Pressure is building once again for the City of Portland to repair and re-open the Bob Stacey Crossing elevators. A story in Willamette Week published April 2nd detailed the latest vandalism and maintenance problems, a Southeast Portland mom who bikes with her kids to school is actively lobbying Mayor Keith Wilson’s office and advocates are coming together to make their voices heard at neighborhood meetings.
In response the City says they’ll install security cameras and focus on more patrols of the area, but other than that they cite a lack of funding to take more decisive actions.
The bridge is a vital link in the network because it provides a way for non-drivers to cross five railroad tracks and detour around the infamously long and disruptive freight trains that block nearby intersections.
The overcrossing (named after a former Metro councilor and land use advocate Bob Stacey, who died in 2022) opened in 2020 and has likely been closed more often than it’s been open. It’s so bad that less than one year after it was renamed in his honor, Bob Stacey himself told BikePortland that the broken elevators were, “a mark against us as a community.” In 2022 BikePortland reported that at least one elevator had been closed for eight months. At that time, the Portland Bureau of Transportation blamed a bad motor and supply-chain issues for the untimely fix. They also said they didn’t expect further issues.
Unfortunately, they were wrong.
Julie Mumford is a Southeast Portland resident and neighborhood advocate who bikes to Winterhaven Elementary School with her two daughters. She recently shared a video with BikePortland that shows her girls hoisting their bikes up two flights of stairs while a boarded-up and closed elevator can be seen in the background. After helping them awkwardly carry their bikes, Mumford has to get her own, 80+ pound bike up and then down the stairs. In an email sent yesterday to Mayor Wilson, Mumford wrote, “I understand this is only one elevator in one neighborhood, but it represents this City’s broken priorities: we are underinvesting in the public health of our community. If we can’t help kids get to school on safe infrastructure on safe routes, then we are failing.”
Another nearby resident and frequent user of the crossing, Xavier Salazar, has shared a steady drip of complaints on social media about the broken elevators. You might recall Salazar as the person behind the AreTheElevatorsBroken.com website, which he created in 2025 to help himself and others plan their trips around the frequent closures.
Salazar says the north elevator (at SE 14th and Taggart) has been closed for over two months now and the south elevator (on SE Gideon near 13th Place) was “on the fritz” for nearly a month and was closed entirely a few weeks ago after its glass doors were shattered. Salazar says he’s frustrated not just because of the inconvenience, but because there hasn’t been adequate signage about a detour or a number to call for help.
“I’ve had to give out verbal directions multiple times to people,” Salazar shared with BikePortland yesterday. “I’ve seen a wheelchair user with one leg stuck at the north side with a load of stuff and they couldn’t get down — while a train was parked in the intersection… It really is unbelievable that it’s been unusable for this long.”
Mumford wants to the city find a long-term solution to the problem and believes the answer might lie in how the city coordinates with a nearby homeless shelter. At the suggestion of a representative from the Mayor’s Office, she participates in the Clinton Triangle Oversight Committee, a group formed as part of the Good Neighbor Agreement between the City of Portland and the firm that runs the Clinton Triangle Shelter Site. But Mumford has been unimpressed with the meetings so far and feels there’s a lack of accountability when it comes to preventing the vandalism, camping, and other human activities that result in the closure of the elevators.
Mumford believes Urban Alchemy’s permit to operate the shelter should include a requirement for minimum elevator up-time. Other solutions she’s floated are to make the elevator doors metal instead of glass. At a recent meeting Mumford attended, she learned from a TriMet rep that their agency has spent $100,000 in recent years repairing vandalized glass and has since moved to a metal door for their nearby Rhine-Lafayette Overcrossing. Since that change, Salazar says TriMet’s elevators, “have largely been operational, clean, and reliable for a year or more now.”
Broken elevators have plagued our mobility network for years — and not just at these locations. PBOT has also had problems with the elevators that service the Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge in South Waterfront.
Reached this morning for comment, PBOT said they share the community’s frustration about the elevators. Citing two-plus years of ongoing vandalism, PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer acknowledged that the closures have, “been disruptive to people’s mobility and safety, as well as extremely costly to the bureau at a time when resources are increasingly finite.”
Schafer said security patrols are a priority going forward. The city already has three daily patrols and one happens around 5:00 am in order to intentionally roust campers prior to the morning community. Schafer added that the city pays for daily janitorial service by a third party (Relay Resources) and that Urban Alchemy pays for their own clean-ups when they come across issues.
When it comes to actions to remedy this situation going forward, Schafer said procurement of security cameras on both sides of the crossing are underway and are expected to take two weeks. Other than that, PBOT is not making commitments due to budget constraints. Here’s more from Schafer:
- PBOT will proceed with replacing the shattered glass to restore elevator service. Please note these components are not off-the-shelf and must be specially ordered.
