When 86-year-old Portlander Roger Lee was hit and killed by a motorcycle rider while trying to walk across Southeast Powell Blvd just after 9:00 pm on March 9th, his death was a tragedy. And for neighbors who knew Lee and have pushed for safety improvements in this area for many years, it struck a very raw nerve.
Members of the South Tabor Neighborhood Association (STNA) say Lee’s death didn’t have to happen and that festering dangers on SE Powell (Oregon Highway 26) made it much more likely. “State and local agencies know this stretch of Powell is unsafe—they’ve known for years,” said Juan Cummings, chair of the STNA, in a statement. “Our tax dollars were allocated for pedestrian safety here, yet people keep dying—and no one is treating it like the emergency it is.”
Cummings points to $2 million in state transportation funds TriMet was awarded in 2016 for enhanced pedestrian crossings on Powell and Division. Yet work on the “Powell-Division Safety and Access to Transit Project” is only now scheduled to start this spring, six years after the initial target completion date.
Portland Police say Lee was crossing Powell at SE 67th when he was struck and killed. The STNA says Lee was on his way home from a Portland Trail Blazers game and had just gotten off the TriMet Line 9 bus. As Lee stepped off the bus and went to cross SE 67th, security footage shows a motorcycle rider accelerating just second before the collision.
“This dangerous, un-signalized crossing sits at the heart of a busy community hub, with a grocery store, restaurants, and a dispensary drawing foot traffic,” reads a statement by the neighborhood. “With bus stops on both sides and a parking lot to the south, pedestrians are forced to cross Powell, a five-lane highway, with no marked crosswalks or safety measures.”
The STNA has teamed up with the Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association to demand “immediate action” from TriMet, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. They want some type of intervention on the street that will slow traffic and protect people crossing Powell between SE 52nd and 82nd, “before another life is lost.”
BikePortland covered this project in 2022 with a story that highlighted fears from neighbors who raised similar alarms to Cummings and others. Excuses for the delays reported back then were that all 11 planned crossing upgrades had to get approval before any of them could begin construction. The project includes the crossing at SE 79th, where advocates have raised concerns about the design approved by ODOT.
People who live along Powell say they are frustrated and disappointed by the delays. They say local families with students at nearby schools are forced to navigate a highway just to get to class.
At the STNA meeting on March 20th, advocates will outline next steps to garner attention for their concerns. Foster-Powell NA will discuss the issue at their April 14th meeting. There are also plans to attend the TriMet board meeting on March 26th; but one resident has already done that to no avail.
“We’ve gone to TriMet’s board three times already—after multiple deaths—only to be met with delays,” said John Carr, STNA vice chair. “At the very least, the already-funded project needs to be fast-tracked. But that’s just the start. There’s no reason this stretch of Powell should still be a death trap.”
