A group of concerned Portlanders stepped in front of a moving truck this morning to defend a bike lane. The truck was being driven by a contractor hired by the Portland Bureau of Transportation to grind off a recently installed bike lane on Northeast 33rd Avenue in the Concordia neighborhood.
As we reported yesterday, PBOT said the bike lane — that was installed as part of a repaving project in late September — was installed by “mistake” because they didn’t do enough public outreach.
The removal was not announced publicly, and we only found out because PBOT staff warned BikePortland anonymously that it was imminent.
Local bike advocacy nonprofit BikeLoud PDX responded by telling members to show up at the site this morning. The idea was to take a closer look at the bike lanes in advance of a planned strategy session later this morning. However, crews had already begun removing the bike lane as the activists showed up. One of them, former BikeLoud PDX Chair Kiel Johnson, rolled up to the scene and immediately stopped his bike in front of the oncoming truck. The truck driver stopped and Johnson stood there with his arms crossed.
As several other people rolled up, they massed along with Johnson in front of the truck and a stalemate ensued as contractors whipped out phones to try and figure out what to do.
One of the contractors told the group they were simply there to modify the bike lanes, not remove them. But that contention doesn’t square with PBOT’s statements.
It is clear that PBOT wanted this bike lane removed. Their statement to BikePortland yesterday was unambiguous. It said, “This segment of bike lane was installed by mistake and will be removed.”
And a nearby resident shared with BikePortland this morning that just this morning a letter from PBOT was placed on their door. It read:
“Dear Northeast Portland Neighbor,
I am writing to notify you of construction beginning tomorrow, Wednesday November 1, 2023 on NE 33rd Avenue from NE Holman to NE Dekum streets. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will deploy contractors to remove lane striping in this section and return this section to its original condition.”
If people didn’t show up this morning, the bike lane would be gone.
Once the truck operator left the corner of NE 33rd and Holman, he simply moved to another section of the bike lane a few blocks south and started the grinding-off process again. Activists then hopped on their bikes and stood in front to stop forward progress.
Several minutes passed and the truck left once again.
Eventually the contractors left for the day, but BikeLoud volunteers are still there. They’re staying in shifts to make sure the trucks don’t return.
This bike lane closes a key gap in the bike network and it’s called out as a planned “city bikeway” in the Transportation System Plan. It was also recommended as a high priority in the Columbia/Lombard Mobility Plan passed by Portland City Council in 2021.
Commissioner Mingus Mapps, who leads PBOT, voted in support of that plan.
Reached for comment today, his Deputy Chief of Staff Cynthia Castro said, “PBOT is not continuing with removing the bike lane today, but we do need to have further conversation about this particular stretch.”
Asked if Mapps’ office authorized the order to remove the bike lane, Castro said, “I would say that I’m on the same page with the [PBOT] director as far as saying, ‘We need to have more conversation about this particular stretch,’ and obviously there’s a lot of lessons learned here about outreach.
But PBOT Director Millicent Williams isn’t on that page. Based on PBOT statements and that letter given to residents this morning, Director Williams did not plan to have any further conversation. The order was to remove the bike lane and it would be gone if not for the timely protest organized by BikeLoud PDX.
Stay tuned.
In case you’re inclined to buy PBOT’s line that outreach and engagement hasn’t been done for this bike lane project on NE 33rd, a proposed project to add bike lanes and bike access in this area was a prominent feature of the Columbia/Lombard Mobility Corridor Plan. It was mentioned in many different parts of the plan:
On page 35 of Appendix C (Mobility Needs Analysis): Pursue a project to improve multimodal connections on 33rd Avenue overcrossing, including improved pedestrian and bicycle access.
The route over the 33rd Ave bridge is shown as a “Potential” Bicycle Connection on many maps, including the one on Page 12 of the Recommended Draft Report. The potential connection arrow extends south of the location of the 33rd bridge to cover the area between Dekum and Holman.
Page 34 of that report details Phase 1 and Phase 2 of public outreach and engagement for the project, which took place over multiple years. The outcome of Phase 1 engagement is listed as follows:
The locations most frequently suggested for change:
• NE 11th Avenue and NE Lombard Street/NE Columbia Boulevard
• NE 33rd Avenue
• NE Lombard Street at I-5/N Interstate Avenue
The outcome of Phase 2 engagement:
• Continued interest in improving the area around NE 11th Avenue, NE 33rd Avenue, and the I-5 interchange
On Page 60/61:
Add bike facilities on NE 33rd Ave. between Holman Street and the overchange. Improve/redesign 33rd Ave. overcrossing (discussed previously). Improve bike facilities north of Columbia Blvd., and add sidewalk so it exists on both sides
C’mon people, lets get busy. Write your counselors!
mayorwheeler@portlandoregon.gov
gonzalezoffice@portlandoregon.gov
CommissionerRyanOffice@portlandoregon.gov
comm.rubio@portlandoregon.gov
MappsOffice@portlandoregon.gov
PBOTDirector@portlandoregon.gov
Good to see everyone out there taking action, but it’s absolutely inexcusable that PBOT leadership keeps doing this. They plainly were trying to get this one done before anyone could stop them. It’s not just a communication issue, it’s a leadership issue. Mingus Mapps needs to be removed from his post, and Director Williams needs to be fired.
I get the feeling that Williams is going rogue at PBOT and not even consulting with Mapps about this stuff. She hates anything not for the convenience of drivers and it shows. My fault with Mapps is that he hasn’t fired her already. Otherwise, he needs to come out and say he agrees with what she is doing so I can check him off my list for mayor. Which sucks because I wanted to vote for him.
