Bicycle Picnic in Grant Park

If you are comming to the Picnic please print out a few fliers to give to explain to the station why we are here.

A group of mostly white cyclists planning to picket what might be a mostly black event, is not my favorite choice. I think that the station is totally fucked up, but this would not be my preferred first step.

I think this is more of a picnic outreach event rather than a picket. To the poster that says it might not be a good idea, perhaps you should come and give community facilitation a whirl instead of perceiving this as antagonistic. It really doesn't have to be that unless people come with that intention. I hope attendees will represent the responsible bicycling community and proactively engage others to promote awareness about road safety. Not a bad idea, huh?

The handbill looks great! Goodluck.

That's the stupidest thing I've heard in the ways of censorship in a LONG fucking time.

95.5 always was a crappy station, and now we have just one more reason to hate 'em. Juvenile, idiotic, materialistic, incorporated fatcat richboys.

Oh, and to the cat up there that says "it's more of a picnic than anything...", what're you doing then? Just sitting in a circle with your cycles complaining and writing letters? WOW, that's radical thinking, guys. Keep up the amazing and groundbreaking thought-waves. You're going to really change the world with this shi--stuff.

It's not a picket, it's not a protest, it's a get-together to promote traffic safety and talk about dangerous motorists.

Mostly black event? Maybe, but have you seen pictures of the hosts of The Playhouse? About half are as honky as anyone can be.
 http://radioplayhouse.com/

You can follow how this whole controversy developed on the bikeportland.org site, there are several news threads about it going back about a week.
 http://bikeportland.org

Any reports from the picnic? I am curious how many attended, how it went, etc.

Attendance was fairly light, attributed mostly to all the bikey activities going on today including a naked ride across the St. John's Bridge, a popular bike trip to Oxbow Park, and a lot of the Zoobombers going up to Mt. Hood to ride down.

Props to Jasun for organizing a fun event with a light mood. There was a stand with free stuff that was popular with kids, there were lollipops and blowing bubbles along with the "I Share the Road" stickers and some useful literature. I didn't know B-rad was such a connoisseur of candy pops. There was BBQ food, also provided by Jasun, and some people stopped by for the portable dance music setup which was playing an awesome assortment of dance tunes, some by local and obscure bands. There were signs and sidewalk chalk placed prolifically through the park, with slogans such as "LET US HEAR 7/13 SHOW", "KIDS BIKE TOO!" and "KXJM DJ'S, YOU SLAY ME!"

We interfaced with the FM 95.5 crew a few times, who I would describe charitably as standoffish. It didn't appear any of the station DJ's, show hosts, or the GM were there. I gave some literature that explained "why we bike" and included some info about traffic law to one of the them, and suggested he distribute it at the station.

I don't think there was a single conflict with any of the 95.5 staff or picnickers during the event. Much to the dismay probably of some of the nay-sayers who criticized our doing this get-together.

I could have not did this without Brian. I can not relay how beat down I was by the online community telling me how foolish I was for doing this and it was absolutely the wrong thing because all hell was going to break loose and give cyclists a bad name. It really got me in a bad slump and Organic B. pulled me out with a "Buck up little camper" oops, wait that is Better Off Dead ...

Anyhow, thanks Brian. This was more your event than you will ever know my friend. Also thanks to everyone else that was there and to the PPB who totally supported us, to the dismay of the radio station.

And as for the event. Though there were a few cyclists, the station was employees were very tense when ever they were around us, while we were having fun. Each time I interacted with the families and kids I felt very a very positive vibe from them and me. By the end of the event I know that a few employees are questioning the radio stations action, some listeners asked why we were there and most of all the kids were not robbed of their fun, which is what I wanted most.

So an Indymedia post will hit with the report in a bit. Also I suspect that Jonathan at www.bikeportland.org will have something up with in a day. He took more photos than I did ... though the ones I took were ones that the radio station rather not have online ... so share them!

nice. pik nik, would be great if more protest took this form. no need to change the whole world, bring light to the darkness whether an led or a spotlight, bring light. fly safe, live love...