With the pause in the northwest diverter removal plan, I’ve had time to catch my breath after a busy week covering the story. And with the next opportunity to learn more coming Tuesday evening at the Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting, I figured now would be a good time to share some of my outstanding questions and concerns about the situation.
Where did anti-diverter sentiment come from?
One of the major red flags from the get-go has been the rationale for removal given by Portland Solutions, the Public Environment Management Office (PEMO) and the Mayor’s Office. I know they’ve said the Portland Police Bureau doesn’t like them (it makes their patrols of what they say is a busy crime area more difficult) and that they’ve fielded other complaints from PEMO’s Problem Solver meetings.
Those seem like reasonable concerns, but the community deserves a way to verify them. Unfortunately, PEMO is an opaque organization that appears to be violation of Oregon public meeting laws. I was able to confirm today via the City of Portland that PEMO does not keep meeting agendas or meeting minutes, and does not track attendance at their Problem Solver meetings.
That’s a problem.
I hope someday that someone at the City of Portland can share more — and more verifiable — details about the origin of the concerns that led to the removal plans.
Compromise is possible
In conversations I’ve had with folks who support and oppose the removal of the diverters, I’ve heard great ideas about how to address the City’s concerns, while maintaining the integrity of the neighborhood greenway. The folks occupying the intersection aren’t just there to stop change from happening, they want to make sure the street doesn’t become less safe. If Portland Solutions and the Mayor’s Office would have executed their plan differently, they could have established more trust and found an alternative solution that would not have sparked such anger and pushback.
When you barge into a community with a top-down decision shrouded in secrecy, you can bet opposition will be strong. When people are threatened with having something taken away, their energy will go to keeping it — instead of toward a more collaborative solution.
Broadway scandal déjà vu
I would hope city leaders would learn from past mistakes, but this situation has a very similar odor to the Broadway Bike Lane Scandal of 2023.
Just like with this diverter removal plan, BikePortland found out about a secret plan to remove bike infrastructure. The decision was made in backrooms by business owners who complained about the bike lane to a former city council member. That council member (Mingus Mapps) then told his transportation bureau director to heed their concerns and make a major change to a bike lane. The community was aghast that such an important bike lane would be removed without public input; but what made it worse is that it would have made the street less safe.
In the end, former Commissioner Mapps left the bike lane in place.
From what I’ve heard, Mayor Keith Wilson still plans to remove the diverters sometime this week. It could be a defining moment of his young political career.
Silence and unanswered questions
Since Mayor Wilson oversees Portland Solutions and PEMO, I asked him for a comment about the diverter removal plan last Tuesday. On Wednesday, his staff declined to comment (which was surprising to me). Then when I shared a series of basic follow-up questions with the Mayor’s Office they chose to not answer them.
The way the Mayor’s Office chose to handle this raises red flags for me. I gave them ample time to respond and asked reasonable questions. Mayor Wilson’s staff either thinks this issue doesn’t warrant his time or they’re worried the answers might not reflect well on him. Either way, it’s disappointing.
Precedent
A very reasonable concern surrounding this episode is how it might set precedent. Imagine all the streets across the city where the PPB and Portland Solutions could get together with local business owners and neighborhood residents at a Problem Solver meeting, create a narrative of concern around some piece of infrastructure, and then have it taken out in the name of “public safety.”
What message does it send to volunteers on citizen advisory committees when neighborhood greenway diverters that took years of their advocacy to get installed can be removed by fiat?
Let’s see the memo
Right now there’s a memo about the diverter removal from city administrators that’s making its way around City Hall. I’m eager to see it. I’m sure it will try to lay out the full rationale for the need to remove the diverters. Perhaps it will finally add the clarity this plan has lacked thus far. Maybe I’ll read it and realize this was all just one big misunderstanding. Or maybe it will be full of holes.
It’s not just about what the memo says, it’s about the fact that it exists.
Portlanders deserve open communication and a reasonable level of transparency when our government wants to make changes to our streets that impact our lives. The irony is that by not giving us that, Portland Solutions and the Mayor’s Office have created the exact type of controversy they were likely trying avoid by doing all this in secret.
I’ll see you Tuesday night at the Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting.
Thanks for reading.
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I’m incredibly disappointed in Wilson so far. It’s baffling why he wants to throw so much weight behind a change that is obviously going to make the area less safe for pedestrians and cyclists, all in the name of hidden and shadowy “public safety” concerns. Also baffling why his office seems to hold PEMO in such high regard.
I suspect his focus on overnight shelters for unhoused people is a big part of this. He set ambitious goals and is likely realizing how hard it will be to achieve them. There’s a rumor going around that the neighborhood wanted diverters removed in exchange for putting a shelter there. I have no idea if it’s true, in part because Wilson’s office seems to be refusing to engage with the actual public on this issue.
