BikePortland

How a young urbanist turned a slip lane into Portland’s newest plaza

The slip lane between West Burnside and 10th as seen on April 14th (left) and May 3rd (right). (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

On April 14th, just 10 days before the Shake Shack opened on West Burnside and 10th in downtown Portland, I walked past it and was very disappointed. The new place itself looked amazing and I was so excited for how this fast food joint would activate this very popular and busy corner of our city. The one thing dragging this space down has always been the slip lane that separates it from a large median with a bus stop and huge public art sculpture where thousands of people a day wait to cross Burnside to get to and from Powell’s City of Books and other destinations.

Xavier Stickler. (Photo courtesy Xavier Stickler)

Slip lanes are terrible and should be removed everywhere. And I assumed, given this redevelopment and the context around this location, that the Portland Bureau of Transportation would do the right thing. But not only was the lane still there, the lane markings had just been repainted! I figured we’d missed a perfect opportunity to create a human-centered space in the heart of downtown.

Little did I know that a behind-the-scenes effort to create a plaza on the lane had been going on for about eight months. And by the time Shake Shack opened, that lane was transformed into a relaxing green space with picnic tables, astroturf, and planters.

I’ve since learned this wonderful new space would not exist if it wasn’t for the activism of 23-year-old Portland State University architecture and urban planning student Xavier Stickler. From September to April, Stickler navigated red tape and the politics of two neighborhood associations (both of which are typically dominated by people a half-century older than him), to see his vision through. Turns out, the idea first came to him on a visit to Powell’s.

Here’s the story…

Stickler was at Powell’s with his friend (and fellow urbanist) Bradley Bondy in September 2022 and they noticed the slip lane was closed for Shake Shack construction. Bondy, who co-hosts a podcast about Portland with Stickler, said he felt it should stay that way. “I kind of thought, ‘Well, I don’t think the existing political establishment will be in favor of that. I think that’s a little too extreme’,” Stickler recalls. “But then the more I thought about it, I realized it’s a really bad design.”

Used by drivers to make a two-stage left turn (since left turns are not allowed off Burnside), the slip lane (which is actually SW Oak Street that sets off diagonally and creates a triangle-shaped cutout at Burnside) dumped drivers into the far left lane of SW 10th Avenue. And since the left lane is left-turn only, anyone wanting to go north on 10th had only 19 feet to merge across the lane. Making matters worse is that many drivers would nudge into the crosswalk in order to encourage cross-traffic to stop. Backups at this intersection were common, and they would often cause delays in the streetcar which runs in one of the middle lanes. “I just remember it being a disaster,” Stickler said. “It’s dangerous and ineffective.”

So Stickler dove head-first into researching the issue and before the end of the month he’d created a presentation that laid out the problems and his solution: a new public plaza he called the Burnside Pocket Park. He then used his position on the Land Use & Transportation Committee of the Downtown Neighborhood Association to curry support and the group ended up endorsing his plan. In a letter to City Council, the DNA wrote that the plaza would, “Greatly improve pedestrian safety, create a vibrant public place near one of the central city’s foremost destinations, and improve traffic flow at this key intersection…. Pedestrianizing this prime corner is everyone’s interest, and we request that the city do so as soon as possible.”

With wind in his sails, Stickler then crossed over Burnside into the Pearl District and presented to their neighborhood association. They loved it too. In their November 8th letter, the Pearl District Neighborhood Association wrote, “We are hopeful that implementing this plaza will provide a key placemaking opportunity at a time when the City is strongly encouraging visitors to return downtown, and will further bridge the divide between the Pearl and Downtown neighborhoods.”

“If I died today I accomplished nothing else in life, I will have at least made that one intersection suck a little bit less.”
– Xavier Stickler

Luckily for Stickler, the idea already had some momentum before he got involved. Closing the slip lane has been in various city plans going back as far as 2007. The 2015 West Quadrant Plan called on the city to, “Explore opportunities for consolidating and/or redeveloping Burnside’s ‘jug handles’ (triangular shaped spaces) into public spaces.”

With both neighborhoods in his corner, he fired off a letter to Portland City Council and by April he had confirmed with the PBOT project manager that he won: The slip lane would not be reopened to cars and would become a plaza! PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera says it’s called Pod Plaza (after the name of the sculpture nearby) and is part of the city’s growing Street Plaza Program. Rivera added that they expect to make this project permanent with more significant capital enhancements coming in 2024.

It’s a great victory for Stickler and his friend Bradley Bondy, both of whom are part of a youth movement in the urbanism scene who first connected in the Portland chapter of the “NUMTOT” (New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens) Facebook group which is known as MAXed Out Memes for Overcast Teens. “This was a flatly bad intersection, so it was admittedly low-hanging fruit,” Stickler acknowledged. “But I am extremely pleased. If I died today I accomplished nothing else in life, I will have at least made that one intersection suck a little bit less.”

And he hopes it will lead to more transformations. “I hope this can be a good reminder to downtown interests and neighborhood associations that active transportation and public places are not the enemy — they’re our greatest asset. Projects like this are what draw people to Portland: goofy-little pockets of charm and street life. We need more of them, not less!”

