A tragic collision between a driver and someone walking on SE Cesar Chavez Blvd over the weekend has re-ignited discussions about how to make the street safer. It also might be the first test of how Portland’s new form of government responds to high profile road fatalities.
Thiet Nguyen, a well-known figure among people who frequent the Reed and Woodstock neighborhoods, was killed after being struck by a car driver near the intersection of SE Cesar Chavez and SE Cora on Sunday. Details of how it happened are still unknown, but the dangerous history of this stretch of Cesar Chavez Blvd is not. Nguyen is the fourth non-driver to be killed within a two-mile section of the street since 2015.
The death of another person on this four-lane road caught the attention of Portland City Councilor Angelita Morillo. Morillo, who represents the district where this fatality occurred (District 3) left a comment on a BikePortland Instagram post yesterday:
“Thiet and their family deserve better. I saw that news story last week and I plan to work with PBOT to bring this to the Transportation and Infrastructure committee to see what safety changes can be made to the entire strip. Thank you for continuing to highlight these issues and honoring the lives taken from us too soon.”
The committee Morillo referred to is one of eight new committees that were just established two weeks ago. The City of Portland has published a new website for the Transportation and Infrastructure (T & I) Committee, but it’s light on process details. Given Councilor Morillo’s comment, we’re curious what we can expect in terms of getting specific topics on the agendas. What we do know is that a lot of substantive city policy will originate in these committees. Councilor Morillo is vice chair of the T & I Committee, so she will have some influence to set the agenda. But only the chair, Councilor Olivia Clark, has final say on what becomes an agenda item.
We still don’t know if public testimony will be allowed at committee meetings or when they’ll be scheduled. According to Oregon public meetings law, if three out of five committee members discuss a topic, a public meeting would automatically be triggered. It’s clear Councilor Morillo is talking about it, but so far we haven’t heard if or when SE Cesar Chavez Blvd will make it onto the agenda.
In the past, advocates would contact the commissioner-in-charge of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) directly and urge them to take action in coordination with the bureau. Now that PBOT answers to an administrator, and the administrator implements policy crafted by City Council, we’ll have to wait and see how specific issues make their way through the process.
Councilors are currently still drafting official committee rules for procedures, decorum, community engagement, and so on. Meetings could begin the second week of February. I’ve reached out to Councilor Clark’s office but haven’t heard back yet. Stay tuned to learn more. And if you have more information about the committee process, please share in the comments.
Thanks for reading.
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