There were a few notable things said by newly elected Portland City Council members at Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance event. And while I already did a story and video, I wasn’t able to really underscore these comments and share my thoughts about them previously because I wanted to keep the focus on the event itself.
“I frankly am not worried about the Big Brother aspect of putting speed cameras at every goddamn intersection in the city.”
– Steve Novick, D3 councilor-elect
So I pulled an audio highlight reel together that features four speakers. In the episode available now on our podcast feed or in the player above, I intersperse my personal commentary and thoughts after each audio clip. The speakers in this episode are: PBOT Vision Zero Coordinator Clay Veka, District 4 Councilor-elect Mitch Green and District 3 councilor-elects Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo, and Steve Novick.
The reason I’m pulling these clips out and shining a light on them is because they offer important takeaways about how these new electeds will lead and govern in the coming months and years. And with PBOT’s Veka, she gave us notable clues about how the City is framing its Vision Zero work.
Have a listen to this episode and tell me if you agree that:
- It’s cool that PBOT admits they’re not meeting their goals, they are smart to spread responsibility for Vision Zero to other agencies, and we should be happy they are talking about the need for a cultural shift and the role change management will have in making progress;
- Mitch Green wants to be council’s main bike and safe streets champion, is someone who wants to focus on prevention instead of punishment and how that could create friction with more enforcement-first councilors, and that he’s done his homework when it comes to transportation policy.
- Tiffany Koyama Lane won’t soon forget what she heard at the Remembrance event and she’ll be a reliable vote for good safe streets policy on council going forward.
- Angelita Morillo will tell it like it is, wants to shake up the status quo, is a great communicator, and will be in front of the freeway fights.
- Steve Novick is sick and tired of lawless drivers and will push expansion of PBOT’s automated enforcement camera program, isn’t afraid to push bold policy ideas, could be city council president, and has the guts to propose new revenue ideas.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for reading.
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I do think that both Green and Novick are correct simultaneously. We need enforcement but we also need self enforceable infrastructure. It’s not an either/or and I hope they don’t get lost in these disagreements and they see this as an opportunity to truly implement better safe streets policy.
The reg fee thing is certainly something that needs to happen too. I’d prefer something state wide but even just in the metro area would be helpful. It’s not only penalizing irresponsible vehicle sizes for the sake of safety but also helping pay for street maintenance, ideally. Good stuff, lets hope we see this momentum continuing when they are in those seats in January.
We need infrastructure AND enforcement. Right here in my own fancy SW Portland neighborhood I’d say 30% of cars have covered licensed plates, to defeat the license-reading cameras. When I go to NoPO and EaPo, I see about the same % with no license plates of any kind.
So you need boots on the ground to address the basic issues before the fancy cameras have a chance to work.
This should be obvious to anyone who thinks about it, but personally, I’ve largely given up arguing for it here. This isn’t the right place to flog that horse; everyone either knows it to be true or can never be convinced (at least not until they have an unpleasant encounter that changes their minds).
The future of Portland traffic enforcement is in the hands of those we just elected. You can decide for yourself what that means.
As my dad used to say, “The IRS has a way of making conservatives out of liberals.” I suspect a close encounter with a deranged individual can do the same.
Every time I visit DC, I note how few cars have local DC license plates (Taxation Without Representation is their plate motto), that most are out-of-state (next door Virginia & Maryland predominantly of course).
A technical question: assuming Portland had a fully-staffed parking tag patrol, how would the enforcers know if a vehicle was an out-of-state visitor temporarily visiting or residing in Portland versus a scofflaw dodging their proper vehicle registration and associated fees? And assuming they did find a scofflaw, how would they enforce city & state regulations? With a warning letter? Tow the vehicle? Deport them to DC?
To the extent that we have paid parking districts, out of state plates could mean higher parking fees, with frequent renewal. An annual pass wouldn’t be valid
without current local plates. This would privilege off street parking of course.