Can’t go ‘rogue’ if you are doing what the boss wants!
Nah it was obvious from the start this is who this guy is. He was the PPB/PBA candidate nothing from him has been very surprising.
That y’all can’t see what Mapps is, is just sad. He’s showing you front and center, and you still want to give him the benefit of the doubt.
That he hasn’t fired her makes it cleatr that this is the deal, he will make sure she doesn’t get fired and she takes the heat but make no mistake the buck stops with Mapps.
What about the homeowners? Maybe they would like to park in front of their houses like they used to be able before the bike lane went in?
Why are they parking on the street and not on their properties?
Not all properties have parking places. Sadly.
I’m not familiar with the area, but would definitely back trye conversations on the matter before ripping it all up.
I agree, many of them probably do. There may be other neighbors who DO like the bike lanes. There are also certainly people who don’t live there who do like them, and probably people who drive through that don’t like them.
So it may make sense to give all those people a chance to comment. but But what makes NO sense is to take them out before that takes place.
It’s pretty clear there were plans, reports, etc. that were public that people could comment on before the lanes went in. Some people will say that was enough, others won’t. But regardless of whether it was enough or not, there’s still no justification for the decision to remove them without notice or opportunity to comment.
It must be so difficult to be forced to park in your driveway instead of on the street. I shiver to imagine how that must affect a homeowner’s psyche.
I live in the area. Not all the homes have driveways. Four new homes were built in the last year with street parking only. It a historical black neighborhood, so I’m sure you all don’t care about the local folks.
Thank you Bikeloud!
Incidentally, the larger, more funded and publicized Bikeloud becomes, the more chance the city council will be required to pay attention to street safety. Transalt in NYC has been one of the central figures in holding council members (and the mayor) to account. Remember Bikeloud is all volunteer and only a few years old; Transalt has full time staff members, connection with other non-profits (e.g., Famlies for Safe Streets), does its own research and has decades of experience.
PBOT = SNAFU
In my NC community such commercial crews are paid by the hour (rather than by the job) and typically work during the wee hours (3 am or thereabouts). I’m sure the workers aren’t losing any sleep over it. Likely after they left 33rd they moved on to another project elsewhere like in Clark County. I’ve seen other poorer communities not remove the striping but instead add black paint over it – it looks ugly but works well enough.
Why the hell are you giving them ideas??
Thanks, Kiel and the other brave cyclists who literally stood up for all of us. And thanks Jonathan for tipping us off about another evil, sneaky plan from Mingus Mapps. He has got to go.
The City Council members I didn’t vote for have publicly shown their true colors.
I miss Chloe; I voted against her on her first run, she learned a lot as she served on Council, and I voted for her re-election. The first turned out to not be much of a loss, the second gave us Mapps.
We – all of Portland – are all getting what most of us deserve. That’s my sad definition of democracy. I sure hope the new structure works better for those of us who really care about something.
Chloe was also terrible. Remember how she said it was fine for campers to block the MUPs? I’m glad she’s gone but unfortunately Mapps isn’t much better.
Chloe was way better than mapps. At least she stood up for renters and others being screwed by all the real estate greed.
Which has exactly what to do with cycling? This is BikePortland, where we advocate for better cycling in Portland.
Fun fact: People who get around on bicycles occasionally have to dismount and go to sleep somewhere. For a great many of us, that is in a building we rent from people who have more money than we do. If we can no longer do that in Portland, there will be fewer people getting around primarily on bicycles and less need for any infrastructure to support us.
As complex as it may seem, mobility issues and housing issues are usually very closely linked.
We have to eat, too (it’s literally our fuel) so add food security to your list of closely linked issues.
How do we know this didn’t come from Millicent Williams, PBOT Director? City Council Bureau heads typically aren’t involved in operational actions such as this.
Hats off to everyone that showed up to do this. In a city with legit traffic/transpo issues, safety and otherwise, the initiative for PBOT/the city to jump on this, right now, JFC it’s so misguided and pointless. Portland is so far off course these days it’s unrecognizable a lot of the time. Wow.
I have a question: Do painted bike lanes, buffered or otherwise, actually improve bicycle user safety versus similar streets that don’t have them?
Don’t forget to also ask, “Does spending money removing bike lanes actually improve bicycle user safety?”.
Even if these bike lanes don’t do a thing for bicycle user safety, the money to remove them could be going to other bike lanes, crosswalks, signs, debris removal, or any of countless other things on this street or somewhere else that definitely would improve safety.
See the second graph in the article below.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-05/study-sharrows-might-be-more-dangerous-to-cyclists-than-having-no-bike-infrastructure
sharrows are not painted bike lanes, but shared road areas there are a number of recent studies showing the safety benefits of bike lanes.
I ride this route frequently. Usually coming back or going out for a long ride. It’s not a nice place to weave in and out of parked cars with the speeding traffic going to and from fast highway. Overall, I think the data from painted lanes could be parsed more. In Portland, I feel like there are places where it makes a difference, because people, for the most part, are good about staying out the lanes and it signals that bikes belong on these streets. Not as good as physically protected, but I find them to improve driver behavior and decrease my stress level.
Duh – the parked cars need to be ticketed and towed. Then your ride would be less stressful, which is the whole point of the bike lanes.
As long as they are not door-zone bike lanes, they at least feel safer even if they are not objectively safer. Making it feel like you belong on the street is a big boost to my confidence in riding a route, anyway.
