‘The pandemic trade-off’: Some parents are reassessing which kids’ activities feel safe

From the Washington Post: “With most kids’ team sports suspended or restricted because of concerns about covid, parents have been reassessing which activities feel safe and which seem risky. It’s led to some unorthodox trade-offs, as people turn away from traditional team sports and start looking at alternative sports in a new light. Skateboard sales jumped 75 percent last year compared with 2019… mountain bike sales increasing by 75 percent in 2020. Baseball and softball equipment sales dropped 17 percent, and soccer and football equipment fell more than 10 percent. Hordes of new skateboarders and cyclists may be a bright spot in the decades-long trend of declining physical activity rates among kids. Some wonder whether the shift will become part of a broader trend away from highly structured team sports and toward more free-range forms of physical activity.”

From BikePortland: Portland’s favorite free fun festival of bike rides and events will make a big return in 2021… Organizers of Pedalpalooza announced Thursday this year’s fest will last three months — from June through August. Since Covid-19 and its variants are still very much circulating in the community, the emphasis this year will be on smaller rides.

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