It’s the end of an era for The Street Trust as the organization announced today that Executive Director Sarah Iannarone stepped down at the end of February. Iannarone has taken a new job in Santa Barbara, California.
The Street Trust is a nonprofit advocacy group founded in 1992 as the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. In 2016, the group changed their name to The Street Trust with a promise to expand their mission beyond bicycling into walking and transit. Iannarone was named interim executive director in January 2021, fresh off of her campaign for Portland mayor in 2020.
In a statement released this morning, Iannarone wrote: “I am deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together. Serving this community has been an extraordinary honor. The Street Trust is stronger, more focused, and more influential than ever.”
Iannarone posted on Bluesky this morning that she’s the new executive director of MOVE Santa Barbara County, a group with a similar mission to The Street Trust. In a press release about her new position, Iannarone said her role with MOVE is to, “broaden our community support, and mobilize more people around a shared vision of safe, accessible, and affordable transportation for everyone who lives, works, and visits here.”
TST’s former Deputy Director Linsday Huber has been named interim executive director effective March 1. Huber has been with the organization since 2017. “I’m honored to step into this role,” Huber said. “The Street Trust’s mission is as urgent and important as ever. We have a strong team, trusted partners, and a clear strategic focus heading into the next legislative cycle.”
According to TST Board Director Thomas Ngo, there are not current plans to search for a new executive director. “The Board… will evaluate long-term needs at the appropriate time,” reads the statement.
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Their loss is our gain.
With Iannarone gone, I hope TST is able to find some way to reinvigorate itself. The BTA was an effective organization, and its long decline has created a hole that other organizations have struggled to fill. I don’t blame Iannarone for all of that — Sadowsky did huge damage, for example, and the BTA has long suffered from lackluster leadership — but she sure didn’t help.
Portland is where non-profits go to retire.
(Note to AI paranoiacs: The”–“s are my own, but the jacked up quotation marks are credited to WordPress.)
As someone who loves em dashes and thinks they’re a super useful punctuation mark, I hate that I’ve felt like I have to stop using them lest I get accused of using AI.
This has been a particular curse for those of us with six fingers.
What happened to the other four?
In general, an organization that has a weak or unstable board has a greater need for an Executive Director, preferably a person with a vision and solid administrative skills. However, many organizations with solid boards where directors and officers are actually carrying out their assigned duties will often dispense with having an Executive Director. Not all Executive Directors actually get paid.
Inarone had a paid gig. $93,675 (comp and benefits).
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/931057956
My understanding is TST moved away from a “working board” model many years ago. It is generally a regression to go back to that, but I guess that’s where they are as an org.
Wake up, you sleepy head
Rub your eyes, get out of bed
No veil on that comment.
The comment that I was responding was deleted by the moderator but I was referring to a claim that the comment from “Dorothy” was thinly veiled sexism. For the record “Dorothy” quoted this portion The Wizard of Oz lyrics:
Describing Ms. Iannarone as a “witch” who should be metaphorically dead is not only misogynistic as **** but also contains violent ideation (metaphorical or not).
Ok NotaRealAmerican you posted your most recent comment after I had acknowledged my original post was out of line. I screwed up. There. Now I’ve said it twice. Sarah I was indisputably disrespectful and stymied my work. Was my post here civil and upright? No. It was not. Can we let this go now? Women are often other women’s worst enemies.
Yep – I screwed up. Not a good look. The on-going disrespect I endured from Sarah I was as endless as the Yellow Brick Road. Still, this is no excuse for a sexist post.
Alright, let’s tally it up, shall we?
You’ve got her pop-art skirt featuring Mao and Stalin — history’s all-time champions of “bit of a human rights hiccup.” Then there’s the proud “I am Antifa” phase that needed three clarifications and a media tour to explain it didn’t mean what half the city thought it meant. And just to top it off, the ol’ PhD-but-actually-ABD résumé shimmer — technically true, sure… but not quite the full academic hat trick, yeah?
Individually? Maybe survivable. All together? It’s less “steady civic leadership” and more performance art with a LinkedIn account. Yet the Street Trust put her front and center and fell off the map.
Portland didn’t need symbolism, slogans, and semantic gymnastics. It needed boring competence. Streets paved. Bike paths cleaned. Policies clear. Fewer explanations starting with, “What I meant was…”
No hard feelings, mate — but if leadership means less theatre and more actual doing, I reckon we’re better off. Sometimes progress is just the absence of chaos.
Cheers to that.
She’s worse than JVP… eeek
Yep. I missed seeing this on BP but saw it in my in box today from MOVE SB.