- PBOT agreed to explore long-term solutions to address ongoing vandalism of the glass doors. One option discussed was replacing the glass doors with stainless steel doors similar to those used in office buildings. This would be a costly, currently unbudgeted option, and some community members raised concerns about reduced visibility when entering or exiting the elevators.
- PBOT will explore the feasibility of adding security presence during peak times, particularly when students are traveling to and from school. This would also be a significant, currently unbudgeted cost.
- PBOT will explore options to widen the wheel rail along the stairs to better accommodate bikes with larger tires, as the current configuration presents challenges for some users.
- Urban Alchemy will continue to provide periodic cleaning support in the area, although this work is outside their formal scope.
To be clear, there were no firm commitments from partners to fund or provide additional security resources. There was, however, some informal discussion about the possibility of adult chaperones being present in the elevators during peak school travel times.
Whether or not these actions will be enough to restore the crossing to reliable, safe, and convenient public use remains to be seen.
Mayor Wilson’s Office tells BikePortland they are aware of the elevator concerns and will consider a more detailed response. I’ll share that when/if I hear back.
Thanks for reading.
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Can elevators be sold? Can they be taken out and replaced with long, gentle ramps? The ones at Hollywood transit center on the South side in Laurelhurst are a manageable grade. The switchbacks on the North side are goofy but a new side could be designed I’m sure. I understand for some folks a elevator is still preferable to an “easy grade”. Concrete ramps aren’t as flashy, but they’re certainly cheaper to build and service.
I use the elevators further south at Rhine everyday (when they’re open, which admittedly is more than these in the article but outages can last months too). Though I appreciate a ~80% carfree commute that the elevator connects me to I hate the elevators. They seem like such a waste of money. Instead of better managing how Union Pacific interacts with our right of ways, we get these expensive abominations.
You don’t “manage” interactions with railroads. The railroads’ authority comes from the Pacific Railway Act of 1862! That predates the formation of many states.
In Soviet Portland, the railroad manages you!
It is a “national” situation with railroads, per the post above…not just a ‘Portland’ thang.
Haven’t you ever seen the mother russia/Soviet Russia memes? Yet another cultural victim of the Ukraine war.
I am under the impression that the upfront costs to install elevators is less expensive than building [ADA] ramps. The space constraints may have also made a ramp infeasible in this location.
You going to expect people in wheel chairs to manage a long ramp instead of the elevators? We installed working, functional solutions to start with. It’s the abuse of the infrastructure by those acting with impunity that is making it non-functional. Should we really be talking about rebuilding it or redesigning it instead of holding people accountable for crimes?
Well what are we expecting people to do for months when the elevators are broken? We were sold a cheap upfront, expensive long-term solution. I do think that changing infrastructure is cheaper and easier than fixing societal problems.
I sleep
It’s not “societal problems” that causes the elevator to be vandalized or turned into a bio hazard area due to human poop. It’s entitled, childish and selfish people with no respect for others who are placing their wants of the moment over the need of others to use infrastructure such as an elevator.
I personally don’t know what security cameras are going to do since nothing will happen to anyone caught being malicious on them.
It’s too bad the railroads don’t have any of the old railroad bulls anymore to watch over the elevator for awhile.
Ah yeah, holding people accountable — not exactly the Portland Way, is it? Bit inconvenient, that. Much easier to hold another meeting while the lift’s out of action and doubling as a dunny. Until the city elects leaders who reckon accountability isn’t optional, we’ll keep getting the same circus and calling it progress. Might be time for a change, hey?
Yes this would be a good soluton. If not for recycling maybe scrap just returned from Shengdong on visit to import electric quadricycles for our greenways, 400 mile range 120km/h. They will gladly accept American steel at premium prices, bronze too perhaps from plaques and statues. Watched it all get smelted for subframe components at the factory, very impressive hard working people Portland could learn much from.
Dave
Wait, we don’t want 120 kph electric ATVs on our greenways
Urban Alchemy is a contractor running a city facility (not a permitee) and has no control over the elevators and no ability or resources to fix them. This idea doesn’t make much sense.
The elevator doors are glass because who wants to get in an opaque metal box at that location, or be surprised by someone coming out?
It’s a difficult situation, and it’s not going to get better when the BottleDrop opens at 11th & Powell.
We cross the tracks at least 3 times a week and if I’m coming from Clinton and encounter a train, the only options are to backtrack to the Powell undercrossing or go to the 99E ramp (which tends to be blocked or covered in glass).
If we as a city claim Clinton as a model for what biking in the city looks like then the tracks and the elevators are a black eye.
