the public has the legal right to
ride a bike on paths like this one
on Hayden Island.
(Photos: Marcus Griffith)
The sometimes complicated rules that govern public use of private pathways is at the heart of a recent incident between a group of people cycling and a resident of Hayden Island, community situated in the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington.
North Portland resident James Wota and two friends were out for bike ride into Vancouver when they opted to stop for lunch at Lotus Isle City Park. After lunch, they noticed some enticing paths and started to explore them on their bike.
“We got on the trail by the [Red Lion] hotel and were biking east when we got stopped by a woman who told us we couldn’t bike on the path because it was private property,” said Wota.
“She told us that we were trespassing and if we didn’t leave the path immediately, she would have security arrest us.”
— James Wota
The woman was later identified as “Meredith,” a self-described condo owner on the island.
According to Wota, he and his friends dismounted their bicycles per Meredith’s instructions and continued on their way. About an hour later, Wota and company met Meredith again. This time the interaction turned unpleasant.
“She told us that we were trespassing and if we didn’t leave the path immediately, she would have security arrest us,” said Wota. According to Wota, when he pointed out he and his friends were walking their bikes as she requested earlier, the woman allegedly become upset and screamed at him.
“She yelled ‘you people don’t belong here’ and pulled out a phone and started to call someone,” said Wota. At that point, Wota and his friends, left the path and continued into Vancouver.
Wota says he is “confused” about why he and his friends were stopped.
“I don’t know why we got threatened when there were lots of people [walking on the path] and there were people actually biking that didn’t get yelled at,” Wota said.
Four days of contacting Hayden Island residents and Home Owners Associations hasn’t clarified that matter either.
When contacted, Meredith stated she “didn’t have to have a reason to tell people to leave.” She declined further comments and instructed me to vacate the area when I asked for her last name.
At this time, it isn’t certain if Meredith has legitimate authority to revoke anyone’s right to use the path way. Requests for copies of the covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&R) that govern public access to the private paths were denied by the Home Owner Associations. Those rules should list who has the authority to ban people form the path way.
The complex nature of right-away on the island appears to even confuse locals.
“It’s complicated… I live [on the island] and can’t tell you which sidewalks are public or just allow public access,” said Hayden Island resident Kathy Whaley.
Part of the confusion is due to the path along N. Tomahawk Island Drive east of Lotus Island Park looks like a public sidewalk, but is posted with signs stating it is a private path.
Regardless of the right-of-way issues, conflicts between the public and property owners are “rare” or “infrequent,” according to island residents. Hayden Island Neighborhood Association board member Victor Viets somewhat humorously compared the annoyance of dealing with the occasional scofflaw cyclist to that of dealing with the island’s wildlife.
“We do occasionally yell at bikers because the path is too narrow for riding. Most just get off and walk their bikes. No problem. We also yell at the geese who leave a big mess on the path and lawns,” Viets stated via email.
The City of Portland is currently reviewing the right-of-way issues on the Island. A response is expected later this week.
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Hayden Island.
Land of Entitlement.
Has been for a long time…
Probably why most cyclist’s don’t do more than ride straight through.
None of the paths, stop signs, lights, bikepath’s, freeway on/off ramps are condusive to walking or cycling. I mean none of them. Not even the ones along the suggested bike routes.
I break traffic laws on Hayden Island to stay alive..
Smile … http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=45.6089,-122.6745&z=2&m=5
PortlandMaps shows the area’s elevation between 20 to 35 feet (http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?action=Elevation&propertyid=R323524&state_id=2N1E34CA%20%20500&address_id=554830&intersection_id=&dynamic_point=0&x=7645441.476&y=716361.817&place=12226%20N%20JANTZEN%20DR&city=PORTLAND&neighborhood=HAYDEN%20ISLAND&seg_id=132291)
Eat the rich … the poor are tough and stringy.