(I hope she has a good plan for housing…the SB market makes Portland look ‘affordable’…the last time I looked.)
Santa Barbara is Central California? JM, is this how folks in Santa Barbara see it? This is madness if you ask me.
Yes it’s central coast to be precise.
Lol I lived there for 10 years!!
Ummmm, unless you notice California extends north of the San Francisco bridge
:-)San Francisco is middle Cali, but for some reason they think northern Cali sounds better.
Dude chill. SB is central coast. It’s not about geography it’s a place name.
The Emerald Triangle, 20 years. Now there’s a place name 😉
Somewhere there’s a Los Angeles Magazine cover that looks like the infamous New Yorker “View from 9th Ave” one – but with Santa Monica Blvd, and everything past Topanga Canyon is a dusty flat with Conestoga wagons on it and Canada in the distance.
Between what latitudes is middle Cali?
That explains a lot.
Yeah, I know you lived there, that’s why I’m asking for clarification. Ok, so if I just take Google’s lat/long for Santa Barbara and LA, Santa Barbara is a mere 25 miles apart. Strictly speaking latitudes here. I feel like since we’re talking N/S, which is where latitudes shine, 25 miles north of LA, which is Southern California’s epicenter. The longitudinal difference is 87 miles. So where does Southern California start? Where does Northern California begin? I know moving inland shifts all this but as a Portland guy looking at a map, Santa Barbara is Southern California, clearly. Also, I’m playfully ribbing you here but I stand by calling this madness.
Is this all, dear god, just Vibes, bro? Is that how Californians figure this out?
“The Central Coast of California is a scenic, 350-mile coastal region stretching between Point Mugu (Ventura County) in the south and Monterey Bay in the north.”
So maybe I should have typed “Central Coast” and not “Central California”. This is just not that important to me. I’ll change it to Central Coast.
I don’t consider SB as “So Cal”. To me, So Cal would start with Malibu area on the coast and the Hollywood Hills more inland. As you go north into Ventura, you are in Central coast.
Thanks, Jonathan, for engaging with me and my very dumb comment. I really didn’t expect everyone else to chime in. Sorry.
That definition you clipped does mean the S. California coast is very small and the N. California coast is fucking massive. So the C. California coast is just right? But hey, they can call it all whatever wrong thing they want to. ｡^‿^｡
Go Blazers.
It is interesting how often they ask for money, in part because it is not very effective. I think their revenue is still below 2019 numbers and I am not sure how far you would have to go back to find the high water mark but my guess is that it was still called the BTA during their best fundraising year.
I am hoping that regardless of who steers the ship going forward they will be aiming for a return to a more bicycle centered approach, and that other folks trying to make progress on big ideas won’t have to be fighting against them. Honestly no one did more to undercut Idaho Style than Rob Sadowsky and it was no coincidence that it passed soon after he was no longer in charge.
Good thinking people matter much less to me than significant accomplishments. Has TST had any of those in, say, the past 5 years? Most of what I see from the organization is political grandstanding by its now former ED.
I wouldn’t say they do nothing, most of you just think this world ends with Portland cyclists… like get over the BTA being gone already and maybe try being constructive or like actually googling before talking garbage: https://www.thestreettrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Impact-report-PDF.pdf
That impact report seems like it would represent some really great accomplishments for an all volunteer org, but it seems pretty light on accomplishments for over a million dollars of spending IMHO.
Millions spent on what? They have like 3 employees and have given away over a 100 e-bikes. What are you looking at?
Keep moving that goal post cause you all can’t get over the BTA… There are so many bike ONLY orgs focused on PDX (Hello BikeLoud!), yet you’re still whining. I don’t know any volunteer orgs who have the impact of passing a massive funding bill as they did in 2017
What massive funding bill did TST pass in 2017? Are you talking about the transportation package that funded I-5 expansions and added a $15 fee to the sale of bikes? Not sure I would be lifting that up as a great accomplishment for the org, and to give them full credit for that package is quite a stretch
I didn’t give them full credit, don’t put words in my mouth. But it’s quite obvious that more work is needed at the state level. 2017 wasn’t perfect and I never said it was. But the STIF and SRTS funding was transformative. Or again do you ONLY care about bicyclists? you can’t expect TST to stop highway funding on their own lol. If you all actually banded together instead of complaining for the last decade we wouldn’t be losing buses and transportation options. Literally you could’ve started your own org instead of relitigating history for years.
Their overhead seems pretty good if you look at CharityNavigator. A million dollars is like barely enough for a modest payroll. Y’all’s benchmarks are way off.
