Statements made yesterday by the Portland Bureau of Transportation and its current leader, City Commissioner Mingus Mapps, are at odds with an internal staff email written by PBOT Director Millicent Williams last week.
PBOT and Commissioner Mapps issued statements yesterday after facing pressure from the public that came in response to a BikePortland story Monday where I reported that Director Williams emailed PBOT staff on Thursday, September 14th and instructed them to revert the protected bike lane on a 0.7 mile segment of Northwest and Southwest Broadway to a previous design that is less safe. They gave no clear justification for the move and rank-and-file PBOT staff were shocked at the news.
As numerous Portlanders flooded PBOT and Mapps’ office with emails and phone calls to express concerns, they responded in a way that doesn’t match that email from Williams and appears to intentionally mislead the public and the local media. Both offices said no decision about Broadway has been made and that public outreach will happen before they move forward with any changes.
And Mapps’ office in particular, says they have not been briefed on the issue at all.
“It is important to note that there are no imminent changes planned for SW Broadway,” wrote Mapps Policy Assistant Jackson Pahl in an email to a concerned Portlander Tuesday evening. “At present, we have not been briefed on any plans that include changing the design of the bike lanes on SW Broadway.”
When asked by BikePortland why he wanted to change the Broadway bike lane design, Mapps emailed, “I have asked PBOT to come back with a list of recommendations, and we look forward to being briefed on them,” and that, “change is not imminent.” Mapps also wrote in an email to BikePortland that, “We plan to have an open and robust engagement process before any decisions are finalized.”
Unfortunately, those statements from Mapps and his office are not true. Mapps had been briefed on this issue and had already signed-off on the plan — that was prepared by Williams — to revert the bike lane to its previous configuration.
And yesterday, PBOT Public Information Officer Dylan Rivera issued a statement to the media that said agency staff were asked by Director Williams (at the behest of Mapps) to evaluate options for possible changes to Broadway and that, “PBOT staff will be preparing these options, offering additional insights and engaging in public outreach in the coming months.”
But I can now confirm that a full evaluation of the options had already taken place and Williams made a clear choice to revert Broadway back to its previous configuration.
My initial story Monday was written without full knowledge of that internal email from Williams to PBOT staff. I was aware of the email and confident about its general contents, but I had not seen the full text. Now that I’ve seen that email, the picture about what happened is more clear.
Below is the full text of the September 14th email from PBOT Director Williams to PBOT staff (bolded and bracketed comments are mine):
Good Morning Gabe [Gabe Graff is Central City in Motion (CCIM) project manager] and Team,
Thanks for your continued attention to this issue and for offering alternatives for consideration. After reviewing all of the information and consulting with the Commissioner, I would like to ask the team to do the following:
- Move forward with installation of parking pads in front of the Heathman and Vance Hotels (unless you recommend something to the contrary. Just trying to make sure that there is consistency where the platform already exists and I would rather not have us take out the one that has already been established). [“Parking pads are the concrete loading platforms similar to the one PBOT has already installed in front of the Arlene Schnitzer Concern Hall.]
- Maintain parking protected bike lanes from SW Salmon to Clay (and beyond to accommodate PSU area cyclists)
- Return curb-tight parking to Broadway from Burnside to SW Salmon
- Maintain parking ‘as-is’ on the left side of the street.
- Figure out the best way to transition from unprotected to parking protected bike lane at the intersection of SW Broadway and SW Salmon. My guess is some kind of distinct striping. Please provide a recommendation
- Leave contra-flow bikelane on Broadway (on east side) from Harvey Milk to Burnside (Question: Is there currently still parking there? If so, please ‘clear the corner.’)
- Return bikelane to 2018 configuration (to the left of the parking lane)
- IF POSSIBLE paint bike lane green and put the cyclist icon in the lane
- IF POSSIBLE place some kind of low barrier on the outside of the bike lane so that motorists will be able to detect if they are swerving into the lane. Not too big. I recognize that we might not have this in the inventory. If we don’t please let me know what is possible (even if there isn’t a real option) [This makes it clear Williams and Mapps supported making the bike lane less safe and unprotected.]
- Even though we are restoring parking, let’s move forward with clearing the corners throughout the corridor. Please do so with both signage and yellow tape on the curb.
- Identify and clearly mark the following zones: Passenger Loading Valet (If it’s 60 feet per hotel, so be it. Let’s just make sure that whatever we do is consistent as Gabe has advised); Drop-off zones (at the Schnitzer, Heathman and Vance)…we have A LOT of signs at those locations.
