Portlanders who do not want to see traffic diverters currently installed on neighborhood greenways in northwest removed plan to occupy an intersection to prevent their removal. A rally is planned at one of the locations today at 4:00 pm.
As I’ve reported since Friday, an opaque government program that was created by former Mayor Ted Wheeler to address homelessness and related livability issues wants to remove traffic diverters at NW 20th and Everett and NW Johnson and 15th. They say the diverters get in the way of police patrols and that the absence of car drivers leads to an unsafe environment and increase in “nuisance behaviors.”
In the past 24 hours, we’ve seen an organized response to prevent the removal plan. Local advocacy groups including: Bike Bus PDX, Strong Towns, Bike Loud PDX, and Families for Safe Streets have all sent statements to Mayor Keith Wilson urging him to reject the plan or at least pause it until other solutions can be explored.
This morning I’ve confirmed that Public Environment Management Office (PEMO) Director Anne Hill will attend the August 12th Portland Bureau of Transportation Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting. According to the BAC agenda, Hill will, “present the agency’s reasons for the removal.” It might be an even more strained discussion if the diverters are already removed before the meeting begins. The most current information I’ve heard from Portland Solutions (the office PEMO lives under in the city’s organizational chart) is that the removals are set for sometime this week.
So far I am not aware of any public notice about the removal plan and the only public process that went into making the decision happened at a series of meetings that are invite-only and not easily accessed by the public. (PEMO’s Problem Solver meetings seem to violate several Oregon public meeting laws.)
Since my previous story yesterday, some concerned Portlanders who emailed Mayor Wilson and Portland Solutions Director Skyler Brocker-Knapp have received responses.
A staffer at Mayor Wilson’s office is sending this canned reply to everyone who contacts them:
“The City of Portland has implemented these temporary adjustments in response to serious public safety concerns brought forward by residents, local businesses, and public safety partners. These concerns include increased narcotic use and sales, reported instances of assault and harassment toward pedestrians and cyclists, and challenges faced by emergency responders navigating the area.
The decision to assess and modify traffic flow in this corridor is an operational one, made in close coordination between multiple city bureaus. A City of Portland engineering team is overseeing the design and implementation with safety and access as top priorities. In these two blocks, diverters are being re-positioned to allow for two-way vehicle traffic, while allowing for bike travel.”
And Portland Solutions Director Skyler Brocker-Knapp replied to one BikePortland reader with this message:
“This decision was based on more than two years of community feedback, as this area is used as a corridor for chronic nuisance behavior. We worked on every other tool and solution before reaching this point with PBOT’s engineer and PPB’s traffic team. They determined the four way stop solution at Everett and the modification to Johnson. The bike lanes will be maintained in both locations. In the future, if the nuisance behavior is curbed, due to all of the other mitigating measures also taking place, I think the locations should be revisited and diverters could be returned.”
While the removals could happen at any time, questions remain about how the decision was made and what the community can expect going forward.
Below are the questions I asked Portland Solutions Wednesday morning.
- Since this issue is on the 8/12 agenda of the PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting, why not wait until after that meeting to schedule the changes?
- The 8/1 email from Director Brocker-Knapp referred to diverters at NW 14th and Johnson. Was that a misstatement? Did you mean 15th? Or is 14th also being removed/changed? If so, why?
- Does PBOT support these changes? You say they were asked to identify solutions, which sounds more like an order to me. So I’m curious: How should I characterize PBOT’s position on this?
- When you say Portland Solutions added these concerns to the PBOT “tracker,” are you referring to their TrackIT system?
- What type of public notification of these changes has happened thus far/or will happen before changes are made?
- Why did plan on NW Johnson change from a sharrow marking (which is what was described on 8/1 email from Director Brocker-Knapp) to maintaining the bike lane (as per this 8/5 email)?
- Will these changes be temporary? If so, what will the metrics for success/failure be?
- Where did these community concerns about Johnson come from? Is there a way for me to verify that? Can you provide meeting minutes or PBOT TrackIT case numbers?
- So to be clear, based on your answer to my previous question, there was no public process to make this decision. Is that correct?
I have not yet received responses to these questions. I will post them here when/if I do.
I’m hearing folks will gather at the two locations today to erect signs of support and attempt to prevent PBOT crews from removing the diverters. Stay tuned.
UPDATE, 12:34 pm: A rally is planned for 4:30 pm today at NW Everett and 20th. It’s being hosted by Strong Towns PDX, Bike Bus PDX, Families for Safe Streets and Bike Loud PDX.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Thank you for staying on top of this. Our neighbors standing out there are heroes!
How does it “get in the way of police patrols” exactly? If the police want to drive there, they can just turn on their lights and drive right through… As for “nuisance behaviors” it’s clear they just saw a homeless person there so instead of actually managing it, they want to make the street less safe for pedestrians so no one loiters there. PPT wants the city to be less human-friendly if it makes their job 0.1% easier.
Different form of government, some different people, but so reminiscent of the Broadway bike lane fiasco.
