(Photo: Matthew Arnold)
Despite cold and foggy weather, organizers reported a turnout of hundreds at the Sellwood Bridge march and rally Saturday morning.
(Photo: Aaron Tarfman)
The event was put together by local residents and the Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League (SMILE). The march was escorted by Portland Police and it went half-way across the bridge before returning to the Sellwood Community Center.
Judging from photos and reports, the crowd was full of families and kids. Here’s a snip from the Oregonian:
While the event had a distinctive family flavor with children on bicycles and in strollers and wagons, organizer Bradley Heintz kept the group on task, barking slogans through a scratchy megaphone.
“OK!” Heintz said, walking backward. “I’m going to say, ’64 and no more,’ and you say, ‘That is what we’re marching for!'”
The SMILE neighborhood group wants to send a message that they support a bridge design that is no more than 64-feet wide and that has a maximum of two motor vehicle lanes (read more about SMILE’s position on the bridge in our report last week).
The next major decision point on this project will come this Friday (2/6) when the Sellwood Bridge Policy Advisory Group is expected to recommend a preferred alternative that identifies the alignment, the design of traffic interchanges at both ends, the number of lanes it should have, and the overall width of the bridge.
— Browse our previous coverage of the Sellwood Bridge Project and learn more at SellwoodBridge.org.