2 postcards, and much ado about protected bike lanes

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I tried to find a link for this hot sauce and got a defunct Square site, but it's this stuff:

This summer has been very bikey, perhaps my bikeyest on record!

I tabled at Sunday Parkways with BikeLoud, an organization that works to make bicycling safer and more accessible in Portland. This is a picture of me being thrilled that Sunday Parkways is only a few hours long and I'm not trying to sell anything, so it's 100000% easier than tabling at a comic convention:

I'm not wearing clown shoes. The picture is distorted. I swear.

I got to see my banner in action at the PSU Farmer's Market! The goal was to talk about the difference between streets that are designed for the people on them and streets that try to move cars through as fast as possible. The engineers usually didn't have to bring that up. People said, "What do you mean my favorite street? My favorite street to spend time on is [two-lane street with sidewalks, lots of storefronts, and trees], and my favorite street to drive on is [five-lane road that used to be a highway and is classified as a high-crash corridor]."

I signed up to volunteer at the Buckman Community Picnic and ended up face painting! The face painter/balloon animal maker had a huge line for animal balloons. He asked if I thought I could learn to make balloon dogs on the spot, and I was like "NO, BUT I CAN PAINT!" I made a lot of butterflies, 2 pirates, and several tigers that day.

About 2 weeks ago, a local journalist found out that the city was planning to remove some traffic safety infrastructure in the name of "public safety." (Yes, it really is that nonsensical. You can read about it here.)

This was happening a block from the old children's theater building, where I commuted by bicycle for over 10 years. These diverters are there so that fewer cars enter a low-traffic bike route near a park, several schools, and a synagogue. It slows down traffic at an intersection between a grocery store and a fuckton of apartment buildings. Some neighbors had turned one set of diverters into a community garden. When I found out that the city was blaming these diverters for "livability issues" (aka evidence of poverty and addiction in the streets, which I guarantee has been around since at least 2012), I took it very personally.

Several bike/pedestrian advocates spread the word about which city officials to contact. The neighbors turned out in person to support the diverters (and to get between them and the Portland Bureau Of Transportation, if necessary). I joined them one evening, in between work and comics deadlines.

After many strongly-worded emails, days of sign-waving, and a 2.5-hour Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting downtown:

That's me, second from the right

The diverters will stay, for now!

photo taken from the Hawthorne Bridge

I want to end this post with more art, so here's an extremely Edward Hopper-esque office suite near my job:

I hope no-one notices or minds me pausing on the way to the elevator and enjoying the dramatic diagonal lines and varied textures and ever-changing light.

Thanks, as always, for your support on Patreon! It means a lot to be able to spend time on the art-things and life-things that are important to me.