- Since we will be dropping from three travel lanes to two at SW Salmon, we will want to make sure that we provide some advisory signage. I know that you already know that but I’m just running through my list.
- From NW Hoyt to Burnside, please restore curb-tight parking and external bike lane
- Please remove wands, wand bases, and turn-controlling tough-curb. Given the shifts, all of those items will be misplaced
- To the extent possible, please remove phantom striping
- Anything else that we should be doing that I don’t know or haven’t thought about.
Questions:
- I recognize that there is a ZICLA platform [“ZICLA platform” is a brand name of the modular bus loading island currently in place in front of Central City Concern and several other locations around the city] in front of that establishment on the corner of NW Broadway and Burnside. Please let me know what we will do with it. Should it stay? Will leaving it be confusing? Is it a choke point? I think so. Please advise.
- Who will put in the work orders? [“Work orders” are what PBOT gives the Maintenance and Operations group to start a project. It can be done without a long bidding process and can start almost immediately upon the orders being issued.]
- How long will it take for us to do the work?
- When can we start?
- How will we publicize/communicate about what we are doing?
- Is night work an option?
Finally, I recognize that this might be a fairly bitter pill to swallow and that there might be some politically charged discussions and advocate engagement. Please allow the Commissioner and I to handle those conversations.
Thanks for everyone’s consideration and cooperation. Looking forward to a favorable outcome.
Regards,
Millicent
Millicent Williams (she/her)
Director
Based on that email, we know that Williams consulted with Commissioner Mapps earlier than September 14th, despite him saying otherwise. (I gave Mapps’ office a chance to explain this, but have not yet heard back.) We also know that before our story came out Monday, there was a clear plan to move forward with what PBOT now refers to as option 3 — reverting the existing parking-protected bike lane to the old door-zone bike lane with car parking at the curb that existed previously. PBOT staff say that design is less safe and the numerous crashes and complaints over decades are what spurred them to get rid of it in the first place.
The statements issued yesterday by PBOT (under leadership of Director Williams) and Commissioner Mapps leave out the important fact that they planned to move forward with this major change to the Broadway bike lane without sufficient public notice and without any clear rationale for doing so. (I’m working on a separate story about their justification for the changes.)
It’s only after the public became aware of this plan that PBOT, Mapps, and Director Williams changed their tune
On Monday night, after a full day of significant blowback from the public, Williams emailed PBOT staff again with a new plan:
“While I would still like for the team to devise a strategy to address the recommendations that I asked for, please make plans to perform the evaluation that you and the team have recommended [note that PBOT staff recommended an evaluation of options in their briefing packet to Williams but she initially opted against it] … I would also like for you to plan to perform a limited time community engagement period. I recognize that a great deal of engagement has been done – through CCIM and other complimentary efforts – but I ask that you spend more time on it.”
Williams also asked to see a sketch of a much better Broadway bike lane design. “One absent oddly-placed wands. One that functions smoothly – like I envision that 4th Avenue will,” she wrote. Her reference to 4th Avenue is the $17 million project PBOT plans to start early next year and that is considered a protected bike lane couplet to Broadway.
So who knows, maybe in the end we’ll get a plan for a major upgrade on Broadway — instead of the shocking downgrade they initially planned. Stay tuned.
— PBOT updated the Broadway bike lane project website last night. It says, “PBOT staff will be… offering additional insights and engaging in public outreach in the coming months.”
Thanks for reading.
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If J Maus hadn’t reported on this, a key safety project that was supported by numerous Council-adopted plans informed by years of public engagement and safety best practices that took nearly a decade to fully implement would have been quietly dismantled in the night.
Thanks also to the PBOT employee(s) who resisted putting our safety at risk. Whoever you are, I appreciate you.
Comment of the week!
Democracy only works when we have journalists who are willing and able to keep elected officials honest.
Democracy doesn’t work. Be glad we don’t live in one.
Thank goodness we still have our king.
Not all democracies are alike. That our democracy is dysfunctional does not mean democracy inherently does not work. But hey, your comment at least seems to acknowledge Joseph E is correct, considering how those with power across the last few decades have left us with far fewer journalists than we need.
They didn’t just resist an order to redesign a street that would clearly make it less safe. They also risked their job for presumably altruistic reasons. We are very lucky to have them.
An alarming top-down directive from Williams and Mapps, dictating the specific details on the changes to staff instead of deferring to engineers’ expertise. Disturbing!
Is this why every project in Portland is some random mess of bollards and green paint?
Yes.