Remember everyone we could have had a ramp if not for Koerner Camera Systems. Seems like they’re still in business despite their claims that this would make it impossible for them to use the street as their personal loading zone.
Koerner was concerned with access to their loading ramp, not with street parking/loading, and they were arguing for the bridge to go back where the old one was, an argument they obviously lost.
There was never a serious proposal for a ramp on the north side, because, unlike on the south side, there’s nowhere for it to go.
If you think Trimet didn’t ask the surrounding businesses what they’d think about a ramp and what impact it would have on them and Koerner wasn’t very vocal about how it would be bad for business I’ve got a broken elevator to sell you.
TriMet talked to everybody, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is no place to put a ramp on the north side of the tracks unless you want to cut off access to several properties, which would certainly result in legal action.
TriMet was also concerned about the cost of a ramp, which is one big reason we don’t have one on the south side, where there is plenty of room.
Yes of course you’re right there was no chance of a ramp and business interests that tried to shut the whole bridge down had no effect on the possibility. Just like business interests had no effect on the fact that this whole area was supposed to be littered in bridges based on the original design.
What world do you live in?
I live in a weird place called reality, where facts exist and resources are limited.
There was never a serious proposal to put a ramp on the north side of the tracks at 14th. No one could figure out how to make it work. That is just a fact. Also no one wanted to pay for it. That is another fact.
If you have a design for a ramp that would allow property owners to continue to access their property, then I’d love to see it, but you’re a few years too late.
There aren’t very many people where you live, should think about moving out here with the rest of us. 🙂
Yeah, it kind of sucks here. At least the bicycling is good.
What do you mean, nowhere for a north side ramp to go? There’s a lot more space on the north side than on the south side. It looks like they could take the current staircase, make it a shallower ramp, and have it double back to make up the height.
Ramps have to have a very gradual grade, and so they are long. On the south side, you can build your ramp over to the entrance of the Max station. On the north side, the only place is to build it into the street, where it will block access to Koerner and K&F, and possibly the wood place. Wrapping it back under itself can help a bit, but not enough.
Ramps just take a lot of space.
If they didn’t want to do a zig-zag design, they could do a spiral ramp – like we have at the east end of the Morrison Bridge, or where Concord Ave crosses Going. Which I’m pretty sure take up less space than the current elevator + staircase combo at either end of this Bob Stacey crossing, and they actually work. We’ve got succesful, actually useable ramps all over this city, while we’re stuck with unusable elevators on this crossing.
Are you proposing only a ramp and no stairway? That would suck for pedestrians. I know a circular ramp was briefly discussed, but was discarded for one reason or another.
Anyway, it’s too late — we have what we have. PBOT approved the design and agreed to take ownership of it, and now they need to figure out how to make it work.
I think the only way this is ultimately going to be resolved is someone has to sue PBOT and TriMet on ADA grounds.
The Morrison Bridge corkscrew ramp is fun for an experienced rider but not great for kids or mobility challenged folks. I think a solution needs to offer more accessibility
The corkscrew design is especially great if you’re prone to dizziness and you enjoy the semi-queasy buzzed feeling you get when you’ve arrived at the bottom.
I don’t think of corkscrew ramps as “fun”, and they don’t require being “an experienced rider” to navigate. It just means you have to go slow, and be able to go to turn in a circle. Children and people with mobility devices use the neighborhood Concord spiral ramps all the time. Disability rights advocates have advocated for ramps, because it’s well-known the elevators have these issues. See e.g. https://bikeportland.org/2022/07/20/portland-council-votes-to-support-ramp-to-the-river-and-more-space-for-biking-on-new-burnside-bridge-359933
Personally it’d be faster for me, as an “experienced rider” to just carry my bike up a flight of stairs than to navigate a corkscrew ramp like the tightly coiled one at Concord, but that’s not the concern here – that’s no an option for everyone. I personally am not really inconvenienced by the broken elevators (I have a light bike I can carry up the stairs), but not everyone can use the stairs – which is what this article is about.
Just as a clarification, there is unlikely to be any connection from the Burnside Bridge to the Esplanade when the bridge gets rebuilt. Ramps were deemed too expensive. And no elevators… so no stairs.
Personally, I’d prefer a broken elevator with stairs to no connection at all, but that’s just me.
Why didn’t the City rebuild the bridge at 16th? There would have been room for ramps there.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/mRheE14gYNskuAe89
It is possible to add ramps on Gideon in the parking lane, but there is not enough room for a ramp on the east side.
“Why didn’t the City rebuild the bridge at 16th? There would have been room for ramps there.”