A quick look-around of the tax lot map, most of everything is private on Tomahawk Island including the water. Only the Tomahawk Island Drive is public. Sadly it sounds like Meredith has a common island attitude of exclusivity towards her island.
Until the residents of the island pony up for private on/off ramps maybe they should be deleted from the CRC plans.
Came for this. Leaving satisfied.
Think of how much more exclusive their little fiefdom could be if Hayden Island were excluded from the new CRC.
Many fewer lanes would be needed lowering the cost of a new CRC.
With no road access to the island they would be free of lower class tourists, proletariat and homeless people wandering uninvited in to their domain.
Of course this would make the bulk of commercial activities on Hayden Island financially impractical but who wants all that smelly traffic clogging their roads?
If they start now they can bill themselves as Oregon’s answer to Mackinac Island!
Oregon’s own CarFree bastion inside city limits!
…GET OFF MY PATH!
You so just beat me to it.
I’ve used the walking paths for years and this is the first time I’ve become aware of something like this. My experience has been the residents of the island are friendly, welcoming to guests on the paths and in general very supportive of walking and biking on the island. But when conflict arises, it’s a convoluted process to sort out the governing rules.
It is worth noting that the Hayden Island community recognizes the “needs” of pedestrians and cyclists.
Per page 15 the Hayden Island Plan, the neighborhood association made the following recommendation to the CRC: “The extension of Tomahawk Drive under the freeway will be designed as a community main street, highlighting the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists
and local traffic access.” (https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/8513/Portland_Hayden_Island_Draft_Final_Plan_2009.pdf?sequence=1)
sounds sort of like when Riverplace put up ‘No Bikes’ signs on the public waterfront path by the marina south of auditorium shores.
Are those gone?
Yes
OpenCycleMap has been updated.
How about an article on right of way issues in general? There are so many areas that could benefit from allowing through-access for pedestrians and bikers. Especially in SW and other areas which are not grid-designed. If a few holes were poked through dead end streets and the like we could really expand route options (on low traffic, dead end streets to boot)
Part of the problem with Hayden Island is that much of it was developed as pretty much private enclaves by Jantzen Beach Corp., way before existed development codes were in place, when it was just Multnomah County and not part of the City of Portland proper. I’ve heard it said that the people who fixed the ferris wheel at Jantzen Beach Amusement Park also fixed the water pipes in the ground.
That “Private Path” sign is a butchery of grammatical magic. Half of it is title-case and there is no format to the justification of the lettering. It makes this son of an English teacher want to smash kittens.
Meredith sounds like a real piece of work, too. I hear horror stories from local baristas about people with her level of sense of entitlement. Disgusting.
Not only that, but there’s standard MUTCD signage for everything it says…
Makes me want to go ride out there, just to provoke dear, sweet Meredith, who obviously needs a purpose in life. 🙂
I try hard not to hate. But it’s really hard to abide boojie people like this.
Come to think of it, “her” path was stolen from the native population.
I am impatient for the revolution. It’s coming.
…and then there is the larger issue of redevelopment of the retail at Jantzen Beach without effectively addressing ADA for pedestrians traveling between transit and retail. Even some of the newest retail has new sidewalks but missing ADA ramps for pedestrian connectivity/ crossings.
They’re planning on tearing up Jantzen Beach Mall completely (‘cept maybe not the existing box stores?) and redoing the whole thing, streets and all. It supposed to happen by now and then the economy crashed, but I’ve heard it may start up again soon. Take a gander through the mall proper and you’ll see that about half the storefronts are empty.
How can people comply with rules they don’t know about?
Between the Mall getting redone, the CRC, and a potential light rail line going through the island, things seem due for a LOT of rejiggering. How will the bike situation change?
Most of the changes are coming for the area west of the freeway, and most of the upscale private enclaves are east of it.
Places like Hayden Island should be cut off from public property entirely, cut the sewer lines, cut the power, let them live in their private enclave with only private resources. I have no tolerance for this crap.
