Do you want to visit or live in one of the best bicycling cities in the United States? I’ll bet you do. Then you’d be visiting or living in Portland, Oregon, where I am and where the nonprofit organization Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has its headquarters. I went to its annual awards and fundraising dinner, Alice B. Toeclips, on Saturday night, and before I head out this morning to meet my vanpool I’m reporting on my view of its best and worst elements.
Giving awards to people and groups who further bicycling in Oregon is brilliant and helps create cultural change. Bicyclists and pedestrians, who the BTA also helps, create no carbon emissions when they travel, are improving their own health, and help create more livable communities as their presence encourages others to bike and walk, too . Bicycling and walking for transportation, not just for recreation, is a win-win for the individual and the community, and the Alice B. Toeclips awards give their champions high status.
Robert Pickett, the Portland Police officer who acts as liason to the bicycling community, won an Alice award and was clearly a folk hero to many of the 800 people in the room. I loved seeing such a great relationship having been built between the police department and the energetically activist BTA. They share a mission for public safety and have obviously joined forces around that mission.
All that’s the best. The worst? The commercial, hustling nature of the auctioneering. This time people even prowled amonst the tables ringing cow-bells during the bidding, making it more of a cattle-call than ever. I believe in generousity and I know people give more as they’re around other people who are giving. But the BTA stands for alternative values, for not embracing mainstream practices that are counterproductive, given the world’s predicament. Yet here we land, being exhorted to consume and spend top dollar for luxury items. You can raise the funds you need without doing that. What percentage does the professional auctioneer take home??
I’ll close with a best. Michelle Poyourow of the BTA, who had the fun job (her own words) of announcing and handing out the Alice B. Toeclips awards, is one impressive public speaker. Her poise and sheer presence were a highlight of the evening.
I didn’t get the name of the nice woman who approached me to tell me she’d been watching me all night because I was wearing the best dress in the room. I thanked her but forgot to tell her I bought it at Goodwill On Tenth, across from the Central Library, for $25.
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