United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will get a tour of Portland’s 82nd Avenue on Friday. The USDOT chief will be a special guest of U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek. The trip is part of the Biden Administration’s Investing in America Blitz that aims to highlight the president’s economic agenda.
82nd Avenue is in the midst of a transformation from an “orphan” state highway to a more livable main street owned and managed locally by the City of Portland. After years of pushing from advocates, the car-centric urban arterial was transferred from the state to city ownership in April 2022 — one year after two people were killed by drivers at the same intersection in separate collisions within two weeks of each other while trying to walk cross the street.
Friday’s event will be a bus tour of 82nd Avenue that will include speeches by assorted bigwigs at Portland Community College Southeast Campus (82nd and SE Division). On the bus, Buttigieg, Kotek, and Blumenauer will get a narrated, “windshield tour” of the street from a list of advocates and local elected officials. The list of tour guides includes: TriMet GM Sam Desue, Metro Councilor and APANO Community Development Director Duncan Hwang, 82nd Avenue Coalition Manger and Oregon Walks Interim Executive Director Zachary Lauritzen, Portland City Commissioner Mingus Mapps, Portland of Portland Executive Director Curtis Robinhold, and Oregon State Representative Khanh Pham.
Related: ODOT says US DOT Sec Pete Buttigieg will be Oregon’s ‘new best friend’
Here’s more from the press announcement:
The tour will highlight the challenges and opportunities for 82nd Avenue, as well as efforts to bring greater engagement and investment to the corridor. Tour narrators will acknowledge how historic inequities have shaped the street as we see it today. They will also describe a vision for a thriving business and residential corridor—along with the need for safety improvements, affordable housing, and more.
Following the event, Blumenauer and Buttigieg will take questions from the media.
In the last 15 months, work on the new era of 82nd Avenue has begun in earnest with public outreach events, renewed attention from officials and politicians and planning work from transportation agencies.
Since the transfer from the Oregon Department of Transportation to the Portland Bureau of Transportation has been completed, 82nd Avenue has attracted $185 million in funding from a mix of local, state, and federal sources. In addition to repaving and basic maintenance and safety changes, the street is likely to see a significant reconfiguration of its cross-section that could include a bus-priority lane and access for cycling.
US DOT Sec. Pete Buttigieg has won many fans in active transportation advocacy circles. His presence at 82nd Avenue will add to the considerable political tailwinds surrounding this project.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
I don’t get the use of “inertia” here … …”will add to the considerable political inertia surrounding this project.” Seems like the project has the opposite of inertia: impetus!
Thanks! That was a mistake. Lisa called me a few minutes ago and I fixed it. Sometimes my brain does the wrong thing and I’m grateful when folks help me out. Thanks!
Inertia does, after all, also refer to the tendency to stay in motion once started.
So, maybe you were thinking that his presence could get the massive brontosaurus of a project moving and once moving not much was going to stop it?
🙂
Or, you could be boring and change it 🙁
Score one for Trike Guy!
It was actually a completely correct use of inertia as a physics metaphor, since you’re saying the project has momentum and that this will sustain that momentum. But in the colloquial use, unfortunately, the meaning has been twisted to mean something is stuck and not moving.
thanks! I argued with Lisa about it for a bit before just relenting because I need to move on. But glad to know my brain isn’t broken. It did seem correct the way I used it, but I’ve learned to have no ego in this work ;-).
I should have stuck with the sciences longer…
Inertia implies that it may or may not be moving, but if it is moving, it is at a steady pace, without variation. Using Capitol Highway as an example, the 82nd project is moving forward, but will take 30 years to complete at this pace. However, I think what you wanted was a word that indicated a certain acceleration of the pace or process, hence Let’sActive’s “impetus”, so that to use the example of outer Powell, it will take 10-15 years rather than 30, twice as fast. Naturally, everyone wants it done now, preferably last year, but we are dealing with federal and state transportation funding here, not to mention PBOT’s platinum standards which even they ignore, so we are going to need to be a bit patient – to use Einstein’s theory of relativity as applied to FHWA project science, for the engineers and planners involved within the projects, everything is now accelerating to near light speed – but relative to the tax-paying person on the street, the project is going nowhere fast.
