(Photo © J. Maus)
When Jesse Cornett threw his hat into the ring in the race for Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s seat on the Portland City Council, I immediately heard from my sources at Portland State University (where Cornett worked before leaving to run his campaign). They were ecstatic that someone with such a bike-sensitive ear and track record in government (he was PSU’s lobbyist in Salem) was making a run to be one of Portland’s five leaders.
I met Cornett for the first time at the BTA’s annual New Year’s Day ride and I’ve been looking forward to a more formal sit-down interview ever since. I got that opportunity yesterday. Cornett and I discussed a number of issues — including how to pay for new bike infrastructure, the Columbia River Crossing project, bikes as an economic development tool, and more. Read a transcript from our conversation below:
How would you assess Portland’s progress in becoming a city where people can get around in something besides a car?
“We don’t have room for more lanes for cars, so we have to make sure that we’re making it so people can have an easier time commuting by bike.”
“I’ve been bike commuting on some level since I first lived here in 1995. I think Portland has a great head start compared to a lot of other cities. Many areas of the city are very safe and friendly to ride bikes in, but if you get off the beaten path much at all, you see that there are many, many miles of roads that are really not conducive to bicycle commuting. As you said when we talked on New Years Day, this is about a four mile radius from downtown — but also from neighborhood to neighborhood to neighborhood.
I live out in Lents. I can get anywhere I want to in my neighborhood. Everything is close and accessible, but I can’t get anything unless I get in my car. It’s not safe to bike on Foster or 82nd (the two major streets where I live) there aren’t sidewalks on some of the streets. But essentially, a lot of neighborhoods including my own are lacking basic infrastructure.
Portland is going to continue to grow in the next 20 years. We don’t have room for more lanes for cars, so we have to make sure that we’re making it so people can have an easier time commuting by bike. Even living in Irvington [Northeast Portland], you’ve got that awful I-5 interchange on Broadway to go into downtown – so there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Do you think the City is doing enough, too much, or the right amount to hasten this change?
“I like that Portland has made some honest improvements recently. I love the concept of the cycle track on Broadway; I think that it could be improved a little bit — a curb primarily, to separate it from the parked cars — so there’s need for some improvement there.
Chris Smith brought the bicycle master plan to my attention right when I announced my candidacy. I think the goal of 20% [bike usage] in rainy February is tough to imagine, unless we can pass an ordinance that limits the time of day it rains in Portland — I would be very supportive of that by the way. But 8-9 months out of the year I think that’s an entirely possible goal and I like that the City has put the forward thought into the plan.
But what I’d like to see is it funded. We can plan and plan and plan, but unless we’re actually putting our money where our mouth is and focusing on some basic infrastructure projects, we’re not going to get there. If you look at some of the other projects that we have in the hopper. If they were simply to be scaled back, there would be ample funds for massive bike infrastructure in Portland.”
“Massive bike infrastructure” sounds great, but where’s the money going to come from? How do you suppose we pay for the projects that need to be done to make bike travel easier?
“I think that tolls on bridges to make sure that too many transportation dollars aren’t being spent on those projects, so we can divert those into a pot to make sure that other infrastructure is developed is a great way [to raise revenue]. I don’t think that any type of bike-specific fee is going to be a solution.
We’re at about what, 8% of bike commutes into downtown Portland? But what percentage of PBOT’s budget is being spent on bike projects? 2-5% is good, but if we’re going to get to 20% [ridership] shouldn’t we also have a plan to make sure that we’re spending 20% of every transportation dollar in this region to improve bike infrastructure? Actually, we don’t have to, if we spend 10% we would have a massive improvement. Spending should be in better proportion than it is now.”
Your platform talks a lot about helping small businesses. Have you thought about how to deal with powerful voices in the business community who think the City is doing too much for bikes and that bike infrastructure is somehow bad for business?
“I don’t think the two issues are at odds at all. If people have nowhere to park, their business is going to go downhill. Bikes are a tremendous way to reduce congestion in the city center, so that those who choose to drive into downtown have the ability to find a parking spot. If, for instance you live in the West Hills and you’re going to have to spend 20 minutes to find a parking spot to go into Nordstrom, downtown, and deal with everything else, why wouldn’t you just drive out to Washington Square? Or over to Lloyd Center? If you were driving, isn’t that logical thing to do?”
Should the price of parking go up downtown to make it more available for people that can pay, but perhaps less available for people that are on the fence, that might be able to take a bus, or ride their bike?
