Design concept for Heights Bike Garden on Mill Plan Blvd in Vancouver. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)
Vancouver’s first-ever traffic garden will open in June.
According to the City of Vancouver, The Heights Bike Garden will, “Provide a fun, community-serving space at the site of the former Tower Mall.” The location — a large development site bordered by Mill Plan and MacArthur boulevards — is about two miles north of Portland’s Marine Drive (as the crow flies over the Columbia River) and about a six mile bike ride from the Kenton neighborhood in north Portland.
The Bike Garden will be a space off the street where kids (and I assume, people of all ages) can learn basic rules of the road and get experience with cycling and traffic rules without the dangers posed by car users. Often referred to as “traffic gardens” these spaces have been common in Europe since the 1950s. BikePortland first reported on one in Utrecht in 2009. Since then, gardens have sprouted throughout Portland and Washington County. In 2020 we shared how the onset of Covid boosted interest in the concept and at that time there were nearly two dozen traffic gardens on the map.
Vancouver’s Heights Bike Garden is taking advantage of an empty parking that will someday be the Heights District, a mixed-use neighborhood currently in development. The design was created by First Forty Feet (with help from Discover Traffic Gardens) the firm behind the Heights development. According to the City of Vancouver, this is the largest traffic garden the firm has ever worked on.
If you’d like to help paint the design and make the vision a reality, the City of Vancouver is looking for volunteers for two events on the weekend of June 1st and 2nd. Fill out this form if you’re interested.
The City will host a grand opening celebration on June 8th from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at 5411 Mill Plain Blvd. Vancouver Anne McEnerny-Ogle and other members of city council will be in attendance and local nonprofit Bike Clark County will provide bike safety lessons.
Rose City Recreational Trail Proposed Trail Sections for Schematic Design Analysis. (Source: City of Portland)
Turns out cycling access might be a larger part of a major trail project at Rose City Park and Rose City Golf Course than city staff initially let on.
Two weeks ago we shared concerns from off-road cycling advocates that Portland Parks & Recreation had launched the $4 million Rose City Recreational Trail planning process in a way that ignored cycling. The park and golf course bordered by residential areas and 82nd Avenue, was recommended as a location for unpaved cycling access in the city’s Off-road Cycling Master Plan (ORCMP). That plan reflects a top priority of Northwest Trail Alliance, a nonprofit, to give Portlanders more opportunities to ride off-road in the urban context.
But despite the master plan’s recommendation, Portland Parks staff chose to exclude cycling from the current user survey and framed the project at a public launch meeting last month as a walking trail. Half the project funding comes from a Metro grant that clearly includes off-road biking trails as one of the eligible uses of funds. However, a Parks slide made it appear as though a “Metro grant requirement” was that the project result in “pedestrian trails.”
And when asked at the meeting if bikes would be allowed on future trails, a Parks project manager told a member of the public, “We’re not sure yet.”
After a Parks spokesperson stopped answering my emailed questions about how they treated cycling in this project, I reached out to Parks Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office.
Ryan’s Chief of Staff for Parks Kellie Torres got back to me yesterday and said via email the project is still evolving and that, “In fact, there is an upcoming survey and community meeting in which feedback is being sought— which includes questions and opportunities for cycling.”
Then Torres shared a map with four different trail segments (above), two of which she said could be open to bike riders.
Here’s what Torres wrote about the trails:
Red Trail: Currently does not exist. Looking at a paved ADA accessible Multi-Use paved pathway with soft-surface shoulder(s) potentially for bikers. East-West connector
Green Trail: Currently exists, 3’-4’ Wide Nature Trail. Community feedback was this trail was too narrow for both bikes and pedestrians. We will improve/enhance soft surface trail.
Orange Trail: Currently exists, 6’-8’ gravel shoulder along NE 72nd St. PP&R worked with PBOT to create a one-way only for cars from the north to the south and bike/pedestrian access in 2 directions. We will enhance consistency and safety, and potentially provide opportunity for Off-Road Cycling.