It’s not obvious there would be room for ramps on the east side of a bridge at 16th, but the primary reason they didn’t rebuild there was because they wanted something closer and more inline with the intersection at 12th. One neighbor did an analysis showing the number of steps one would have to take from various origins and destinations to use the bridge, and for the majority the current location was a better choice (though, ironically, for him 16th would have been better).
Koerner and a few others pushed hard for 16th, but TriMet decided the current location was better. Given the amount of societal mayhem that we have grown accustomed to since the project was built, it’s probably just as well that it doesn’t descend into a residential neighborhood.
There is plenty of ROW to build a ramp on the north side at 16th
Maybe; I’ve heard people argue it both ways.
Nonetheless, the chances of us building a bridge there in the next 30 years are zero, so it’s just something to daydream about, like burying (or closing) I-5, the Western Bypass, a tunnel under the Columbia, or just piling boulders in the street. In a fantasy, anything can work.
You know what would be great?? A better ramp on the stairs. A ramp big enough for an Urban Arrow or other large cargo bike. Maybe even something for B-Line tricycles & quads. PBOT engineers and planners have been to Europe and still can’t deliver good bicycle infrastructure. I wonder why that is…
TriMet delivered a beautiful new bicycle ramp at Hollywood MAX station.
Perhaps there needs to be a new PBOT Director.
I finally saw a good version of one of these ramps – it actually let you tilt your bike so it wasn’t hitting the handrails.
Otherwise, these things seem inexplicably universally terrible. Which is confusing – they look expensive, and it doesn’t seem like it should take much to make a useable version.
Same old story. At this point I’d rather have them spend the time and person-hours to ensure the underpass is consistently clear and safe.
The underpass is quite a ways from the crossing that gets blocked by the train, and is also needlessly convoluted to navigate (because they didn’t want the pedestrian crossing on the train side of the overpass?).
Maybe we could have some signage for route finding around the blockage, with time, distance, and probability of a clear run on the route? Or a user activated status lights at strategic intersections? (Both cheaper than retrofitting a ramp).
I led some bewildered newbies over the 99E viaduct the other night when a train was full stopped, and it was indeed covered in broken glass. Those elevators are a f’in joke.
Why not just double back to the underpass adjacent to Powell?
“Cost and people with disabilities” was always a bad argument for ignoring our previous experience with elevator crossings before it was built. This is an elevator we can’t afford and disabled people can’t use.
I remember that the scope of the Tillikum Bridge project extended this far, and I was never clear why large amounts of federal funding were returned unused, failing to deal with the multiple at grade rail crossings and these bikeped overcrossings
No more designs with elevator access only, please. I am aware it increases facility build out costs to use ADA ramps, and that engineers will complain, but elevators are clearly not providing adequate access. Elevators should be considered a secondary improvement to the facility and the ramp required by law to ensure wheelchair users always have access.
How are there not already lawsuits? This is certainly not the only location which has problems due to elevators only/lack of ramps.
Engineers won’t complain about designing and building ramps.
Neighbors, taxpayers, and those seeking building more housing, those worried about the amount of land required (houses and businesses being relocate), and a whole range of others will complain about the ramps, their cost, the visual blight and all other variety of things. Don’t put that on engineers being challenged to design them.
It’s true I shouldn’t pick on engineers specifically, but they came to mind as being the ones who explained why elevators have been consistently chosen and justified as fulfilling ADA requirements in the various project design discussions I’ve read on this blog. I can’t really take the time to dig them out either, I’m sorry.
The broader point is that elevators can’t really provide the consistent service for the disabled that a ramp can. To me inconsistent and unreliable access isn’t really access.
The problems with elevators are realities, but so are problems with fitting ramps into places (which has little to do with engineers’ complaints).
The article mentions the Gibbs St. bridge elevator. It’s a 70′ vertical rise. An ADA-compliant ramp (1 inch max. rise per foot run) would be 840 long, plus min. 5′-long landings every 30″ max. rise, or 28 5′-long landings for 140′ additional run. Ramp would be 980′ long minimum.
And even though that ramp would meet ADA requirements, it would be unusable by many people needing accessibility. Getting a wheelchair up even a short ramp can be a challenge for many people.
That’s the tallest example I can think of though, so typical cases would be less. But length can still be a real obstacle. The Stacey elevator is about a 25′ rise, meaning an ADA-compliant ramp would be 300′ min. long, plus 10 5′-long landings, for a total ramp length of 350′ minimum.
A taller example might be the proposal to put ramps from the Burnside bridge to the esplanade when the bridge is rebuilt. Unfortunately, that ramp will never be built, and we have so effectively lobbied against elevators that it’s likely we will get no connection at all to replace the one that’s there.
Bummer.
There is no way it is 70-feet from the sidewalk to the bridge deck, more like 20 to 25-feet.
