Last Friday afternoon, July 20, without much warning, Evan
Manvel announced that he was leaving his position as the executive
director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) after two years
at its helm.
For any other advocacy group, the public and media response to his
departure would have been a collective, “Oh.” But, this being Portland,
which derives much of its reputation and pride from strong bicycle
activism, Manvel’s leaving is officially A Big Deal.
“It’s been a wonderful couple of years,” Manvel said in the
statement announcing his departure. “I’ve been honored to lead such an
amazing organization and see it grow so significantly. There’s no doubt
about it—the bicycling renaissance is here, and the BTA is leading the
charge.”
He also reportedly left the organization in solid financial shape—in
the weeks after his exit, the BTA will be bringing in people to fill
five new positions, a sign that it has grown into legitimate,
professional advocacy group.
And it couldn’t come a moment too soon. The city is poised to move
into a new phase of bicycling-as-transportation, with what will
probably be huge political fights over increased bike boulevards,
on-street bike parking, bike-specific traffic lights and crossings, a
new bridge over the Willamette, and separated bike paths. In each of
those fights, bikers will likely be pitted against automobile activists
and freight lobbyists, unless they can manage to find a common
ground.
But, for at least a year, if not longer, some members of the bicycle
community have quietly grumbled (off the record) that the BTA has lost
some of the energy and leadership it once had, when they were fighting
smaller battles, like increased bike lanes. Those critics wondered if
the organization was going to be able to adapt to the new environment,
and help push Portland along in the coming years.
The board appears to have answered those questions by promoting
Scott Bricker, the BTA’s policy director, to immediately take Manvel’s
place. Bricker has been at the BTA for nine years, starting as the
education director and moving on to be the group’s lobbyist in Salem
and at city hall. He’s technically in the executive director position
on an interim basis, but he says there is “no current plan to look for
someone else.” And even if it’s only an interim position, Bricker
doesn’t appear to be treating it as such.
“Change can be difficult, and change can be exciting,” he says.
“There is currently so much opportunity to move biking forward, and
we’re still very much in a position to move it forward.”
“I want to take the Sam Adams approach,” he added. “In my first
month, I want to meet with all of our staff, our major donors, and all
of the key stakeholders to help drive our mission—and then keep meeting
with them. I plan on getting out into the community.”
Bricker says he plans to “ramp up” the BTA’s efforts on specific
campaigns, like securing more bike boulevards (there’s a goal to reach
100 miles of them by 2010; the city currently has 40), engaging in
public information campaigns to get more people on bikes, and working
more closely with local law enforcement, which frequently sets up
stings to nab stop-sign-blowing bikers.
Critics have also pointed out that the BTA hasn’t done enough to
reach out to the fringes of the bicycle community—like the Zoobombers,
mutant bike riders, the Shift group, etc. But, as one person recently
pointed out, the BTA has served as a sort of “designated driver” for
the bike community. The kids can get wasted, so to speak, because they
know they’ve got someone sober who’ll keep them from going into a
ditch.
“We recognize that we can’t be all things to everybody. We’re a
mainstream bike organization,” Bricker says. “Shift is an amazing
group, and we’re really proud of them. We deal with issues like
low-traffic streets and Safe Routes to Schools—mom and apple pie
stuff—but these issues benefit everybody.”