Citybikes Workers' Cooperative is a worker-run bike shop in Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, United States, focused on bike commuting

Bicycle commuting

Bicycle commuting is the use of a bicycle to travel from home to a place of work or study — in contrast to the use of a bicycle for sport, recreation or touring....

 and cycle touring

Bicycle touring

Bicycle touring is cycling over long distances – prioritizing pleasure and endurance over utility or speed. Touring can range from single day 'supported' rides — e.g., rides to benefit charities — where provisions are available to riders at stops along the route, to multi-day...

. It encompasses two retail locations/shops: the Annex, specializing in new and used bike sales; and the Repair Shop, specializing in used bike parts.

History

Citybikes was founded by Roger Noehren as a sole proprietorship

Sole proprietorship

A sole proprietorship, also known as the sole trader or simply a proprietorship, is a type of business entity that is owned and run by one individual and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business. The owner receives all profits and has unlimited responsibility for...

 in 1986, in the current Repair Shop building. He hired Tim Calvert in August 1989 to transform Citybikes into a worker owned cooperative

Worker cooperative

A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically managed by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. A cooperative enterprise may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which...

 (w/o RN), which came into being in January 1990. Business continued to grow, and in 1995, Citybikes expanded to the Annex building (instigated by RN, who returned in 1994). At this time, Citybikes began to sell a higher volume of used bikes, and also to carry new bikes. The Annex space was further remodeled/expanded in 2002, and the Repair Shop was remodeled, to double the retail space, in 2008. Citybikes has grown from a fledgling enterprise to a successful cooperatively run business employing about 20 people in winter, and 25 in summer.

Cooperative structure

Citybikes operates with consensus-based decision making. The majority of decisions that affect the cooperative are made in bimonthly general meetings, with all workers present having equal say and voting power. Day-to-day operations are also carried out by consensus - Citybikes does not have any managers or traditional hierarchy. The Board of Directors is made up of the worker-owners, and is responsible for the long-term interests of the cooperative, setting goals and making final decisions on policies and procedures. Ownership is available to all workers who meet certain time and responsibility commitments. Currently, about half of workers are worker-owners.

Gender balance has played an important role since the shop's inception. Men and women each make up roughly half of the Board of Directors, and workforce as a whole.

Apprenticeship program

Every other autumn, Citybikes conducts a program wherein people can apply for apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

positions. Apprenticeship is a two-year program which trains people to be both skilled mechanics, and effective workers within the cooperative structure. In addition to training people for cooperative bike shop work specifically, apprenticeship is an avenue for underrepresented populations (e.g. women and minorities) to enter the bike industry.

D.I.Y.

Citybikes holds classes for the public to learn bike maintenance in the winter, and also hosts bi-weekly "drop-in nights" where the public can work on their own bikes with staff assistance. Repair stands and simple tools are available to borrow during shop hours, enabling customers to use the shop's resources to repair their own bikes at no cost. The Repair Shop location has a room devoted to used bike parts for shoppers to rummage through.