“Well, the trend that I’ve seen in recent years in Portland is that the fees to park have stayed flat, while the fines for violations have been more of a straight line up.”
So, do you think it’s better to charge more for parking or to increase fees?
“Charge more for parking.”
General (non project-specific) tolls aren’t a political reality yet, so if you talk about raising new revenue, would you support increasing the price of parking downtown?
“[Long pause] I haven’t put a lot of thought into it. On the surface, that seems like a reasonable way to encourage alternative forms of transportation, but I’d have to think about it some more. But I think you’re right, businesses would definitely start squawking.”
Have you thought about bureau assignments? Would you lobby the Mayor’s office to get transportation?
“It will be interesting to see what happens with the police bureau. You have 900 police officers in Portland that have been trained and have the discretion if necessary to take a life. I don’t think that the Mayor should be able to buck that responsibility to another commissioner… I have more public safety experience than any of the other candidates, including the incumbent, so it would be interesting. I would love it, but far outweighing that is that it should remain in the Mayor’s portfolio.
I would like the transportation bureau and there are other bureaus that I look at… but I haven’t let my imagination run wild yet. There are so many interim steps. First there’s public financing, second I have to get through a primary, I have to beat an incumbent, then I’ve got to convince the Mayor who’s going to have three of his peers jockeying for changes as well.”
Suppose you are elected and the Mayor gives you the transportation bureau. The first thing you’ll hear about is the $500 million maintenance backlog, the roads are crumbling and need to be repaved, etc., etc., How would you balance the need to address that backlog, with the need to invest in new bike infrastructure?
[He went into an analogy] “I really need a new furnace at home. It’s not that old, but I’ve got them dumping 200 gallons of oil into my backyard into the tank. It’s horribly inefficient, it’s not environmentally friendly and I really need a new hi-efficiency furnace. But our house is too small, we’ve got an unfinished basement and the maintenance on the furnace is going to be put on hold, because to have the house that we really want right now, we’re going to go ahead and put in a third bedroom and a bathroom in the basement.
The parallel here is simply that there’s always going to be maintenance. I have a list of 20 things around my house that I’d like to do… There’s a never-ending list of projects that could and should be done and someday will be done, but, you can’t put them as the top priority instead of never making progress and I think that you should make progress and prioritize the other projects when you can.”
So, to clarify, you’re saying that while the maintenance backlog is important, it can’t come at the expense of doing things a bit differently?
“If the number one priority was the backlog, we wouldn’t have the cycle track. We wouldn’t have any of the [bike] improvements we’ve seen in recent years. At Portland State [where he worked for last 3 years], we have a staggering amount in deferred maintenance that needs to be done, but if we had made that our only priority, we wouldn’t have that great new Bike Hub would we? Or the student rec center, or a new school of social work. So, I think you make maintenance a priority, to make sure that our city is livable, without forsaking the future and having progress.”
How do you think the City has handled the CRC to this point? Do you agree with the decisions or the general stance that Mayor Adams has taken on it?
“If I wanted to build a big bridge — I understand the need for moving freight into and out of the city — but if I were trying to build a new bridge, I would probably come forward with a proposal for a 12 or 14 lane bridge if what I needed was an 8 or 10 lane bridge. If you come to the table with a 12 lane bridge, that’s probably not your bottom line, and the city agreed to that and everything moving backward from there has been interesting to watch. I am supportive of something. I think we have to find a way to make sure that we are moving freight without creating sprawl.”
Do you think it’s possible to move forward with the project with the existing framework, or are you in favor a complete restart of the entire planning process after $50-75 million has already been spent on planning?
[He corrects me, saying they’ve spent $100 million in planning so far.]”You know, if it takes $50 million to make sure we’re building the right bridge, versus saying, ‘Well we spent this $100 million so we’re going to build this bridge for $3.6 billion’, I’ll take plan A anytime to move forward with a new process.”
So you’d rather start a new process. Is that what you’re saying?
“I’d rather make sure we get it right, even if that means starting a new process. There’s a ton of work that’s been done. I don’t know if we need to re-invent the wheel. The political sides are so polarized on this issue — maybe we can’t move forward on anything.”
Do you think it’s possible to reach consensus between two regions that are so very different?