@bikeportland Let’s go #Portland! This is the type of advocacy and PBOT action we need. Instead of a slip lane at W Burnside & 10th, we now have this plaza filled with beautiful people. #numtot #urbanism #publicspace #portlandoregon #shakeshack @SHAKE SHACK ♬ original sound – BikePortland

Job: Development Director – Community Cycling Center

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Development Director

Company / Organization

Community Cycling Center

Job Description

Organizational Overview
We love Portland and bikes. So we put our two loves together 29 years ago, creating a nonprofit
organization on a mission to broaden access to bicycling and its benefits. Our goal is to help create a
healthy, sustainable Portland for all community members. Our vision is to help build a vibrant community
where people of all backgrounds use bicycles to stay healthy and connected. We believe that all
Portlanders—regardless of income or background—should have the opportunity to experience the joy,
freedom and health benefits of bicycling. This is the motivation behind everything we do.

In addition to delivering dynamic programs that benefit underserved communities, we operate a
full-service bike shop in NE Portland that is staffed by experienced mechanics from diverse cycling
backgrounds. To stay relevant and provide stronger financial support to our essential bike programs, we
are in the process of changing this model to a membership space that aims to offer fee-for-service
educational opportunities. We also collaborate with numerous partners to generate pathways to
numerous supports to meet the needs of our community.

The Community Cycling Center is an equal opportunity employer and strongly values diversity, equity and
inclusion. Individuals with diverse backgrounds, abilities and experiences are encouraged to apply.

JOB SUMMARY

The Development Director at the Community Cycling Center plays an integral role in ensuring the
strategic direction and financial health of a multi-faceted, community-based nonprofit organization. The
Development Director reports to the Executive Director and maintains overarching leadership and
accountability for prospecting, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding diverse revenue streams. They
directly supervise the development team, participate in annual budgeting, and help lead strategic
long-range planning efforts. The Development Director is expected to manage a 1M budget and to
individually bring in a minimum of $500,000 across all revenue streams during their first 365 days.

This is a fully remote position with opportunities to co-work with teammates in person.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Please note that the percentage indicators below represent an estimate of how much time each week will
be spent fulfilling these functions. In terms of importance, all areas are valued equally. In all aspects of
this position, we expect you to lead with racial and restorative justice with all of your work, and actively
practice Community Centric Fundraising methodologies

Strategic Fund Development (60%)
● Work as part of the Organizational Leadership Team (all staff Directors) and Board of Directors to design the
organization’s annual budget, and be a voice in larger organizational decisions.
● Provide leadership and direction for all revenue-generating activities related to individual donors, foundation/government grants, government contracts, corporate sponsors,
fundraising events, and strategic partnerships. Use data analytics as your strategic compass while planning, and pivoting when necessary.
● Assume primary responsibility for designing and executing strategies to secure gifts of significant value ($10K-$100K) and for cultivating and stewarding relationships with those donors, including events
● Strategize and oversee the Development Manager and Communications & Marketing Coordinator an integrated marketing plan: media relations, digital campaigns, mailers, Impact Reports, the CCC billboard, annual program video, and more.
● Utilize the Salesforce database to input and track specific cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship actions for constituents in a timely manner.
● Provide support to the Board of Directors and ED in planning, developing, and achieving Board-led fundraising activities and goals.

Leadership & Management (25%)
● Facilitate a successful, evolving development department that upholds the mission of the Community Cycling Center: Development Manager, Grants Manager, a Communications, Marketing Coordinator, and at times one or more contractors.
● Provide and/or support ongoing training for team members, both in development skills and in diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks.
● Ensure open communication between the Development Department and other arms of the organization.
● Partner with the Finance team around reconciliation processes.
● Work as part of the Organizational Leadership Team to participate in and enhance organization-wide work planning and decision making.

Community Mobilization & Development (15%)
● In collaboration with the ED and Development team, cultivate exceptional, transparent, and trusted relationships with supporters in order to elevate the organization’s work and fundraising potential.
● Actively work to bring people together around the Principles of Community-Centric Fundraising and hold an understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Strive to support and uplift all people within the communities we serve, inclusive of a diversity of ethnicities, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, classes, disabilities, ages, and other factors that contribute to a vibrant and thriving region.
● Actively work to diversify our donor and volunteer base so that it reflects broad-based community support for our work and our mission.

QUALIFICATIONS & CHARACTERISTICS
REQUIRED
● A deep appreciation for the mission and values of the Community Cycling Center, as well as an understanding of the unique and complex community development and social justice issues facing Portland residents.
● Practices Community-Centric Fundraising.
● At least 5 years of successful and progressively responsible nonprofit fundraising and resource development experience. At least 2 years of team management experience.
● Demonstrated success in identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major gifts with a proven track record of procuring donations of $5,000+
● Advanced project management skills with success in executing multiple projects with competitive deadlines.
● Every September, must be available to spend a week off-site at Cycle Oregon’s Classic Ride.
● Demonstrated success in identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major donors, corporate partners and foundation relations.
● Innovative, values-driven, self-directed, confident, and action-oriented personality.
● Exceptional, culturally proficient communication skills. Adaptable, accessible, compassionate, and professional demeanor.
● Demonstrated ability to work independently and responsibly, and collaborate effectively.
● High level of proficiency using Microsoft Office programs, QuickBooks, Salesforce, and Asana.
● Experience living in or working in low-income communities and an understanding of barriers to bicycling faced by people living on a low income.

PREFERRED
● Lived experience as a member of a marginalized community.
● Experience using Salesforce.
● Coursework or training in DEI, fundraising, marketing, event planning, and/or other related fields.
● Fluency in one or more languages spoken in Portland’s marginalized communities (e.g., Spanish, Vietnamese, Somali).

How to Apply

Please submit a cover letter and resume by email with “Development Director” as the subject line to jobs@communitycyclingcenter.org.

