I am a local voter, genuinely undecided with respect to the current race for the Metro Council Presidency. I need to ask you about an issue that is near and dear to my heart, and upon which Metro could have a tremendous influence.
As you well know, we are renowned as a bike-friendly community. As a regular bike commuter I am grateful for the fantastic infrastructure that has been built both near my Portland home and where I work in Beaverton, and I am aware that you share my pride in what has been accomplished so far.
But it is particularly ironic that because I live here, where I can so comfortably and easily reduce my carbon footprint by bicycling to work, I have to get into my polluting automobile and drive for an hour in order to go mountain biking.
Most metropolitan areas similarly blessed with so much natural bounty have seen fit to develop mountain bike trail systems accessible to local cyclists without leaving town. In fact, the lack of local mountain bike access was cited by Bicycling magazine earlier this year as a primary reason for ranking Minneapolis ahead of Portland as America's most bike-friendly community. The League of American Bicyclists may even consider removing our region's "Platinum" rating next year over the issue.
Continued national accolades will clearly be contingent on remedying this deficiency. Efforts to date have met with little success. A recent proposal to add a modest amount of new trail, in a part of Forest Park with minimal ecological significance, has met with furious opposition from hiking user groups and has ultimately been stymied. Most other existing areas of publicly owned land are being managed for natural values and not developed for recreation, leaving us with few possibilities there.
And here is where Metro comes in. Metro is the only local agency acquiring significant areas of land for parks and preservation. No doubt many of the parcels being purchased have sufficient ecological significance to justify limiting recreational access (and I don't just mean by bicyclists). But it would surprise me if at least some of the acquisitions might not be suitable for mixed recreation including off-road bicycling.
Metro's core mission is to manage our growth and foster the development of a healthy, livable community where we all drive less and pollute less. Mountain biking is clean, quiet, non-polluting and healthy. Encouraging this popular activity to occur locally, rather than outside the growth boundary, is entirely consistent with that mission, and Metro is in a unique position to do something about it.
As Metro Council President, would you encourage your organization to evaluate the suitability of your lands for mountain biking, and at least consider allowing the development of bike trails on suitable lands? I eagerly await your response prior to election day.
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