“It’s imperative that consensus is found and I hope it’s found in the not too distant future. Washington has to have this as as large of a priority as Oregon does. Our congressional delegation needs something to throw their full weight behind. Unless we have [Congressman] Peter DeFazio jumping up and down saying “My God, we have to fund this!” It’s not going to happen. So I’m a skeptic. I have friends and colleagues that are at opposite sides of this project, and if I thought I could support this bridge I would have, but I just think it’s flawed.”
Another part of your platform is local economic development. Do you think Portland’s burgeoning bike economy is something the City could put more weight behind?
“I heard somebody say, you don’t have a good apparel industry because you have a plan to attract them, you have a good apparel industry because Phil Knight decides to live here. You don’t have a good bike industry because we choose this path, you have a good bike industry because people like Chris King choose to live here. It’s the lifestyle and it’s attracting entrepreneurs.”
Would it make sense for the city to nurture this bike economy? For instance, there’s been a lot of energy put into electric cars. Do you think the bike businesses that are already here warrant more attention than they’re getting?
“I think that the city should go out of its way to help make sure that we’re attracting and retaining not just businesses but the type of businesses we’d like to see. Electric cars; absolutely. Bike part manufacturers; absolutely… Instead of taking areas like biotech, that we think we have a shot at attracting to Portland and investing in them, we should look at areas like the bike sector where it’s already coming, it’s already here. Obviously something’s working here, so how do we foster that?”
What do you think about the car/bike dichotomy that goes on in Portland? Do you think it’s a real problem?
Yes. I think that’s a real problem. I’ve said this to a motorist in my office who was thrashing on bicyclists: ‘You were able to get here five minutes faster and find a parking spot faster because 8% of the daily trips are on bicycles. If everyone of us were in cars, that wouldn’t work.’
I think it’s incredibly short sighted for motorists to rue bicyclists being on the road. I think it should be encouraged. Yes, it’s a real problem. People have been hurt… It’s been a rough couple of years, there have been a number of incidents. But I can’t help but wondering how overblown it is. Newspapers are dying. More and more the papers in Portland are becoming sensationalist, and stories about what would otherwise be considered a minor altercation between a bicyclist and a car — if there’s one shred of conflict there than it can be blown up quite a bit and I will dare to say perhaps a little bit too much.”
A lot of that anger comes from a sense that bikes don’t pay their way. How would you respond to someone who came to Council and testified that they don’t want any more cycle tracks because ‘those free-loading bicyclists don’t pay!’?
“We don’t have hard numbers on it, but we would probably find that a large % of bicyclists actually own cars [a recent survey by the BTA showed that 90% of “cyclists” own at least one car]. We pay income tax. We pay property taxes…
And you could take that logic a step further and say: I don’t have kids in the school system and my wife and I aren’t planning to become parents, so why should I pay as much in taxes to pay for our schools as you do? Because that’s what it takes to have a strong society and that’s just what you do.”
What about your personal life? What’s the Jesse Cornett story?
I moved to Portland in 1995, went to high school just outside Seattle, Washington. My goal or plan was never to go to college… I was an awful student in high school… But I had a great experience at community college and transferred to PSU in 1999.
At the time I was going to be a police officer, so I decided to go back to school… Political science was an easy degree for me to get. In 2000 I decided to go to the Democratic Nominating Convention even though I’d never done anything in politics.
Cornett spent the next several years working as a legislative aide for various politicians and for the legislature in Salem. In 2006 he ran for Oregon State Senate and lost by a “razor thin” margin. He left the Salem grind and then took a job in government relations (lobbyist) with PSU for three years.
“As my time at PSU wrapped up I thought long and hard about where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do and where I thought I could have the greatest impact on the day to day issues — bike paths, interactions with police, how much you’re paying for your water bill. The city makes a lot of decisions that impact everyday Portlanders and something’s been wrong with the mix in City Hall lately and I think it’s time for a shake-up.
I really think that un-electing a three-term incumbent who talks a good talk and has been there for a lot, but not necessarily been a great leader, is a good start.”
Cornett is quickly closing in on the 1,000 signatures and contributions he needs to qualify for public financing. From sources close to the race, it’s likely he’ll be the only one of the six contenders to qualify in time (this Friday). To hear more from Cornett and the other contenders — including incumbent Dan Saltzman, come to the Candidate Olympiad event tomorrow night.
Thanks for reading.
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I like this guy much better.
He sounds well-intentioned but I find his answer to the CRC questions rather unsatisfying. What are the “flaws” and how would he address them?
Agreed. I felt as though he was avoiding the question a bit up until he (finally) came right out and said that it was flawed.
I think it’s flawed, too but I’d like to know why Mr. Cornett thinks it is.
I take issue with saying “I live in Lents … but can’t get to anything unless it’s by car”. What’s “anything”? Lents is 6 miles from downtown, about 30-40 minutes by bike or transit, only double the time by car. Groceries are easily accessible from Fred Meyer or Trader Joe’s, and there are a huge number of stores, parks, and entertainment within a 15 minute bike ride of 82nd and Foster. There are some challenging crossings, sure, but for the most part, that’s a large neighborhood full of low-traffic residential streets. The only major issues are getting across 82nd or I-205, and both of those can be solved by knowing the neighborhood and planning accordingly.
And Cornett’s “maintenance” analogy is flawed. The roads are the infrastructure, like the beams in your house. Regardless of what’s going on, you take care of the beams of the house, or else the whole thing collapses. maintaining the existing investment is paramount. We built this road network so that all neighborhoods can access it. We need to keep that up – bike infrastucture can still be built, because it’s really cheap comparatively, but you can’t build it at the expense of other people’s access to the road network.
That said, many of the existing roads need to go on a diet, and laws/fines/taxes/pricing need to be enacted to account for the disproportionate impact of chains and large trucks.
Great job Jonathan. I have to admit. When I first met Mr. Cornett, I didn’t like him. He seem to focus to much on business. I do agree with Andrew. I want to know what is flawed? Is it that there are 12 lanes, 5+ ways for vehicles to get on bridge, or that current design only has one way for pedestrians or bike to access the bridge. That being said. He may have just one my primary vote…
Great point Matt. Lents is easily bikeable. Didn’t Holgate just get a new and improved bike ped crossing to the new max stop? Shit.. Can’t someone real run for this office?
Only someone who:
1) is either a “strong and fearless” rider
or 2) has never ridden a bike in lents
or 3) isn’t paying attention to all of the pedestrians being plowed over in the neighborhood
would say that lents is “easily bikeable.” are you guys kidding?
I’m not sure how to confirm this, but I seem to recall that parking meter hourly rates were raised 4 years ago. Just within the last year though, the city generated a bunch of money by increasing the hours that people parking on the street have to pay.
Like anything else though, if they’re isn’t a readily available, really attractive option, people are just going to grit their teeth and pay nearly whatever increase in parking fees the city decided to impose. So, if Cornett were to say something about improving bike routes from outlying neighborhoods to downtown to the extent that they were so beautiful and easy to ride that people would not be able to resist leaving the car home and riding the bike instead…that would be something to think about.
Re; his remark about car dependency in Lents…I think I get what he’s saying, but what more he could say about the situation and remedies to it would be good to hear. Weren’t the recent bikeportland stories about collisions on 80th and Foster related to this very thing? Can’t cross the bleepin street on foot or ride around there on a bike without dire fear for your life. That’s a major reason people drive.
If Cornette were prepared to talk about a plan to pull out the stops to make the Lents area a premier place where neighbors could do much of their shopping and errands in the neighborhood at businesses in abundance already there, comfortably and safely on foot, or by bike, that would be something.
In general, he sounds like a smart enough guy, making him a good candidate for the job.
State of the Bike Infrastructure in Lents:
Lents is bike-able if you know the residential streets. I live in the NW “quadrant” of the ‘hood on Holgate, and I tend to use 88th, next to the park (was the detour when the 205 path was closed down) a lot with Ellis being the only tough spot before the Town Center.
Lents also has great north-south through access on the 205 Multi-use path, and good east-west through access on the south side of the neighborhood because of the Springwater Trail. From a mobility/commuting standpoint Lents has ideal bike facilities. We’re the host to the “junction” of Portland’s two bike freeways.
There is good east-west biking between 92nd and 122nd on Holgate now. But, there’s still a tough spot between 92nd and Eastport plaza. Also, connecting up with the Center Street bike boulevard is difficult. You essentially have to ride through the Eastport parking lot, which is not designed for bikes. Getting this “break” in the continuity fixed is key to improving the access between NW Lents and the Holgate Library and Foster business district at 63rd.
Unless you take the round-about route and use the 205 MUP starting at Steele, The subdivision jogs and lack of sidewalks and bike lanes on Ellis street cut off the NW part of the neighborhood from the Town Center area.