This announcement was originally posted on May 4, 2023.

The application deadline for this position is 5:00 pm on May 20th, 2023.

Job: Development Manager – Community Cycling Center

Job Title

Development Manager

Company / Organization

Community Cycling Center

Job Description

Status: Salary, Full-time
Union/Non-Union Union, ILWU Local 5
Location: Portland, Oregon
Salary: $55,000
Benefits: Includes medical, dental, life & disability, 401K and more.

Job Summary
The Development Manager plays an integral role in ensuring the financial health of a multi-faceted,
community-based nonprofit organization and storefront business operation. The Development Manager
will report to the Development Director and will support prospecting, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding
individual and corporate revenue streams. They will manage development events, and support strategic
long-range planning efforts.

We expect the Development Manager to individually bring in a minimum of $150,000 across all revenue
streams they manage during their first 365 days. This is a fully remote position with opportunities to
co-work with teammates in person.

Essential Functions
Please note that the percentage indicators below represent an estimate of how much time each week will
be spent fulfilling these functions. In terms of importance, all areas are valued equally. In all aspects of
this position, we expect you to lead with racial and restorative justice with all of your work, and actively
practice Community Centric Fundraising methodologies.

Events (30%)
● Actively work to bring people together around a common language and understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion through our events.
● Manage existing development events in collaboration with the Development team and Program staff.
● Use data analytics to understand the success of events, and demonstrate adaptability to improve results.
● Manage project management systems that collaborate with volunteers and different departments.
● Collaborate with the Communications & Marketing Coordinator to produce all necessary assets & marketing opportunities for event promotions.

Corporate Giving (30%)
● Prospect and solicit new funders to build upon the corporate partner list. Steward pre-committed corporate partners.
● Maintain genuine relations with corporate partners through friendly & persistent touchpoints. Use moves management methods to increase support from corporate partners.
● Ensure all corporate partner sponsorship benefits are met.
● Lead all in-kind donation needs.

Individual Giving (30%)
● Prospect and solicit new individual supporters to build out the individual supporter list. Authentically steward pre-committed corporate supporters, and use moves management to increase their annual support.
● Manage and support solicitation campaigns for individual supporters including but limited to writing winter mailers, newsletters and LinkedIn articles.
● Regularly track and analyze donor data throughout the year. Lead donor strategy with most current analysis.

Administrative and General (10%)
● Collaborate with the Development Director and Executive Director to monitor the annual fund development plan: outlining goals, activities, and timeline for completion with which you are tasked.
● Work with Bike Shop team to identify and improve development and fundraising opportunities at the shop.
● Actively use Salesforce to ensure constituent records are maintained accurately. Input and track specific cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship actions related to major donors and campaign sponsors in a timely manner.
● Work with support staff to ensure acknowledgment letters are sent in a timely fashion.
● Provide support to the Board of Directors and Development Director in planning, developing, and achieving Board-led fundraising activities.

Qualifications & Characteristics
Required
● A deep appreciation for the mission and values of the Community Cycling Center, as well as a thorough understanding of the unique and complex community development and social justice issues facing Portland residents.
● Practices Community-Centric Fundraising.
● At least 2 years of successful and progressively responsible nonprofit fundraising experience.
● Demonstrated success in identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major gifts with a proven track record of procuring donations of $500+
● Experience in social media marketing, MailChimp, WordPress, Canva and soliciting new media relation opportunities.
● Demonstrated ability to work independently and responsibly, and collaborate effectively.
● Innovative, values-driven, self-directed, confident, and action-oriented personality.
● Exceptional, culturally proficient communication skills. Adaptable, accessible, compassionate, and professional demeanor.
● Strong project management, administrative, and organizational skills.
● High level of proficiency using Microsoft Office programs and project management platforms.

Preferred
● Lived experience as a member of a marginalized community.
● Experience using Salesforce.
● Coursework or training in DEI, fundraising, marketing, event planning, and/or other related fields.
● Fluency in one or more languages spoken in Portland’s marginalized communities (e.g., Spanish, Vietnamese, Somali).

How to Apply

Please submit a cover letter and resume by email with “Development Manager” as the subject line to
jobs@communitycyclingcenter.org.

This announcement was originally posted on May 4, 2023.
The application deadline for this position is 5:00 pm on May 20th, 2023.

City of Portland shares idea for transportation utility fee that could raise $54 million

Facing the most dire budget outlook in its modern history, the City of Portland is considering a new fee they hope will spare them financial calamity and a dramatic reduction in services.

This week the bureau revealed what it’s calling a “transportation utility fee” (TUF). The new fee, which PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer described in a phone call with BikePortland as a “temperature read” at its very early stages, could raise between $29 million and $54 million a year.

Under the initial proposal (which was revealed to key stakeholders at The Street Trust and Portland Business Alliance this week) Portland residents would be charged a monthly fee — $8 for single family residential, $5.60 for multifamily residential units — on a utility bill similar to what folks currently get for water or other city services. Businesses would also be charged a flat fee depending on their size. The minimum business fee would be $8 a month, small and medium restaurants and retail shops would be charged $15 or $30 a month respectively. And the fee would be capped at $200 for the largest businesses.

This type of fee is used by over 30 other cities in Oregon and it ranked well in a recent report from Metro (see below).

Here’s the key slide from a presentation PBOT is shopping around:

(From Metro’s 2022 *Equitable Transportation Funding Research Report*.)

