed this wisdom to be a Pedalpalooza pro appeared first on BikePortland.org.

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Help make biking better in Beaverton via this online open house

Beaverton’s bike network will be better if you share your feedback.

The City of Beaverton has opened a virtual open house for their first-ever Active Transportation Plan. The plan, which also includes walking-related infrastructure of course, will help city staff implement the right facilities in the right places.

In their first online open house, Beaverton planners learned that — surprise, surprise — people who want to bike more but are too afraid of traffic have a “clear desire” for separated facilities like multi-use paths and protected bike lanes. “Providing bicycle infrastructure that accommodates this group of ‘Interested but Concerned’ bicyclists has the greatest potential of increasing bicycling in Beaverton,” the city said.

In this open house, the city wants your feedback on two main topics: What streets should be prioritized for bicycle access updates, and what type of bicycle infrastructure should be implemented.

Similar to Portland (and other cities), Beaverton will label their bicycle network into various “functional classifications” ranging from “enhanced major bikeways” (fully-protected lanes on major arterials) to “neighborhood bikeways” (akin to Portland’s neighborhood greenways). The classifications will help determine what types of facilities are suitable in each location.

Bicycle network classifications map.

You also have the opportunity to tell the City of Beaverton what type of facilities you prefer to ride in. Their current proposal includes four facility types: protected bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, regular old bike lanes, and sharrows.

Facility types proposed by City of Beaverton.

Another way to share your feedback is to download the Ride Report app. Data from this app (which anonymously tracks your routes and allows you to rate them as stressful or pleasant) is being used by the City of Beaverton to help decide where to build new bikeways.

After processing community feedback, city staff will spend the next three months creating a project list.

You can sign up for an email list to stay updated on more open house and public outreach events. The plan is scheduled for adoption by Beaverton City Council in October of this year.

It will be a much better plan if you take a few minutes to share your opinions in the online open house.

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

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.

The post Help make biking better in Beaverton via this online open house appeared first on BikePortland.org.

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Single Bloom Ikebana

Spring clematis bloom in one of my stamped & soda-fired ikebana vases.
Lovin’ the color contrast.

So which view do YOU like better?…
Straight down birds-eye-view?… or a slight angle?!!!

from Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery http://ift.tt/2qBmtcI

Create a Morning Ritual to Calm Anxiety

It’s possible to calm the anxiety you experience during the day simply by creating a morning ritual. Whether anxiety obnoxiously wakes you before your alarm sounds or greets you loudly the moment you’re awake, beginning the day with anxious thoughts, troubled emotions, and agitated bodily sensations is exhausting and discouraging. Yet if you create a morning ritual to calm anxiety, it doesn’t have to ruin your day before it even begins. 

The Nature of Anxiety-Calming Morning Rituals

Ritual has been integral to human wellbeing, for individuals as well as groups small and large, through time and across cultures. Having rituals is soothing to the psyche because they’re imbued with meaning. Further, they’re done regularly and predictably so they become comfortingly rhythmic. Rituals impact our inner world, which is why having an anti-anxiety ritual in the morning is so effective in reducing anxiety and positively influencing your day.

To be most effective in reducing anxiety in the morning, your ritual should take place as close to the same time each day as possible. This will establish a routine that your brain will come to recognize and rely on. Further, your brain will in time make a strong association between the time of day, place of the ritual, and activities done and reduced anxiety. In other words, simply seeing or being otherwise reminded of the ritual will come to induce calm.

Another essential element of ritual is the space you create. Pick a comfortable, pleasant place for your morning anti-anxiety ritual so that it’s physically enjoyable for you. In the video at the end of this post, I discuss this idea further, and I invite you to tune in for more information.

Examples of Morning Rituals for Calming Anxiety

The why, what, and where of anxiety-reducing ritual are all important, but they don’t provide the entire picture. It’s helpful to also know the how: how are rituals done to counteract anxiety right away in the morning?

One of the beautiful things about having a regular activity to manage anxiety is that you get to create what best suits you, your personality, and your unique anxiety. The main idea is to have an activity, something you do each morning at a set time and in a set place, to induce peace and calm and reduce anxiety. It’s often most helpful if your activity is simple and something you enjoy doing. Some examples of activities for morning rituals:

• Writing and repeating affirmations
• Watching fish in an aquarium
• Drinking tea, decaffeinated coffee, or even water
• Taking a mindfulness walk
• Mindfully eating something healthy
• Journaling
• Meditating
• Deep breathing
• Goal setting for the day (What does a great day mean to you today?)
• Making an action plan for a low-anxiety day (What steps are you going to take to create your great day?)

These are just a few examples of activities you can do for your morning ritual to calm anxiety. Whatever you do, do what brings you joy, peace, and a sense of calm.

 

 

from Anxiety-Schmanxiety – HealthyPlace http://ift.tt/2qBhTeC

New path in Waterfront Park part of Naito’s emerging role in bike network

This new path is just one sign of Naito’s emerging significance in the downtown bikeway network.
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)

Sorry Portland Business Alliance, but the evolution of downtown streets will continue with or without your approval.