If we track all plates on the street it would be possible to spot scofflaws but that would mean collecting and storing data on every vehicle. I think Portland is going to need some kind of simple, cheap universal parking pass, easy to get but hard to evade. Tow fees are punitive enough that people will be motivated to license their cars and comply.
I’m very appreciative of Bikeportland’s continued coverage of local politics and government. Information you’re providing is a valuable service that is well worth my subscription.
It’s encouraging to hear that electeds are voicing strong concerns and seem knowledgeable about transportation issues and solutions.
I know you have to say stuff like this to “play nice” with PBOT, but I simply don’t buy that PBOT is doing anything other than saying the usual right things while they contain to uphold the status quo that privileges unaccountable driving. It’s the same old performative BS. I’ll continue to hold this view until PBOT proves me wrong and really shakes up the status quo.
Fool me once, shame on me, etc. Now you may proceed with your clapback that “Fred is an old pessimist who always sees the glass half-empty” etc.
PBOT has always admitted their mistakes – or at least those at the top usually did – they just aren’t willing or aren’t able to correct any of them…
Jonathan, thank you for this podcast. I am so pleased not just that the top 3 of my 6 ranked candidates won, but that each of them was aware of and felt the need to attend the memorial, and that all 3 sound like they will be far bolder than what we are, in despair, used to. And I love what I heard from Mitch Green. I come (years ago) from SW Portland, I have family in SW Portland, and I don’t expect that kind of support and clarity from the quadrant. This restores the hope that was diminished when Dan Ryan and Loretta Smith won seats, and Steph Routh and Timur Ender did not. We still have a good team.
“I don’t expect that kind of support and clarity from the quadrant”
SW has some of the best transpo advocates in the city.
Judging by the outcomes?
oh don’t even go there Watts! No. Judging by the advocates. Smart and dedicated and fierce they are. It’s by far the most challenging place to see outcomes for both geographic and political reasons.
Absolutely. But how else can you judge advocacy than by the results? It’s not really about just putting on a good show. If you leave things no better than you found them, have you really accomplished anything?
E Portland is also a challenging place, and we’ve seen a lot of progress there (though there’s still plenty more to do).
There are a lot of results to point to in SW, but not nearly as much as we’d hope of course. And I am not sure you’re arguing in good faith because do you really think that volunteer advocates are the sole way to judge progress? That’s a pretty narrow view of a much larger picture IMO.
Advocacy can always be improved and the job is never done, but I find the implied spirit of your comment to be really not cool to all the folks who work their butts off to make SW better.
Also, you should google SW Trails and SW In Motion and the Red Electric Trail. Those are just some examples of dedicated advocates pushing what often feels like a large rock uphill. Without them, SW would be in a much worse place.
Good; I don’t track events there much, and most of what I hear about are how PBOT (or sometimes ODOT) has goofed things up… again.
But yes, I do think results (weighed against difficulties, of course) are the best way to gauge the impact of advocacy.
A lot of my personal advocacy has not resulted in change (though some has), and I measure my own efficacy by the same metric. I’ve had some fun along the way, and learned a lot, so my failures weren’t a complete waste, but when my efforts didn’t change outcomes, I can’t really regard myself as having succeeded.
I think it was David Sweet who once pointed out to me, after he moved to the Cully area, that advocacy becomes a lot easier if you have the demographics working in your favor rather than against you. Even when I was doing advocacy for EP 2008-15, the poorer parts were easier to get funding for projects than the richer parts.
For several years Keith Leiden and Marianne Fitzgerald of SW were doing most of the advocacy for EP as well, as our EP advocates at the time were so ineffective.
If one thing unifies people, it’s the frustrations of not being able to get sidewalks built.
I currently live in a city that is perfectly aware that they are 100% responsible for putting in any and all sidewalks – they try to get developers to put in a few, but the city has an ongoing fund for new sidewalks, mostly using federal and state CMAQ grants with 10-20% local match, mostly along arterial and collector streets that have transit service (which is also a municipal function here). Our city is playing catch up – from the 1950s through the 90s the city built no sidewalks but lots of streets, convinced that walking was hazardous to your health, something that only homeless and black people did in this highly segregated community. Getting the city to build the sidewalks on time rather than 5 years later is still a frustration here.