PBOT has already been pretty far down the road of a proposal like this. In 2014 the city backed a “transportation users fee” (same acronym as the current one) that would have charged a similar amount. That plan was scrapped after facing strong opposition and was replaced with an income-based tax. That idea didn’t last long either and PBOT backed away from it when they heard from legislators who feared it might hurt their ability to raise statewide transportation taxes in what became the massive House Bill 2017 funding package. The eventually settled on a 10-cent local gas tax increase that was approved by voters in 2016 and then again in 2020.

PBOT says they must do something to address a $60 million revenue shortfall they face over the next five years. The agency has reduced spending on programs, projects, and staff for many years as the gas tax and our share of the state highway fund have gone down while inflation has gone up. The steep reduction in parking meter revenue due to the pandemic has been just the latest nail pounded into the coffin. And recently PBOT has been hit with new, homelessness-related expenses. PBOT currently spends about $4.3 million a year on their derelict RV program and addressing encampments. So far this fiscal year, PBOT has taken 651 RVs off the street at a cost of about $3,000 each ($1.95 million total).

PBOT Commissioner Mingus Mapps and his staff have brought up this line-item several times recently. “We’re kind of roads and bike lane people,” Mapps said at a City Council budget work session in March. “We’ll step out and help the city get better and heal in any way we can. But this city’s dynamic needs, really are placing this particular bureau in a delicate space.”

Slides shown by PBOT at City Council budget work session in March.

Since 2019, PBOT has dipped way into their reserves to stay afloat. But that pot it almost gone and there’s a sense that they’ll drown without new resources. The agency says if they don’t find new revenue, Portlanders will experience “dramatic and visible service reductions” starting next year.

“We’ve expended almost all of our reserves. We have no more couch cushion money to help subsidize ourselves going forward after this year,” Schafer said. “We’ve kind of quietly been covering ourselves with our reserve money through the pandemic, but that’s running out and we aren’t making enough to put more in that bank.” At the start of fiscal year 2024, PBOT estimates they’ll have just $7 million in reserves and will completely exhaust it to cover required cuts (see image above, on right).

At the monthly meeting of the Portland Freight Advisory Committee this morning, Commissioner Mapps began to lay groundwork for the vast political lift he’s embarked on. He didn’t mention the new fee proposal (which I’m sure members of the committee will not be happy about), but he painted a bleak picture. “I’ll be transparent with you folks,” he said. “The only way we kept people out of float over the last couple of years is we dipped into our reserve funds. Today I find myself in a situation where my reserves are pretty close to zero and certainly within the next two years we’ll be at zero.” Mapps said the city faces an “existential challenge” that would soon reach a point where it can no longer be confined solely to the transportation bureau.

“Next year when I face really severe budget cuts, one of the things I’m going to have to do in order to keep services going is go to my colleagues on council and ask them to subsidize PBOT through the general fund,” Mapps continued. “Which basically means that the cancer which is beginning to consume PBOT will metastasize through our entire government.” Put clearly, this means PBOT would compete directly for funding with bureaus like fire and police. Another thing Mapps was alluding to with his cancer reference was that starting next year, the agency will be integrated with the water and environmental services bureaus as part of the “public works” department and will file a joint budget.

“So there’s a new level of urgency,” Schafer explained about the governance change. “Our big problems will start to become problems for the entire city.”

Selected slides from PBOT transportation utility fee presentation. (Download PDF)

Mapps has grappled with this challenge since he took over the bureau five months ago. At a City Council work session in January, he asked the city’s Chief Administrative Officer Michael Jordan for his opinion about asking voters to support a bond measure to fund transportation. (At that same meeting, Jordan put the state of PBOT’s budget in very stark terms. “To be honest Transportation is slowly going out of business… and it’s going to get worse instead of better,” he said.)

Mapps and budgeting staff at PBOT have been clear in meetings in recent months that no single source of new revenue will suffice. This new utility fee would be just one way they address the issue. “We have a basket of options here,” Mapps said to his Council colleagues back in March. “I have a bias towards having multiple funding streams.”

PBOT Business Services Group Director Jeremy Patton told Mayor Ted Wheeler and the rest of Council at that budget work session in March that PBOT could double the local gas tax (that funds the Fixing Our Streets program) from 10-cents to 20-cents. But Patton and others at PBOT and City Hall know they have to tread lightly. Voters have overwhelmingly passed that tax increase twice in the past, but this is a different era and government distrust and general public anxiety are at all-time highs. If PBOT asks voters for a larger gas tax increase and it fails, the agency would lose not just the additional revenue, but the entire program that currently raises about $16 million a year for essential paving and safety projects would be gone.

The push for a utility fee will be very hard and will come with significant political peril, but Mapps seems more than willing to take it on.

At that budget work session in March, Mayor Wheeler turned to Mapps and said, “Given that the next time we turn around, 10 years will have gone by and we could have a $193 million revenue gap. What’s the plan?”

“Mayor,” Mapps replied. “I think that comes down to political leadership. It’s my job to come up with a plan and I will… I’m convinced that we can get this right.”

New diverter on NW Vaughn will prohibit driver turns and improve greenway

Intersection of NW Vaughn and 24th looking east toward the Fremont Bridge.

In defense of a bike-friendly street and with a goal to stop drivers from cutting through a dense residential neighborhood, the City of Portland plans to construct a median island in the middle of an intersection in northwest.

The median will be installed on NW Vaughn and 24th. It’s a key crossing of the north-south, NW 24th Avenue neighborhood greenway route and the project was first identified through PBOT’s NW In Motion plan (see below).