Yellow Trail: Currently does not exist, and it presents slope, access, and golf challenges [Which she defined as, “The proximity of fast-paced bikes to errant golf balls.”] We would build soft surface “Nature Trail”.
Red Circles indicate connections and opportunity zones. Orange Box is exploration of creating “Safe Routes to School” corridor for children walking to Roseway Heights Middle School.
Torres also shared that a second community meeting will be held in mid-late summer and there will be a forthcoming survey to garner feedback on cycling.
I’ve also heard that advocates with NW Trail Alliance are actively engaged in productive discussions with Parks surrounding how this project evolves.
Stay tuned for more opportunities to provide feedback and attend future meetings.
Portland bicycle riders doing their part to raise PBOT revenue. Just kidding. This photo is from a protest against oil companies in 2012. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)
Commissioner Mingus Mapps and leaders of the Portland Bureau of Transportation can breathe a sigh of relief this morning as their 10-cent per gallon gas tax was approved by voters last night.
Known as Fixing Our Streets, the program will now pump an estimated $70.5 million into city coffers over the next four years. While its success was never seriously in doubt, there was mild consternation given the extremely sour mood of some voters and a popular narrative that Portlanders are feeling overburdened with local taxes.
Last night’s election results show Measure 26-245 with just over 70% support. This is the third time Portland’s local gas tax has won the favor of voters. In 2016 it squeaked by with just 51.3% of the vote (thanks in part to organized opposition from gasoline retailers) and in 2020 nearly 77% voted to increase the price of their fuel to help PBOT pay for road projects and maintenance.
PBOT toyed with increasing the tax to 15-cents per gallon, and making the tax permanent, but those options didn’t poll well so the agency opted for caution and stuck with the same formula as 2020. The revenue will be evenly split between three categories: paving on on busy and local streets; traffic safety infrastructure on school routes, busy streets, and neighborhood greenways; and something PBOT calls, “community street services” which includes responding to pothole repair requests, fixing streetlights and signals, and so on.
PBOT rank-and-file should feel better about last night’s election too. A recent slide shown by one of PBOT’s financial experts at a meeting of their budget advisory committee earlier this month said the Fixing Our Streets revenue will help the bureau pay for 45 positions over the next four years.
The current cross-section with five lanes for car users was established in 1996.
The stars are aligning for inner Northeast Broadway to become a true main street where people are prioritized over cars. In the coming years we could see a major transformation of this key east-west corridor as a mix of federal funding and a local paving project create a golden opportunity for a redesign between the Broadway Bridge and NE 24th.
As BikePortland reported back in March, the Portland Bureau of Transportation won a $38 million federal grant to create a “civic main street” on Broadway between the bridge and NE 7th. Conceptual drawings of that project shared publicly in September show cross-sections with wide, physically-protected bike lanes, narrower general purpose lanes, a dedicated streetcar lane, and two lanes for driving cars instead of the three that exist today.
Now there’s another opportunity to extend this cross section further east to NE 24th. Sometime this year PBOT will begin formal design and outreach for a project to repave NE Broadway from 11th to 24th. As BikePortland reported in 2022, the project is on PBOT’s paving list and planners have just enough funding (an estimated $300,000) to install new pavement and then paint new lane striping.
PBOT slides first shown in 2022.
As we’ve seen with other “pave and paint” projects, PBOT will have a clean slate and will have the option to repaint the lanes in a new configuration. Since NE Broadway is classified in Portland’s Comprehensive Plan as a “Major City Bikeway” and with funding already secured for the project on the inner portion of the street to the east of this paving project — the odds are very good a new configuration could be in the works.
In a PBOT document that lists all paving projects for the five years between 2023 and 2027, the NE Broadway project is in the “calendar year 2024” category. In a column labeled “Bicycle improvement opportunities?” PBOT wrote: “Potential to remove a travel lane and enhance the bike lane. Needs planning and project development work. Consider extending west to 7th Ave.”