Is this the kind of thing we’re getting disturbed about? Tweaks to a 0.7 mile stretch of bike lane? It’s amazing a city can get anything done at all.
“Tweaks” that mean making it far more dangerous and worse for biking. And also a city commissioner very blatantly lying to the public. And a director at PBOT who is willing to micromanage and direct their staff to undo a project that they literally just finished. There’s a lot more wrong here than just some tiny little tweaks
To get to the level of detail in Williams’ email there must have been many meetings leading up to this. My understanding is that an engineer will have to “sign off” on a roadway design. Which PBOT engineer wants to put themselves in a position where they will be asked to testify in court the first time someone gets killed or seriously injured with this design?
Multiple engineers have already said they will not sign off on such a design.
Are you suggesting that Director Millicent asked for PBOT work orders without engineer approval?
If this is true, perhaps interest PBOT staff could file a report at the city auditor’s office via the secure City of Portland Fraud Hotline:
https://www.lighthouse-services.com/_StandardCustomURL/LHILandingPage.asp
https://www.portland.gov/audit-services/fraud-hotline/frequently-asked-questions#toc-what-is-the-fraud-hotline-
I’d love to see the Ombudsman get involved in this!
Using public operational funds to avoid a competitive process on a major change like this smells pretty bad. “Who will write the work orders?” Indeed.
PBOT has maintenance crews that do small projects all the time, and it’s completely legal. The requirement to do competitive bids only applies to large capital projects that usually involve civil work. Changing striping on a road and can and should be done by city crews, it’s way more efficient and a wise use of taxpayer dollars than feeding the transportation-industrial complex for no reason.
All that said, PBOT should not ruin Broadway by putting it back the way it was, and I agree that if they did try to submit work orders without engineering approval that would be illegal. I don’t think they would actually do that, though, more likely they would pressure the engineers into approving the work orders by threatening to fire them. Which would also be illegal, but would probably never be written down, not on the public record, and hard to catch them in the act of doing that.
Thank goodness that so much work happens over email these days, and is in the public record, and accessible to the media! And thank goodness for whistleblowers. It’s the only way we get any transparency.
Extremely disturbing behavior from both Director Williams and Commissioner Mapps. I got a (canned) response from the Mapps office saying the same thing – no imminent changes, the Commissioner is dedicated to safety, etc.
I really do not appreciate Commissioner Mapps blatantly lying to the public on the stage of the process this project seemed to be in. And the fact that they are pushing to make bike infrastructure less safe for cyclists is both disheartening and disgusting.
If I hadn’t made my mind up about what sort of politician Mingus Mapps was before this, I sure have now. Spoiler: it’s not the sort of politician that gets my vote for mayor!
Commissioner Mapps is quickly sinking down my preference list for the mayor’s race. He’s deliberately bargaining away safety and the lives of the public in exchange for the PBA endorsement so the Heathmann can earn a few thousand more dollars in revenue (or a few hundred dollars in profit) every year. Good to know how much a life is worth to Mr. Mapps.
What’s outrageous is that there is no reason to really believe that a bike lane had a tangible effect on the hotel bottom line anyways. Frankly, they could save more money by not donating to Mapps than they could expect to earn from removing this bike lane.
Exactly blum. There’s no data either way on this specific business as far as we know. In general, most studies have shown an overall improvement in profit for businesses adjacent to PBLs. It’s hard to say for individual businesses though. It wouldn’t be the first time businesses shot themselves in the foot by fighting a PBL and years later reaped the economic benefits of increased bike traffic. That’s why PBOT should have that poster of economic benefits front and center at every meeting.
A leader-particularly one that directs engineers-would look at the data first and use that to support any design change.
Heathman wasn’t going to lose any $$ over a stupid bike lane. Mapps just wanted to make their whining go away, and he feared losing PBA $$.
I’m also skeptical that anybody was in fact losing money, but the perception may have been there, and ultimately that perception is fueling this effort from the PBA to get Mapps to roll back the improvements on Broadway.
There was no bargaining…he sold us for profit.
My canned response also included a statement saying:
I was shocked by that response to say the least.
The staffer was trying to convey empathy and also support for protected bike infrastructure, I thought, though he did so awkwardly.
I don’t care if the Director backpedals now: there is already poison in the water, and clearly shows an inability to run an organization along it’s established policies. It also shows a disregard to working objectively with data and public involvement to prioritize safety of all Portlanders.
Trust is what I had in their new leadership, and trust is what was broken. Not just the trust from constituents, but from the scores of PBOT staff who directly work under these decisions and now have to follow against their stated missions and goals as an agency.