The planned improvements to crossings at 91st should help overcome the problem of the SW part of the neighborhood being cut off at the couplet for east-west travel.
Hopefully the 101st bike Boulevard will help the East part of Lents make the connections to Holgate and the Springwater, but I think we need to pay more attention to Harold – which is the main neighborhood-ish way to cross under the freeway. The bike lanes on Foster do not help with that situation because the Foster-205 interchange is too messy for bikes and pedestrians. There are just too many turn movements and the sidewalks are right up against the road right now.
But, what it comes down to is that there are currently only 3-4 businesses to bike to – and none of them are “daily” sort of places. Lents needs a grocery store in the Town Center and more variety of retail and restaurants.
If there is a perception that biking in Lents is difficult from a seasoned bike commuter like Jesse, then others less-experienced might agree. I think we have a problem.
I’d bet a lot of folks who don’t currently use a bike in Lents would agree with Jesse.
WE MUST BUILD IT for East Portland!
From what I can tell, Jesse hasn’t lived in the neighborhood long enough to explore and actually figure out the normal routes.
I’m by no means a fearless or even confident biker. I ride a ’57 Western Flyer with coaster brakes that weighs over 50 lbs to the farmer’s market and the taco wagon and the Takahashi. It’s easy. Lent’s is very bike-able. It’s just cut off from Foster Powell and Mt Scott-Arleta.
If you live on the South side of Foster (like Jesse) commuting to the central city is easy, because you’re closer to the Springwater. If you have a light/fast bike and legs – it’s a quick ride. If you live over by me – it’s an extra 1.5 miles to make your way over to the trail – so, sometimes it’s a wash.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the priority should be creating connectivity across the physical barriers of 82nd and the Freeway.
You can put in miles and miles of bike lanes east of 82nd, but none of them are going to do any good unless we deal with the “crossing the border” issues.
Cora, I don’t even live in Lents, but I do live near what I think you’re referring to as a ‘town center’, out here in Beaverton, which is the Fred Meyer mega store with its partner complex, Beaverton Town Square. Bound on three sides by big, fast roadways. Neighborhoods to either side of them. Not so much unlike the Lents area, I would tend to think.
Sure, out in the B…it’s bike-able and walkable for people that are obliged, for various reasons to endure the motor vehicle noise, filth and danger; the marginally present sidewalks and bike lanes. And some people do. You see them out there; poor people, younger people…that don’t have cars…yet.
Because it can be done does not make it an experience that invites people do so if they have other means of transportation. Not having met or seen you, by what you’ve written, I have no doubt that a person such as yourself can hop on the bike and get anywhere you need be out in Lents.
Just for fun though, start doing a little informal, mental survey of the people in your neighborhood…ages, types, income level and so forth….that are regularly happy to thread their way down the neighborhood streets of Lents to cross a thoroughfare such as Foster at 80th to go the Fred’s for a bag of groceries.
If they don’t have to, if it’s not safe and fun, people aren’t going to do it.
Bob,
Lents is not really like Beaverton. The classification of “town center” is more of a 300,000 ft regional geographic classification and doesn’t necessarily equate to similar localized geographies or street patterns.
Lents is actually more like the Williams/Vancouver area in North Portland. It’s a general market/housing area that is bounded on one side by a major artery that is also a state highway (MLK near Williams, 82nd in Lents)and bisected by a freeway (I-5 near Williams, I-205 in Lents). The Williams area has an advantage in that it is closer to the downtown core – which reduces travel times (accessibility). Lents has an advantage in that it has both a north to south and east to west dedicated multi-use path that creates quicker travel times (mobility).
The street grid pattern in similar in the two areas. It’s a streetcar era grid, with additional post-war and modern day infill added in.
This grid system is why it’s easy and efficient to use parallel neighborhood streets for bicycle travel. There are a few choke points and areas that could be improved in Lents – as I have noted in my previous posts, and I do think that dealing with those areas first is the best use of limited funds for cycle infrastructure. In addition, we really need to focus on building destinations in the areas like the Town Center that can easily serve cyclists, pedestrians and also accomodate the existing (and hopefully diminishing) auto traffic on the major arterials.
I don’t need to start doing an informal mental survey of the people in my neighborhood, because I do it every day – for every planning project I work on as a volunteer in my community. I also do it city-wide as part of my job. I work with people that have barriers to using any mode of transportation. I help them create personal transportation plans and strategies to help them meet their daily and occasional needs for travel.