Read my post again. What I wrote was that the elevator at the Gibbs St. Bridge has a 70′ rise, and the Stacey elevator is about a 25′ rise. Gibbs:
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Hiring security at the elevators would have a pretty low benefit to cost ratio given the low traffic volume.
The traffic volume will always be low while this sort of thing goes on. “Nobody uses the bike lane” …because it ends a block up the street.
We spent millions of dollars on side paths for a section of NE 42 that is stranded by a section of NE Cornfoot where a 50′ span of grass is undeveloped and there is no bike lane.
As a result we have all the John Carters pointing out that nobody uses the bike lane.
https://www.portland.gov/transportation/pbot-projects/construction/cornfoot-road-multi-use-path-ne-47th-ave-ne-alderwood-rd
PBOT will be constructing a multiuse path on the north side of NE Cornfoot Road from NE 47th Avenue to Alderwood Road.
30% design has been completed and is currently under review. Environmental work and Right-of-Way phase is also underway. Project is on schedule to complete design by the end of summer 2026.
It may be true that no one uses the bike lane, it might be because there’s no bike manufacturers on Mars
The elevators are a massive design failure. They were designed to work when Portland was viewed as one big, middle-class living room. But Portland was never that way. We need armor-plated infrastructure, just like any other city. We are NOT special.
If we demanded more accountability from the nonprofits that currently exist to maintain a status quo, instead of providing full wrap-around services; and started *requiring* people sleeping outside to accept help and treatment, then perhaps over time we wouldn’t have so much vandalism and a lack of respect for the social compact.
Those of us who have spent our entire lives respecting that social compact, paying our taxes and obeying the law are feeling pretty pissed on these days, by both the homeless industrial complex and city government.
It’s time for this undeserved largesse to stop.
The situation in SF appears to be improving. Here’s one view about why that seems to agree with you.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/opinion/san-francisco-drugs-decriminalization-fentanyl.html
This is a civic embarrassment.
In the quest for more funds for this project, can we just tell Wilson that a Blazers’ owner desperately needs a working elevator?
Yes. We can raid pcef over and over for every little pet project that the mayor or city council want to fund, but critical infrastructure for the pedestrian and bike network remain neglected. The priorities of the elected officials are made clear by where they direct their slush funds.
The wheel gutters right under the handrail are useless. I’m fit, and have good bike handling skills, but leaning a loaded bike over far enough to clear the handrail, while keeping it moving in a straight line is challenging enough that I’ve given it up as a viable option.
Wheel gutters need to be free of vertical obstructions, or don’t bother.
The design needs to shift to actually useful bicycle runnels on the outside (with a less useful handrail) and a pedestrian friendly handrail down the middle. I haven’t been there in a few months but I think there’s enough room.
I hate using the wheel gutters with an unloaded bike
A really simple fix is to keep a backstock of the made-to-order glass doors. We know they will get smashed, so just have some always on hand. TriMet special orders windows for their vehicles and maintains a stock of them; I don’t understand why the city can’t have 5-10 in one of their storage facilities, and just keep them on order. When they get down to one or two backups, just put in another order. If this is not in the budget already, it needs to be.
Alternatively, shell out up front for shatter-proof glass or plexi-glass.
Last note: In full disclosure, I ranked Mayor Wilson #1 on my ballot and I’m disappointed with his performance as mayor. His office has made every issue a homelessness issue, and has sacrificed city livability improvements on the altar of overnight shelters, even as the houseless population has increased. How does his office believe that Ms. Mumford joining the oversight committee will improve the service of the elevators? Does Ms. Mumford feel her participation in the committee has yielded any tangible result as far as improving or maintaining the elevators? It feels like a distraction/diversion attempt. Make her someone else’s problem.
So we have to plan and build with an acceptance of destruction and lack of accountability into civic designs, hen? That feels like giving up.
Every time I read a story like this the city is always dealing with a zillion independent and tenuously accountable contractors or nonprofits. Mamdani in New York seems to be making very purposeful strides towards changing this and bringing more work back in-house, which I hope Portland can follow.
100%!!, But you can’t stop the nonprofit money gravy train in Portland! That would be cruel right? And the local politicians know sending them millions of unaccountable tax dollars brings them votes. We have a massive payola scam using the people’s money. It needs to stop.
This is absolutely a big part of the problem. Outsourcing public responsibilities to private companies is and always will be a great way to increase costs and lose competencies—and ultimately reduce public trust in government.
I’m not so sure about this. PP&R has a little workshop and a pet nursery. Both are preposterously expensive to operate, and the quality that comes out of them is terrible. They are largely independent, very little oversight, and no accountability. They are inflexible with what they will produce, and their turnaround time is very slow. We have some of the best nurseries in the county in the Willamette Valley, and Portland is full of talented and responsive wood and metal workers. I think the City would be much better off contracting these things out.