A mailer sent to nearby homes by PBOT at the end of April said, “The project will improve safety and reduce cut-through traffic on neighborhood streets in the Northwest District, creating a safer, more comfortable connection. The project will make it easier for people on foot and bike to cross NW Vaughn.” Another stated goal of the project is to lower the amount of drivers who cut-through onto the greenway and to make it easier and safer for bikers and walkers to cross Vaughn.

As you can see in the plan drawing above, for drivers going north on 24th toward Vaughn, only right turns will be allowed. And from Vaughn, only right turns onto 24th will be permitted. Folks coming off I-5 who want to get to destinations like the shops on NW Thurman or Forest Park won’t be able to turn left at 24th. Instead they’ll need to go a block further west to a signalized intersection at 25th.

The project will add to already completed additions of speed bumps and five recently improved crossings on 24th from Flanders to Vaughn.

As per usual, PBOT will build the new median and crossing with temporary materials, then monitor traffic changes for six months before installing permanent materials. Construction is expected to begin in July 2023.

Portland lawmakers push for $100 million to fix and transfer Powell Blvd

$100 million. That’s the estimated amount it would take for the City of Portland to take over control and ownership of Southeast Powell Boulevard from the State of Oregon. Throw in recommended safety upgrades and the price could rise to between $115 to $185 million. Or if we just opted for a few appetizers instead of the full meal, we could get a significant list of safety projects done for $15-30 million.

That was the menu of options delivered to members of the SE Powell Safety Workgroup on April 26th via a presentation shared by the Oregon Department of Transportation and Portland Bureau of Transportation. The presentation laid out the projects it would take to bring the urban arterial highway (a.k.a. Highway 26) up to a “state of good repair.” That’s the condition PBOT requires before they will agree to a jurisdictional transfer.

Portland advocates and officials have long wanted SE Powell Blvd to come under local control for many of the same reasons that process was recently completed for 82nd Avenue: ODOT has proven to be incapable of managing “orphan highways” in a way that centers human life and neighborhood livability. On 82nd Avenue, the transfer happened after two people were killed by drivers trying to cross the road in separate crashes less than two weeks apart. On Powell, an effort to take the road out of ODOT’s hands was sparked last October after Portlander Sarah Pliner was hit and killed by a right-turning truck driver as she attempted to bike across Powell. That incident, which happened right outside Cleveland High School and a popular park, touched off a wide-ranging effort from a group of advocates, school officials, neighborhood residents, and elected leaders that have met monthly since Pliner’s death.

That workgroup has been instrumental in creating the pressure and partnership needed for PBOT and ODOT to make numerous changes to the area around where Pliner was killed. On October 6th, just two days after Pliner died, then PBOT Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said, “Enough is enough. The neglect of state-owned ODOT roads within Portland is why we recently brought 82nd Avenue under local control, and we must now begin the process of transferring Southeast Powell Blvd along with funds that cover the true cost of the needed safety improvements all along the boulevard.” Hardesty then brought a resolution to City Council that initiated work with ODOT to, “determine what it would take to improve the street to city and community standards for safety and maintenance for a future jurisdictional transfer.”

Hardesty was not the only one who wanted to switch Powell from state to local control. In 2017, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill (HB 2017) that required ODOT to study the issue. That led to the 2019 State of Good Repair Study that estimated the cost to be around $31 million — less than a third of the current estimate. A report published by Metro in 2020 ranked all potential jurisdictional transfers in the region and Powell was at the top of the list. Like other ODOT highways, Powell has a disproportionate number of serious injury and fatality crashes and there’s a strong consensus that ODOT should stick to managing freeways and leave local roads to local agencies.

Since the push for a safer Powell began back in October, ODOT and PBOT have lowered speed limits, beefed up schools zones, improved crossings, added new signage and pavement markings, and more. But it’s not enough.

Lawmakers who are part of the Safety Workgroup — House representatives Mark Gamba, Khanh Pham, Rob Nosse and Senator Kathleen Taylor — want more. Taylor, who has children at Cleveland High School, has spearhead the effort. After hearing the presentation at the April 26th meeting, she submitted a formal letter (PDF) to the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means saying funding for this Powell transfer was one of her top priorities.

Just two years ago the legislature came up with $80 million for the 82nd Avenue transfer and Taylor and her fellow lawmakers feel their case for Powell is just as strong.

If they don’t get the funding this session, there’s a plan B already in effect. House Bill 2793 (-2 amendment) was filed just two weeks ago by Oregon House Rep. Ben Bowman, a Democrat who represents Tigard and Beaverton. The bill seeks to create a new Jurisdictional Transfer Advisory Committee within ODOT that Nosse says will, “set up a process to stage and vet jurisdictional transfers and set us up to find a source of funding for them.” Bowman is another member of the coalition of legislators who want more local control of ODOT highways and is chief sponsor of HB 2756, a bill that would transfer SW Hall Blvd (OR-141) to the City of Tigard.

(Note: Both HB 2756 and 2793 have a public hearing at the Joint Committee on Transportation tomorrow.)

For their part, ODOT and PBOT say there are some disadvantages to jurisdictional transfer — especially when it comes to Powell Blvd. In their presentation to the Workgroup they said the transfer could slow down the delivery of “most urgent” safety projects because the required and “less urgent” state of good repair projects would focus initially on pavement maintenance and repair projects instead of things like safer bike crossings and speed enforcement. They also issued a warning: “With the City’s current capacity constraints and large capital program, projects on Powell would likely not be delivered until 2030,” the presentation stated. Another point to consider is that once the road is transferred it would no longer be eligible for funding through ODOT’s Great Streets grant program which is only for state-owned highways.

