Portland鈥檚 mountain bikers are unhappy over the city鈥檚 recent decision from riding at the River View Natural Area in Southwest Portland. The Park is home to some of the city鈥檚 only natural trails for mountain biking. Portland City Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish stated in a letter that they鈥檙e trying to 鈥減rotect the city鈥檚 investment in the area,鈥� by allowing only 鈥減assive, nature-based recreational uses.鈥�
Jonathan Maus, editor and publisher of BikePortland, the city鈥檚 position on mountain biking is unfortunate: 鈥淭here鈥檚 no committee, there鈥檚 no research, there鈥檚 no study, there鈥檚 just no consensus at all about whether or not, or how much damage biking has on the trails versus other things.鈥� The city has said it wants a comprehensive master plan to identify more biking opportunities within the park system, but "the chances of that happening have gotten a lot worse now," says Maus, since the city鈥檚 latest decision "has really sort of poisoned the relationship to some degree."
Over 200 mountain bikers signed up to attend a on the roads outside River View Natural Area on Monday afternoon.
Copyright 2020 EarthFix. To see more, visit .