Not expecting a lot will get accomplished here.
The city operates with too much internal inertia, seems to move forward as it goes nowhere.
“access for cycling.” I hope PBOT doesn’t do this until they traffic & speed is under a very high degree of control and motorists have gotten used to not having 4 lanes that they can drive as fast and careless as the like from light to light.
Maybe PBOT could even pay some bicyclists who live in the area a survey / consultation fee to determine when traffic is calm & slow enough to introduce bike lanes and after they’ve taken their frustrations out at PBOT & Trimet.
I 100% agree as someone who lives on 82nd. I do not want bike lanes on 82nd. every time I go to a community meeting and someone starts banging on about bike lanes on 82nd, I think how naive they sound. 82nd is for car traffic and with the insane amount of driveways/entrances/exits, it is extremely dangerous to non car drivers. please invest in making some other street a really awesome bike thoroughfare.
How about making 82nd bus, bike, scooter, walking, wheelchair only and let the vehicles go to some other street?
What is the old saying, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander?
P.S I used to live down near Sunnyside & 82nd so familiar with driving and walking on 82nd.
Have you tried to travel N – S in PDX lately? There’s MLK/Mcgloughlin, parts of 39th (but not all), & 82 or the freeway. Trucks have to deliver items to stores, cars & busses need access to something. To think otherwise isn’t’ realistic. 82 has little room for buses & sidewalks & bikes. adding bikes will slow down the already slow bus service. Unless they can get some businesses to abdicate frontage property & add the bike lanes to the sidewalks (IE Lindwood in Milwaukee) it would be cramped & probably unsafe to add bike lanes to 82 (think Hawthorne).
Shoring up the greenways on 76th & 85th seem a safer possibility.
I’d love to see the telephone poles buried & the space used for a bi-modal track all the way down 82 but I doubt it would happen. At this point I’m for just getting the street paved correctly, sidewalks installed & some upgrades at intersections so the lights aren’t swinging from a cable during storms.
Buttegieg seems like a good guy—hope he can push this needed project along! Dismayed though to see the nonprofits (Oregon Walks, APANO) in attendance. They seem to be mostly interested in lining their pocketbooks and pushing their radical policies. I wonder how much money they are hoping to skim off the top.
“…Buttigieg has won many fans in transportation advocacy circles.”
I know any progressive (D) gets a free pass from the BP choir but c’mon Jonathan. That sentence reads like you’re endorsing his next campaign. An objective observer would look beyond the active transportation circles to realize his lack of leadership dealing with national rail (Federal Railroad Administration) and aviation (Federal Aviation Administration) fiascos is abysmal.
Oh please. It only reads like that to you because you are reading that into it.
Just trying to say how he has said a lot of really progressive things and that he is popular among a lot of folks in transportation reform circles. No free passes here.
Maybe consider adding a clarifying word something like “…Buttigieg has won many fans in ACTIVE transportation circles”?
Remember he is the US Secretary of Transportation for ALL modes not just active transportation. And yes I do think his outspoken support for active transportation tempts advocates to overlook his terrible performance as Secretary for other important modes such as rail and aviation.
There were over 1200 train derailments just in 2019 when your hero was President and Mitch McConnells wife was secretary of transportation.
Care to correct your statements here? Its pretty ridiculous that you would just spout lies and misrepresent facts that are really simple to check.
Going the other direction, you could say “his outspoken support for active transportation causes his detractors to attack his performance as Secretary for other important modes such as rail and aviation”.
National leaders should be able to walk & chew gum at the same time. Buttigieg is not the US Secretary of Active Transportation—he’s the Secretary for ALL modes. And by serving in an elected presidential administration he’s secretary for the entire nation not just those who voted for Biden. Pete can focus on active transportation all he wants and pay lip service to the issues with other modes like rail and aviation. He was MIA in the Ohio derailment. He didn’t need to take responsibility. He simply needed to show up and show he understood the issues. That’s a serious lack of leadership and judgment in a high profile Secretary position. He’s similarly been MIA on aviation issues. I simply point this out with everyone going fan crazy that Pete is coming to Portland as some sort of advocacy rock star.
