Click to enlarge detour map.
The Eastbank Esplanade will be closed for three days starting this Thursday night.
PBOT announced the closure via Twitter last night. Starting at 7:00 pm on June 18th, the Esplanade will close betweetn SE Clay Street (just south of Hawthorne Bridge) and SE Caruthers. The closure will last until Sunday June 21st at 5:00 pm.
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PBOT says the closure is due to an event taking place at the Portland Opera, whose headquarters are directly adjacent to the Esplanade at Caruthers.
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The Portland Opera needs a public right of way for a whole weekend? Isn’t that a bit excessive? Are they paying for the privilege? I assume there will be some traffic-control costs.
This is completely unacceptable. The Portland Opera gets to close a public right-of-way for three days for private use, and no alternative safe cycling facilities will be provided. PBOT expects us to use the unprotected bike lanes on Water Av.
Declaring that it is an outrage every time something happens lessens the impact of your message for when things truly are an outrage. This is a detour that has been in use on and off for years now. It’s not a particularly heavily trafficked street and it’s not particularly unsafe. Though I have doubts my message in this regard will make any impact, it’s high time for someone to say something.. Please, chill out.
I kind of agree with both you and Adam H. I think the sense of outrage here (mine, at least) comes from the fact that it’s some uppity culture organization of interest primarily to richer people. It has a bit of a “let them eat cake” feel to it. Also, outrage levels in general are just running high in Portland transpo-land right now.
On the other hand, the closure is fairly brief, they have warned us and provided a detour, and the detour doesn’t seem too onerous. Probably not worth getting too upset about.
Not a lot of warning if you don’t read here or their tweets. How is the signage down there?
No, the detour is easy enough (at least without one of those wobbly kids), but it is a closure of a public space for a private event. For an entire weekend. The risk may be minimal, it might be worth it when they were building a bridge, but to close it for a gala?
It’s really not a big deal to have to detour. That’s not what I’m outraged about. It’s more about how the attitude that it’s okay to take away safe cycling space for a private event on a whim. It sets a bad precedent and it’s disrespectful to people who use the trail.
Well for one, that’s not the main point you made in the comment I responded to, and for another, it’s debatable that it really is safe cycling space to begin with. I also prefer Water Ave because the esplanade in that location contains blind curves and a lot of pedestrians (children in particular), especially on summer weekend days. While bike vs ped collisions aren’t on the same caliber as vs autos, they can still result in injury. And if you’re staring off to the river because it’s pretty then you’re distracted in an area where you need to be more cautious.
And to the point of it being a private event, I do hear and understand where the displeasure of the closure comes from. It isn’t very nice to have these dedicated spaces appropriated for private events. However, it does support the arts (how, to what extant and whether it’s really worth it are the topic of some other conversation), and such an appropriation is not unprecedented – it happens on the west bank multiple times during the summer for much larger, longer events.
My point is that it’s not completely unacceptable. Save the fight for something that’s worth it.
Fair enough. I think people (myself included) are just more on edge considering all the recent events and generally feeling ignored by the city.
resopmok, I’d think if there’s a big enough event to close that path, the area WILL be heavily trafficked with cars, much more so than usual anyway. Plus, if someone were unaware of the detour, they could have to go quite out of their way to backtrack to the specific river crossing they needed. Bike travel is physical, and timed differently than in a car. Thus, detour notification needs to be made sooner for bike/transit/walking path closures to make sure the public is aware of it.
On that note, this could have been a chance for a donation-dependent arts organization to show support for VisionZero, and let their rich patrons know how important it is. Many, many Portland artists use bikes as their mode (for economic & other reasons). The arts & active travel need to be supportive of each other. Bicyclists work for and patronize the arts; in return, certain arts organizations could really stand to show some love to bicyclists (even if it’s just installing bike racks at their buildings).
In this case, IMO, a really huge PR opportunity was missed. Too bad. Maybe they can quick remedy it on Twitter or something.
A population getting plenty of respect every other day of the year, likely WOULD chill out.
There’s no end of sidewalks closing for months due to construction … been to 11th and SE Belmont recently?? Part of city life… get used to it.
They are probably doing a media/filming. they need absolute quiet in the area for that. The sound equipment picks up bike hub clicking unusually well.