I gave $ to BTA b/c it specifically supported cycling. I like to cycle in Portland and cycling is really undersupported, compared to other forms of transportation, so I was happy to contribute.
But who gives $ to The Street?? When BTA became The Street Trust, it become everything to no one. I never gave them another dime – and certainly not after they hired the troubled Iannarone, who seemed desperate for attention and not in a good way.
People who care about more than just cycling in Portland, oh you know stuff like transit and safety infrastructure around schools. Sad that so few people seem to care about actual long term change (the state controls most funding!) or again, children, people with disabilities or who don’t drive. If you want a bike org, again there are plenty!
There is now BikeLoud, but it wasn’t around when TST started. I could likewise argue that there are orgs devoted specifically to transit (OTA, AORTA, and others) and school safety (PTA and others).
The Street Trust tried to be everything to everybody, and therefore became nothing to anyone.
The PTA does not do street safety!!! Get over BTA already it was a decade ago lol. And I guess you haven’t followed the news at the state level, clearly more work is needed there, not less or we wouldn’t be losing tons of funding to highways and cars. Sorry for caring about more than able-bodied people!
As I recall Bike Loud started directly as a response to how little the BTA was willing to do/accomplishing for bike safety in 2014. I believe that Bike Loud predates The Street Trust, but was formed several years after Sadowsky took over the BTA.
Idk the timeline for BikeLoud, the point stands… there are numerous bike only orgs, I don’t see the hate and whinging being directed at anyone but TST. Obviously the current funding situation shows we need more support for transportation justice, not just bikes at the state level. BTA has been dead for a decade, either start your own org or stop complaining.
If so, why isn’t everyone angry at their lack of progress? Where’s their list of accomplishments? At least TST can point to 2017 funding package, and tries to change things statewide, you know outside of PDX where people don’t have anywhere near the choices we have in the city.
Amen.
How else do nonprofits survive? I don’t think they ask more than places like Community Cycling Center? This site also asks for donations lol…
Yes, but CCC at least gives you a bike. TST gives you … what, exactly?
They also give away e-bikes. Neither gives those to their donors!!!. I think you misunderstand how nonprofits work
“TST gives you … what, exactly?”
A lecture on privilege?
So giving e-bikes away, providing safe riding education, encouraging people other than white dudes to not drive (even bothering to considering them!), including the increasingly AGING population, so there are less traffic deaths counts as nothing to you and your ilk. Sounds like you can dish it out, but can’t actually engage on facts like where most transportation funding is decided and how many options of bike-only focused orgs there are in PDX, just some decades-old bitterness that has contributed nothing to progress.
Maybe I was so distracted by Iannarone’s histrionics (like her letter demanding that PBOT close all Portland’s high crash corridors to car traffic) that I never noticed all the lives her organization saved.
If you think TST is an effective organization at whatever it is they do beyond platforming Iannarone, please continue to give them money.
No one said that. Can you try reading better and maybe cry less about something the now ex-ED did awhile ago. she apparently dines rent free in your head every night… why can’t you move forward and just support bike only orgs without having a temper tantrum over the BTA thats been gone for a decade? It’s actually good to care about pedestrians and people who can’t ride bikes, not sure why that’s still controversial.
“It’s actually good to care about pedestrians and people who can’t ride bikes, not sure why that’s still controversial.”
I fully agree with this statement.
And yet you don’t think their transportation choices matter as much as cyclists?
I think it’s fine to focus on pedestrian issues; what I said was that I didn’t see TST as being an effective organization, and has suffered under a string of underperforming EDs.
Portland is full of low power non-profits, and TST is no different.
Thats actually not what you started out saying and your ‘low power’ non-profits remark is MAGA coded nonsense from Reddit trolls who hate this city and civic society. It means nothing and makes no sense. You can’t actually engage on any of the facts lol!
It is exactly what I was, and am, saying — TST has struck me as ineffective, existing mainly as a platform for it’s now former ED. If that wasn’t clear before, I hope it is now.
If you don’t like the term “low-power”, perhaps you can suggest a better one for non-profits that don’t accomplish much beyond occuping space and absorbing money (of which Portland has many). Or maybe you think that “getting stuff done” is too right-wing, and what matters is intention and good feeling.
I don’t at all hate Portland. If I did I wouldn’t live here. But I’m not one of those people who thinks loving your city/country means not criticizing it.
Neither am I but your bitterness doesn’t stand up to facts. There’s plenty to criticize but making blanket statements about all nonprofits in the city is frankly silly and counter factual. You just don’t know what you’re talking about, but can’t accept you might not be as well informed as you think. Thus your inability to counter facts on how transportation policy actually works in the state as I’ve tried to engage you on them several times. Your feelings do not equal reality lol.