The business lobbying group (known around here as “the PBA”) that used to have considerable sway over downtown decision-making, made their opposition to the Better Naito project clear last week. And while the PBA might feel better when the temporary biking and walking-only lane gets removed in September, they’ll soon realize it’s just one of many moves the Portland Bureau of Transportation is making to update downtown streets. And those updates are all aimed at doing the same thing as Better Naito: create more space for biking so it becomes safer and more convenient for more people.

With Better Naito, a new (permanent) path to connect to the Steel Bridge, and several other recent developments, the future of Portland’s downtown bike network is taking shape and Naito Parkway plays a leading role.

Here’s how just a few parts of this emerging bike network figure into that future…

Naito getting even better

Another view of the new path looking northbound at NW Couch toward Davis.

A new bike path emerged in Waterfront Park last week. PBOT has installed a wide strip of black pavement in Waterfront Park near the Japanese American Historical Plaza. The path begins at NW Couch and ends one block later at Davis. As I alluded to on May 10th, the path is intended to serve as a safer way for northbound bicycle users to cross the tricky intersection of Davis, Naito and the onramp that leads up to the Steel Bridge. By taking bike traffic out of the curbside bike lane, PBOT can create a safer angle between right-turning auto users and northbound bike users at the intersection.

Where the path re-enters the roadway at the Davis on-ramp to the Steel Bridge.

The new path is part of a larger project that will include a new bike-only signal at this intersection and a new, two-way connection between Davis and the Steel Bridge. The signal is coming soon and will give bicycle users a separate signal phase to cross Davis at the Steel Bridge on-ramp without worrying about cross traffic. This signal is key because it will handle two-way bike traffic on Naito. PBOT plans to sign and mark the existing, 12-foot-wide Naito bike lane for north and southbound traffic from the paths in Waterfront Park at the west end of the Steel Bridge to Davis. This new bi-directional bikeway will feed directly into the Better Naito lane.

And Naito’s resurgence as a bikeway doesn’t end at the Steel Bridge. While PBOT recently added a buffer and plastic wands well north of the bridge, there are also plans to install more bike lanes as far north as 19th to accomodate new residential development.

Two Flanders crossings

A new crossing of Naito will connect the Steel Bridge to 2nd/3rd Avenues via Flanders.

The promise of the Flanders bikeway is well over a decade late. When the City of Portland created the West Burnside-Couch couplet without any bike-specific infrastructure, they made a deal with the then-Bicycle Transportation Alliance that they’d create a bike boulevard on Flanders Street from the Willamette to northwest Portland. Currently Flanders isn’t a part of the bike network because it dead-ends at I-405 and at Naito. But both of those gaps will be filled relatively soon.

The Flanders bridge over I-405 is funded and expected to be open by 2019. Adding to that good news is PBOT’s imminent intention to create a crossing of Naito for walkers and bicycle riders between the Steel Bridge/Waterfront Park path and Flanders in Old Town/Chinatown (directly in front of Oregon Department of Transportation Region 1 headquarters). A safer crossing between the Steel Bridge and Flanders would allow people on bikes to easily connect not only to Better Naito, but also to the bikeway couplet that already exists on 2nd and 3rd avenues.

$9 million in protected bike lanes coming soon

More protected bike lanes similar to this one on SW 2nd Avenue, are coming soon.

Adding into this mix is PBOT’s Central City Multimodal Project. You might have forgotten about this project because it’s taking forever to roll out. It has now been well over four years since the city first began planning a network of protected bike lanes downtown. The good news is PBOT has amassed a war chest of $8.8 million to build them (thanks to a $6 million federal grant from Metro and $2.8 million from the new gas tax fund). We don’t know what streets will get the new protected lanes; but it’s safe to say that bicycle circulation on Naito will be impacted and improved by whatever goes in.

PBOT expects to start building these new bikeways next year.

The network effect

A quick sketch of a few existing and planned bikeways show how connected loops are slowly but surely forming.

A bikeway network follows this basic rule: every new connecting piece adds exponential value to the whole. And with each new piece, and every new rider who uses it, the public and political urgency to do even more rises too. This is the positive feedback loop that will finally move the needle for cycling in Portland.

When you stand back and look at all these ongoing projects, it’s reasonable to think that downtown is poised for a major explosion in bike use. (And let’s not forget the Biketown effect. The success of those orange bikes has created a new level of urgency among electeds and city staffers to make streets in the central city safer for cycling.)

Which brings us back to Better Naito. PBOT has promised stakeholders that the existing lane will be returned to its previous use (a standard lane and a bike lane) at the end of September. To make the politics work, PBOT will have to keep their promise and remove the big protected bike lane at that time no matter how successful the project is. But given Better Naito’s popularity and the fact that a high-quality bikeway in that location is imperative to future transportation plans, I would be shocked if PBOT didn’t find a way to make it permanent before spring 2018.

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

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.

The post New path in Waterfront Park part of Naito’s emerging role in bike network appeared first on BikePortland.org.

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