One of our local alternative weekly magazines, The Willamette Week, made an interesting choice for their weekly “Rogue of the Week” feature. They’ve given the label to the “haters” of the 50s Bikeway who showed up to last week’s first public open house on the project.
Here’s a snip from the Willamette Week story:
“The sorrow on display by supposedly parking-starved residents… was of apocalyptic proportions…
If they had a legitimate concern, we’d listen. But most of the whining last week had to do with what some Portlanders consider an inalienable right—free on-street parking…
“Don’t take away parking on 52nd,” one read. “This is a terrible idea!” “What about the elderly?” asked another, with no explanation for what that meant. “Nobody bikes here anyway,” asserted another.”
The 50s Bikeway is a federally funded project that will build a 4.5 mile north-south bikeway along 52nd and 53rd streets. A major decision in the project is whether or not to reallocate road space in the southern portion of the route that is currently used to store private motor vehicles in order to make room for the bikeway. Learn more about that in a story we published prior to the open house and read past coverage at our 50s Bikeway story tag.
NOTE: I don’t want folks to get the wrong impression about the 50s Bikeway open house. I was not there and we didn’t do any coverage of it… But from what I heard and read, it was a very strong turn out and the vast majority of people were excited and supportive of the plans that PBOT has come up with. Stay tuned for more on this project.