While I was eating some delicious nachos at Backspace during my lunch break today, a guy asked me if I was there for the Shift Bike Lunch. Technically, I wasn’t, but I have wanted to go for the past few weeks (I tend to miss them by 15min or so and I only have a 30min lunch break – not a lot of time to eat and socialize), so I introduced myself. His name is Jim. I joined him in one of the couch areas and we started talking (Daniel Johnson showed us shortly and others arrived as I was leaving). Turns out that he is Jim Middaugh, who is running for Portland City Council (his campaign website and an older profile of Jim on bikeportland.org). We talked about how it’s not easy to get a good job out of college and at some point I brought up my recent interest in bikes and maps and we all shared some thoughts on that (which was really great – like being back in college and geeking-out on other people’s research projects). He doesn’t mention it on his campaign site, but Jim has ridden Cycle Oregon 4 times and has been a bicycle commuter for 15 years, which is neat. Heading back to work was a bit of a disappointment.
I’m not (yet) well informed about the candidates for City Council, but I liked Jim and wish him luck. I am officially endorsing Backspace, though – great nachos.