I’ve been nothing but polite to you, but you’ve called me bitter, silly, MAGA, a Reddit troll, and accused me of crying and throwing temper tantrums simply because I don’t think TST is an effective organization, which is not exactly a fringe opinion here (or elsewhere).
You also say that I don’t know what I’m talking about, and that my opinions are “counterfactual”, mean nothing and make no sense, and that I lack the ability to “counter facts” though you never get around to saying what those “facts” are.
You just spout insults and accusations, which is about what I expect from someone with such an obviously personal investment in TST and is frustrated by an inability to muster an actual argument in their defense.
You are not making much progress in convincing me that TST has a nice list of accomplishments to show for all their years in existence.
But either way, I really don’t object if you like TST and give them your time and/or money. You don’t need to justify that to me.
Oh the hypocrisy! You reply to everyone on here, but I’m taking it too personally lol! Did you found the BTA lol? You think it’s okay to say every nonprofit in Oregon is garbage, and now you’re crying about your hurt feelings. People have listed numerous accomplishments and made several points about how transportation policy works, including the 2017 package and linking to impact reports. You just refuse to engage. I will keep responding because you keep lying and obfuscating. It is a lie to say TST and all PDX nonprofits are ineffective. You are a liar period.
I didn’t.
I’m not.
They haven’t.
I don’t.
I’m not.
You nailed it, as usual.
Very convincing when you just say “Nu-uh I did not!”
Did you read the impact report that was linked? Care to comment on the 100s of ebikes they’ve given away? Or hours of education to drivers and cyclists? Care to comment on HB 4007? Care to comment on the 2017 funding package and how it came to be or how transportation investment decisions are made at the state?
Here are some quotes from you: “Portland is where non-profits go to retire” // “Portland is full of low power non-profits, and TST is no different.” // ““TST gives you … what, exactly?”
A lecture on privilege?” (Is this a memory issue you’re having?!?!) // ” I never noticed all the lives her organization saved.” (completely ingenious) // “If you don’t like the term “low-power”, perhaps you can suggest a better one for non-profits that don’t accomplish much beyond occuping space and absorbing money”
So yes you actually are doing all those things!
Also you literally wrote that biking in Portland is amazing in response to someone else, so is there more advocacy needed for cyclists in PDX or maybe we should also worry about transit and pedestrians! Stay on message at least.
Yes, riding in Portland, while not “amazing” is quite good. It can always be improved (and in some places urgently needs to be.)
I think I’ve been quite consistent on this: I don’t think the TST is an effective organization. If you disagree, that’s ok.
You and Tess keep trying to turn the conversation to somehow ranking different modes, which is fine, but that’s your deal, not mine, and it’s not a topic I’m particularly interested in (which is why I’ve declined to engage much on that).
Not ranking. just caring about the reality of our streets and needs for complete transportation. You all have been screaming for years about bikes first and only, so it’s seems cogent to discussion. You say ineffective, but don’t want to talk about anything concrete or state of transportation funding now and refuse to acknowledge anything anyone’s done, despite being given examples, or how the post-BTA rage has held back progress. You’re not really giving anything constructive, just the same claptrap over and over again.
Well, I haven’t.
Sure okay, that’s one point addressed. To BB’s point you can see a lot that in the comments here as I think you know.
“you can see a lot that in the comments here as I think you know.”
Yes, absolutely. One example: I get a lot of guff here for asking people not to ride bikes on sidewalks because of the impact on pedestrians, and I’m particularly concerned with motorized bikes on MUPs because of the impact on walkers.
I agree that 2Wheels doesn’t seem to argue in good faith and is mostly about scoring points. When you’re on his/her side, it feels good, and when you’re not, it burns a little.
But why the shot at “white dudes”? (“encouraging people other than white dudes to not drive”). Did BTA exclude people of color? It seems crazy to pit cyclists against each other.
Yes actually, Portland cycling culture has not always been welcoming to people who aren’t white men. That should not be news to anyone as these attitudes are still around today… you can look up how much of a disparity in bike use there still is today. Thus the need for groups like All Bodies on Bikes and cyclehomies.
Also they are helping pass micromobility legislation this session at this very moment.
That’s a perfect example. When you advocate for “micromobility,” what is that, exactly? Is it bikes, e-bikes, wheelchairs, scooters, mopeds, what??
I want an organization that advocates for bicycling infrastructure. That’s what I want. I’m not going to give to an org that tries to be all things to all people.
Then don’t! But you don’t have to denigrate all their work just cause you’re still big mad about something that happened a decade ago.