You are hilarious.
Name your favorite all time Secretary of Transportation?
I am sure there are several, it’s suddenly very important to people.
Name your top 5?
It’s suddenly important because of what? What could that possibly be?
He is very well educated, has been excellent in every area of private/public sector, A real war veteran, what possible reason would someone have to be this focused on him?
Anyone have a guess?
LOL,,,, get off Faux news. The rail cars derailed because of course Pete was driving the trains and what the hell does he have to do with the fact that weather caused aviation problems?
Pure partisan hackery….Trains derail in every administration, no one but real hacks would blame the Transportation secretary.
The Fake news crowd is just afraid he will run for President which is why the Trump fans bring it up.
Its hilarious.
LOL as predictable as the sunrise dwk. Label any criticism as Faux News and Trump fanboys rather than engage in real dialogue. Where did I say he caused train derailments or aviation weather delays? What I do expect of my US Secretary of Transportation is that he/she/they have a grasp of the issues and the direction things need to go in their public comments. As outspoken as Buttigieg has been on active transportation issues he has shown ZERO grasp of addressing rail or aviation issues or setting direction. That’s his job & he’s failing in those two modes.
In your and all the bikeportland new fans world…The most people that have ever flown in the United States in one day did so today, Fuzzy.
Did Pete make that happen? Please cite ONE example of his “failures”. The big Ohio derailment the Governor of Ohio took full credit for.
He is in charge of 500 million in transportation projects that Republicans are claiming as their own in their districts because they are so popular.
You simply have zero grasp of any facts and just throw out comments that have no basis in anything.
Stick to whatever Twitter feed you follow….
Dwk,
Maybe focus on the issues instead of the personal attacks. It seems your recent comments are more personal insult attempts than trying to engage in a discussion.
If the improvements they plan to make are anything like what happened to Division St. then no thank you. Is something similar happening to Powell Blvd as well? I really don’t think anyone who has actually lived here their entire lives in or around Portland actually like any of the changes the city makes. They make these changes but do they even actually consider everyone it affects? A person can’t hardly drive faster than 20 mph anywhere in this city anymore. Personally drives me bonkers. If people payed attention when crossing the road and drivers also paid attention instead of multi-tasking then everyone would be safe when using the roadways. Do we really need to regulate every single tiny thing that anyone anywhere ever does ever? And people think they are living in a free country! Ha! Ya because you have to PAY to be told EXACTLY what you CAN or CANNOT do. And if you don’t OBEY, you have to pay some more. I would much prefer it if we could get back to a “live at your own risk” mentality. Don’t need another street to make me feel like a rat in a cage anytime I try to get somewhere quickly. If they want to improve 82nd they could start by filling in the potholes. Lived close to 82nd st my entire childhood and some of my early adult years. That’s is like the number one thing that could be fixed. Before and above all else. Sheesh. I don’t think our city leaders have enough money to waste. Or time for that matter. Why should we even pay taxes. Wake up you sheeple! I hope anyone reading this is able to pick up on the sarcasm in which I intentionally wrote this. Freaking idiots. These “city officials” are going to take a tour of 82nd? And then decide how it needs to be fixed? First of all nobody “tours” any part of 82nd Ave. That’s hilarious to even think about. And if they don’t live in the area or use the roadway on a regular basis, then what qualifications do they have to decide what is best for it? Do they take a local poll with reguards to the ideas they come up with? Maybe just ask the people that it actually affects what they would like to have happen! I could think of so many better things to spend energy, time, manpower, and money on to improve that area in general! Good riddance.
Politicians like to spend our tax money on ribbon cutting ceremonies, not on maintenance. Ceremonies get their faces in the papers and in blogs so they can get reelected.