That “consider extending west to 7th” was written before PBOT had won $38 million to upgrade the bridge to NE 7th, so it’s very likely the “pave and paint” project will extend west from NE 11th to connect to NE 7th.
And an update to the design would almost certainly result in less space for using cars and more space for bicycling, walking, and transit.
Rendering of NE Broadway by illustrator Owen Walz for The Street Trust in 2014.
Efforts to make a better bikeway on NE Broadway have been around for at least a decade. In 2014 the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now The Street Trust) made bike lanes on NE Broadway one of their main priorities. Staffers worked to garner feedback from business owners and educate the community on why it was needed in addition to the existing neighborhood bikeway on NE Tillamook.
But while many Portlanders are eager for a new design that vastly improves bicycling, local business owners and other area interests might have different ideas about the future of Broadway. That 2016 Better Block installation is remembered by many local advocates for how it backfired after some local business owners weren’t on board with the idea.
Members of the Sullivan’s Gulch Neighborhood Association have been meeting as a “Broadway-Weidler Working Group” since last fall to strategize on how to get changes over the finish line. They want fewer cars on Broadway because they know it will lead to a safer environment and more travel capacity overall. According to meeting minutes, their ultimate goal is to decouple Broadway and NE Weidler, make Weidler a quiet neighborhood street, and then re-introduce two-way traffic onto Broadway. (According to sources, PBOT estimates returning Broadway to two-way traffic would cost over $10 million and there are no current plans to move forward with that idea.)
Currently, the section of Broadway between 7th and 24th is 56-feet wide and has five lanes for drivers and a narrow, door-zone bike lane. There are three general travel lanes and two on-street auto parking lanes. The bike lanes were installed in the late 1990s and have never been updated. With reductions in driving since the pandemic, three lanes for driving on this section of Broadway seem like overkill.
If PBOT chooses to, there is plenty of room to reduce space for car users and add a wider, physically-protected bike lane, a dedicated mass transit lane, and medians for safer crossings. They don’t currently have any extra funding in the “pave and paint” budget, but they could lay out the striping today and identify more funding later. With the $38 million in federal funds, they’ve got bureaucratic inertia to shake more funding from the trees.
This section of Broadway would be a very important link in the bike and transit network. It would connect to busy north-south bike routes (like the NE 7th Greenway), several TriMet bus lanes, and the Portland Streetcar.
While PBOT hasn’t begun official public outreach on the project, we expect that to begin soon. Stay tuned.
“Am I doing the right thing? Am I taking a frivolous risk and putting my children in harm’s way?”
It’s been a challenging few weeks. I have two newly independent riders: my hesitant nine-year-old daughter and my exceptionally eager six-year-old son. As we have memorialized the loss of a 12-year-old boy in our community who was fatally struck while riding his bicycle, the risks of cycling have weighed heavily on me. And my children can tell you that weight has burdened our rides.
I have over-coached my kids, yelled out so many commands that everyone is left confused and frustrated, then had us pull over every two blocks to give a lecture on the safety risks we face and to correct riding mistakes. I’ve cried and worried, and I am still having nightmares about one of my kids not returning from a bike ride.
So, why are we still riding?
I ask myself that. I wrestle with it. Am I doing the right thing? Am I taking a frivolous risk and putting my children in harm’s way? What if the worst happens, what if… I can barely handle the thought.
Then I approach it from the other direction: What would our lives be like if we stopped biking? And what kind of life, what kind of decision-making, would we use to lead our family? How are we going to make any decision in the face of risks?
To the first: I firmly believe that biking and walking more (and driving less) is a better way to live. It’s better for our mental and physical health, our engagement with our community, for our environment and society. Biking brings our family great joy, and it has helped me to avoid depression – bringing me great happiness instead, a happiness shared by my children.