Instead of going straight for the transfer, PBOT and ODOT recommend starting with $15-30 million in safety projects that would include:

Enhanced pedestrian crossing at SE 36th Ave – $500,000

Add enhanced pedestrian crossings at existing marked crossings – $3M each (Potential locations include 45th Ave, 54th Ave, between 57th/58th Ave, 61st Ave, 75th Ave, 84th Ave)

School zone + safe route improvements in Creston area – $3M

School zone + safe route improvements in Kellogg area – $3M

Signal timing and ITS improvements – $6M

School speed zones and safe routes improvements on other state-owned arterials – $3.5M per school for 10 schools located on / adjacent to state highways in Portland

With the budget picture at PBOT abysmal right now and with Senator Taylor and her colleagues’ influence at the legislature, it seems the best bet is that this coalition comes away from the session with funding to get started on these immediate safety projects. Stay tuned.

Business expansion adjacent to 40-Mile Loop path could impact bicycling

Purple line is the bike route. Business is in upper left. Columbia River is just north of Marine Drive.

Note: This story is just a heads-up at something that is changing next to a popular bike route. I am not “against the business” or casting aspersions at their decisions. Thank you. – Jonathan.

At Portland City Council this week, a business owner be formally granted ownership of what is currently public right-of-way as part of an expansion and development of their lot on the southwest corner of Northeast Marine Drive and 33rd Avenue.

Those of you who ride bikes in the area will recognize the location as the spot where the Marine Drive bike path begins to head eastward toward Mt. Hood. This move comes as the business owner plans significant changes on the site could have impacts on the bicycling environment.

The owner of the four acre parcel, WPC Marine, LLC wants to add services to its existing Herc Rentals business. According to city land use filings, changes coming to the lot include a new vehicle washing station and a diesel and gas refueling station. 15-22 new parking spaces will also be added (some developments to this lot have already been made). The reason this came to City Council is because the business owner wants the City of Portland to “vacate” an existing public right-of-way that bisects the property. Turns out that city plans at one time included a slip lane to be built through the property between Marine Drive and 33rd. That lane was never built, but with these changes, the business owner wants to make it official and has asked the city for a street vacation — a process wherein the city gives up its rights to public right-of-way.

As part of giving this business owner permission to make requested changes, the City of Portland will require them to close the northern driveway entrance off Marine Drive and to have only one driveway entering the site. That driveway will be only about 80 feet from the entrance to the bike path. Given that this business is adding new uses and services at this location, it’s possible bicycle riders could experience more motor vehicle traffic on this frontage road that connects to the path. In city filings, PBOT said since Herc Rentals focuses primarily on business-to-business sales, “few clients will visit the site, and the parking area is primarily expected to serve employees and a small number of potential clients visiting the site for informational purposes.” However, since the company rents trucks and other equipment that will arrive on trucks, PBOT also notes that, “It will have a much higher share of large freight vehicles loading and unloading on-site.”

Here’s more from PBOT’s traffic impact analysis:

PBOT’s review results in closures of existing driveways at NE Marine and NE 33rd Drives, and reconfiguring of the site’s main driveway entrance at NE 33rd Drive. These required physical improvements to the vehicle circulation on and off the site will improve safety for drivers as well as bicyclists and pedestrians who use the public trail east of the site.

I’m still unclear how directing all traffic to and from the business to the southern driveway off the same NE 33rd Ave frontage road used by the bicycle riders to access the path makes it safer. As you can see in the drawing below (lower right of image), large trucks are shown using the same short section of road that bicycle riders will be on to access the path.

The gold line is the bike path easement through the property.

Another interesting aspect of this project is that the new footprint of Herc Rentals will be solidly over the existing eastment for a future extension of the bike path. 40-Mile Loop plans call for the path to continue west of its current termination at 33rd Avenue. As you can see in the plan drawings, the gold line shows a 30-foot wide bike path easement on the southern edge of the property right underneath where the business owner plans to store trucks, trailers and other equipment. “This alignment will maintain the intent of having a trail connection while also minimizing potential conflicts between future trail users and the industrial and commercial services of the property,” the city states.

So, in exchange for extinguishing rights to the old slip lane right-of-way, the City of Portland has reaffirmed that when the time comes to build this new section of path, WPC Marine will be required to grant public access to the property. “The public shall have the right to use the Easement Area as a public recreational trail,” reads the trail easement agreement. “The City may permit the public to access the trail for recreational and transportation purposes, including, without limitation, walking, running, cycling, and skating.”

Marquam Hill road closure leaves cyclists in the lurch

Looking north on SW Marquam Hill Rd as it turns into Gibbs St.

*** Update, 5/16/2023: The SW Gibbs Street closure has been extended another week until May 19th according to a sign posted at the site. ***

Cyclists and pedestrians scrambled to find alternate routes to the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) on Monday, the first day of a two-week road closure at the western entrance to the Marquam Hill campus.

SW Gibbs Street is the only direct access to OHSU from the west and its closure has left OHSU employees and students who walk and cycle to work in a lurch. Although the closure is marked with detour signs, the detour is only practical for drivers.

Early this morning, I followed the marked detour from the east end of the Gibbs closure down the hill to the city center, and then back up Marquam Hill along SW Broadway Dr, and then took the Fairmount loop to campus. That’s right, this two-block Gibbs closure has been assigned a four and a half-mile detour, involving elevation changes of several hundred feet. And as the sign says, cyclists and pedestrians should take this route too!