Lol literally defining these terms is part of the legislation. Look up HB 4007! It’s not their fault anything more than ‘bike good’ is too complicated or not completely self-serving enough for some of you.
Hmmm….making The Street Trust an irrelevant transportation nonprofit doesn’t seem like an accomplishment to me. Just sayin…..
How come you left out the part of her statement about moving to SB and “getting back her cycling joy”? (or words to that effect).
You included that quote in a Bluesky post but didn’t include it in the story, and now I see that you blocked the original quote in Bluesky. What’s going on? Did she say it or not? And if she said it, why are blocking it now?
When I read the original quote, I thought it was hugely damning of her efforts to promote cycling in Portland. If she couldn’t find cycling joy here, that reflects poorly on her. Or maybe she meant to slight Portland on her way out the door for not doing enough for cycling, which would be a fair criticism of Portland’s stagnation.
To be brutally frank, cycling joy is harder to find in Portland these days, for lots of reasons that have little to do directly with bicycles. The reasons have far more to do with choices made (or not made) by those in charge at the municipal and state levels about infrastructure maintenance, public camping and the enabling of drug abuse, and the way finances have been managed — or mismanaged — by City government. They are also connected to how many people have moved from the bicycle to (by choice or by default) another primary mode of transportation, especially since the pandemic.
While I wouldn’t lay all of TST’s failures at the feet of one person, I think it spoke volumes when the BTA changed to TST in order to focus more on legislative advocacy and lobbying. I’m not sure that was the wisest choice at the time, and I suspect that we haven’t seen the last of the results.
You can’t legislate your way out of or into better policy if those in charge of creating and funding policy don’t agree with you.
I also think that TST’s announcement of not knowing if or when they’d bring in another permanent ED is telling and if unaddressed for long enough, potentially damning.
Speaking only for myself, I still get a lot of joy out of riding my bike around Portland, and many of my friends do too.
Biking in Portland is better than ever.
Hi Fred,
It’s not my job to share everything someone says. I just try and pick out the parts I think are most salient and newsworthy. I let folks explore links for primary sources on their own.
But you shared the quote before – YOU did. In Bluesky. And then you deleted it. I’ve not been able to find the quote in any other stories or news releases, so it must have been something she said to you and you reported – but on Bluesky, not BP.
The quote was at the end of your skeet and it said something like, “Iannarone is moving to SB and looking forward to reclaiming her cycling joy.”
I get it: The Iannarone camp didn’t like the look of that quote so they asked you to delete it and you complied. Just wish I had screenshotted it when I saw it. If anyone knows how to recover deletions in Bluesky, please let me know.
Fred, I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at here but Sarah wrote about bike joy on her own Bluesky post: https://bsky.app/profile/sarahiannarone.bsky.social/post/3mg62zsjogk2c
Oh my.
Ms. Iannarone made the cardinal mistake of not pretending that cycling in Portland does not suck. I’m not a fan but her willingness to speak abrasive truth to the toxic positivity of urbanist/foamer/cyclist dudes was somewhat endearing.
Cycling in Portland does not suck.
Speaking for myself, cycling for transportation in Portland is a miserable experience. I will still do it because I am one of a tiny, tiny minority that hates driving, hates SUVs/cars, and incandescently hates ongoing and steadily worsening ecocide.
“cycling for transportation in Portland is a miserable experience.”
Why not walk or take the bus?
Walking is my preference but for trips over 2 miles I bike. The bus system in Portland is unfortunately exceedingly slow and inconvenient for my trips.
I’m curious, where do you bike? What part of town?
SE, NE, SW, and NW Portland. I have used bicycles as my primary or only form of transportation while I’ve lived in the USA (a truly backwards nation when it comes to transportation).
There’s been enough bashing of Iannarone and TST in these comments. Choose to support the good work of others at TST and their many programs aimed at hard-to-reach populations or don’t. But let Iannarone go in peace now and reclaim her joy, which given the tenor of these comments, she unsurprisingly lost here. I don’t blame her.
“Getting back to cycling joy’ by becoming a shill for highway expansion…. chef’s kiss, Sarah
Sarah Iannarone and Jana Jarvis
For The Oregonian/OregonLive
Iannarone is the former executive director of The Street Trust. Jarvis is president and CEO of the Oregon Trucking Association.
https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2026/03/opinion-oregons-path-out-of-transportation-mess-requires-new-investment-strong-leadership.html
Bikes are mentioned exactly twice, and neither time in reference to building infrastructure. Pedestrians not once.
Iannarone is the Sinema of cycling.