I am also a strong proponent of child independence: Currently my oldest son bikes himself to swim practice, youth symphony rehearsals, the library, and his favorite board game store. This is the lifestyle my husband and I dreamed of, and worked hard to provide for our children. We chose a house in an urban area where we could walk/bike to multiple places, and have access to public transit, specifically with the idea that we wanted to provide access to activities, friendships, culture and adventure for our kids — without them needing us to drive them in a car.
Biking isn’t just a recreational activity that we could trade for something else. It’s an important piece of a lifestyle we’ve cultivated and it’s a manifestation of our values and beliefs. Giving it up would be giving up something of ourselves, of who we are, of what we believe and value and how we put those beliefs into practice.
But that question gnaws at me: Is it “worth the risk”?
The truth is, we face all sorts of risks. And death by car is a very real one. I won’t downplay it. But it’s a real risk when riding in a car too – giving up bike riding doesn’t eliminate that risk. And the leading cause of death for children has recently been due to gun violence or “firearm related injuries.” What am I doing to avoid that risk? How does one, individually, prevent the risk of getting shot? I don’t even know how to go about preventing that. Drowning is a risk too, and yet we still go to the coast and splash in the waves. Do I worry about that? Yep. But am I willing to let my fear of drowning prevent us from enjoying time in the water? Nope.
Our lives are full of risks. I can’t prevent something terrible from happening to myself or my children, no matter what transportation decision or other life choices we make. As for how we handle risk as a family; I want to empower my children to pursue their dreams, and even to encourage them to take worthy risks and make sacrifices. I want them to learn to bravely pursue what they believe is right, and to work for what is right, to sacrifice for it, and even to take risks in pursuit of it – especially when those risks are for the common good, or the good of people beyond themselves.
Ultimately, I keep biking because I believe it’s the right way for us to live. And even though I am afraid, I am more unwilling to let fear dictate how we live. So when I get all the kids out on bikes, or when I wave my son off to bike himself to swim practice, I hold on to this: this is the right way for us to live. Sometimes living what we believe means taking risks, and it takes courage. But biking is good. And it’s right. And so, our family continues to bike.
Newly paved portion of the Ch-ak Ch-ak Trail in Troutdale. View (I think!) is looking northeast east with Sandy River to the right. (Photos: Frank Stevens)
(Map: BikePortland)
An exciting extension of the 40-Mile Loop route in Troutdale is nearing completion. Reader Frank Stevens shared images of a newly paved path along the Columbia River just north of Blue Lake Park. The new path, which was officially named the Ch’ak Ch’ak Trail by the City of Troutdale in October 2023 (the name means Bald Eagle in the Chinuk Wawa language) hardens an unimproved dirt road that some cyclists have enjoyed for years.
As BikePortland reported in 2016 when the project was first developed, this connects a gap in the 40-Mile Loop and includes a total of 2.1 miles in new paths: a 1.8 mile segment from Blue Lake Park to Sundial Road (see green lines on map), and a 0.3-mile segment near Harlow Road adjacent to the Sandy River. The new sections of path connect to existing paths to create a three-mile connection from NE 223rd Ave to NE Harlow Road and I-84 where it crosses the Sandy River.
Looking east from NE 223rd with Columbia River on the left.ScreenshotLooking east from NE 223rd with Columbia River on the left.Looking southwest toward Marine Drive from NE 223rd Ave.
Most importantly the newly expanded path gives bicycle riders a safe, carfree alternate to NE Marine Drive, NW Frontage Road, and Graham Rd — all of which are high-stress, busy roads with a large volume of truck traffic.
The project is part of the Portland of Portland’s Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park (TRIP) development. The path is funded by the Port, Oregon Department of Transportation, and the City of Troutdale. The 700-acre site used to be an aluminum plant and now the Port wants to create an industrial zone that the EPA says will support 3,500 jobs. The Port of Portland owns the property, which is adjacent to the Troutdale Airport.