What would it cost to extend the bridge north to SE 14th and Taggart, and then put a ramp over the south-side parking lane on Taggart?
It should be pretty easy to find room for a ramp on the south side.
These bridges need to be accessible to all users, and that accessibility does not exist when the elevators keep breaking down. Figure out where ramps can fit at each end, and then BUILD THEM!
great idea!
Lol my partner and I call it the pooplavator because every time we try to use it, it’s either broken (figuratively poopy) or full of poop (literally poopy).
I can get my bike up the ramps but my partner can’t. We just opt for the Powell blvd underpass (aka the Murder Underpass in our lexicon). There are occasionally campers but whoever is in charge of it has been doing a great job making sure it isn’t blocked.
Pooplavator and Murder Underpass — honestly sounds less like infrastructure and more like a haunted theme park. At this rate, Travel Portland may as well lean in and run a ‘Hall of Shame’ tour: ‘On your left, the world-famous Pooplavator… please hold your breath. Up next, the Murder Underpass — keep moving, folks.’ Might actually bring in more tourists than whatever we’re doing now
BUILD A RAMP.
Seriously, how is this not a thing?
Because money is a thing.
Has anyone referred this matter to Nathan Vasquez the DA? I bet he’d take up the mantle on prosecuting the bastards vandalizing and squatting in the elevators. Why not address the problem at its root?
I agree that Vasquez is a beacon of sanity in a sea of lunatics within MultCo/Portland government, but I think he unfortunately has much bigger fish to attempt to fry, but can’t, because Oregon can’t even handle the delivery of basic civic needs…
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2026/02/da-dismisses-more-than-600-criminal-cases-over-lack-of-defense-attorneys.html
There should be a constant security or police presence in the vicinity of sanctioned campsites.
This is so the current state of our Portland in a nutshell.
We can’t easily get replacement parts because they must be special ordered.
We need to keep repairing the elevator because crack heads keep breaking it.
We look to nonprofits to solve it.
Otherwise hire security guards during peak commute hours.
We are seriously f¥cked.
Portland didn’t “accidentally” end up with broken elevators, blocked crossings, and unusable infrastructure — it chose it. When you tolerate open vandalism, camping in critical access points, and zero accountability, this is the outcome: millions spent, nothing works, and the people who actually rely on it get screwed.
And the wild part? People are still debating ramp designs and glass thickness like that’s the problem. It’s not. The problem is we’ve normalized lawlessness to the point basic public infrastructure can’t survive.
This isn’t compassion. It’s neglect. Of the city, of taxpayers, and of anyone who just wants to safely get to school or cross the street.
This is basically an industrial area (on the edge of a neighborhood): train tracks, industrial business, and an ODOT highway. These kind of places have always experienced vandalism as long as I can remember? (Usually just graffiti and abandoned junk.)
This is a poor attempt at apologetics for a situation that got out of hand over misplaced guilt. The fact that it’s “on the edge of a neighborhood” still means that people living there can’t rely on working infrastructure because the people in charge keep blaming Someone Else for the hole they all helped to dig. Enough is enough.
Hi. I was responding specifically to the “When you tolerate open vandalism, camping in critical access points, and zero accountability” claim as the blame for this. I was just pointing out that industrial areas often see more graffiti and such than residential neighborhoods.
That’s been going on there for as long as I can remember, and I don’t see it substantially changing anytime soon. Do you have a productive suggestion?
I have several.
A. Devote more funding to our police and fire departments, not less. Empower these Bureaus to do their jobs without politically-motivated micro-managing from people who lack professional experience in these fields.
B. Devote more funding to full wrap-around mental health and drug treatment supports. Violent offenders who refuse help can be incarcerated. Non-violent offenders who refuse help can be given a bus ticket out of town. Anyone who accepts help and *sticks with it* will be supported in their treatment and given help to find employment and housing. Come down harder on anyone caught selling or transporting illegal drugs. Consequences need to matter.
C. End the revolving door of the Homeless Industrial Complex that keeps itself in business by maintaining a status quo of carefully managed
NEAR-functionality. Mayor Wilson’s shelter plan is a failure and needs to be replaced with meaningful mandates that tell people they need to accept treatment or face real consequences.
D. Stop making small businesses, libraries, schools and parks pay for the Council’s embrace of weak policy on homelessness and illegal/dangerous behavior that’s even remotely connected to it.
I think this is getting off-topic. I don’t think we’re going to solve homelessness in a bikeportland comment thread. More on-topic: there’s been grafitti & vandalism in this city for as long as I can remember, and I’m not picturing that stopping entirely anytime soon. Just check out “Witch’s Castle” in Forest Park, highway underpasses, most public bathrooms, or one of our remaining payphones if you’d like some examples. Meanwhile, there’s a bridge we’d like to be able to use.