Clearly PBOT failed in their planning phase to issue a public announcement for the bike lane addition, which would allow for public commentary. Because of this they’re technically doing what the city would require anyone doing construction projects that impact the public, which is to essentially start over. I don’t want the bike lane gone either but the removal of it now doesn’t mean it can’t return. Clearly there is advocacy for it and in a public forum scenario I would expect the folks from Bikeloud or other members of the public would speak to it’s importance
Nonsense, they wouldn’t require anyone “start over”, they’d require they fix the problem. Give notice, get public comment now. It would be the peak of waste if they removed the bike lanes, did some public outreach, and then repaint them next summer.
In reality, there’s no way they’ll do that, they’ll consider this a win and hope for the campaign donations from whatever noisy complainer spurred this removal.
Pbot did not miss anything in their planning phase. This project was included in the Columbia Lombard mobility corridor plan, which went through a full public vetting process, including hearings, engagement events, outreach, and all that jazz. NE 33rd is a designated City bikeway according to the tsp. The tsp also goes through a public review process. No additional outreach was required to paint the bike lanes. Pbot is just making stuff up to justify a decision that was dictated from the top.
Uiop, good comment. I can’t pin anything that isn’t top level, in other words, I can’t pin a reply. Also, a link and page number to the corridor plan would be helpful. Hint, hint.
On page 35 of Appendix C (Mobility Needs Analysis): Pursue a project to improve multimodal connections on 33rd Avenue overcrossing, including improved pedestrian and bicycle access.
The route over the 33rd Ave bridge is shown as a “Potential” Bicycle Connection on many maps, including the one on Page 12 of the Recommended Draft Report. The potential connection arrow extends south of the location of the 33rd bridge to cover the area between Dekum and Holman.
Page 34 of that report details Phase 1 and Phase 2 of public outreach and engagement for the project, which took place over multiple years. The outcome of Phase 1 engagement is listed as follows:
The locations most frequently suggested for change:
• NE 11th Avenue and NE Lombard Street/NE Columbia Boulevard
• NE 33rd Avenue
• NE Lombard Street at I-5/N Interstate Avenue
The outcome of Phase 2 engagement:
• Continued interest in improving the area around NE 11th Avenue, NE 33rd Avenue, and the I-5 interchange
On Page 60/61:
Add bike facilities on NE 33rd Ave. between Holman Street and the overchange. Improve/redesign 33rd Ave. overcrossing (discussed previously). Improve bike facilities north of Columbia Blvd., and add sidewalk so it exists on both sides
All those people should be arrested you don’t own or control the road you are no better than street racers blocking a road
There it is, folks! Your winner of the “False Equivalence of the Year” trophy. Congratulations Damonjone, you truly don’t understand the difference between two disparate things!
Newsflash: street racers aren’t arrested either
It’s actually pretty different, we have laws and protections for protest as a mechanism of free speech. The people in bikes are there to try and protect safety improvements, street racers are there to race and spin and generally just do illegal things.
They are bicyclists in an existing bike lane, are they not?
Street racers are killing innocent people and sowing terror in neighborhoods. Cycling activism in this city has no equivalence to street takeovers in any meaningful sense. City hall, PBOT and PPB are all grossly negligent in making any coherent response to the nightmare that is traffic safety in 2023 Portland. The overall message from Portlands government is they don’t care about avoidable fatalities, like the liability of acknowledgement would be too much to bear so just ignore needless death and tragedies.
Williams is the worst. How much is our tax money paying her to destroy safety improvements across the city? Please Mapps, fire her today!
You are way WAY too naive, giving way too much credit to Mapps. He has shown us who he is! This is the person he wants doing this work, she’s doing what he’s asking for! When pressed on verifiable evidence, he lies and pretends he had no idea. The coverage on BikePortland has made it quite clear that this is coming from him, not Williams. They’re working as a team.
Definitely not saying you’re wrong, but since he is a leading mayoral candidate I’d still like to get clarification from him on where he stands on these issues.
Hardesy was absolutely clear on her distain for cyclists and that she thought they were just for rich white folk. She didn’t feel that bike lanes resulted in equality for poor car commuters or something. I kind of appreciated her honesty so I could decide to never vote for her.
I didn’t get that impression from Mapps from his comments but I am willing to change my mind. I just want him to be honest so we can make an informed decision come the next election
Mapps is already on the record, during his campaign, after his election, and after the Broadway debacle, that he is very pro cycling and mobility. He’s very much on our side. Why would you believe a damn thing he says? He’s also on the record lying to us, given Bike Portland reporting.
If she wasn’t fired after the broadway bike lane debacle, it means she’s doing the job Mapps wants her to do. This problem is his making.
So thankful for BikePortland’s eagle eye and BikeLoud’s heroic activism. I am proud to be a Portlander today.
Asking for forgiveness on this administrative slip would have been better than trying to erase it and start over by asking permission. Now they have compounded their error and need forgiveness from both the bicyclists the project was serving and the homeowners who justifiably wanted some notice of it.
PBOT’s loss of credibility and money just keeps growing…
Um, some of us both get around on bikes and own homes.
I hope I didn’t imply that they are mutually exclusive. You, unfortunately, are screwed twice.
This is absurd, NE 33rd is designed as the only major N-S car thoroughfare between NE 21 and NE 47. There are plenty of better other streets to serve us cyclists. PBOT clearly stated this lane was put in by mistake. Also nothing is preventing cyclists from legally taking the lane and using NE 33rd anyway.
What’s next laying on I84 and demand it to include a bike lane now too???
It’s also the only N-S cycling/walking thoroughfare between 21st and 47th. What other street should people walking and biking use to cross Columbia Blvd? Does space for biking and walking detract from travel lanes for cars in this case?
