In light of all your concerns about traffic safety, we want to bring your attention to an event we just heard about. It’s a community forum being hosted by the Sunnyside & Richmond neighborhood associations and it’s happening tonight from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at Alethia Church (4511 SE Main Street) in southeast.
The event flyer is above and here’s more from the organizers:
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Hi Neighbors –
Following recent tragic events on Hawthorne Boulevard, Columbia Boulevard, Outer Division, and many other areas of the City, the Sunnyside & Richmond Land Use and Transportation Committees are hosting a special event this Tuesday, September 6th, from 7-9pm at the Aletheia Church (4511 SE Main St), two blocks north of Hawthorne & 45th.
Leah Treat, Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, Captain Crebs with the Police Traffic Division, Oregon Walks, and a panel of other guest speakers will discuss interim street safety solutions.
All are welcome to attend and lend support for greater traffic safety on Hawthorne Boulevard and across the City. Feel free to spread the word to help us bring 100 plus people to this event!
Learn more on their website.
We like the sound of “interim solutions” not just because we feel there are some relatively quick and inexpensive ways to improve these dangerous roads — but also because we know the City of Portland can act quickly when they want to.
Show up if you can and lend your ears and brains to this discussion. Sorry for the late notice. If you attend and can share thoughts and/or a recap feel free to do so in the comments below.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Okay, so I live 2 blocks from the venue. Why were neighbors not notified about this important event that affects us all? Really? Just a few hours notice or something? What was the outreach to the community? This kind of crap is common. City officials and their anemic responses, looking to deflect too many attendees or criticism….
I guess that’s one way to look at it Jeff. Another way might be to say, “Wow, thank you selfless neighborhood volunteers with day jobs and lots of other commitments, for taking time to invite a few people to speak about this important topic. I wish i had more notice but I’m glad at least we are doing something. In the future I will get directly involved and create the kind of neighborhood activism that I would prefer to see.”
I feel you about the short notice but I also feel that most people are just doing their best and it bums me (and them!) out to hear this kind of sour tone when they do something that is a positive for the community.
I hear you as well but let’s be honest. It’s an election year and the level of cynicism is high. This is becoming a VERY common pattern and has been used by governments throughout the years to quickly gloss over important issues. I am most certainly interested and will attend but I’d like to see more proactive and transparent leadership from the top, something this city is sorely lacking at this time around these issues.
Except this isn’t the city or city government, or city employees that is putting this on. It’s the Neighborhood Associations (as Jonathan pointed out made up of citizen volunteers).
Fine. Let’s just be sure to call out later when officials claim they did outreach. We cant let the city claim this as an outreach victory.
It.Is.Not.The.City.Hosting.This.
Director Treat came and spoke candidly and emotionally and answered many questions. This was a good step and I wouldn’t begrudge the city from pointing to it as public involvement. The meeting was well attended, maybe 70 people from at least 4 neighborhoods.
I live in Sunnyside, am well connected in bike/ped circles, and on multiple e-mail lists from different city departments and advocacy groups and also had no idea of this meeting. I would attend if I didnt already have plans.
and FWIW I feel your frustrations. I run a blog about this type of stuff and make it my job to know what’s going on and I just heard about this about an hour ago.
Sounds like you’re in Sunnyside. Sign up to be added to their neighborhood association announcement list! The neighborhood associations really only have the capacity and resources to send notifications to those who have provided their emails and asked to be notified. For similar future events outside your neighborhood, subscribers of the BikeLoudPDX google group are usually pretty good about spreading the word to each other about events and meetings going on in their respective neighborhoods.
“The neighborhood associations really only have the capacity and resources to send notifications to those who have provided their emails and asked to be notified.”
Yes and no. Signing up for Nextdoor gets you access to lots of communications about matters like these. Then—as Tony mentioned—the newsletter, the SNA website, etc. The list is long, and we try to post important things like this everywhere. Sometimes we worry that we’re overwhelming people with information. It is a delicate balance, but I’m a bit surprised at the resentment over not hearing about this by people who say they’re connected. This notice was circulated on bikeloudpdx, as well as all the channels Tony mentioned. I sent a notice to Jonathan. Is there a channel we forgot?!
Note that Nextdoor is a private, third-party site and neighborhood associations may or may not use it. The best bet is to lookup your neighborhood association and figure out how to get in touch. If you’re thinking the “city didn’t tell me” about a lot of things, that’s because telling your neighborhood association is supposed to be the way they do outreach.
Everyone on the Richmond NA list was notified, because our Land Use and Transportation chair was one of the organizers and sent the notice. Does everyone read what many consider meaningless bulk email?
Jeff,
Let me explain a little on behalf of the SNA.
This date is our regularly scheduled meeting for the LUTC. After the tragedy a few weeks ago, RNA reached out to SNA to discuss organizing a joint meeting. That process got a bit complicated and went back and forth to determine and agenda. The land use committee was reaching out to speakers, finding a location (which actually wasn’t finalized until Friday) and didn’t get notification of who was coming from PBOT until Friday.
We’ve used our website, facebook, and nextdoor. The newsletters (which may or may not have reached you) say “see website for details” on the LUTC meeting, but the incident occurred too late in the month for us to get an article about it in the newsletter.
I understand your frustration, but the LUTC wanted to move on this before the attention cycle moved on. Waiting until October would put even more time between the incident and the meeting.
I am very proud of the SNA LUTC in putting together a good program in a short time.
If you’d like to help improve our communications and/or take on some responsibilities in helping to put on events, etc… our meetings are open and we always need help.
Thanks!
Tony Jordan
President Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
FYI, I emailed to inquire about bicycle parking at the meeting, and got the following reply:
Aletheia Church just communicated that they don’t have bicycle racks yet. Cyclists can lock their bikes against the fence for the construction in the parking lot across from the church. Also, bikes can be stored indoors in their fellowship hall if people are willing to walk them up the stairs.
Nice to see people getting up in arms about this senseless death.
I do wonder if there will be such outrage and outreach following another very serious accident out on Division, just days after a fatal one a few blocks away.
There should be. Perhaps you should reach out to the neighborhood there and assist in putting together a meeting. I am sure the SNA would share our agenda and help brainstorm a panel.