Should This Come Down?

A bicycle icon may come down later this week, after a misunderstanding about a mural familiar to many Portland cyclists.

The mural at SW 2nd and Ash proclaims Portland “America’s Bicycle Capital,” and shows a simple bicycle image. Bike Pedal Tours owner Todd Roll told Bike Portland his wife painted it two years ago, covering an older mural, to reflect the company’s T-shirt design.

But the Portland Development Bureau says a permit is required for a mural that large. (It covers the side of the building: 45 feet tall.) Other murals as large loom in various places around Portland, but they preceded a city limit on mural size restricting new murals to 300 square feet.

After someone complained about it, and Roll learned the bike mural was not “grandfathered in,” he has hired a crew to remove it Thursday or Friday. “Photograph it while you can,” Roll said, “It’s out of here.”

The Oregonian reports Roll may remove the words and leave the bicycle image, which would comply with city code.

Says PRP webmaster Leann Warren, an avid cyclist:

“I love that mural. It’s not selling anything…It looks cool and it makes me happy that I live in a place deemed ‘America’s Bicycle Capital.'”