Yeah good point further up north. Although I was thinking more towards Broadway, Grant HS, and the interchange for cars going on/from I84. This segment shouldn’t be a preferred cycling route.
NE 33rd is not a preferred cycling route from I-84 North, nor have there ever been plans to make it one even on the dead 2030 plan (as far as I’m aware). The project Mapps wishes to remove was a repaving project which created a connection from the Holman Greenway Northbound across Columbia Blvd to 33rd Drive.
This is just from Holman to the bridge over Lombard. Two blocks. There are no parallel alternative routes in that area.
Nobody is demanding that they put in a bike lane. The bike lane is already there. People are protesting removing it, removing it without any notice or evaluation, and spending money to remove it.
And PBOT isn’t stating that the bike lane is a mistake, they’re saying putting it in without more public involvement was a mistake. It’s not a mistake like putting in a blue light instead of a red light.
And it’s not interfering with people driving on the street (who are also free to use other routes anyway) either.
Not all cyclists are the same or equally served by other streets. 33rd is not I-84. It is a 25mph neighborhood collector with houses, parks, and businesses along it. On paper, this would be considered a low-stress cycling route in most US cities. There is nothing absurd about having bike lanes on this street. The mistake is only striping to Holman and not continuing all the way south. You are correct that it is the only direct N-S thoroughfare in this area, and that is precisely why people not in cars should be served by it as well. Bike lanes wouldn’t restrict traffic throughput on this street more than people cars already do to themselves.
NE 33rd also happens to be the only decent bike connection to the Columbia river between I5 and I205. This section is high priority for bike lanes for good reason. If anything the striping doesn’t go far enough — cars still drive way too fast here.
Also, I think you are onto something regarding I84. It would be great if there was protective separation on it, at least near Hood River on that stretch where cyclists are forced onto the interstate. So maybe that is next!
How are cyclists supposed to get across Columbia Blvd and Lombard? None of the parallel streets go across. Just as this is the only through street for cars for a mile in either direction, it is also the only through street for bikes.
If they try do do the work after 6 PM or before 7 AM, they’ll be violating the City’s noise regulations. The area is zoned residential, which has the strictest noise limits. Basically, almost no construction activities can stay under those limits. There is an exemption for “emergency” work, but this certainly isn’t an emergency. After 10 PM, the allowable noise level drops even further.
If they do attempt it, the complaint process is to call Police non-emergency 502 812-3333. The Noise Control people have told me the City is notorious for ignoring the Noise Code, and my experience is crews will just say they’re exempt, but they’re not. Then follow up with a complaint to Noise Control:
Code: https://www.portland.gov/code/18/all
Complaints: https://www.portland.gov/bds/noise/noise-concerns
Construction noise summary: https://www.portland.gov/bds/noise/construction-noise-and-regulations
The value of complaining isn’t necessarily to stop the noise (the police may be too busy to come, or may not be willing to shut them down) and the work will be over before Noise Control can act. The value is showing that PBOT is so cavalier with regulations that if forces citizens to call the police and Noise Control, who both have way more important things to do, if people just want PBOT to obey basic rules that they know they’re violating. It’s bad enough for PBOT to waste its own budget–at least they shouldn’t waste other bureau’s budgets trying to reign in PBOT.
Oops–Police Non-emergency 503 823-3333
Dear Mayor Wheeler: Please take PBOT away from Commissioner Mapps and then fire Director Williams immediately!
They are making you – and all of us – look really stupid.
Thank you.
PBOT needs to just give up on painted bike lanes & pole farms. We need real bike infrastructure like the bi-modal path built by Milwaukie on Linwood. Stop spending cash they don’t have to take out paint they “mistakenly” put in. What’s the problem with it? Why spend cash to take it out, if you’re just polling the neighborhood & will install it again? It would take a Hugh policy shift, a lot of money & understanding from bike riders that no, you can’t have it all (not all roads are wide enough). I’ll even say it, cut down the street trees to make way for this. Re-plant them with thought in mind to help the tree canopy – IE Bigger trees than what they currently plant & burry the poles & lines. There is a win-win for many different types of transportation, tree canopy & winter outages will be a thing of the past.
It won’t get done because nobody has the guts to make the shift & there will be some group complaining about part of it.
Raised bike paths are great, but phenomenally expensive. Like, wildly expensive. There’s no “demand” justification for building the dankest bike lanes, so project designers have to compromise with curbed or unprotected paint and plastic bike lanes.
Money – they don’t have it. Better to do nothing?
NEVER cut down trees. NEVER.
I’ve decided I’ll vote for Rene Gonzalez for mayor if he runs against Mapps. Even if Mapps wasn’t directly responsible for this nonsense, his poor hiring decision of director Millicent Williams allowed this ridiculousness. .
If those are the only two running, there’s no point voting. Gonzalez is just as bad as Mapps, people have such short memories. He’ll do the same stuff.
I’m not sure why you think Rene would be better? They both are just grifters looking to enrich themselves and gain power.
All I can say is, thankfully, we are going to have a weak mayor system.
We are going to have a system that empowers the bureaucrats, such as Director Williams. I’m not convinced that lessening and diffusing their political oversight will be a good thing.
We obviously already has a system that empowers bureaucrats don’t we? Williams is taking unilateral action and the consequences are…none!
Like, what are you even talking about? There’s is not a single ounce of political oversight right now. Not a drop. The CoP is a cesspool of corruption and incompetence.
We are literally moving to a style of government that works all over the country. We aren’t breaking ground here, we are just 150 years late.