According to a Port spokesperson, paving was completed last week and finishing touches and signage should be installed in the next few weeks. No official opening date has been released but it should be sometime in June. A grand opening celebration is being planned for September. Stay tuned for exact details.
In related news, a separate project will connect this path directly to downtown Troutdale. The Sandy River Greenway Trail will connect to the existing path under I-84 along the west bank of the Sandy River. Construction on that project is expected to begin this summer.
Tiffany Koyama Lane (L), Jeremy Beausoleil Smith (R)
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at Bike Happy Hour this week! Last Wednesday it was warm and the patio was full. We turned the misters on for the first time this year and it was glorious.
This week we have two special guests confirmed so far: city council candidates Jeremy Beausoleil Smith and Tiffany Koyama Lane. They’ll both be on the patio for meeting and greeting. And as per usual, we’ll give them an opportunity to share a speech and answer your questions.
Beausoleil Smith is running to represent District 4 (Sellwood and west Portland). On his website, he says he’s running for council because he can bring a, “careful balance between building the most robust Social Safety Net in our nation and being a good steward of the Portland taxpayer dollar.” Beausoleil Smith is a husband, parent, and works as a project manager in Portland State University’s Capital Projects & Construction Department.
Koyama Lane is a leading candidate in District 3 (southeast). She’s a public school teacher and union organizer. I couldn’t find a platform or any detailed proposals on her website. Koyama Lane says as a city commissioner she’ll, bring her values and leadership to lift up all Portland communities and fight for a safe, connected, housed city where everyone can thrive.”
Another note about Bike Happy Hour this week, I’ve decided to push T-Shirt Night back one week due to weather. It’ll be cool and cloudy this week, and next week (5/29) will be much better t-shirt weather.
Hope you can join us Wednesday. If you want to hear from these candidates, be sure to show up around 5:00 pm when open mic begins. Also, remember that open mic is for everyone so if you have something to share, step up and speak! (Note: If there’s a downpour, we’ll be across the street inside Ankeny Tap & Table.)
The driver was finally stopped thanks to this bollard at SE Spokane at Sellwood Park.
Kyle Lewis was out for an evening spin. He planned to do a loop from his home in the Buckman neighborhood south to Milwaukie. A few miles in, while pedaling on the Springwater Corridor path about one-third of a mile from the entrance at SE 4th and Ivon, he heard something strange: a car’s engine.
“I heard them coming up behind me,” Lewis shared with BikePortland. “I looked over my shoulder and had just enough time to swerve onto the grass before the car blew past me on the pavement doing what felt like at least 45. It was just extremely close. It must have grazed me. They didn’t slow, stop, or make any attempt to avoid or warn me.”
“We assumed it was an e-bike hauling ass. Then we realized it was a Mini Cooper coming straight toward us.”
— Erica Silveira
Kyle is just one of several Portland bike riders who are lucky to be alive after a drunk driver plowed onto the popular carfree path around 8:30 pm Thursday night. Bradley Krueger, a 43-year-old with with two prior convictions for driving under the influence, steered his Mini Countryman compact SUV onto the Springwater at its northern entrance and drove south three miles before he and his car were finally stopped by a bollard at SE Spokane.
(Map: BikePortland)
The spot where Krueger blasted his way onto the path is one of the busiest cycling locations in Portland according to City counts. It’s considered a relaxing, safe place that many riders use to avoid more stressful routes and interactions with drivers.
Erica Silveira and her partner had dinner in Sellwood and were riding north on the Springwater to get ice cream in southeast Portland. “Since it was dusk we figured it was safer to take the trail rather than the roads,” Silveira shared with BikePortland, acknowledging the irony of her decision. After stopping for photos of deer grazing at the edge of Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Silveira looked up and saw a bright light heading toward them. “We assumed it was an e-bike hauling ass,” she recalled, “Then we realized it was a Mini Cooper coming straight toward us.”