You seem to be equating homelessness with mental illness and/or drug addiction. Believe it or not, it can actually be quite hard to get housing in this city even if you’re employed full-time.
Mental illness is not at all equatable to homelessness, but a sizable portion of those who are homeless are mentally ill or addicted.
This is a huge failing of civil society, and especially of Oregon where the remnants of Measure 110 set aside a lot of money for behavioral health… money that is not being effectively spent by those running the state.
I just spent a week in NYC and didn’t see a single tent anywhere. And the difference shows: elevators work, crossings stay open, and families aren’t stuck hauling bikes up stairs because basic access is shut down.
Meanwhile here, we’re dealing with repeated closures, vandalism, and even people defecating in the elevators. That’s not just unpleasant—it makes critical infrastructure unusable.
If Portlanders wants nice, reliable public infrastructure, we have to be honest about what’s undermining it. Allowing unmanaged street camping——has real consequences for safety, cleanliness, and whether these facilities function at all.
There’s nothing compassionate about leaving people in conditions that lead to this, and it’s not fair to everyone else who depends on these routes every day. We should expect both: infrastructure that works and real solutions that help people move off the street.
Nice things require standards—and the willingness to enforce them.
I spent a week in one of the richest cities in the US that has centuries of experience dealing with incredibly complex infrastructure problems and I didn’t see a single tent in the limited parts of the city that I visited.
Comments like this are so funny… Have you ever been to another city?
It must be news to you that not only NYC but most cities in this country are not filled with homeless tents.
Portland is the anomaly, Seattle has no tents in the downtown area and you have to look to find them.
The enablers in this city are just laughable weirdos.
I'[m from New York. So I think I know what I’m talking about.
Seattle has no tents in the downtown area? Depending on your definition of downtown, this is either true in a narrow and strictly technical sense or outright false. Like yeah, you won’t see people in tents, you’ll just see people sleeping in doorways and parking lots in cardboard shelters. You’d have to be purposefully not looking to miss this.
You really don’t have to look very hard to find unsheltered homelessness in Seattle. Just go to the south side of the Jose Rizal Bridge. You want to complain about the Springwater? Try the I-90 path between Rainier and 12th after dark. Oh, and while you’re over there why not walk through 12th and Jackson?
And for the record, I don’t bring this up to clutch pearls. I live in north Beacon Hill and have never been personally bothered or accosted by any of my homeless neighbors. It is deeply depressing and I want things to improve, but all the city has mustered is moving everyone from 3rd and Pine to 3rd and James to 8th and Jackson to 12th and Jackson.
The larger point here is that you are delusional if you think that someone Portland is uniquely suffering from any issue relating to drug use, homelessness, or other related things.
I go to Seattle all the time.
Yes they have homeless, the city is still WAY better than Portland is right now. I do see a few people in doorways in the downtown Seattle area, it’s almost quaint and refreshing.
Portland still has major tent camping in downtown, like blocks of it.
I travel all over the country and the world, the only city that compares with Portland is Los Angeles.
Europe has almost no tent camping.
Why do people here make excuses for something most of the country has managed to eliminate?
Great, you visit Seattle all the time. I live here! You are just out and out wrong that Seattle is way better than Portland by any other metric than “number of tents you can see on sidewalks in the immediate downtown core”. Sure, by that one completely arbitrary and stupid metric, Portland is doing worse than Seattle. Who cares about that? Is the issue that you notice homeless people, or that they are homeless?
And I think unless you live in a city, you’re generally unlikely to know how specific local issues – like homelessness – are manifesting. I was not aware of any of Seattle’s local dynamics until I lived in Seattle, despite the fact that I did visit often. I mean I was working in Seattle for months before I moved, and even that wasn’t really enough to understand the specifics. And even then, if I didn’t ride the bus across the Jose Rizal Bridge like 10+ times a week I’m not confident I’d be aware of the extent and scale of homelessness in Little Saigon/North Beacon Hill.
I presume you’re local to Portland. Just that alone means you know more about the local streets than someone visiting would. You’ve got a range of experience and things you’ve done in the city that you just don’t really do when you’re visiting another place. Just because you haven’t seen the issues in another city doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
I’m not “making excuses”. The ways in which Seattle has “dealt” with homelessness is pitiful at best, and probably is better described as shameful. I’m sure it means that you aren’t as likely to see a tent on 3rd Ave when you get off your bus, I promise you that policing homeless people out of downtown and in to Chinatown and Little Saigon is not a good solution for anyone.