“Like, what are you even talking about? There’s is not a single ounce of political oversight right now. Not a drop.”
Currently, every bureau is directly overseen by an elected official.
In the future, every bureau will be directly overseen by an appointed functionary (and their 5 sub-functionaries) that only the mayor can fire without showing cause.
This means bureau directors like Williams will have a lot more insulation from the voters and those we elect to represent us.
I get that you’re mad at Mapps right now, but you’ve got a lot more leverage over him, and hence PBOT, than you would over some sub-functionary.
Watts,You don’t need to “explain” how our current government works or how the new one will, everyone knows. It doesn’t add to your argument.
I’m going to have to assume that you’ve never lived outside the City of Portland. That’s the only way I can explain your concern over having actual professionals run the government rather grifting politicians.
No rational person would design a system where a guy with no experience in transportation planning or running a large organization gets actual functional control over a massive city bureau. There is a reason absolutely no other large city uses that model.
This is your opinion, but not a fact. Williams was hired to be Mapps crony in the first place, so I have a hard time imaging she gets hired by an actual governmental professional who needs her to be good at her job.
I’m fascinated by this. Who are you? Your experience with the City of Portland government is so radically different than everyone else’s, you must be high up in some org. I personally have no leverage over Mapps. I don’t have the money to pay him to direct PBOT to do things that I want, and my neighborhood isn’t wealthy enough for him (or anyone else on the city council) to care about.
You can’t have less than the zero leverage we have now. From the jump, it was clear that Mapps only goal with sitting on the city council was to become mayor, and then I assume go to the State in some capacity. He doesn’t care about you and me. He only cares about what’s going to get him elected at the next level. I’m personally betting that when the people running are government are focused on doing their job well instead of building political support for their next election, they will be able to make hard decisions and achieve actual results instead of pandering to monied special interests.
Time will tell.
I would upvote this comment 100X if I could. Virtually every city in the US, aside from Portland, has a *strong* mayor system, not a weak mayor system like Portland’s. And that’s what we’ll have in 2025, and it’s high time.
And virtually every city in the US has a very status-quo transportation system.
I’m not arguing that PBOT is not going to work under the new system — it will be fine. I am saying that it will be more challenging to get it to be responsive to the needs of cyclists, because it will be a lot harder to apply political pressure for change.
But, to quote the immortal words of cc_rider: “Time will tell”.
I’m vague on the specific process, but who hires the city manager? Is there a reasonable expectation that they will be qualified to do the job in any way? I agree, right now Williams was hired with no eye towards qualifications other than she’s qualified to lie for her boss, and same with Mapps’ qualifications. But might the new manager also be unqualified?
I don’t know the process, but as long as it’s not just one person deciding on the best person to work for them, then hopefully it will function like a regular hiring process where actual qualifications are considered.
And people seem to keep glossing over the fact that they can be fired, so that helps with the accountability.
Article 4, Section 2-401 (f) (Duties of the Mayor)
Appoint the City Administrator, subject to Council confirmation, and give direction to the Administrator. The Mayor may remove the Administrator and must advise the Council before removal. The Council may remove the Administrator for cause by the affirmative vote of at least nine (9) Councilors. If the office of the Administrator is vacant, the Mayor must fulfill the duties of the Administrator until the office is filled.
Ok, so the fear mongering about accountability are pretty misplaced. Sounds like the mayor can straight up fire the administrator, so it’s subject to public pressure just like any other mayoral action. And the council can fire the administrator with a 3/4 majority vote. That’s a fairly high bar but it’s not like a US constitutional amendment or something.
So the mayor chooses someone (no qualifications necessary) but the council has to approve it. Sounds good.
There is an interesting loophole, where the mayor can end up doing the job, for who knows how long, and we’d be back in zero qualifications land.
But only for “cause”, not because they don’t like the decisions the administrator is making. On any practical level, once hired, the administrator will answer only to the mayor.
The bureau heads answer to the sub-functionary; the sub-functionary answers to the administrator; the administrator answers to the mayor; the mayor answer to the people.
That’s a lot of insulation between the voters and the bureau heads, who will have less oversight in how they run their kingdoms than they have today.
If the TSP reports are done on time, do you really think the mayor is going to be focused on the job performance of someone 3 levels beneath them?
It’s at worst the same amount of insulation there is today. Everyone under Mapps is completely isolated from voters today and there are who knows how many levels of other administrators under them (I’m sure it’s information that could be found, I just don’t have it).
And maybe you’ll say there is some strict definition of “cause” in this case, but I think that’s the kind of thing you can frame almost any action in.
No, and they shouldn’t, why would they? Wheeler doesn’t today and no system is going to make that possible unless you’re proposing the baffling idea that voters would have to directly approve every hire in the entire bureaucracy.
Williams answers directly to Mapps, who you get to vote for (or against). That’s a lot less insulation than what we’re going to have.
Exactly. That’s why Williams is going to have a lot less political oversight in the new system than she has currently. You don’t have to like Mapps or agree with his decisions to have political influence over him.
And no, “for cause” does not just mean for whatever. It just doesn’t.
That’s a fairly standard separation of administrative and legislative powers.
There are qualifications listed in the charter:
Section 2-406. The City Administrator. The City Administrator must be a person of demonstrated administrative ability with experience in a responsible, important executive capacity and must be chosen by the Mayor solely on the basis of executive and administrative qualifications. The Administrator’s salary is fixed by the Council. The Administrator is appointed for an indefinite term and has the following responsibilities:
(a) Advance the City’s core values of anti-racism, equity, transparency, communication, collaboration and fiscal responsibility.