Silveira and her partner were about one mile south of the SE Ivon entrance, just west of SE Holgate. With a cliff and the Willamette River on one side and a chain link fence and railroad tracks on the other, there was no escape as the light and fear intensified. “We got as far to the right of the trail as we could,” Silveira recalled. “It had to have been going over 40 mph, and it came within two feet of us.”
The SE 4th and Ivon entrance to the path. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Bent bollard at SE 4th and Ivon entrance. (Aaron Kuehn)
Aaron Kuehn wasn’t lucky enough to have a near-miss, but his run-in with Krueger could have been much worse. Kuehn was riding south near Oaks Bottom when he was clipped from behind. “I hear him coming up behind me on the long straight stretch, and think it’s a monster e-bike or something, but I didn’t turn around to look. And then he hits my hand and handlebar, sending me down,” Kuehn recalled in a message to BikePortland.
Kuehn, who happens to be chair of cycling advocacy group BikeLoud PDX, says he was shocked and angry.
There’s a bollard at the SE 4th and Ivon springwater entrance. But according to several witness statements and the condition of the bollard, it was likely in place when Krueger decided to drive over it. After he was almost hit, Kyle Lewis turned around, went back to the entry point and found the bollard in the grass a few yards from its base.
“This is vehicular violence,” Kuehn said, in a statement to BikePortland. “The driver did nothing to avoid people walking and biking and plowed straight toward them.” “That they were inebriated isn’t the point, it’s what they chose to do when they were,” Kuehn continued. “They chose to commit a highly violent act with their vehicle that could have been so much worse. If the other people on the trail hadn’t jumped or veered out of the way, if I had been a couple inches to the left, we would have suffered severe injuries.”
Cars on bike paths in Portland has unfortunately become a relativelyregularoccurrence. From what I’ve heard from readers, and based on past stories I’ve covered, most of the people who drive on paths are not as reckless or dangerous as Krueger. The drivers are typically coming or going from a tent encampment. Portland Parks has struggled to find a solution that keeps miscreant drivers out, while still making it easy and welcoming for legal path users.
Another issue with this specific case, according to what Kuehn has learned in the days since he was hit, is that the bollards at SE Ivon and SE Spokane are routinely removed by City of Portland work crews and vandals. If the bollards aren’t returned to their base or secured properly, they won’t deter drivers like Krueger. Kuehn plans to urge Portland Parks & Recreation to upgrade the bollards so something like this is less likely to happen again.
Because the bollard at SE Spokane did its job, Krueger was arrested after his three-mile rampage and cited with felony hit-and-run as well as four additional misdemeanor charges including; reckless driving, driving under the influence, criminal mischief, and recklessly endangering another person.
Kuehn plans to press charges if given the opportunity. He believes Krueger should no longer have the privilege of driving a car.
At his first court appearance on Friday, May 17th — despite this being his third DUI charge — Krueger was given a bail amount of $2,500. With the required 10% deposit, he was released after paying $250 and is due back in court May 28th.
This week’s Roundup is sponsored by Trike Fest, coming to Portland June 15th. If you’re curious about riding in a more laid-back style, you might love trikes. They’re fast and fun!
Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend. I had to make an unplanned visit down to Medford to be with my dad (again) in the hospital, so I missed all the Parkways fun. Looked like a great day and I can’t wait for the next one.