Marquam Hill Trail between Marquam Hill Rd and SW 12 Ave.

As a service to the community, allow me to suggest an alternate detour for sure-footed cyclists (below). This involves taking one of the Marquam Nature Park trails from near the water tank on SW Marquam Hill Rd to SW 12th Ave. It’s a short trail, not flat, but you can walk it with a bicycle.

I’ve learned that some pedestrians are also taking the “Whitaker easement,” which you can reach from Marquam Hill Rd by going up the staircase near the pump house of the same water facilities.

If you don’t want to dismount, and are OK with adding about a half hour to your commute, a scenic (and safer) alternative to the official detour is shown along Fairmount Blvd to Terwilliger.

That gets the practical matter of how to get to work out of the way. Now I can focus on how poorly this has been handled. Gibbs Street is closed directly in front of the new apartment building BikePortland has been covering, the one with the frontage on which the city will not allow the developer to build a sidewalk. The closure is most certainly for utility hookups and shoulder widening.

The city, for its part, has gone from treating people who don’t commute by car as an after-thought, to not considering them at all. Maybe it is not possible to keep open a four-foot wide path through the utility hookups. Maybe. But a group of city reviewers who did not see the need for a protected sidewalk on the dangerous curve at the building’s frontage, might also not have given much thought to what pedestrians and cyclists might need during the road closure.

The beauty of bike racing on full display, every Monday at PIR (Photo Gallery)

In case you were wondering, Portland’s bike racing scene is alive and well. Turnout at early season races has everyone buzzing and last night’s huge crowds at the Monday Night PIR race will continue that narrative.

Portland International Raceway (PIR) is built on a place that used to be known as Vanport, a city built around public housing for shipbuilders that thrived in the 1940s before it was wiped out by a flood. By the 1960s, car enthusiasts discovered its flat paved roads and several acres of the land were developed into a racetrack. On Monday nights in spring that racetrack and its perfectly paved roads are filled with bicycle riders. Last night was the second of seven weeks where the loud motors of car engines are replaced by the whir of freewheels and gasoline is replaced by water as the main fuel of racers.

I love being out at PIR. It’s more of a natural area than most people realize. The land west of I-5 between Marine Drive and the Columbia Slough is dotted with lakes and wetlands, many of which are still thriving thanks to most of the land still being relatively undeveloped. It’s a beautiful backdrop for a bicycle race. The fact that cars usually dominate the track, makes it all the more sweet to watch human-powered racing machines fly over the roads.

For bike racers, it’s a very hard course because there’s nowhere to hide from the wind. The wide open land, long straightaways, and lack of sharp turns, means that survival is only guaranteed if you are well tucked into the pack. The loud “whooosh” the pack makes is a reminder of how much wind it breaks for those inside. Despite the race’s unforgiving elements, I saw a huge range of people giving it a go. On any given Monday night, you’ll see some folks at their first-ever race and others who’ve ridden at elite levels. One thing they all have in common when the whistle blows and the lap cards fly is the pain they feel and the dedication they have to push through it and reach the finish. This experience creates a natural bond between everyone that has shared it, and there’s a strong local community of bike racers as a result.

These folks take part in a beautiful sport. The colors of their uniforms and wind-cheating bicycles cut through the landscape, propelled by nothing other than their own power pushing forward a simple drivetrain of gears and a chain. Floating through space, often on free energy supplied by the peloton, racers escape the ordinary. At PIR on Mondays you can almost do that one thing so many of us have dreamed about since we were kids. You can actually fly!

Check the full gallery over on Flickr. Visit RaceMondayNight.com for more information. And for a full schedule of upcoming races, browse the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association calendar.

Job: Bicycle Mechanic/Sales – Backpedal Cycleworks

Job Title

Bicycle Mechanic/Sales

Company / Organization

Backpedal Cycleworks

Job Description

Do you thrive on connections and fostering relationships? Listen carefully to what your customers are asking for in terms of expections and meeting their budget? Project confidence and competence with all things bike?

Backpedal Cycleworks, a favorite local SE Portland bike shop around since 2009, is seeking a people focused skilled wrench for a 20+ hour/week sale/mechanic position.

Must have:
Bike shop mechanic experience
Able to wrestle heavy and awkward non-traditional and electric assist bikes into a repair stand
People skills
Bike shop repair traffic juggling skills
Organizitional talents

Bonus points for:
Working knowledge of Lightspeed Retail POS
Basic IT skills
Sense of humor

$18-$22/hr based on experience
Employee discounts

How to Apply

Email resume to dave@bpcycleworks.com

Amazing journeys will be shared at two bike book events this week

The authors of both books will be in Portland this week.

In 2003 I was busy building my media relations and marketing business when I was contacted by Paula Holmes-Eber and Lorenz Eber: They had cycled tandems around the world with their 11 and 13-year-old daughters and they wanted me to help them get on the news in every town they cycled through on the last leg of the journey in North America. Even back then, before I raised two daughters of my own, it seemed like an amazing project. So I said, “yes!”. Suffice it to say they were one of my favorite clients.

Fast forward twenty years, and the Ebers are still riding. In fact, they biked from their home in Seattle down the west coast as part of a promotional tour for their new book, Breathtaking: How one family cycled around the world for clean air and asthma, published last summer by Falcon.