(b) Advance the City’s efforts to mitigate the human-made climate crisis and prioritize environmental justice initiatives.
(c) Proper and efficient administration of all City affairs.
(d) Except for the City Attorney and the Chief of Police, appoint, reassign, discipline and remove all directors of bureaus and departments and all employees, consistent with all laws and collective bargaining agreements. The Administrator may delegate to directors the authority to appoint, discipline and remove subordinate employees.
(f) Attend meetings of the Council, and its committees, and such meetings of boards and commissions as the Administrator chooses.
(g) Investigate affairs of the City under the Administrator’s supervision, including any contract for the proper performance of obligations running to the City within the Administrator’s jurisdiction.
(h) Control and administer the financial affairs of the City. The Administrator may appoint a Budget Director to act under the Administrator’s direction.
(i) Prepare an annual budget under the direction of the Mayor for the Mayor’s submission to the Council.
(j) Prepare and submit to the Council such reports as it may require.
(k) Keep the Council at all times fully advised as to the financial condition and needs of the City.
(l) Prescribe such general rules and regulations as the Administrator may deem necessary or expedient to the general conduct of the administrative departments under the Administrator’s jurisdiction. The Administrator may delegate rulemaking authority to other bureau directors.
(m) Perform such other duties as may be directed by the Mayor or prescribed by this Charter or by City Code.
Gonzales, despite sometimes biking to work, also has terminal car brain.
I wish there was a pro-bike city council candidate without all the ACAB/anti-enforcement baggage.
That iswrong about Gonzalez. Gonzalez is pro bike. He hired former PBOT director Tom Miller to his staff. Tom is all about bikes, human powered transportation and public transit. Gonzalez is also not an ideologue and knows how to get things done. We desperately need some pragmatism in this city.
https://bikeportland.org/2023/09/13/three-of-portlands-five-city-commissioners-attended-sunday-parkways-379398
https://bikeportland.org/2022/11/15/tom-miller-hired-as-transition-team-leader-for-rene-gonzalez-367165
If I was all way up there I’d be going to home Depot and buying a bunch of paint and rollers and fixing what they removed
Great action BikeLoud et al for now…
But these lanes will need continued overnight protection…like a camping village of Earth First’ers not in trees but in bike lanes.
The Portland Bike Lawyers need to file a legal case to get a court order to halt the removal.
Lots of heroes in this story: PBOT staffer, Jonathan, and those out there watching over the street like protecting a newborn chick. Horrible decision making again by PBOT. Time for the Director to go. I’m eagerly awaiting the next huge mess.
This is so weird. Has anything like this and the Broadway bike lane happened before? Did it happen frequently but we never knew about it? Or is something different now that it seems to be a regular thing?
Hardesty’s PBOT removed a traffic circle on NE 7th and there was barely a peep of outrage.
There was plenty of outrage. It was all over BP for a week and local residents organized to try to stop it.
There were like a hundred people in the street protesting it, what are you talking about?
not close to 100 at all. I’d say peak was about 25 or so people from what I saw.
Fair enough, I guess it looked like a lot more from the photos, and it’s been a while so it probably grew in my mind. Still, plenty of people were organized around that, it’s not like it just happened with nobody noticing.
Well, isn’t it lovely. Another bad decision by pbot. They add lanes randomly here and there take away lanes this way & that way. Often making it more troubling & sometimes less safe (NW 14th & Davis for ex.) for drivers , no easier or safer for cyclists, & just less logical all the way around.
They should start with better traffic enforcement, unless you like seeing people go the wrong way on one ways because they feel like it, or are seriously, seriously not paying attention. This goes for cyclists too, riding the wrong way on one ways, won’t direction on bike lanes, riding with their face to the sky not a care in the world.. until they’re wondering why they just hit or have been bitten by a car.
I hate that we have to have further enforcement because a few self entitled people ruin it for everyone. But that’s how it happens. Either get people to start following the rules that no one seems to care enforcing, or there will be higher insurance rates, less kind neighbors, more accidents & then enforcement comes.
Thanks Bike Portland, thanks BikeLoud, and thanks to everyone who took risk to stop business as usual, for now. Direct action is heroic.
Even if the removal of the bike lane were somehow justified, how could they not give any notice? What’s someone who commutes by bike supposed to do when they get to that stretch and discover that their bike lane disappeared during the day??
The Mapps train bumbles along, to the tune of Yakety Sax.
If there was a show that combined Veep and Parks and Rec, but the main characters were completely mundane and thought they were playing high stakes three dimensional chess, while in reality their ambitions were petty and small- this would be the Mapps caravan.
How can the people working in his office show their faces in public?
Can anyone (who actually knows) tell me that Mapps directed this? I’m thinking Millicent Williams is the one, not Mapps.
I have but one question……
How do you accidentally put in a bike lane? We’re talking buffered lines with green paint in certain sections. It’s one thing to start the process, then stop after maybe a few feet, nope, they (PBOT) put in a whole lane, on both sides of the street. It’s so hard for me to believe this was by “mistake”. Just wow.
“How do you accidentally put in a bike lane?”
Easy… You send out the wrong work orders. Coincidentally, this happened to my brother on Monday. He accidentally drilled a whole well, so now someone is out 12 grand.
It wasn’t a mistake. It’s been planned for years now.
So we live on that stretch of 33rd and while
I have no issues with the bike lane, PBOT also informed residents along about a 8 block stretch of 33rd that due to the bike lanes they would be removing all on street parking. So literally any guests we had would have to park blocks away and walk. That is the part that was done without any public notice or discussion. A compromise might have been to allow parking on one side of the street etc. my understanding is the Concordia neighborhood association raised a fuss about the fact that homeowners were losing parking in front of their home and there was no discussion about it.
