PBOT’s maintenance woes aren’t just a problem for people who travel by car. by Taylor Griggs

In the bike-friendly cities of Northern Europe, a phrase is sometimes used to lightly chastise those who are intimidated to cycle in the rain: “You’re not made of sugar.” That is, you can get a little wet—you won’t melt. 

But not all rainy cities are created equal. The “sugar” sentiment is easier applied in places like the Netherlands and Denmark, where people on bikes dominate the streets all year long, even in the cold, wet months. The bike capitals of the world, many of which are hardly tropical paradises, were purposefully designed to treat people traveling outside of cars as worthy of quality amenities. And a lot of that comes down to the state of the pavement. 

Here in Portland, our streets—including the bike lanes—could (surprise!) use some work. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has a roughly $6 billion maintenance backlog, mainly consisting of unmet pavement needs on busy and local streets, which has failed to be adequately tempered by funding sources like the gas tax. And as Portland’s street maintenance needs have become more apparent, gripes about PBOT’s priorities have gotten louder. 

“There are potholes everywhere, and PBOT wants to build a new bike lane?” is the common refrain from armchair urban economists. It’s a talking point that’s parroted by people who should know better, too. One example: A questionnaire to 2024 City Council candidates written by reporters at the Oregonian and OPB asks people to decide whether to prioritize “creation of more protected bike lanes and priority bus lanes or improved surfacing of existing degraded driving lanes.” 

The implication contained in this false dichotomy is that protected bike lanes and priority bus lanes—and the people who use them—are frivolous compared to the potholes car drivers have to deal with. But even stranger is the implication that people who bike, walk, or use public transit aren’t impacted by the city’s street maintenance problems. In fact, those who get around without a car often face the brunt of PBOT’s maintenance backlog woes, especially during the winter. 

Take the ubiquitous bike lane puddles. These puddles proliferate during the late fall and early winter, after most of the autumn leaves are off the trees and clogging up the gutters. Unfortunate topography and storm drain placement has resulted in some puddles that remain landmarks on Portland’s streets all winter, like the notorious “Lake Blumenauer” on the north side of the car-free Blumenauer Bridge across I-84. 

These puddles might not seem like a big deal, but believe me when I tell you that riding through one of them can temporarily make you question your will to live. Fenders and rain pants can only do so much to protect you from six inches of grimy water and whatever might be floating in it. 

Then there’s the gravel. After major winter weather events, like the ice storm early this year, PBOT spreads gravel and road salt on the roadways so vehicle traffic can get by. That’s fine, but after the ice melts, tiny pebbles end up piled in the bike lanes, creating treacherous conditions for riders, and they often stay there for weeks or months. 

I can give the city some grace: PBOT has $6 billion of maintenance work on its hands, so it makes sense that some needs fall to the wayside. This would be a more acceptable situation to me if the proliferating narrative wasn’t that bike riders are preventing the city from getting its basic maintenance work done. 

The truth is that bike advocates are some of the most dedicated street maintenance wonks in the game, often taking the responsibility of keeping the streets clean into their own hands. After January’s ice storm, members of bike advocacy group BikeLoud PDX took to the streets with a bike lane-size sweeper, picking up an impressive amount of gravel in the process.

More recently, PBOT has said it will purchase a sweeper for protected bike lanes, as larger street sweepers are too big to do the job. This is a good step, but the sheer novelty of it indicates how far behind we are from some of our international bike city peers. 

So, no—we’re not made of sugar, and Portland’s rainy and cold winter weather is not necessarily prohibitive to mass adoption of biking as transportation. But we have quite a bit of work to do to get to where we need to go. However, though the road ahead is lined with gravel, we are armed with volunteer street sweepers.

In the district of Summerland in the southern Interior, local First Nations, environmental groups and hundreds of neighbours have all banded together to oppose a provincial permit to mine in a hillside within the picturesque Garnet Valley. But as Tom Popyk reports, they’re running out of appeals.

