Photo: APNBA
The Belmont Area Business Association has received a $5,000 grant that will go towards a project to install two on-street bike parking facilities on SE Belmont Ave (you might recall my story on this project from back in February).
The grant was awarded April 23rd at the annual meeting of the Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations (APNBA).
Belmont-area business owner Bill Stites — the man behind Stites Design human powered vehicles — sits on the board of the Belmont Area Business Association as a rep for the Sunnyside Neighborhood. Stites says the $5,000 award is a matching grant and he now plans to approach local businesses and other organizations for additional funds. He says Laughing Planet Cafe has already committed to help fund the project.
“I’ve drafted a budget of about $13,000 for everything we want to do. The city will supply the staple racks, but the main cost is the installation. We’re also looking to incorporate public art into the racks.”
(File photo)
Stites says the neighborhood wants to build two, on-street bike parking facilities (similar to ones in North Portland) on the southern corners of SE Belmont at 33rd and 34th Streets. The structures would each be 37 feet long and would include 11 staple racks each. They would also remove existing staple racks on the sidewalk which Stites hopes will “de-congest” the area for pedestrians.
City parking officials have already examined the site and the proposed plans and are enthusiastic about the project. Watch for the new on-street bike parking to be completed by the end of this fall.
Thanks for reading.
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Sweet! I really look forward to locking my bike up to one of those racks.
I knew it was too good to be true. By removing parking racks from the sidewalk they\’re essentially just pushing us out into the street. By the time this is all over I\’m sure there will barely be more spaces for us than what we\’ve got already. They should just save the $13,000, I am not a second-class citizen!
To Fred:
I am curious if you know the bike parking situation outside of Amnesia Brewing on N. Mississippi? I envision Stites\’ project to look similar. The situation up there is pretty seamless with the sidewalk and other pedestrian amenities. I don\’t quite understand what you are upset about, myself. Besides, us bikers are entitled to share the streets with cars while we ride, and we should be entitled to share the streets to park on as well!
I think what Fred is concerned about is that in an area where bike parking is already in short supply, if you rip out 10 sidewalk racks and replace them with 15 on-street racks, the net gain isn\’t quite what it should or could be.
Witness the Amnesia parking lot. Very often it is full, but thankfully they didn\’t do away with the sidewalk racks so even if you have to walk a block you can still find a spot.
Great project, and I\’m glad to see the local Business Alliance is so bike friendly!
I\’d also be curious to know how many existing bike racks are on the sidewalks. There\’s quite a few if I remember correctly. Perhpas we won\’t be gaining as many new bike parking spaces as I\’d orignally hoped in my neighborhood.
If they really wanted to de-clutter the sidewalks for pedestrians, how about moving those 8 million \”newspaper\” boxes with advertisements for apartment condos in Beaverton etc. They\’re far more useless than a bikerack, and present far pressing more ADA issues for wheelchair users etc.
Just an FYI – and speaking as someone who lives in the neighborhood:
There will be 4 bicycle racks removed from the sidewalk. There will be 22 new racks on the street. That\’s a net gain of 18 racks or 36 bicycle parking spaces. As far as I know, this block will have the most bike parking capacity of any commercial block in the city.
Belmont on the south side has 8.5 foot sidewalks. Most sidewalks in Portland are 10 feet wide and new construction calls for 12 foot wide sidewalks.
I can tell you, living in the neighborhood, that I know neighbors who are blind and in wheelchairs. As things stand, they have quite a hard time on that sidewalk. This solution is going to help them quite a bit. (in addition to cyclists and the local businesses)
***sorry folks… for some reason slashes are appearing in comment\’s whenever someone type\’s an apostrophe. can\’t figure it out. if anyone has advice I\’m all ears***
Thanks Greg for speaking up with some facts. I for one am all for \”being pushed out into the street.\” Anyone who\’s parked at the Mississippi racks (or looked at the picture) knows that they\’re quite effectively separated from car traffic and the facility is far from \’second class.\’
Can\’t wait to go to Stumptown and actually have somewhere to park!
I look forward to this greatly. Thanks, Bill, for all of your hard work (and I am sure countless hours of time volunteered) on this project.
I really dislike parking my bike on staple racks on crowded sidewalks, especially if it means parking my bike on the street side of the rack – I have watched cars trying to parallel park on busy streets like Belmont/Hawthorne & it always makes me nervous that my bike could get crushed or banged up by a driver. I would much prefer a large bike parking area with all my bike buddies!
Oh, I can\’t wait for this! I lived right off Mississippi when the on-street bike racks were put in, and it made such a difference. I stopped feeling like a jerk when my bike blocked the narrow historic sidewalks, and it just sent such a message that \”bikes are welcome here.\” Belmont needs the same thing.
Thank you to Bill for his hard work, and to the Sunnyside Neighborhood and Business Associations as well as local business owners for supporting the idea. It will be an instant success.
\”There will be 4 bicycle racks removed from the sidewalk. There will be 22 new racks on the street. That’s a net gain of 18 racks or 36 bicycle parking spaces. As far as I know, this block will have the most bike parking capacity of any commercial block in the city.\”
This sounds like an excellent gain to me, as well as an improvement for pedestrians. I would deffiently argue with the notion of being on street as \”second class\” in any way. For one thing, that\’s one less car parked on the street, and one less door you have to worry about opening in your face. For another thing, what better illustration of the space differential between a car and a bike could you possibly have than a large number of bikes parked in a space that used to accomidate only one or two cars?
As another local in this neighborhood, I am very excited about this. The sidewalks are small and one of the corners in question has a HUGE draw – Stumptown coffee. The sidewalk outside it\’s front door is packed with bikes, dogs, strollers, idiotic periodical dispensers, and lots of…local color. At least removing the racks will help a bit. It will also make it easy to park on Belmont and walk the 5 blocks over the Hawthorne.
-Ian
Check design of car-shaped on-street bikerack by Adrien Rovero: http://inoutdesigners.ch/pages/projects/config_01/vd_003.html
It appeared on page 12 of Carbusters #28 (fall 2006).