If we saw this heavy-handed decision making come from any previous director that objectively worsens safety outcomes for vulnerable road users and decides against years of public input and staff recommendation…
we’d be asking for a resignation letter.
I asked both Mapps & Williams to resign in my initial email two days ago and reiterated just now that I request they both resign as it is the only way forward.
This is so wild. Just an insane level of micromanaging, secrecy, outright lies, and (probably) corruption. Very similar thing happening in NYC with McGuinness Blvd (even down to the constant last-minute flip-flopping). In a spiritual sense, it’s almost like a cosmic challenge for activists to step their game up. Like how Amsterdam didn’t come around until the city threatened to raze entire neighborhoods to build highways, traffic deaths were at an all-time high, etc.
Sounds like how things work in this city. We shouldn’t be surprised that any of this happened as it probably happens daily. What went wrong for Mappes ? He didn’t anticipate the blow back. I liked Mingus at first but now I could care less. Jackson is nice but in order for him to do anything you have to jump threw some hula hoops. How about when we call Mingus and Jackson answers, he can just write down the complaint, ask, or compliment and work on it? Anywho, my voice will go elsewhere in the future.
The way Williams just barks orders to rip up years of outreach, studies, and work in a single email without any consideration for the safety of the citizens of Portland shows she is not the right person for the job. I feel so bad for the rank and file at PBOT who are having to witness their years of hard work crumble under this new leadership.
Williams has no transportation experience and no experience living in anything but heavy car-centric cities. Why was she Mapps’ choice?
She came from Otak, and this is how they described their decision to hire her two years ago:
https://www.otak.com/about/news-and-events/otak-welcomes-millicent-williams-as-new-regional-director-or-sw-washington/
I think we all know the answer.
I misspoke: I didn’t realize she was Deputy Dir of PBOT at one time
She was deputy director but it seems like she was never personally involved in this specific field, nor did she last long at this role or worked in the field since leaving PBOT.
We now know the irrefutable — that the the public pronouncements regarding the Broadway protected bike lane made on September 19th by both Commissioner Mapps and Director Williams were patently not true.
This is damning, inexcusable behavior.
It’s sad that we all have to be so vigilant and watchful of the precious few “protected”(ish) bike lanes that we have. It would come as no surprise if they ripped them out, as we’re living in this time where car-culture is just doubling-down and resisting change. Hopefully in another couple decades we’ll be in a much better place.
“Restoring curb-tight parking from NW Hoyt to Burnside to SW Salmon” sounds innocent but really means restoring that part/most of Broadway to a much more dangerous condition.
Not sad…enraging. This is horrible behavior.
Thank you, BikePortland, for excellent reporting on this! I urge everyone to subscribe, renew or make a donation so we can continue to learn what’s really going on in our city regarding transportation.
And whatever happens with the lanes, I pray that this is the beginning of the end of Mapps’ political career. I pledge to do whatever I can to make that happen.
An important question: Why was Broadway selected by Mapps & Williams for a redesign in the first place? There are a thousands of other streets and intersections that should have had priority over this brand new street.
There must be a standardized decision making process for which street gets picked, and I think PBOT leadership must share this with the public right now, or trust in PBOT leadership is shattered on the rock of how deeply inequitable and undemocratic it is that wealthy business owners get to subvert the process with their privilege.
Mapps, Williams, I invite you to prove to Portlanders that this is not utilizing public funds to do private favors.
Well thank you for being on top of this and writing multiple follow ups. I think quick responses like this are important, because the kind of shenanigans Mapps and Williams are doing rely on stalling and buying time. They want to just get this done before people can have time to push back.
This, to me, is the main downside to plastic wands and curbs and paint. They’re not perfect protection, but I think they’re a lot better than nothing and the wands/curbs are a lot better than paint only. They’re pretty good. The downside is they seem deliberately chosen to be easy to remove. So they can put them up for cheap, say “see we tried but bla bla reactions are mixed” and tear them out for cheap. To me they represent a total lack of commitment to safety.
Great point, John. I’m always reminded of those stupid plastic barrels that Eudaly ordered up, which allowed her to say she was performing safety for everyone.
I have to say, one of the most politically interesting aspects of this attempt to sabotage public safety and public will is that Wheeler’s comments to the BAC on the 12th seem… prescient.
yes that’s exactly why i highlighted them. had a feeling that when shit hits the fan, he might actually be a backstop to some of the circus. Really bummed he missed city council meeting today. there was lots of talk about Broadway and other PBOT stuff I wish he could have heard/participated in.
It all sounds like a complete s**show. No wonder Tara quit.