Conor White competed in the Houffa Gravel Fondo, which was the third leg of the Bolero Gravel Series, that served as the only Belgian UCI qualifier for the 2024 Gravel World Championship in Halle/Leuven. White competed in the 110 km race finishing 83rd clocking a time of 3:49:49. Related Stories Cyclists Head To Guyana For […]

Bermudian cyclist Conor White finished 114th in the elite men’s race at the UCI Gravel World Championships from Halle to Leuven, Belgium, yesterday [October 6]. The 25-year-old completed the 181-kilometre course in the Forests of Brabant in 5hr 07min 39sec. Mathieu Van Der Poel, of the Netherlands, won the race in 4:41:23. White, the island’s […]

MANILA, Philippines — A 27-year-old individual was arrested for threatening a victim at gunpoint, assaulting officers during his arrest and possessing a hand grenade, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) announced on Wednesday. According to the QCPD’s report, the victim was walking along Villareal Street in Barangay Gulod in Novaliches at 3 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 11, when the suspect appeared and threatened him with a handgun. The victim escaped and ran to the Novaliches Police Station. Officers at the station proceeded to arrest the suspect, but he resisted by kicking the cops until he was subdued. The Novaliches Police […]...

Keep on reading: QC cops nab suspect for grave threat, assault; seize hand grenade

1. Wedding Invitation Scams at rise: A single click may put you in grave danger  India TV News
2. Police warns: Wedding invites on WhatsApp are taking control of smartphones; stealing money, photos and m  The Times of India
3. All about the 'wedding invitation' scam on WhatsApp that can get your phone hacked  Moneycontrol
4. WhatsApp wedding invitations are the new cyber trap — here's how scammers are stealing your data  CNBCTV18
5. WhatsApp wedding invite scam: What to know about this and how to be alert  India Today

At age 15 Bach joined the choir at St. Michael's church. At age 19 Bach left St. Michael's and became a professional organist at St. Boniface. Bach studied music until 1703. In 1707, when Bach was 22 he married his cousin Maria Barbara. Maria had 7 children with Bach. Three of them died. In 1716, when Bach was thirty-one, he was put in jail for thirty-one days because people didn't believe that he shouldn't be writing that kind of music at that time. In those 31 days, Bach wrote five to ten musicals. Those five to ten musicals he wrote when he was in jail turned into two hundred musicals. In 1717 Bach became the court conductor at Anhalt-Cothen. 14 years later in 1721 Maria died leaving Bach to take care of four children. Bach was thirty-six at this time. One year later when Bach was thirty-seven in 1722 he married another woman. This woman's name was Anna Magdalina. Anna had thirteen children. ... Bach wrote 300 religious and nonreligious pieces called cantatas. Some people think that bach was the best composer of all time. Bach was a very religious man. Bach showed his religions in his music. Bach joined an orchestra at Weimar as a violinist. His home town was famous for music. One time when Bach was young, he walked thirty-five miles to a town named Hamburg to hear a concert.

RAF Graveley is a former Royal Air Force station located 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Huntingdon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Graveley

I can’t say how well Toyota will be able to change course in years to come when the company realizes that it’s really time to switch to electric vehicles (BEVs). What I can say is that I’m a bit shocked the company is still dragging its feet to such an ... [continued]

The post Toyota Is Digging Its Own Grave appeared first on CleanTechnica.

On Forgiveness Sunday, Holy Ascension Orthodox Church was visited by missionary James Hargrave. James serves with the Orthodox Christian Mission Center in Tanzania. Fr. John Parker interviews James about his work there.

Tasha Morris lost her son Oscar during surgery after a serious car crash in August.

This North Baltimore neighborhood is just inside the city line, but it’s got the cloistered feel of an affluent suburban hamlet. High-end consignment boutiques, beauty salons, and restaurants bring well-heeled locals to Sulgrave Avenue in Mount Washington Village, a quiet world away from the traffic and sirens of downtown.

We visit Baltimore Clayworks, where artist Sam Wallace teaches a pottery technique he learned as a kid in Jamaica. We talk with the crew at The Mount Washington Tavern about romance, oyster shucking, and a major fire that put the place out of business for a year. And we drop in at The Village Vet, where the staff cares for ailing animals and the worried humans that come along with them.