I love the phrase “You people.” A favorite of racists for years, now finding a new life!
Trespassing, eh? And how could she tell the riders weren’t residents? By the presence of the bicycles? Sorry, doesn’t fly. Mary Death could just as well have been trespassing herself. Matter of fact, let’s see some ID, lady. YOU don’t belong here.
The three cyclists involved in the incident are African-American. The possibility of the incident was racial motivated was removed during the editing process for space considerations as well as it couldn’t be confirmed if Meredeth meant meant “you people” to mean cyclists, non-residents, black men or just people she opted to ban.
Oh. Emm. Gee.
The plot thickens…
I wonder how many black families live in the area and how many incidents Meredith has been the instigator. Not playing the race card. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
yes. I removed the portion of Marcus’ story that mentioned race. I thought about it for a while and decided in the end that it wasn’t necessary to share. Perhaps my judgment was wrong, but to me, this story was more about the public/private rights issue and less about race.
or she might of meant “you” “people” as she didn’t know their names.
Did they respond with “hey Lady”? Would that insinuate she a redneck with hay in her shorts?
I think you are reading too much into this
Hard to read too much into it – racism is alive and well in America. Read a couple of Tim Wise’s books if you want lots of supporting evidence. Portland doesn’t deal much with racial issues – as the “whitest” major metropolitan area in the US, many here can comfortably ignore racial issues and pretend that they’ve been vanquished. They haven’t – even in the city proper, you will still find bias against people of color, whether “black”, “asian”, “hispanic” or “latino”.
I thought the whole story was she was yelling at cyclists, not yelling at black people to get off the property.
I still think you are reading too much into this, besides- it is just one crackpot old lady anyways, I deal with crackpots everytime I go into downtown Portland. I don’t think it is a very newsworthy story. Some guys mistakenly went onto private property and got yelled at. No big deal.
“New life”?
No, old life.
This is no race thing; this is a class thing.
They are the privileged and moderately filthy rich.
You are sweaty, smelly and dress in a unseemly manner in their presence. This is disrespectful.
Obviously you can not afford a car or are too mentally deficient to be allowed to drive.
“You people” on bikes are thus indistinguishable from “street dwellers”, drug dealers, “lazy slackers that don’t want to work”(unemployed) and bums.
This is very much not new.
Stuff like this happens all over the place in Florida, another reason that I’m so happy to be here now. And thanks to this post, I can scratch Hayden Island off of my “places to explore” list.
The only time I was ever on a bike on Hayden Island was for a Midnight Mystery Ride. And someone called the cops on us.
It seems like a highly unpleasant place all round!
I remember that ride! A bunch of us left when the cops showed up , and they thought there couldn’t possibly be any more bikes down the path, so the cops left, and the stubborn riders got to stay all night. Same approach might work with this Meredith character. If we have a monster ride through her “property”, she might lose her voice after yelling at the first hundred of us. I’ll volunteer to take point.
That would be because the MMR was trespassing on private property, and crossed onto that private property directly in front of the security shack for the gated community at the east end. There were over 150 cyclists on that MMR – is it really a surprise that “someone” called the police?
I was on that MMR also, and within earshot of the security guy when he made the call. He didn’t exactly say they were being “invaded by bikers”, but it was pretty close. I and certain unnamed city employees chose to ride back to the convenience store and head home – we missed the secret hangout spot that the MMR remnant went to, but it was still a good night.
“We do occasionally yell at bikers because the path is too narrow for riding. Most just get off and walk their bikes. No problem. We also yell at the geese who leave a big mess on the path and lawns,” Viets stated via email.”
Wow, as a cyclist, I have been yelled at, called all sorts of names, threatened, and had things thrown at me, but this is the first time I have been compared to a goose taking a crap. Now I just have to figure out Veits train of thought….was it the goose that was getting insulted here??