Again this is what we get when we elect amateurs to run our city. Let them go and bring on the professionals!
Mapps should resign. What a petty and dumb lie. He doesn’t have integrity and is just another opportunist trying to use the city to go one to bigger things.
We’d be fools if we elect this charlatan
I though that PBOT has said before that they don’t use curb markings (due to paint/tape getting into waterways) and instead rely on signage.
Have they reversed this policy?
I guess removing protection for vulnerable road users, presumably at the behest of millionaire hoteliers, is what Williams considers using an “equity lens”:
https://bikeportland.org/2023/07/14/commissioner-mapps-names-millicent-williams-as-new-pbot-director-377102
Totally unrelated, but Black and Hispanic Americans experience far higher motor vehicle–related death rates than White or Asian Americans, especially while walking and cycling:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/racial-disparities-traffic-fatalities
I was pretty excited this morning to see Director Williams taking part in the Alameda bike bus, all smiles, with a member of her team taking photos.
And then I caught up on this yucky situation and the whole thing takes on a different light.
Good win for the comms strategists, short term, I guess? Get some feel-good content on the ‘gram? But this seems like it will be the sort of abuse of power and tawdry corruption that’ll be tough to pave over with content.
Thanks for staying on this story, Jonathan.
The 4th ave plan is a too narrow sidewalk bikeway on the wrong side of the street and getting left-hooked a lot, basically an afterthought to the primary design function of filling SE Hawthorne with cars from the freeway. Would be interesting if they came up with something that flows smoothly, since downhill bikes are doing 13-15mph while riding the brakes there. I’m ready for a new PBOT director and commissioner over this kind of behind-the-scenes tinkering though.
How terribly disappointing. I had low expectations of Mapps, but Director Williams? Making such a significant change without any public input/process, wasting precious PBOT resources on tearing out safety facilities, and not being straight with the public? That I didn’t expect. What a true shame this is.
I wonder if anyone can summon Freedom of Information Act public record requests so we can find out how this all came to be.
https://www.portland.gov/policies/adopted-rules-auditors-office/archives-records-management/ara-803-public-records-requests#:~:text=Oregon's%20public%20records%20laws%20(ORS,county%20and%20city%20governing%20bodies.
That’s how BikePortland got the email.
J Maus, you deserve all the praise in the world!
That director is a convicted felon and the conviction involves dishonesty/false statement FYI. Just sayin’
I doubt I can support Mapps for Mayor at this point. Didn’t he and his staff anticipate that public records can be obtained? He was also wrong about the permit streamlining effort also and advocated for continuing the bureaus working in silos. Definitely not a fan of his work. Not that I’m enthused about Rubio, so I hope we get other options that support safety and order on our streets.
What I don’t understand is why the Director’s 12 points included both adding parking pads and removing the protected bike lanes. These two directives seem to drive towards different goals: adding the parking pads could be an attempt at compromising the protect bike lanes versus the hotel loading zones. But if PBOT removes the protected bike lanes, then the parking pads aren’t needed.
Broadway is two lanes now.
There were THREE TRAVEL LANES IN 2018 from Ankeny to Salmon!!! so she and the commissioner wanted to return to that !?!?!?!.
3-Return curb-tight parking to Broadway from Burnside to SW Salmon
7-Return bikelane to 2018 configuration (to the left of the parking lane)
12-Since we will be dropping from three travel lanes to two at SW Salmon, we will want to make sure that we provide some advisory signage. I know that you already know that but I’m just running through my list.
THE TWO OF THEM ARE A HORRIFIC PAIR
Neither Broadway downtown nor the Broadway/Weidler NE couplet make decent bike routes. The safer route downtown is through the Park blocks. Remove a row of parking (park side) and a bi-direction bikeway separated with bollards would work better. Unfortunately, Wheeler prefers cutting park block trees down for a bike lane (or two) through the parks. He’s a Wheeler. Cutting trees down is what Wheelers do.
The Green Loop bikeway bridge over I-5 has been removed from the planning. The route east of I-5 was on Clackamas Street to NE 7th. Now the Green Loop is on the Broadway/Weidler couplet. Clackamas Street route is ideal, safer and a perfect connection to Williams/Vancouver bikeway and access to both Broadway and Steel Bridges. Public safety is LAST on City Council list of concerns. FIRST on the list is money and how to get it. The Green Loop as proposed through the federal post office redevelopment project is preposterous. Probably some coddled art school “starchitech” wannabee came up with the design. The plainly more sensible bike route got in the way of a proposed market venue.