Children's Geographies; 04/01/2023
(AN 163915534); ISSN: 14733285
Academic Search Premier

No single artist dominated, but over the course of a night in which a handful of artists won major awards, a thread became clear: The Academy was attempting to make amends for past mistakes.

Un individuo de Luling se enfrenta a tres cargos de delito grave después de que una investigación de la Oficina del Jefe Estatal de Bomberos (State Fire Marshal’s Office, SFMO, por su nombre y siglas en inglés) sobre un incendio en un negocio local llevó al descubrimiento de contrabando.

It appears that Western media have received another thesis that they need to hammer into the minds of Western people. In today's CNN article about Armageddon, White House reporter Stephen Collinson called Vladimir Putin a "self-styled" president for the first time. CNN depends on commercial and diplomatic support from the US government. Therefore, the broadcaster receives instructions on how to interpret things directly from the White House. CNN has spent millions covering the war in Ukraine, The New York Times said. Collinson does not try to analyse that the "self-styled president" was elected by the overwhelming majority and why his popularity ratings go off scale compared to those of Western leaders. The goal is to hammer this idea into people's heads.

Experts at the Mayo Clinic have identified certain eating habits that can shorten one's lifespan, revealing that even foods that are considered healthy can have a negative impact. According to their research, it's best to avoid consuming too many diet drinks as they often contain sugar substitutes that can be harmful. Furthermore, inadequate water intake can also speed up the aging process and lead to poor health. Juices with high sugar content should also be consumed in moderation, with natural alternatives being the preferable option. Frequent consumption of soda can lead to rapid weight gain and excessive cholesterol production.

[International] :
South Korea, the United States and eight other countries have expressed “grave concerns” about the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia, saying Pyongyang’s direct support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine would be a “dangerous” expansion of the conflict. The top diplomats of ten countries and ...

[more...]

Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. He was 91.; Credit: Charles Dharapak/AP

SEASIDE, Calif. — Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. He was 91.

Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, died Saturday, according to his daughter, Lynne Mosier. Gravel had been living in Seaside, California, and was in failing health, said Theodore W. Johnson, a former aide.

Gravel's two terms came during tumultuous years for Alaska when construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was authorized and when Congress was deciding how to settle Alaska Native land claims and whether to classify enormous amounts of federal land as parks, preserves and monuments.

He had the unenviable position of being an Alaska Democrat when some residents were burning President Jimmy Carter in effigy for his measures to place large sections of public lands in the state under protection from development.

Gravel feuded with Alaska's other senator, Republican Ted Stevens, on the land matter, preferring to fight Carter's actions and rejecting Stevens' advocacy for a compromise.

In the end, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, a compromise that set aside millions of acres for national parks, wildlife refuges and other protected areas. It was one of the last bills Carter signed before leaving office.

Gravel's Senate tenure also was notable for his anti-war activity. In 1971, he led a one-man filibuster to protest the Vietnam-era draft and he read into the Congressional Record 4,100 pages of the 7,000-page leaked document known as the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's history of the country's early involvement in Vietnam.

Gravel reentered national politics decades after his time in the Senate to twice run for president. Gravel, then 75, and his wife, Whitney, took public transportation in 2006 to announce he was running for president as a Democrat in the 2008 election ultimately won by Obama.

He launched his quest for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination as a critic of the Iraq war.

"I believe America is doing harm every day our troops remain in Iraq — harm to ourselves and to the prospects for peace in the world," Gravel said in 2006. He hitched his campaign to an effort that would give all policy decisions to the people through a direct vote, including health care reform and declarations of war.

Gravel garnered attention for his fiery comments at Democratic forums.

In one 2007 debate, the issue of the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Iran came up, and Gravel confronted then-Sen. Obama. "Tell me, Barack, who do you want to nuke?" Gravel said. Obama replied: "I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike."

Gravel then ran as a Libertarian candidate after he was excluded from later Democratic debates.

In an email to supporters, he said the Democratic Party "no longer represents my vision for our great country." "It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism — all of which I find anathema to my views," he said.

He failed to get the Libertarian nomination.

Gravel briefly ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. He again criticized American wars and vowed to slash military spending. His last campaign was notable in that both his campaign manager and chief of staff were just 18 at the time of his short-lived candidacy.

"There was never any ... plan that he would do anything more than participate in the debates. He didn't plan to campaign, but he wanted to get his ideas before a larger audience," Johnson said.

Gravel failed to qualify for the debates. He endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the contest eventually won by now-President Joe Biden.

Gravel was born Maurice Robert Gravel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on May 13, 1930.

In Alaska, he served as a state representative, including a stint as House speaker, in the mid-1960s.

He won his first Senate term after defeating incumbent Sen. Ernest Gruening, a former territorial governor, in the 1968 Democratic primary.

Gravel served two terms until he was defeated in the 1980 Democratic primary by Gruening's grandson, Clark Gruening, who lost the election to Republican Frank Murkowski.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

"The Gravel Road"

Mexican Artist and Satirist José Guadalupe Posada Meets His Most Famous Creation the Calavera Catrina in a New One Act Play

Sous un ciel parsemé de nuages cotonneux, le site patrimonial de La Grave aux Îles de la Madeleine se déploie dans toute sa splendeur. Des voiliers élégants se balancent doucement sur l’eau calme du port, leurs mâts se dressant fièrement vers le bleu éclatant du ciel. À droite, des bâtiments en bois typiques bordent le...

Sous un ciel azur parsemé de nuages légers, le site patrimonial de La Grave aux Îles de la Madeleine s’étend avec une sérénité envoûtante. La plage de galets multicolores s’étire langoureusement jusqu’aux vagues qui viennent caresser doucement le rivage. Les maisons colorées, aux toits pointus et façades pittoresques, se dressent en une ligne harmonieuse, témoignant...

Steve Musgrave is a PhD research student involved in Telematic research into Community Portals. He is a full time IT Manager at Blackpool and the Fylde College in Lancashire. Formerly a merchant navy Radio/Electronics Officer and design engineer with IMR/ITT. Beyond the professional qualifications he holds a B.Sc (Hons) in Electronics with Computing; an MSc in Information Technology and a post graduate Diploma in Management of Education. With a strong background in the Further Education sector as a Principal Lecturer and Head of Division of Communication Engineering, he transferred to a position in IT Management with Blackpool and The Fylde College to develop and implement a unified college-wide electronic network interlinking the campus sites, buildings and outreach centres. Implementation of a Virtual Learning Environment is currently on-going. Direct personal experience of managing multi-million pound IT projects has been gained through project management of Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) projects, notably the ICT centred 'Regional Open System for Education' project and SIGMA projects, giving network inter/intra connectivity between Colleges in a virtual private network. Recent experience of Community Portal planning, design and implementation has arisen through the partnership of Blackpool Borough Council, Blackpool and The Fylde College, and Telewest, in feasibility studies and planning of a 'Broadband Interactive Grid' public sector Community Network strategy for the Fylde Coast of Lancashire. Representation at national level includes membership of the JISC Information Environment Committee (JCIE) and NILTA Technical Committee. Steve gave a plenary talk on Community Portals - A False Dawn Over The Field of Dreams?.

Créée notamment pour promouvoir le commerce intra-régional de biens dans la région, la Communauté économique des États d'Afrique de l'Ouest devait aussi permettre d'y réduire l'insécurité alimentaire. Mais les « points de sécurité », dressés le long des corridors de commerce par les autorités administratives qui prélèvent des pots-de-vin, sont venus limiter cette ambition. S’élevant jusqu’à 576 dollars aux 100 kms au Togo en 2017, cette corruption se mesure aussi en temps perdu, avec plus de trois heures aux 100 kms.