On top of that. I was unaware the route via Caruthers that is closing was ever opened once the Tillicum crossing started construction. The second bypass has been common useage since then.
Point taken about the hubs, but still… there’s not much quiet in the shadows of the Marquam Bridge and MLK Viaduct.
For what it’s worth, I don’t use the Esplanade on this stretch anymore. I prefer the Water Ave. bike lanes, which is the detour shown above. It’s faster than slowing down for children around OMSI. It’s not as scenic and sometimes I have to watch out for cars pulling out in front of OMSI.
Looks like they’re having a big Gala.
http://www.portlandopera.org/production/gala/
Take a look at the sponsors. Actually, are we all sponsors? Is that art tax paying for this?
http://www.kgw.com/story/news/investigations/2015/04/14/where-does-the-portland-arts-tax-go/25800091/
Apparently, Portland Opera received about $150K in a grant from the Arts Tax fund last year, as did Portland Center Stage. It’s a drop in the bucket, the majority of which is poured into the schools.
And the 40% admin fees due to the horribly planned collection process.
Yikes! Is it that bad? I had no idea.
I guess it was 9.3% in the second year:
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/04/portland_arts_tax_overhead_cos.html
So not as bad as I thought, but still pretty horrible considering that it could have been tacked onto property taxes for basically nothing.
Except that if it was tacked onto property taxes it would be unconstitutional.
It’s death by a thousand cuts for the Esplanade. Many of them are the excuses to close some part of it. I can’t make myself use it anymore.
Just as well to save the cyclists ears.:)
I have friends who think it is outrageous for the Bridge Pedal to close a freeway for 6 hours because it disrupts their ability to get to church on Sunday morning.
How about a little give and take? We all had to use Water Avenue during some of the construction phases for the Tillikum Bridge. I think we’ll all manage again.
I can certainly tolerate Portland Opera’s use of the pathway for a weekend. Some of their supporters and ticket purchasers just might be cyclists, too.
WWJD?
Probably walk to church…
Uugh.
There’s no need to be outraged at the slightest inconvenience in our daily lives (and this is the perfect example of a slight inconvenience). We’re cyclists, not the national rifle association….
A thriving city also needs a thriving Arts culture; deep pocketed patrons are the traditional subsidizers of much of that culture, and as such, they occasionally need to be lauded on a more personal level. We’ll all have forgotten this episode in a weeks time…
(I’ll take this moment to have no comment on the statue of Vera Katz on the esplanade…)
That’s just it, though, Hotrodder. To NOT forget, to not let any opportunities for a VisionZero message to pass us by. When a noncar path is closed in the city & bikes must then share a road with cars, that is anti-VisionZero thinking. It’s the very opposite of what we’re trying to get leaders to do. The community needs to learn how to think differently about these public routes. Because if someone loses a life due to this closure, it’s no longer just an “inconvenience” for that person.
Isn’t it also anti-VisionZero thinking to close the Marquam Bridge every August? Cars will inevitably have to detour using other surface streets and we know those detours will have higher accident rates than interstates do. To the person injured or killed in that marginal car crash, the detour wasn’t just an inconvenience.
Yes, Tait, I’d agree! The well-known, well-publicized Marquam Bridge closure absolutely has VisionZero safety issues, even though it lasts a few hours on a Sunday as opposed to 3 days including a workweek-commute day. One concern is drivers have grown more distracted than ever in their cars. They’ll be lost & fiddle with their GPS devices on surface streets (that’s major driving distraction). I do think the city plans better for SP closures, since the program is many years old AND it involves shutting down roads to cars, rather than shutting down roads to bikes. Any time they shut a road to *cars* they do seem to be a little more “on top of” thinking through the possible effects.
Funny you bring this up… I rode the Marquam Bridge Sunday Parkways in 2008 or 09(?) & up on the bridge had one of those moments of inexplicable, out-of-the-blue depression. My riding partners & I all had to stop while I figured it out. Maybe I was just dehydrated/hungry… or maybe it was the knowing that in a few hours, this bridge would be filled with deadly metal speeding by once again & suddenly the whole thing felt tremendously fake, a giant appeasement, a PR campaign to earn Platinum. We all allowed the moment to pass, & I continue on with bike advocacy & activism… But ever since that experience, whenever the city tries to appease & placate, as oppose to ACT & affect real safe change for active commuter modes, my hair stands on end and I have to say something.