Bingo! I have heard the same rumor, meaning it’s probably true. Folks in NW are so angry Wilson put a shelter in their neighborhood that he’s looking to throw them a bone – removing the diverters that many Neighborhood Nabobs hate. Wilson is a one-note mayor: he can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. He’s all about getting his shelters.
Nattering nabobs of neighborhood negativism! /s
The mayor likes PEMO because PEMO gets stuff done that make the mayor look good. Got an RV selling drugs in front of your house? PEMO can resolve that when other bureaus are paralyzed. People with RVs full of drug dealers in front of their house tend to be grateful when someone at the city listens and makes them go away.
If the rest of the city worked better, we might not need an office like PEMO. But it doesn’t, and we do.
PEMO sounds a lot like that other four-letter office: DOGE.
This strikes me as someone who’s never tried to work with PEMO. I can say that I have and they have no power to do what you are saying. That issue would be a PBOT problem and PBOT will not move any quicker because PEMO listen to someone. PEMO only makes suggestions to businesses, with no way of forcing it to happen, and gives suggestions to homeowners that mostly aren’t feasible. The problem solver meetings are neighbors and businesses complaining with PPB reps listening and sometimes saying they’ll add an issue to their list of concerns. The biggest contribution that PEMO has is being an agency that listens. That listening doesn’t translate to action but it at least feels better than other agencies that don’t listen.
This is what you used to have, prior to your recent “re-org” with both a new by-district city council AND a new form of government with a professional city manager (what y’all decided to call an Administrator.) You used to have one of the most transparent city governments anywhere (as imperfect as it was), but suddenly y’all decided to do two major changes all at once, either of which would have been gut-wrenching for most jurisdictions, and now you have something you don’t recognize, but that everyone else outside of Portland knows about all-too-well – an opaque city government of secret meetings behind closed doors – that most states’ open-meeting laws cannot control. Sorry, but it isn’t like we didn’t warn you about this.
This is such a weird take given that Mapps almost succeeded in doing the same thing two years ago. I am very happy with charter reform and our new government. In fact, I have very much appreciated the progressive council members who have openly expressed concerns about diverter removal. Our city council is much more representative and progressive now. Will it take a while to work out all the bugs? Absolutely. But this process is not a sign of the failure of charter reform.
C’mon, David – you are just *WRONG* about this. You’ve been gone from Portland for so long that you see your past life here in a rosy light. As JM wrote, the EXACT SAME THING happened under the old form of city gov’t. At least now we have an independent city council to complain to.
Also it’s pretty clear that PEMO is operating in violation of Oregon open-meeting laws. Someone’s going to sue them and it’ll fix that problem.
I’d recommend you give the new structure time to work before you trash it so gleefully.
Horsesh*t. Wheeler was as opaque as he he could get, and it often took months for people to get responses from commisioners and city staff, even by people they were obligated to connect with. Ted used covid as the excuse to pull up drawbridges and shut windows so the hoi-polloi were’nt heard; when pandemic was “over” it was still just as hard to contact anyone in a meaningful way. And of course we know the last decade City Hall and some bureaus perfected the “tell us what you think so we can cross that off before doing what we always wanted.”
The big problem is Wheeler hand-picked Jordan to be city manager, rather than let COUNCIL select someone they felt they could trust (or control; your pick). He’s there to make sure Grownups are still calling ths shots. I totally agree Jordan is secretive, and I am disappointed that so many councilors are falling in line instead of making it clear this sort of crap won;t fly any more and start finding ways to clip his wings.
Have you read the latest Willamette Week story about our wonderful new city government? They act like children. Portland is doomed.
We’ve gone from a form of government where each elected official ran several agencies to one where the Mayor–through the City Administrator–effectively runs all the city agencies.
And that’s better – as long as the mayor is running the city according to the policies set by the council. So far the council hasn’t been in place long enough to set much policy, and many councilors are acting as though they are still commissioners, which they aren’t. We’ll get there! (maybe).
“What message does it send to volunteers on citizen advisory committees when neighborhood greenway diverters that took years of their advocacy to get installed can be removed by fiat?”
Thanks for making this explicit. Once Wilson does this it’s open season on potentially every other “quick-build” traffic calming treatment in the city. A horrible precedent to set.
“Or maybe it will be full of holes.” – Yes, yes it was.
I don’t have time to fully expound but, in short, this action sends a stong signal – pretty much verifies – that Mayor Wilson’s and chair of the transportation committee Clark (who, IMO we all should be communicating with more) does not support, understand, or care about Vision Zero.
Thanks for pointing that out. Messages two through five going out to my council reps and to Clark.