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.