And this Sunday (May 7th) they’ll speak at the REI store in the Pearl District. If you’re looking for bike adventure inspiration, you should put this event on your calendar. Not only did Paula and Lorenz survive this trip with their young daughters, they lived to write about it! They have loads of family biking and camping advice to share and many stories to tell. They also completed their journey to raise awareness of asthma and funds for their nonprofit World Bike For Breath.

Learn more about the REI event here. And follow the Ebers on their website or via Instagram at @Bike4Breath.

And there’s another book event this week: On Wednesday, former reporter for The Oregonian, George Rede, will have a conversation with author David Goodrich at Powell’s City of Books. They’ll talk about Goodrich’s new book, On Freedom Road: Bicycle Explorations and Reckonings on the Underground Railroad. Here’s the blurb on what sounds like a fascinating book and a great event:

The traces of the Underground Railroad hide in plain sight: a great church in Philadelphia; a humble old house backing up to the New Jersey Turnpike; an industrial outbuilding in Ohio. Over the course of four years, climate scientist David Goodrich rode his bicycle 3,000 miles east of the Mississippi to travel the routes of the Underground Railroad and delve into the history and stories in the places where they happened. He followed the most famous of conductors, Harriet Tubman, from where she was enslaved in Maryland, on the eastern shore, all the way to her family sanctuary at a tiny chapel in Ontario, Canada. Travelling South, he rode from New Orleans, where the enslaved were bought and sold, through Mississippi and the heart of the Delta Blues. As we pedal along with him, Goodrich brings us to the Borderland along the Ohio River, a kind of no-mans-land between North and South in the years before the Civil War. Here, slave hunters roamed both banks of the river, trying to catch people as they fled for freedom. We travel to Oberlin, Ohio, a town that staunchly defended freedom seekers, embodied in the life of Lewis Leary, who was lost in the fires of Harpers Ferry, but his spirit was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance. On Freedom Road (Pegasus) enables us to see familiar places in a very different light: from the vantage point of desperate people seeking to outrun the reach of slavery. Join in this journey to find the heroes and stories, both known and hidden, of the Underground Railroad. Goodrich will be joined in conversation by George Rede, veteran Oregon journalist and retired adjunct instructor.

In other book news, Seattle Bike Blog founder Tom Fucoloro has written a book! Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from behind the Handlebars is due out this August from University of Washington Press and you can pre-order it here.

Comment of the Week: How city council siphoned away transportation funds

Welcome to the Comment of the Week, where we highlight good comments in order to inspire more of them. You can help us choose our next one by replying with “comment of the week” to any comment you think deserves recognition. Please note: These selections are not endorsements.

I like comments which make me work and David Hampsten delivered again. This time with historical insight on Taylor’s recent transportation funding woes post.

David served on the Transportation Budget Advisory Committee (TBAC) over a decade ago (now called the Bureau Budget Advisory Committee) and he has a deep knowledge of Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) funding difficulties. Nevertheless, I decided to minimally fact check his comment and ended up spending a wonderful couple of hours reading of decades-old policy debates and looming transportation budget crises.

Unfortunately, this 2011 warning from the TBAC to the Mayor and City Council still holds: “The challenges facing PBOT in the development of a multi-modal transportation system in the City are significant. The resources available are extremely limited.”

Here’s what David had to say about the hapless history of transportation funding in Portland:

I was on the TBAC [Transportation Budget Advisory Committee] when the street fee was discussed in 2013. The reason it completely failed to gain any traction was the Utility License Fee. The ULF was passed by City Council in 1988 to fund street repairs – any utility company that cuts into the street, both public and private, pays for the cost of repaving that cut, but the repaving is delayed to accumulate enough fees to pay for a street repave or even a rebuild. The rate was set high enough to keep Portland’s city streets constantly repaired for pretty much forever.

But guess what happened to the accumulated revenue? Since these funds are not required by law to be used for streets or their intended purpose, City Council then took the funds and spent them on parks, police, housing, fire, and so on – at first it was 20% of the ULF, then 40%, and now it’s 97% – less than 3% actually goes to PBOT.

The basic lesson is that any revenue raised by the city for street maintenance has to be in a form that city council cannot legally take away the funds under any circumstances – if they can, then ultimately they will do so, usually sooner rather than later – and so raising the gas tax was the only reasonable and viable alternative given council’s long-term misbehavior.

Interestingly, Washington County currently is finding itself in a similar situation to what David describes above, although through a different funding mechanism. Still, his warning and advice applies.

Thank you David Hampsten. You can find David’s comment and the rest of the discussion under the original post.

How a young urbanist turned a slip lane into Portland’s newest plaza

Job: Development Director – Community Cycling Center

Job Title

Company / Organization

Job Description

How to Apply

Job: Development Manager – Community Cycling Center

Job Title

Company / Organization

Job Description

How to Apply

City of Portland shares idea for transportation utility fee that could raise $54 million

New diverter on NW Vaughn will prohibit driver turns and improve greenway

Portland lawmakers push for $100 million to fix and transfer Powell Blvd

Business expansion adjacent to 40-Mile Loop path could impact bicycling

Marquam Hill road closure leaves cyclists in the lurch

The beauty of bike racing on full display, every Monday at PIR (Photo Gallery)

Job: Bicycle Mechanic/Sales – Backpedal Cycleworks

Job Title

Company / Organization

Job Description

How to Apply

Amazing journeys will be shared at two bike book events this week

Comment of the Week: How city council siphoned away transportation funds

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From the Archives

More biking = better driving. So why isn’t this said more often?