Meet in the Street

Visited the Keystone Café last night to attend a planning meeting for Meet in the Street, a Cyclovia/Sunday Parkways-style event designed to bring our community together face-to-face in an urban environment, sans voiture. The specific date isn't set, but folks are talking about late summer/early fall.

Part of the goal is to bridge Eugene's riverside, Fern Ridge and Amazon bike paths. The challenge is to find a route that the city will accommodate, as it will require cooperation with local residents, businesses, the fire department, police, Lane Transit District, and more.

The illustrious Shane Rhodes has created maps of propositions for the final route:

The original route. Connects all bike paths by closing about 6 miles on Monroe/Blair, 15th, High, and Alder. Totally awesome, as it would create miles and miles of bikeway and several parks. Would require a lot of the city's resources, as it crosses a score of lit intersections.

West-side route. Connects river and Fern Ridge paths by closing just 2.3 miles in Whiteaker Neighborhood. Crosses 6 traffic lights and hits 4 parks.

A moderate route. Connects all three paths as well as campus, closes 2.75 miles to cars, and hits 4-6 parks, depending on how you count. Blocks only 5 lights.

Campus/Southtowne route. Connects river and Amazon paths. Closes 2.3 miles on 15th, Kincaid, and High. Connects a few parks, but only blocks two lights.

Though a longer route looks good on paper, Eugene is less than a quarter the size of Portland. The bigger city's 8-mile Sunday Parkways cost roughly $150,000 and was attended by some 10,000 of its 575,930 residents. With a proportional attendance, we'll see about 2,500 locals out in the street.

Imagine stretching those people out over 6 miles, and it might look like a middle-school dance in a high-school gymnasium; yeah, there's people there, but they're all spread out, and it doesn't really feel like a party. Now, stick those middle-schoolers in a preschool nap room, and you've got a wicked shindig!

Besides, if things go really well and the event is over-attended, there will be more reason to do it all again on a larger scale.

What do you think? Post your feedback on the Google Group and check back here for updates. There will be more opportunities for community members to meet, so come share ideas and help create a strong presentation to bring to the city of Eugene's Special Events team on April 20.

Oregon Bike Polo Championships

Midnight maintenance the day before.

Garret changes the oil in the Ford Kill-O-Matic Friday morning.

Also glued a cog.

Really caked that J-B Weld on.

A good omen: this blossom opened on our cherry tree just before we hit the road. We took five people and seven bikes 107 miles up I-5 with no incident.

Arrived and unloaded at my friend Jordan's house in NE, off Alberta. We rode three blocks to play cul-de-sac polo outside the Polo Haus. They also had an awesome live DJ, a keg of Ninkasi Oatis Stout, and a micro pump-track. Unreal. That's our man Sean from EUG.

This guy's helmet caught my attention immediately. His name's Rory, and he's from Vancouver, B.C.

We made it home and slept for a few hours. Saturday morning, we prepared for the actual tourney. Boone found out his cog and lock-ring were loose.

Garret towed his polo bike and Brendan's disc'd 650. You can just make out Bob Ross above the brown bag by the stand.

A bunch of sissies drove there.

We rode. Look for Boone and Danya on the path in the background. Garrett and I chose to take the lane the whole way because traffic was light and the side path was steep.

The organizers were very organized, with fancy brackets and stuff. That's Jeff's arm.

Division 3 was the dirtiest division. "BMFP" stands for Bike Mutha Fuckin' Polo.

The Reverend Phil, representing.

An alleycat came through. Polo was a checkpoint. These guys were a little lost.

Garrett warming up in a pickup game. Meanwhile, my bike lays in wait.

I didn't saddle up at all until we had to play an actual points game.

A Portlander films from the fence as this dude from Los Angeles guards his goal.

There are no time outs in polo, but play magically stopped when this tough gal took a really mean spill.

I shot this sloppy panorama with Geordan's rented Rebel on continuous shutter mode and let Photoshop paste it together for me. Click on it for the full-size experience.

Sunday's games were on a single-serving court at the more nearby Alberta park.

Spectators spread out.

Most of the EUG crew hung out by this goal.

A Shift2Bikes group ride stopped to watch for a few minutes.

Some really impressive plays in the final rounds. I often found myself interrupting one "woah" with another, then another, and finally just yelling.

"Dirty Sock," a team comprised of Sean and Udelai from Eugene and our expatriate Abe, made it pretty deep into the bracket.

There were always a few standing around and pointing at this piece of cardboard.

Dirty Sock shuffling off the courts after their final defeat. They did Eugene proud.

This photog was shooting some nice on-court stuff until he had to jump up the fence to stay out of play.

GOAL!
Yes, that's Eilif eating strawberry rhubarb pie with a lock-ring wrench.

Amazing snot rocket. Caught on film. This is bike related because he's on a bike.

Former messenger turned Union Pacific engine operator, "Disco" stuck around to watch all day. Has one of the classiest road conversion fixed-gears I've ever seen.

Jordan was a really enthusiastic spectator. I mean he was really, really pumped about the whole thing. He should have won an award.

Eilif wanted to make sure everybody knew his team beat DFB, 5-0.

Organizers called all players onto the court at the end for the awards ceremony. Along with the cup and some sweet pads from Black Star Bags, they gave away these metallic purple risers with under-clearcoat decals. Do want.

Vancouver's "Balls Deep" won the whole thing.

Here they are claiming their cup.

The final bracket.

I saw this on my way out of town. I think it sums up a weekend of serious foolishness rather well.

Portland polo weekend preview

Sunday. The Champions from Vancouver, B.C., "Balls Deep" accept their trophy. With style.

Saturday, "seed day" in Pier Park. The trees were big.

My team, "Bob Ross and the Naked Ladies."

Though we looked fierce at times,

we actually got our asses handed to us.

I recall feeling sorry for a friend of mine who had just started playing polo: I thought, Gosh, it must be intimidating playing against me—I have a whole year of experience. Now I feel sorry for me—some people I met this weekend have been playing for seven years. And it showed.

Again, this is just a preview. A full writeup and a bajillion photos will follow after I get some sleep.

Oh, and don't forget to spot me on BikePortland's flickr. Jonathan Maus took a bunch of photos and posted them on his blog.

11:32 a.m. — Just found these three shots on someone's flickr. Look like cross-processed film. Which I like.

Polo night!

Thursday is my favorite day of the week because a couple dozen kid-at-heart bikers gather under the Wash/Jeff bridge b-ball courts to play polo. I think the break in weather will draw a good crowd tonight. I'm extra-stoked because this is the next-to-last night before we try to send a team to the tourney in Portland.

Also, just added two new links to the sidebar:

Legit Bike Polo <---- Boston polo blog. Dorkily good instructional videos on mallet- and disc-building.
The League of Bike Polo <---- Bike polo forums. Nitty-gritty deets and smack talk.

See y'all under the bridge!