It started off so innocently! (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
19 years ago this week I published the first-ever blog post about biking in Portland. On April 8th, 2005 I wrote a short post about the arrival of spring (I went back and added a lead photo a few months later because I was publishing on The Oregonian’s OregonLive.com at the time and they didn’t let us to share photos). The photo is of my wife Juli and my daughter Eleni wearing bunny ears (above). We were setting out for the Bunny on a Bike ride, one of the first group rides I ever attended in Portland.
The time I’ve spent doing this weird job really hits home when I think about how Eleni is now in her third year of college.
My first 155 posts were done via email. I would type them up and email them to someone at OregonLive, then they’d post it to the “Bike Fun” blog. Once I got the hang of blogging, I got frustrated with The Oregonian and went out on my own. I bought the BikePortland.org domain name and shared my first post there on July 29th, 2005.
July 2005 selfie (before they were called that).
19 years. Just last night I had another moment when the passage of time hit me like a ton of bricks. I confirmed my hunch that I did a story about one of the dads on my son’s basketball team. The story was posted in July 2006 and it was about two sweet kids who opened a bike shop in their garage on NE Holman Street. One of the kids in the story was 13 at the time. Now that kid is a man and his 13-year-old plays on a team with my 13-year old. (Head-exploding emoji.)
Anyways, I don’t have the time or energy to get too reflective about this right now. My to-do list islong, I have a local TV news crew coming into the Shed in a few minutes to talk to me about e-bikes, and then I’m heading out to southwest to spend the rest of the day on a ride-along with a city council candidate.
I just want to say thank you. Thanks for sticking with me for the 550,016 comments, 18,047 stories, and 19 years. I’ve given a lot to this job (probably too much), but it has given me a lot in return. Despite everything, my love for BikePortland and its potential is as strong as ever.
We have built some very special and I’m extremely proud to say we built it the right way: one reader at a time, one subscriber at a time. And we’ve maintained 100% independence. There’s no editor or corporate overload looking over my shoulders, no board of directors. It’s just you and me. That’s it. My most important advisor, investor, and source of revenue are the people — just like you! — in this community. Individuals paying $5-$10 a month are by far our largest source of revenue. That means, at the end of the day, I am accountable to the community over anything else.
It’s very fitting that we’ll celebrate the one year anniversary of Bike Happy Hour next week (4/17). I hope you’ll come out and join us. That event has helped cement my love for this community and has given me fresh eyes and a fresh heart for keeping this candle burning.
Thanks for all your support.