When I was in Portland, PBOT would try to convince us that all sidewalks were put in by developers and homeowners – and we bought it – but a poorly-publicized internal 2000 PBOT report said otherwise – that many sidewalks citywide had actually been put in by the city, including in the inner-Portland streetcar suburbs, with federal WPA assistance and other government funds. So eventually we got Mayor Sam Adams to order PBOT to fund $8 million in new sidewalks in EP and $8 million for SW, including ones on 102nd, Glisan, 162nd, 122nd, Stark, SW Multnomah, and many others. The sidewalks usually didn’t meet current city standards – they were usually too narrow, had telephone poles growing in the middle of ADA ramps, etc – but they were far better than the mud they replaced.
Maybe some future US dictator, like FDR in the 1930s, will reimpose a WPA-like federal make-work program for the homeless, to build “for free” sidewalks where they are needed? Use conscripted (i.e. slave) labor to build what Portland taxpayers aren’t willing to pay for?
“don’t even go there Watts!” LOL, you might wake Lisa up! Shhhhh.
Watts, one of the best, most fun, ways to get to know southwest Portland is through the SWTrails trail network. I’m on the board of SWT.
Over the past 30 years, the group, founded by Don Baack, has put together and maintained a network of 50 miles of walking trails. Probably our best known trail for someone coming from the east side is the 4-T (Trail, Tram, Trolley, Train).
We offer twice-monthly group hikes (hard and easy). But for anyone who wants to go it alone, we have self-guided tours with GIS. During the 2nd year of the pandemic, the self-guided routes were accessed 100,000 times.
The genius (perhaps accidental) of the group is that it is grounded by maintaining and building the trail system, yet also engages non-stop in lobbying and advocacy. Some examples:
Our Hi-LO (Hillsdale to Lake Oswego) trail was awarded state money for signage and we are in the process of designing (20?) informational boards which include a QR code to more info on our web site. Contributing to the project have been: a geologist, an ecologist, an historian, a pro photographer, our GIS guru, Don Baack, with a small bit of editing from yours truly.
The Red Electric Bridge in Hillsdale was funded by state money brokered by SWTrails. Same with the Parks design of the Red Electric Trail just east of Shattuck. These represented 100s of thousands, and millions of dollars which SWT went after and got.
But there is more. There is not an elected official representing the area city, county, state, federal, who has not walked a segment of our network with Don Baack. We proactively work at those relations. D4 city counselors? I want to say all, but I’ll say “most” to be safe, met with us and walked a trail.
And how ’bout those Hayhurst folks? CC candidates got tours months ago. Remember their SW Transportation forum?–about 150 SW neighbors in attendance, and I’d say 10-12 CC candidates (not to mention bureau reps, state reps, WA Co reps).
Here’s a longer list of accomplishments: https://swtrails.org/accomplishments/
And then there is Marianne Fitzgerald’s 30 year lobbying effort on cap hwy. And if we are going to list people: Keith Liden, David Stein, Phil
Richman, Eric Wilhelm, Don Baack, Marita Ingalsbe, myself–even Steve Novick lived here until not long ago. But I shouldn’t do this, I leave off too many people.
Fun tidbit, all of the D4 reps live is southwest. Hey, I didn’t do that! Really! I ranked someone from Sellwood and NW too!
I’ve always envied the trails (and stairs) of SW Portland, and I’ve done the 4T a couple of times.
I know, and I hope they have a lot of stamina.
you’re welcome mh. So glad you found it and listened. As for SW… Wouldn’t it be interesting if Green emerges as the cycling and safe streets champion? What a much-deserved and much-needed coup for SW after so many years of fighting for recognition.
I would imagine that Green got most of his votes from Downtown + Old Town + NW + Goose Hollow where renters far outweigh owners. Probably wasn’t the preferred candidate for the ritzy houses up in the hills (considering he is a prominent socialist), but I guess I haven’t actually seen any precinct level data so I’m just guessing really