Here’s the surprising news from the last three days: “It was a very peaceful weekend,” reports Mary Wheat, spokeswoman of the Portland Police Department. What? An estimated 5,000 people rode their bikes naked through the center of the city Saturday night, dancing in an abandoned warehouse until the sun rose at which point GLBT folks and friends flooded downtown and shut down Broadway for a parade. AND NO ONE WAS ARRESTED?! What is this city coming to?! Where my tasers at?!
The police definitely deserve some of the credit for the zero incident PedalPalooza kickoff weekend. For the first time in Portland World Naked Bike Ride history, the police were involved in the planning process and corked intersections on the most dangerous sections of the ride. Flashing lights on police motorcycles kept cars and drunk pedestrians at bay as thousands of naked personages rushed through Burnside and Old Town. To their credit, the police were willing to be flexible and overlook thousands of possible traffic violations in the interest of keeping everyone safe. And it worked — no one got run over and very few were hurt. All in all, a peaceful wild and crazy naked bike riding weekend. 
Other fun weekend activities that no one got arrested for — Columbia River Crossing protest! Nutria feeding! A burger made from a kitten! – below the cut.
Ten more days of PedalPalooza to come! Post your best photos of all the action to the Mercury Flickr Pool and I’ll post some on the Blogtown!
Since I feel like being a hater today, will people in Portland ever do anything interesting not involving beards and bicycles?
So, was this “good naked” or “bad naked”?
It was hells of fun Blabbs.
“Funny” highlights for me:
1.Drunk guys yelling “Show us yer Tits” at thousands of already naked men and women.
2.A well groomed guy with long very coifed silver hair ranting at people from the street car platform on Lovejoy and 21st “You people are scum ….we live in a civilization” while taking pictures with his cameraphone.
Apparently stroke material of barbarians at play is quite alright.
For the most part “good”, although it was a damn large crowd, so there was a little bit of everything, really.
It’s like smirk is stalking me. Thursday She shows up at the dive bar I’m drinking at. Naked bike ride (which I don’t think she even hit up, which isn’t too bad because the pre-party was made of fail and lose) Then something about Scrappers and the Grass Hut (granted I just met Scrappers and then he told me that he didn’t think I’d like pork chops, WTF? Not like pork chops? WTF?) then I see her roll by on a tandem bike in the Pearl while I was trying on shoes.
Fucking knock it off smirk. You are not allowed to pull this crap on me. Go back to wherever it is that you go when you’re not stalking me. This isn’t funny any more.
Abusive, that guy told me I was “a shame to my grandmother!” So great.
HA! Everyone who passed by him was LOL-ing in the extreme.
@ Graham – you fool no one! Porkchops are gross!
“Apparently stroke material of barbarians at play is quite alright.”
Best sentence of the week!
Wow, this is crazy! Portland has a bunch of really ugly naked people! Where are all the pretty people?
I could care less who gets naked where and with whom but explain to me the point of riding a bike naked?
Im throwing a Naked Bike Ride pre party at Entrust Hair & Fashion, 2306 NE Glisan St, saturday from 7-9pm. Come hang out, we will have music, beer, good times and then will leave around 9pm to head to the starting location for the ride.
Entrust Hair & Fashion
2306 NE Glisan St
Portland, OR 97232
http://www.entrusthair.com