Oh my god your guests will have to walk a few blocks through a nice neighborhood! I can’t imagine how trying that will be. Really they should’ve widened the street to allow more parking for your poor guests!
… this imaginary inconvenience that might happen a few times a year is totally worth making the road more dangerous for thousands of people.
As opposed to god forbid the bicyclists use 32nd ave one block west and make it a bike parkway like Holman? I have zero problems with taking low traffic neighborhood streets but 33rd is a major north south route with buses etc. you say it’s no big deal for guests to walk a few blocks but is it a big deal for bicyclists to ride one block over?
Car and bus traffic hasn’t been impacted, only parking.
Traffic on 33rd should be slowed to residential speeds anyway because people live by, walk and cross this street frequently.
And, yes, shunting people on bikes through indirect neighborhood roads with bad sight lines, frequent stops and unpredictable drivers is a big deal and in many places in Portland, an obvious failure.
32nd doesn’t go through! Nothing does. 33rd is the only road allowing anyone on any land based transportation to cross Lombard and Columbia in that area. That is THE place that bikes have to go, bike lane or not. As it was before that meant riding with traffic or the sidewalk.
So no.
This old argument – “Cyclists can just use the next street over” – has to stop! No one ever says that about cars, which have a god-given right to be everywhere.
I am curious if you think Amazon and UPS will park in the auto lane or the bike lane when they’re making deliveries.
How is it they’ll have to park “blocks” away? Every house on those blocks has parking on that same block. They might have to go… around a corner on the same block.
If you want to be polite to your guests, you park around the corner and let your guests park in your driveway.
But whatever. This stupid argument always comes up. People want to live in a city but act like it’s a suburb.
Well, change is hard. That’s why you need to involve a community, not ignore it. POBT director Millicent Williams obviously doesn’t understand basic principles of municipal management.
This quick action by the bike community is great, but there is a way to make such actions even stronger. Have a media statement ready, and alert local media about what is happening as it happens, telling them where to send reporters, and offering to share video/photos if they need. The news alert should be concise and compelling and frame the story as the bike community needs it to be told. Basically something like:
Just wanted to let you know that PBOT is trying to remove new safety infrastructure, and safety advocates are currently here blocking the contractor from proceeding. In a year when there have been a record number of Portlanders killed by motor vehicles AND when PBOT has huge budget shortfalls, protestors and Portlanders in general demand to know why PBOT is wasting money and time removing safety infrastructure, rather than making more streets safer. The protest is currently happening at [insert address] if you want to send a crew to film, or we can share video or photos from here with you.
Send that to FOX and KATU and OPB and Oregonian and Pamplin and Mercury and …
Obviously, BikePortland’s coverage is stellar, and it’s because of all the good work that Jonathan has done for so long that folks reached out to him to warn about this move by PBOT, which then allowed Jonathan to alert the bike community and bike activists to turn out. All great. But we also need “mainstream” media to see how badly PBOT is being run, and we need to remind them at every possible instance that our streets are getting deadlier because of mismanagement of PBOT. This should be an issue for anyone who cares about safety, or government waste, etc. well beyond BikePortland’s readership. Elevating Jonathan’s journalism by pointing other outlets to what is happening is good for all of us. Indeed, if other outlets had come to cover this morning’s action, activists they interviewed could have directed them to the Broadway Bike Lane coverage on BikePortland for larger context.
Comment of the week!
The hypocrisy is insane. Millicent Williams is deciding that the bike lane should be removed because a few houses didn’t get a letter in the mail. But taking out the lane without a second to talk with the community about it.
Were there complaints? Who lives there and what’s their relationship to Williams or City Hall. We already saw how her and Mapps make back room deals with the elite and connected. Why would this be any different?
This makes PBOT look like they don’t know what they’re doing. It doesn’t inspire confidence in the middle of the agency’s biggest budget crisis potentially ever.
Mismanagement. A personal agenda from Mapps and Williams. Back room deals. Hypocrisy. Welcome to the new PBOT.
All that was missing from PBOT’s statement that the bike lane installation was a “mistake” was a sentence saying, “PBOT remained on the scene and is cooperating with the investigation”.
Wish I could have gotten those contractors to remove these unsed bike from SE Powel / Gilbert areas…
What the Frick Portland, you can’t put in a bicycle lane even if by accident and take it away especially if people are using it, Rogue River Oregon
Wow, First and foremost, big High FIVE to all those who showed up and physically protested this B.S. Here are all the links from Bikeloud PDX website to write the city counsel and express how you feel about the project….
mayorwheeler@portlandoregon.gov
gonzalezoffice@portlandoregon.gov
CommissionerRyanOffice@portlandoregon.gov
comm.rubio@portlandoregon.gov
MappsOffice@portlandoregon.gov
PBOTDirector@portlandoregon.gov
Hope everybody gets busy-a-writing!
Try contacting your Neighborhood Association and get them to contact the politicians. NA’s are a great way to effectively lobby the arrogant Portland government we have elected.
Where does Mapps stand??! Portland citizens would like to know!
Admit you support her on all of this or make a strong stand against it.
Elections are approaching.
Make a definitive statement so we can make an educated vote. Do you want to be the one person who drove through the rose parade or do you support the people?
You already see what we are saying!
It’s not City Councilor Williams, he keeps backing her and lying about what is going on, this is 100% on him.