Here are the most interesting stories our community has come across in the past seven days…
Street Wars: As New York City gears up to implement America’s first ever congestion pricing system, this new column will set the table and share the perspectives that have shaped streets in the Big Apple. Who will win the war? (NY Times)
Going fast: There are a lot of factors at play in the ever-increasing speeds of drivers on our roads, and it will take more than just lowering speed limits to get them to slow down. (Vox)
E-bike regulations: A public policy expert makes the case for federal e-bike regulations to lessen confusion for consumers and bike makers. (Streetsblog USA)
Death by cycling: A new law in the UK would make causing the death of another person while cycling a major offense with a prison sentence of up to 14 years. Some lawmakers say it’s needed to hold riders accountable while advocates say it’s a distraction from more serious issues. (BBC)
Nice legs: Move over helmet wars, there’s a new debate to be had: Who has stronger legs? Runners or cyclists? (Runners World)
Dedicated riders: Another study, this time by retailing giant REI, shows that a lot more people would give cycling a try if we offered them a network of safe lanes to do it in. (Momentum)
TriMet’s comeback: Ridership numbers are looking good for TriMet and the agency points to their post-Covid “Forward Together” route revamp as the reason. (Portland Tribune)
Big car, big ticket: Montreal charges mega-cars more to park in residential areas, a move that is being hailed as one tool to combat “car bloat” — the annoying and unsafe trend of massive cars using more than their fare share of city streets. (Bloomberg)
Confronting road deaths: I like the idea floated by a road safety advocate in Washington that DOTs should treat the fatal crash crisis as a megaproject that must be funded and approached with the same political urgency as a freeway expansion project. (Seattle Times)
Retired bike shop co-owner and BikeLoud PDX Board Member Eva Frazier and I (BikePortland Publisher & Editor Jonathan Maus) had a wonderful chat and I can’t wait to share it with you.
Here’s what we talked about:
That awful bumpy section on NE Tillamook between Rodney and MLK.
Eva walked 10 minutes from Union Station to find a charged Biketown
PBOT should use PCEF money for Biketown upgrade
St. Johns Bridge photos and community discussion on BP Instagram.
Thanks for listening, thanks to our paid subscribers, and thanks to Brock Dittus (of Sprocket Podcast fame) for our theme music. Listen via the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) was created to save low-income and Portlanders of color from the ravages of climate change, but with approval of the $8.2 billion City of Portland budget this week, the fund has also managed to save all Portlanders from fiscal doom. And it might have saved part of Mayor Ted Wheeler’s legacy, allowing him to avoid severe cuts in his final budget as leader of our city.
Those cuts might have hit the Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) hardest. Back in September, PBOT Commissioner-in-charge Mingus Mapps and agency staff painted a very bleak picture of cuts needed to fill a $32 million budget gap that included laying off dozens of employees and even letting landslides go unswept. The budget approved by council on Wednesday includes over $49 million for PBOT thanks to PCEF. That’s in addition to previous allocations that bring the total funding from PCEF into PBOT coffers to $142 million.
Wheeler’s final budget was approved with over $600 million in PCEF revenue going directly toward city projects (see below). In a City Council work session on PCEF Tuesday, program staffers revealed PCEF accounts for 155 City of Portland FTEs.
Slide from PCEF work session at City Council Tuesday showing how city bureaus are using the fund.PBOT Budget slide with PCEF allotments described
When it comes to transportation, an $80 million slice of PCEF revenue has already been set-aside for an electric bike rebate program and support for PBOT’s Transportation Wallet. In this budget, PBOT was able to save 31 positions with support of $8 million from PCEF. They also used PCEF funds to pay for $2 million in streetlight expenses which were previously funded through the General Fund. That freed up PBOT GF dollars to pay for other things like public plaza costs, green space management, graffiti cleanup, and small safety projects.
Simply put, PCEF allowed PBOT to pay important bills and avoid burning a lot of political capital. There were still reductions made to PBOT’s budget — about $6.7 million and 4 FTE — but those are spread across several different service areas and considered relatively manageable.
“The City of Portland could not have balanced its budget without your direct guidance and your leadership,” an effusive Wheeler beamed into a meeting of the PCEF Advisory Committee last night. “What could have just been a bloodbath of a budget for us turned out to make some really good new key investments.”
“I really wish I could do more — throw you a party, bake you a cake or something else,” Wheeler continued. “I really do appreciate you personally. Thank you all.”