If the right people flip the right levers, bike and pedestrian infrastructure can simply go away without any public notification until the deed is done.
Great questions, Jonathan. I’m so thankful for BikePortland for this kind of coverage.
I’m old enough to remember when PBOT ripped out a bike lane because it hadn’t been installed with “sufficient public outreach” despite it having gone through an extensive and transparent public process.
The City seems less concerned with public outreach this time around. I wonder why that is? The common thread here as near as I can tell is that when any bike/pedestrian-friendly infrastructure interferes with drivers, they have to go.
I think the tipping point on these was the election of Zimmerman; he has publicly stated that he thinks too much bike infrastructure is confusing to drivers, hurts businesses, and atrracts homeless and drug users. Once he was in, people who wanted some things gone had an ally. If nothing else, Zimmerman is relentless – look at his chainsaw to Urban Forestry and Parks. He intends to remove as much non-car infrastructure as possible in downtown area as far as I can tell from his statements. He’s cool with sharrows, tho…
Zimmerman is a ‘friend’ to many issues BP readers find important. Just not on bikes!
Too bad we didn’t know how awful he would be on safe streets before the election. This guy has to lose next election to avoid Portland sliding back even further.
It depends on much he’s shored up his coalition since the last election. He was the final councilor elected for district four, and by a fairly small margin, but of course he will be running with incumbency advantage, and if he’s shored up his coalition he probably won’t have too much difficulty.
We actually did know – when he was interviewed pre-election by BP I noted straight off he sounded like someone who didn’t like bike infrastructure. It’s back there in the comments somewhere. He squeaked by to third, so if he loses bicyclists and pedestrians he may have a tough race next time.
Zimmerman is just one city council, I’m sure he will help destroy any bike infrastructure he can, but the real people responsible would the Jordan and Brocker-Knapp.
PMIC-loving “Moderates” and “Centrists” are a minority of BP readers so this is inaccurate.
The planned destruction of bike infrastructure is being pushed by departments that have very close ties to the Mayor’s office so this is a Wilson thing entirely.
I guess he doesn’t count transportation as ‘promoting livability,’ or ‘public safety.’
Welp I’ve just reported the “Problem Solver Network” for public meetings violations. You can too! https://www.portland.gov/attorney/public-meeting-grievance.
Hey! I’m trying to do this, but I’m not totally sure what meeting (probably all?) Brocker-Knapp violated the public meetings law. She said they’ve been working on this for two years and the office isn’t barely over two years old, so the whole time? But the violation has to be within 30 days of the report.
I put in my complaint that due to the egregious nature of the violation, we have no way of knowing when the meeting occurred but that it appeared to be an ongoing violation (2x monthly meetings per the website that appear to be invite only).
“the absence of car drivers leads to an unsafe environment” is the most braindead take I’ve heard this year
The person was quoted as saying that if the increase in commuter traffic does not help the situation then the diverters come back
The person quoted is a corrupt liar who needs to be fired.
“How’s that ‘professional management’ from the new city charter working out for ya? Still reckon that was a top idea?”
I’m not sure what you are trying to suggest would have improved things in this situation. Two of the three councilors from that district support the removal; it’s not like these administrators lack support from elected officials on this.
as if this wasn’t happening under old leadership?
Wheeler created PEMO in May of 2022, before charter reform was even voted on. Just more “old man yells at cloud” commentary here.
Yanno, you almost have to feel bad for our city agencies – they don’t have any cherry-picked complaints from BIPOC area residents to point to in order to justify their abandoning of city goals/principles this time! It’s a lot easier to sweep these things under the rug if you can cynically hit the big red “white guilt” button and pretend your hands are tied… (looking at you, RQIP and NE 33rd bike lanes…)
Stop asking PBOT what their positions are! They have paid marketing people who will “bikewash” a response for you. Instead, look at what they build and how they spend their resources. PBOT id 98% devoted to SOV and freight. The 2% they spend on bikes and peds is to get them out of the way of cars, or close crosswalks, etc. PBOT loves cars and drivers, bikes and peds are inconveniences that need to be managed.
It sounds like the “problem” being addressed by taking out the diverters is quicker police response to whatever homeless/drug activity they need to respond to in the area. If the “Problem Solvers” are truly looking for solutions, what about asking the police to patrol the area on foot (or by bike!) instead of “needing” quicker car access?
I don’t doubt for a minute that installing the diverters near a (dry and sheltered) overpass, thus reducing car traffic, made the location more desirable to a population needing an inordinate amount of assistance, but it does not follow that this assistance needs to come in the form of cops in patrol cars.
The problem: how to make a public space hostile to homeless people and safe for people with resources.
The solution: transform it into a place that is only safe for people driving cars.
Thanks for keeping your eyes on this. Wish I could be out there with you all.
Isn’t it in the grand tradition of politicians to dismantle programs that the previous guys put in place?
Deal with it people it’s a street it’s made for cars. It doesn’t make it unsafe if they remove them.
Deal with it people. Street is for car. Air is for plane. Water is for water wings. Space is for Kang & Kodos.