I went to the OMSI Gala this year, and they did not close down the path. Why does the Opera need to do that?
Seems like bad timing since there is a Sunday Parkways this weekend in North Portland and I imagine many people, including myself, planned to use the Esplanade to get up there. It isn’t the end of the world but it does seem like an odd balance of priorities.
Oh, for goodness sake. Using Water Avenue instead of the Eastbank Esplanade from Caruthers to Clay adds an extra 100 feet in travel distance each way. You’re riding from SE Portland to the Sunday Parkways event in North Portland. You’ll cover 30 to 40 miles and you’re concerned that your travel distance increases by 200 feet?
Hmm, I wonder if that argument will work for closing off Naito & Park permanently to cars? Or Clinton, for that matter? “It’s only another block; It’s only 2 minutes out of your way, no biggie, Mr. Driver!” I would like it if the city would stop asking drivers what they think, or caring, and just start closing those roads to cars, exactly as was done here to bicyclists.
Point is not so much how much time or distance it’ll add to get to Sunday Parkways or anywhere else people are going–though it would have been thoughtful of the Portland Opera to take bicycle commuters more into consideration–but that more of the riding will have to be done next to cars. Thus, it’s more stressful riding. It’s opposite thinking to what bicyclists and pedestrians need in this city. Evidently, leaders and organizations–even arts organizations–are still not thinking VisionZero thoughts. And we need them to, right away.
Water Avenue has bike lanes and a posted speed of 20 mph. If that’s not an acceptable detour for 3 days, I don’t know what is.
If Vision Zero means never putting any bicyclist or pedestrian at any elevated risk for anything at any time, you’ll won’t be getting a majority of elected officials to endorse it.
I’m very familiar with Water Ave. As a veteran cyclist, I agree, it’s a fine place to bike, especially compared to other streets downtown. What I’m saying is: This detour & the way it was put upon the public represents the “old way” of doing things, which is to worry about car culture first, people traveling other ways second (if at all). Was anyone who’s ever ridden a bike from SE to downtown even consulted about this decision? I bet the Portland Opera has “more important” people to be concerned with, eh?
If only we had VisionZero policies in full swing, cops on every street to enforce speed limits, and the Burnside bridge & Clinton (etc etc) fixed for bicyclists & people on foot… But in fact we are still at the level of reminding people about the correct way to think about public routes & how they’re traveled. Maybe there are more pressing things to think about when running a city: Need a new suit for the news conference; what flight to take for that next big event; big new buildings to plan. This Portland Opera detour thing? Yeah, it’s small potatoes, just like you’re saying, J_R. I just don’t happen to think it should be left to roll under the table for the raccoons to nibble. Much as I love raccoons.
Bike and walking routes become extremely important to those who rely on them daily. Resting on our laurels, without pointing out that this detour is a move away–not toward–VisionZero, is unhelpful to our move forward to safer streets. It lets down the people whose backs we all should have.
Just wait for many changes coming to Water avenue after new Orange line and bus services get cranked up this fall. There will be much stopping and waiting for cross traffic of trains and buses and pedestrians will add more time to the Water ave route. It appears that buses will have right of way priority over pedestrians and cyclists and their new bus malls.
OMSI / Opera Esplande is so far from Platinum for such a major bike infrastucture – couldn’t they widen this path and make room for bikers and pedestrians, perhaps move a few of those lamp posts and get rid of a few pot holes in the “orphan” section? Is it so much to ask? Cyclists in near misses with peds down there all the time, such a poor effort in an important place that just got a big makeover overhead (Tillikum) and underground (Big Pipe).
This weekend, Conbrochill, a local band, closed SE 2nd & SE Madison for a vaguely patriotic party dedicated to dancing in neon spandex to techno. I watched from Veteran Bicycle Co. HQ that occupies that exact same corner. I had a ball, even though they shut down the street with zero notice. I assumed the party would be over by morning and it was!
I recommend stopping by Rivelo PDX on your detour and supporting one of Portland’s newest and best cycle shops in case you get stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues.