Car free day/Oak st. block party meeting! 7/28 - 6:30 pm.

Veloshop

2004-07-19



This may be interesting to some: We are planning our

"Oak st. block party" to coincide with the Portland

Car free day! The following email is a forward from

one of the organizers.



You are welcome to show up at the meeting and

contribute!



There is lots of info below and links to even MORE

info if you are interested!



 I wanted to let you all know that we scheduled a

meeting for Wednesday July

28th at 6:30 pm. at Rocco's Pizza. We'd love to have

people from the

neighborhood at the meeting to help plan for

entertainment, publicity and

logistics for the event. If someone could forward

the meeting time to others

on the block, that'd be great!



Also, Chloe asked some questions a while back that I

will answer here, in

case anyone else is curius about these things.



 Refresh my memory -- what's the name of the group

that's organizing this

event?



Carfree Portland is organizing the event. We are a

sub-committee of of

SHIFT, a volunteer organization dedicated to

promoting Portland?s dynamic

bicycle culture. Carfree Portland exists to

strengthen relationships

between transit users, pedestrians, cyclists,

skaters and others wishing to

reduce their reliance on automobiles.



More Info about SHIFT at:http://shifttobikes.org



SHIFT is also a World Carfree Network member

organization. The WCFN is an

International Organization that works to build and

maintain the global

carfree movement. World Carfree Day coordination is

one of our projects.

More info about WCFN available at:

http://www.worldcarfree.net



 Is 9/19 a national event or unique to Portland?

Will there be activities going on in other parts of

the city or just our block?



September 22nd is Internation Carfree Day. Last year

1,400 cities in 38

countries participated in Carfree Day, by

designating a carfree zones in

their city centers, where only public transit,

bikes, skaters and

pedestrians were allowed. Many European and South

American cities will close

their city center's to cars on Thursday the 22nd. In

the Portland a Sunday

street closure is enough of a challenge, so we

celebrate on the weekend. No

other activities planned around town of the 19th,

but probably there will be

some bike rides on September 22nd.



More info at: http://www.22september.org



 What portion of the street to you plan on closing?





SW Oak between 8th and 10th, and SW 9th btwn

Burnside and Stark.



 What's going to happen in the street once it's

closed?



There will be information booths about

transportation alternatives. Trimet

will hopefully bring their bus bike-rack demo like

they did last year and

show how to mount a bike on the bus. Other info

booths ---- the City of

Portland's Transp[ortation Options Program, The

Pedestrian Coalition, the

Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Flex Car, etc.

etc.



Info booths about City projects for pedestrian,

transit and bicycle

improvements -- The Burnside reconfiguration

project, Max on the transit

Mall, etc.



Art Installations - big wind sculptures. + Hands-on

art projects - making

stuff from old bike parts etc.



Dance performances. Possibly the Ten Tiny Dancers a

PICA Time Based Art

performance. + definately The Sprockettes - The

Zoobomb ladies dance team -

bike ballet.



Mural Making Projects. We are working on

coordinating a mural project with

Metro Murals, P;ear, and The Janus Youth Program.



We hope to have a stage with music. Molly of

Veloshop and Isaac of Jackpot

Records will work on brainstorming bands to play and

SHIFT will recruit

volunteers to help with set-up, sound and tear down.





Everyone is invited to put out their couch, lawn

chair, badmitton set etc.

and relax in the street. Last year there were three

or four barbeques going

and many other random activities, like bike bowling

and a street healing

ceremony. The City Repair project brought rugs and

pillows and people

lounged about in the middle of the street. I'd like

to see a board game

tournament, like scrabble or chess or Twister. Any

other ideas welcome.



OK - That's probably enough information for now, but

I will attach a our

sponsorship document in case anyone wants to sponsor

the event, or contact

other potential sponsors. I'm open to suggestion

about lower rates for

sponsorship from neighborhood businesses. Could be a

topic at the meeting on

the 28th.



OK --- Thanks and Happy Hot Days - Sara.

503-493-7178.



=====

Molly Cameron



Veloshop

211 sw. 9th

Portland, Oregon 97205

503.335.VELO (8356)

http://www.veloshop.org

support women in cycling!







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