Portland’s mountain bikers are unhappy over the city’s recent decision to ban them from riding at the River View Natural Area in Southwest Portland. The Park is home to some of the city’s only natural trails for mountain biking. Portland City Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish stated in a letter that they’re trying to “protect the city’s investment in the area,” by allowing only “passive, nature-based recreational uses.”
Jonathan Maus, editor and publisher of BikePortland, the city’s position on mountain biking is unfortunate: “There’s no committee, there’s no research, there’s no study, there’s just no consensus at all about whether or not, or how much damage biking has on the trails versus other things.” 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’s latest decision "has really sort of poisoned the relationship to some degree."
Over 200 mountain bikers signed up to attend a protest ride on the roads outside River View Natural Area on Monday afternoon.
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