Event Highlight: Livable Jade Bike Ride

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On Friday, August 21, 22 community members gathered at Portland Community College's Southeast Campus for the Livable Jade Bike Ride. Urban Forestry partnered with Vision Zero, Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT),BIKETOWN, and APANO for this family-friendly event. This was a jam-packed ride focusing on canopy equity, traffic safety, affordable housing, and even included a pit-stop for yummy food.

Thanks to a PBOT partnership with BIKETOWN, even people without bikes were able to get free credits to use one for the ride. Vision Zero and other PBOT staff talked about pedestrian and biking safety and showed off new traffic improvements to make active transit safer in the neighborhood.

Urban Forestry led a portion of the ride featuring four Heritage Trees, while sharing some fun tree facts along the way. (Did you know a Coulter pine's cone can weigh up to 11 pounds?) Riders also visited a Learning Landscapes planting from 2010 at Clark Elementary, and the recent spring tree planting at Harrison Park.

APANO led the group to see a recently completed affordable housing complex at 2909 SE 89^th Ave and an empty lot at 2815 SE 90^th Place that could serve as a potential future Portland park. APANO is currently working with Oregon Metro to get community input on how the lot should be developed, and community members are invited to take this short survey to share their opinions.

Lastly, APANO worked with three local restaurants to provide samples from their menus for rides. We were able to try ice cream or boba from Mojos Crepes, baklava from Essa Bakery, and panuchos from Lindo Yucatan, showcasing the wide diversity of cuisines that makes the Jade District great.

Riders got to learn so much about the great work happening in the Jade District from City and community partners. Urban Forestry is grateful for all the work that went into making this happen, and we look forward to hosting more bike rides in the future.