There is a lot of crime in the area around McDonalds and the strip of mini bar/lotto. The old Newport bay site may turn into a strip club. When they start demoing for construction Safeway will be gone with no plans to rebuild there. dosen’t sound that all exclusive to me
If I want people to respect my private property (and I do), then I need to be willing to respect theirs. The only thing I would add is that if the condo association does not want public use of their paths, they need to make it less ambiguous.
Agreed. Oregon law has clear guidelines for restricting use of property. The condo/homeowner’s association can restrict it as they see fit, but they have to either fence it in or post proper signage.
“you people don’t belong here” screamed at a group of African Americans walking bikes on a path full of white people definitely has racial connotations. I think there is a good possibility Meredith has a problem with black people on her sacred ground, not necessarily cyclists. She may be a much worse person than we thought.
Not to disrespect the race issue, which is a problem for the un-evolved, but this is `America:
Money is the great equalizer and lack of of it, and the “status” it brings, is source of most of America’s prejudice.
Some will continue to associate character flaws, real or imagined, with racial and ethnic origin; at this point it has become a matter of faith. A dying religion whose last gasps are loudly screeching for survival.
The “religion” of racial and ethic hatred is being supplanted by America’s #1 religion: $$$.
Not that this is any better but it is and old cycle.
almost as tired as the old “class inequality” religion…..
“$$$$$” isn’t just a problem here in the u.s. it’s a problem throughout america and the rest of the world. unfortunately though, race, gender, and religios hatred seems to know no class barrier.
why are we so mean to those rich banksters and ceos???
*yawn* yeah, and all the troubles in the world will be solved if they would just throw all their money into the streets, right?
all your comment demonstrates is the raging discrimination in you paradigm. remember discrimination is still discrimination. =]
When the property developed they most likely filed a plat map with the County. That plat, which is public record, would contain information on any type of easements or tracts, including public access easements.
I agree with esther c. The race angle is definitely worth taking into account here. Ask your black friends — there is an ENORMOUS amount of racism just below the surface here in America’s whitest city. To paraphrase Faulkner, our racist past isn’t even past.
I agree that racism likely was a factor in this case. And the intersection of racism, culture and bikes comes up repeatedly, including in this blog. But for me, the way Jonathon and Marcus played it out in this piece–“here’s a problem all bikers can relate to…and oh, by the way…”–makes it all the more poignant and incisive.
Portland needs this for pedestrians and bicyclists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
I doubt she would have hassled two black mormon missionaries dressed wisely. There should be a tweed ride everyday with some dressed as old time bobbies with billyclubs. It certainly would help the non cycling’s perception of …oh hell it would be a lot of fun.
Seems like this thread contains just as much broad brush generalization being made about entitled elitist Hayden Island residents as there was in Meredith’s “you people” comment.
I agree. It’s impossible to know what Meredeth meant. It’s wrong to jump to the race card and lump everyone on Hayden Island into one categorical, esp if most of the residents are okay with using the trails.
If the cyclists were being rude or obnoxious than I can understand the woman’s complaint, but to threaten someone with arrest when they aren’t doing anything is rude.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but at least one private development on the island is accessible only by using the public trail in Lotus Isle Park.
True. Island Cove Floating Homes are accessible via a path from their parking lot, that crosses the park.
If Meredith belongs to the higher or middle social economic class, it’s well to assume she should have known not to use the words “you people” towards African Americans. We need a better description of her to steer clear, or if she should demonstrate her ignorance again, have a way to document her outbursts.
I dont think she said anything about you colored people or anything, she just said you people. Nothin wrong with that. She was just directing her comment at someone.
why? racism knows no social-economic barriers.
The city should link funds for the CRC improvements to Hayden Island to the public getting access to the walk ways. If they don’t want to share, fine, than the public doesn’t share with them.
Its not confusing at all. Privet property is “privet” Don’t come waltzin in on my back yard