Seattle absolutely has people camping out. https://komonews.com/news/local/tents-return-to-jose-rizal-park-just-days-after-sweep-sparking-frustration-and-criticism-filipino-hero-icon-respect-homeless-camp-tent-drug-use-crime-crisis-shelter-resources-playground-family-children-third-space
Comparing downtowns doesn’t seem relevant – this bridge isn’t downtown. And I don’t know this thread concluded how it must be homeless campers vandalizing the elevators?
Don’t forget also that Seattle has alleys downtown and Portland doesn’t. Not seeing people sleeping on the street in front of a building doesn’t mean they’re not sleeping behind it.
Carter, mate… that’s a lot of words just to say “I’m guessing.”
You’ve got no clue where Jose went in NYC, but you’re dead certain it doesn’t count? Bit rich.
Bloke shares what he actually saw, and your comeback is basically “nah, doesn’t fit my theory.” Solid analysis there, champ.
Turns out working infrastructure isn’t some ancient mystery—it just requires standards and a bit of backbone. Funny that
Same, Jose, but London. We’ve been there a number of times and we’ve long checked off the touristy things so we’re not constantly hanging out in parts of the city where you’d figure the city thinks, “this is what visitors see, we must keep it clean!” There’s a level of litter that you kind of expect when there’s like 10M people in a place. But it was no dirtier than Foster around Foster/Holgate or the Division Max/Bus stop or anywhere an RV is parked at this very moment, etc. We saw one ‘rough sleeper’ across from St Pancras/Kings Cross when we caught the tube to Heathrow. I see more than that every day, without fail. Portland is letting a very small percentage of the population fuck a lot of things up for everyone.
For those impacted by these stupid elevators and the stupid train blocking, here are the other bikable ways around the train from southern to northern exposure
1) The powell Ave underpass – this one is also dodgy, frequently inhabited, and sometimes risky (my wife was verbally threatened with violence)
2) The other elevator at Lafayette/Rhine
3) 99E at Division Place has bike on/off ramps, and you can take the sidewalk over the 99E bridge (its not pleasant at all but it works)
4) Hawthorne Bridge goes over and deposits you either on South Waterfront or grand/MLK or east esplanade depending on exit strategy
I groan audibly every time I have to use the Bob Stacey and my kid ALSO hates carrying his bike up – but it’s good Cyclocross practice, I guess.
Mate, let’s be honest — this isn’t just ‘vandalism’ or a funding gap. When you enable street camping right next to critical infrastructure, this is the result: lifts trashed, used as toilets, and shut half the time. That’s not compassion, it’s neglect — for everyone involved. Kids hauling bikes up stairs past a boarded-up elevator covered in crap? Come off it. Build it tougher, keep it serviced, and start facing the reality that the current approach isn’t working.
The real long-term solution is to fix the 11/12th & Clinton rail crossing. Biking, walking, driving, taking the FX2, the rail crossing there is a huge drag and the road needs to be tunneled under the tracks.
Tunnels breed camping — even ones as foul as the Powell underpass.
Instead, imagine a multimodal bridge starting at 7th or so, which is almost far enough above the railroad, descending into that empty lot on the other side.
I’ve seen a sketch made by an engineer. It could probably work, but would require a lot of $$. Portland was awarded a federal grant to study the issue, but, you know, Trump.
Any new solution is at least a decade off. I hope the elevators are working for at least some of that time.
Got to have a PhD in “hostile architecture” to get infrastructure to survive and be useful to all in Portland.
At this point I just don’t even acknowledge this overpass’ existence. Not building a ramp system for it was pennywise and pound foolish. I commute to the Aerial Tram from Sunnyside and just take the Hawthorne over. If I want to cross the river on the Tilikum Bridge I drop onto the Eastbank Esplanade just before the Hawthorne Bridge.
It just goes to show that there’s a poorly designed solution will just be a money drain long term. They did build a way to cross the tracks with a gentle grade, one that will never break, they just built it for cars.
The MLK Viaduct? You can easily ride your bike over it. Or even walk if you want to. I do occasionally. It’s not pleasant, but it’s safe.
While that is unfortunate these elvators are not adequate for many new electric cycles. For instance when I am passing through the area I have to cut along the RR right of way because the wheelbase on my electric quadicycle is to wide for the elevator doors. 60″ wheelbase is not uncommon on these vehicles and this will continue especially as the Chinese markeplace standards adapt to USA standards. I would like to see PBOT install locks and maybe have a staffed Transit Police substation for detainment of persons who damage the elevators, on my recent visit to Shangdong I saw this system work very well. No broken elevators over trains and the doors fit my loaner quadricycle prototype perfectly. Look for more on the roads soon once I have sorted out the tarrif situation with 47
Cheers
Dave