That is why I understand that you have to approach travel plans for each mode differently. In a lot of cases, people try to use travel routes, that are auto-oriented, for the bicycle mode. In many cases, that is the least appropriate route.
But – back to my original point. Lents has great biking bones. Lents has awesome biking bones. People should bike it and enjoy what it has to offer, and also support development projects that give everyone something more to “bike to” in Lents.
“I don’t need to start doing an informal mental survey of the people in my neighborhood, because I do it every day – for every planning project I work on as a volunteer in my community.” Cora
Okay. So then, who is biking and riding for the basic trips in Lents that Cornette is talking about about? Are you suggesting great numbers of people doing this already? Are they doing so in sufficiently great numbers that you believe Jesse Cornett may be mistaken when he says:
“…Everything is close and accessible, but I can’t get anything unless I get in my car. It’s not safe to bike on Foster or 82nd (the two major streets where I live) there aren’t sidewalks on some of the streets. But essentially, a lot of neighborhoods including my own are lacking basic infrastructure.” jesse cornett/bikeportland interview
Your statement: “…The classification of “town center” is more of a 300,000 ft regional geographic classification, … .” Not sure what you mean there. ‘sq ft’? I’m not familiar with, nor have I looked at the Williams/Vancouver on a map. I don’t think I suggested that Beaverton and Lents are the same, but that they share similarities.
Beaverton does have big highways running right through it…big honkin’ highways, that have slowly become worse and worse problems as the years have passed; that’s why urban centers like it and Lents could really benefit from some serious fixin’ if we’re ever to expect ‘mom and pop’ average citizen to keep their keys in their pocket and get out there hoofin’ it peddlin’ to the Freddy’s.
Nice, wide, well lit pedestrian-bike, campus like boulevards from neighborhood to multi-service shopping centers that are prominent amenities of many neighborhoods today. This is what I hope to hear local leaders start talking about. So far, some of them seem to touch on such an idea from time to time, but not much comes to mind, of an outright call for this type of idea.
I’m glad to hear you’re volunteering on planning projects in the community. Not enough grass roots involvement in that level may be one of the reasons getting ideas and support for improvements is so slow in coming. Where people are personally involved in planning projects in their neighborhoods, it seems the tendency to understand the neighborhood’s needs is going to be greater.
Bob,
The bulk of the cyclists in Lents are males in their late thirties or early forties and kids between the ages of 10 and 15. There are also a crew of stay-at-home-moms and in home childcare providers that ride regularly. I think our most prolific bike rider is my friend Laura, who bikes everywhere with her kids in a trailer – even to Trader Joe’s on Johnson Creek Blvd. And she gets there pretty easily using the 205 path and Fuller Rd.
A lot of the bike traffic in North Lents passes in front of my house as people are either going to the MAX or the 205 path, headed toward the buffered bike lanes further east on Holgate or transitioning over from Eastport and/or the Holgate library to neighborhood streets and the through streets next to the park near my house.
Jesse’s talking about what he can’t do, so I have no reason to doubt his statement about his own habits and abilities. I also have no idea where he’s going. If I knew, I could probably give him a few pointers on how to get places though. It’s really easy to avoid 82nd and Foster except for maybe a single crossing during a trip.
The 300,000 ft is a reference to an aerial view scale. If you read a lot of maps it makes sense.
Likewise, if you map out Lents and map out Beaverton side by side you can see the distinct differences in the form of the built environment – especially the street patterns. Lents is not like Beaverton. Gateway is a little like Beaverton, but Lents is not like Beaverton.
Lents does have nice wide well lit paths. I have referenced them in all my comments. In addition, we have nice neighborhood streets to ride on.
I enjoy being involved in the planning in my neighborhood. But, that said, most people do not have the passion, time or inclination to really delve into the amount of information it takes to really get a strong holistic understanding of the existing assets, challenges and opportunities within the scope of an entire neighborhood. It’s great to have grass roots support for general concepts, but what I’ve found is that the biggest thing to slow progress having a large group of people trying to come to consensus on implementation details. There’s a point at which you need to have the grassroots group let go and let the people with the know-how get it done.
Cora…great info…thanks! I’ve got some physical maps and can always find some others or go online to look at google maps. I’ll figure out what you’re thinking of in terms of the 300,000 ft reference.
Maybe Cornett will see your comments and ask for some help with route finding or other ideas.