This episode is about OSGi, the dynamic module system for Java. Our guests are Peter Kriens (OSGI's Technical Director) and BJ Hargrave (OSGI's CTO). We'll discuss what OSGi is all about and why and in which contexts it is useful. Additionally we are having a look at the different layers of OSGI and where and how they are used. Other questions discussed are: What means dynamicity in an OSGI environment? Where is OSGI used? What’s the future of OSGI? How does OSGI interact with existing middleware solutions? How can I run several versions of the same JAR at the same time? Where are OSGI’s problems?

Somete a un duro examen a la candidata a la Comisión, que no tiene su puesto asegurado. Durante el 'hearing', la vicepresidenta española admite que el "flujo del agua" es su competencia en el pero culpa a Mazón de la tragedia de la DANA Leer

El Gobierno valenciano asegura que fue a raíz de la llamada del secretario de Estado a la consejera de Interior a las 20 horas cuando se decidió enviar la alerta a la población el día de la DANA Leer

El fraile había sido dado por muerto por el Arzobispado el sábado debido a las heridas, pero la Guardia Civil confirmó que su estado era crítico. El agresor fue detenido ese mismo día. En total agredió a cinco religiosos Leer

Ireland’s food retail and wholesale company, Musgrave, went operational at the end of last year with an integrated warehouse solution from Vanderlande, which includes the ADAPTO shuttle-based automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). The solution has been installed in Musgrave’s facility in west Dublin to support the company’s future growth ambitions and the need to manage labour scarcity issues.

Location: Main Library- PK6562.26.A93S26 2015

http://www.musicxray.com/xrays/2672463 Carolyn202 - Grave Digger

El alcalde de Cali, Alejandro Eder, se refirió en 6AM al llamado de los mandatarios del suroccidente para  enfrentar la grave situación de orden público y los recurrentes bloqueos de la vía Panamericana

En 6AM Hoy por Hoy de Caracol Radio estuvo el alcalde de Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, para hablar sobre Cómo será el manejo del nuevo programa ‘Bogotá Sin Hambre 2.0'.

Divine Grave just released the new single 'Grief' and to celebrate we asked the mysterious metalcore act to tell us about the track

 .

I am always happiest when a story of mine comes into print. Today, I have the joy of introducing you to "Unquiet Graves," a seasonal tale of graveyard misbehavior and betrayal. Oh, and there's nothing supernatural about it at all.

You can read the story here. But if you're like me, you'll just go to Clarkesworld, look over the table of contents, and decide which story you want to read first. Mine by preference, but follow your whim.

And for those who like trivia . . .

I came up with the handheld's app many long years ago and it took forever to come up with a story for it. You'll notice that it is left unnamed in the story. That's because its secret name was "The Graveyard Reader." Which is the title of a well-known story by Theodore Sturgeon.  While I was writing the story, I thought of it as "The New Graveyard Reader." But Sturgeon's story and mine go off in totally different directions, and giving mine (or even the app) a title suggesting there was some implicit connection between the two would only cause confusion.

The title I finally came up with was derived from "The Unquiet Grave" by that most prolific of all poets, Anonymous. If you look it up, I suggest you do so after reading my story. It gives away some of the plot.

*

Photo by Nk Ni  The Taliban has not stopped their aggressive efforts of restricting and regulating women’s lives. Late August of 2024, the Taliban released a 114 page, 35-article that proved to be the “first formal declaration of the vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since the takeover.” Edicts in the article include: a mandatory call […]

The post Afghanistan Under the Taliban is “A Graveyard for Women’s Dreams” appeared first on Feminist Majority Foundation.

The United Nations's humanitarian aid chief told a meeting of the Security Council (UNSC) that "acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes" are being committed in Gaza.

The votive plaque was found amid the ruins of an ancient Roman fortress. Researchers think a temple dedicated to the mysterious deity may have stood nearby

These grounded planes in the Congo have captured the imagination of these children

The bronze wreath immortalized the moment when the members of the Honor Guard removed their hats and placed them on the president's grave during his burial

A group of residential school survivors and their supporters are asking the federal government to reverse what they're calling a funding cut and come up with more money to help find the unmarked graves of students who went to these institutions.