John Maus, you rule!! Using this platform for direct action is some high bar civic duty badassery
Nice use of civil disobedience! That’s how it’s meant to work. Now if only we could spend PBOT dollars on helping obtain equity in Cully and for Portlanders east of 82nd by installing sidewalks and paving roads in those areas. We are spending money to create bike infrastructure in close-in Portland that should instead be spent to give the long neglected outer east Portland and Cully areas the basics. My brother and his family live in outer SE and if they want to walk the few blocks to their nearest park they must do so on the shoulder of a semi-busy side street that has no sidewalks. It is not equitable to spend tens of millions of dollars on yet more bike infrastructure west of 82nd when people in vast swaths of Portland don’t even have sidewalks and paved roads. It is time to put a moratorium on all bike infrastructure spending and construction west of 82nd until sidewalks are in place on, at the least, all semi-busy side streets of Cully and east of 82nd out to the border with Gresham, and bike infrastructure added to those areas to match what already exists west of 82nd.
Comment of the week.
I couldn’t disagree more. Yes west of 82nd has better and more infrastructure but that doesn’t mean everywhere west of 82nd is better than East Portland. For instance this section of 33rd is literally marked as a difficult connection on PBOTs bike map. Not to mention it completely ignores the tens of millions PBOT has spent on East Portland in the last 6 years with the 10 cent gas tax. Division, Halsey, Glisan, and 102nd in East Portland have all been improved just to name a few.
Not to mention the suggestion is absurd at face value. What they’re demanding is billions in improvements which is a non-starter for a bureau that can’t even fill potholes.
WTF? Most of Portland, including west of the river, has no bike infrastructure or sidewalks or even paved streets in many places.
Things are bad all over, and the city is able to address things in only a piecemeal way, which will continue. Not area has priority over any other.
SW Portland is west of 82nd and has the least sidewalk coverage and worst build out of planned bikelanes of any area in the city.
And it may get even worse if PBOT finds out some of what little IS there was put in without enough public involvement!
It’s not ideal but people can walk in bike infrastructure, which is a lot of the time reallocation of existing space, so pretty inexpensive. Pedestrian facilities are a lot more expensive (widening, drainage, right of way purchase) and when you build those, you should also build your bike facilities since you’re setting the curb location.
Check this out for more coverage:
https://www.kptv.com/2023/11/02/pbot-mistakenly-installs-bike-lanes-ne-portland/
My eyes rolled so far back in my head reading this I’m typing this blind. Her livelihood and feelings are impacted because she can’t park in front of her house? I have two enormous potholes on the single lane street in front of my house that the city won’t repair, no sidewalks and an uncontrolled intersection. These things literally affect the safety of my commute every day. Can we spend this $25k repairing infrastructure instead of kowtowing to drivers?
This is also pretty insulting considering the greenway doesn’t connect to Lombard or Columbia. Heavens forbid people biking get to use infrastructure that actually goes somewhere at the cost of a homeowner storing their private property on public property slightly further from their house.
Nice coverage, Fox! – all about how some homeowner feels “disrespected” when a bike lane was installed in front of her house, which obviously trumps the transportation and GHG-reduction needs of an entire community.
The fact that this logic is persuasive with PBOT’s current leaders just shows they need to go – they are not up to the job.
America… where everyone is entitled to their own publicly subsidized parking lot.
That clip is so annoying! “Neighbors say there’s already a bike greenway 2 blocks over on NE 32nd and cyclists can just use that…” And I guess there’s no need to inform the viewers that the bike lanes begin where the greenway ends? SMH
I don’t understand stand what people don’t get that a bicycle is not a form of transportation unless it has an engine on like a Harley then that’s fine. The people who protested are the problem. All I see are continued fatalities on all major side streets, main streets due to cyclists believing they have the rights of the road. Sadly they don’t. Here in Cambridge MA after they voted in favor of bike lanes. Well now its becoming a problem for long time small businesses cause no one can park and obtain services as they once did. With the T so awful everyone drives in and pays a parking meter which creates revenue to local government. Statistics have shown that at about 55% alone on MASSACHUSETTS cyclists wete injured, run over or even killed even with bike lanes set in place. I am guessing then until there are more fatalities waiting to happen then, maybe people will realize just how stupid people are worth risking their lives just do the can get hit and killed to wake people up.
Nice try, almost none of the fatalities in Portland involve bicyclists.
Oh, come on. You have that brand new high-speed Green Line extension that travels at a blistering 3MPH, and it’s probably been a year since any chunks of tunnel fell down on riders, or any cars knocked blocks of concrete through the roof of a station. And the travel time from Charles to Alewife is now less than it takes to walk.
Here in Portland, our trains go just as slow when traveling through downtown (by design), and 100% of the sampled air in vehicles and 98% of the surfaces were contaminated with meth (though, to be fair, those numbers were lower for fentanyl and cocaine).
The whole thing all the way around is clown show… That lunacy stated I would rather dedicated bike lanes over shared.
Why is this even being done? Okay, a mistake was made installing it and may have been a temporary waste, but to waste even more money/resources to undo something that doesn’t even need to be undone? Ridiculous.
Just wanted to give a hearty thank you to everyone who helped stop this bike lane from getting removed! I use that one block of that section of road every day in my commute and its introduction has really helped simplify traffic and merging. Previously, going across Lombard via 33rd required spending a block either dodging parked cars or irritating everyone by taking the whole lane.
I hope PBOT comes around to accepting that lane as it really helps a huge amount. Plus, there’s always tons of parking on the side streets nearby so I doubt the two people who regularly parked there (from my experience over two years) will have much issue adjusting.