Burkholder campaigning at the Sellwood Bridge opening in 2016. Novick at Better Naito kickoff in 2016. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
We’re less than one year out from what will be the wildest race for Portland City Council this city has ever seen. And in the past week or so, two new candidates with serious transportation bona fides have declared their candidacy: Rex Burkholder and Steve Novick.
Keep reading to find out who they are, why they’ll shake up the race, and what you can expect if they win…
At a ride to save Washington County farmland in 2009.
Burkholder founded the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now known as The Street Trust) in his kitchen in 1990. At least that’s how the story goes. The story took a big turn five years later when the BTA filed a lawsuit against the City of Portland alleging they weren’t building bike lanes on main streets as required by the Oregon Bike Bill. The BTA won that lawsuit, and it helped set Portland on a trajectory to become the best bicycling city in America for the next two decades.