Even with an eventful week full of smiles, mayoral praise, and photo-ops, PCEF leaders and committee members’ work isn’t over. There’s still unease about PCEF being used as a slush fund for city bureaus and its largest critic, Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, isn’t likely drop his attempts to mold the program into a shape he prefers. Tensions around Gonzalez’s efforts to undermine PCEF by referring it back to voters (a move Wheeler referred to last night when he told the committee, “I think it would be a tragedy to have this go back for a referral because people are just angry and edgy”) have cooled over the past week, thanks in large part to Tuesday’s work session where none of his probing questions could crack PCEF’s armor.
But that doesn’t mean PCEF committee members won’t have other battles to fight.
Along with keeping city bureau budget makers at bay, a new wrinkle in the idea to borrow off of interest earned by the PCEF fund to pay for non-climate city expenditures that was floated a few months ago by Commissioner Carmen Rubio, is back on the table. The approved budget was balanced by using $7 million in earned interest from PCEF — a maneuver that requires an amendment to city code that will need to be discussed before the budget is final in June.
Left: Andrew Hoan (Photo: Portland Metro Chamber) Right: Mingus Mapps (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
City Commissioner Mingus Mapps is once again making headlines alongside business interests who don’t like a major bike project and seek to leverage their influence with his office. And once again the public is left wondering who’s telling the truth.
Last week BikePortland broke the news about a letter to Mapps from president of Portland Metro Chamber (formerly Portland Business Alliance) Andrew Hoan. Hoan said the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s SW 4th Avenue Improvements project should be cancelled because he believes it is, “unnecessary, wasteful, and disruptive.”
The $23 million project’s main focus is a physically-protected bikeway on 4th Avenue between I-405 and W Burnside. It has been years in the making and is considered a key part of PBOT’s Central City in Motion plan. It seemed odd to me from the get-go that someone as experienced as Hoan would demand such a drastic move from PBOT at such a late hour (the project had already begun). The Chamber has opposed the project in the past, but has made no coordinated, public effort to stop it until now.
Another odd thing was how quickly Mapps’ office issued a response to the Chamber. Just six hours after our story, Mapps sent a letter back to Hoan that flatly rejected his requests, defended PBOT’s record, and extolled the virtues of the project.
“… the Chamber wrote in an email to all of City Council that Mapps had, in fact, told them verbally that he would be scaling back the 4th Avenue bike lane project. According to the Chamber, Mapps told them that before he sent a May 7 letter that made no mention of a scaled-back project.
‘Our main purpose of writing today is to thank Commissioner Mapps for his commitment to reducing the scope of this project,’ Metro Chamber president and CEO Andrew Hoan wrote in a Tuesday email. ‘This wasn’t communicated in this letter, but we greatly appreciate that he personally communicated to the Chamber that only the broadly supported parts of the 4th avenue project will move forward under his watch.'”
This email from Hoan suggests that Mapps is talking out of both sides of his mouth, telling the Chamber he’d cut certain parts of the project while telling the public it would move forward as planned.
This episode echoes the problems Mapps created for himself in the Broadway Bike Lane Scandal last fall where he was caught between his own public statements and meetings and conversations he (and/or his office) had with downtown business owners.
Asked about Hoan’s claims that Mapps promised something to the Chamber, the commissioner’s policy advisor Jackson Pahl told BikePortland via email yesterday, “Commissioner Mapps stands by the letter that he wrote.”
And at the PBOT Bureau Budget Advisory Committee (BBAC) held at the Portland Building last night, committee member David Stein asked PBOT Government Affairs Manager (and BBAC staff liaison) Matt Grumm about the project.
“I’d like to just understand what if anything is happening,” Stein asked.
“We’re doing the project as you know it and as the contractor knows it and everything else, so that’s what we’re doing,” Grumm replied.
“OK, so no changes?”
“No,” Grumm added.
So, we can rest assured that the project is going forward in its entirety, without any “scaling back” as Hoan suggested; but we can’t be sure that both of these men are telling the full truth.
Note: BikePortland connected with a Portland Metro Chamber spokesperson yesterday but they have so far been unable to answer my questions.
