BikePortland

City will meet with neighbors about planned removal of tree and traffic circle

Flyer posted at NE 7th and Tillamook. (Photo: Aaron P.)

An unexpected meeting has been scheduled to take place tomorrow (Wednesday, September 14th) between the City of Portland and people who live around NE Tillamook and 7th Avenue.

At issue is the tree and traffic circle in the middle of offset intersection that was scheduled to be removed as part of the Lloyd to Woodlawn Neighborhood Greenway project. As we reported earlier this month, the Portland Bureau of Transportation planned to remove the traffic circle to improve visibility and overall safety of the intersection. It’s part of a construction project that began September 5th and is expected to last until mid-October.

But as word of the project spread in the past few weeks, some neighbors say they’re concerned that taking out the traffic circle might actually make the street less safe. A tipster (thanks Aaron P!) sent us a flyer today about the meeting that reads,

“You know how fast cars drive with a traffic circle here? Imagine a future with nothing but some paint on the road at this intersection. Please join us tomorrow evening to share your concerns with the city while we still have a chance to make a difference.”

PBOT spokesperson Hannah Schafer confirmed tomorrow’s meeting in a phone call today and said it’s being held in response to concerns raised by some folks in the neighborhood around the removal of the traffic circle that emerged after they were notified of the planned construction (keep in mind PBOT has made it public they plan to remove this circle since early 2020). “We realize that sometimes our plans can seem counterintuitive,” Schafer said. “Like, removing a traffic circle doesn’t seem like a safety improvement; but our engineers feel it’s causing more safety concerns then it’s helping.”

Schafer, who wanted to make it clear the neighbors are “pro-biking and excited about the project in general”, said traffic circles are outdated and PBOT engineers have new tools in their toolbox to manage traffic. At the meeting, Schafer said neighbors will hear more about why PBOT is confident in their plans and why the intersection will be safer without the traffic circle.

PBOT is also likely to hear angst about removing a mature tree when shade and clean air are of such value. Others have voiced concerns about whether or not the new plan will do enough to calm car and truck traffic.

“We’re looking forward to hearing from the community,” she added.

It would be helpful if PBOT had made their final design and striping plan public. But so far they haven’t shared it. Schafer says it should be on the project website “shortly.” (UPDATE: See design below!)

If you’d like to attend the meeting, be at NE Tillamook and 7th at 6:00 pm tomorrow (Wednesday, 9/14) night.

Here’s the PBOT design plan for the intersection just posted on the project website on 9/13 at 6:00 pm (or so):

Sorting out the family bike pile problem

The one you want is always hardest to detangle. (Photos: Shannon Johnson/BikePortland)

Family Bike Parking Problem #1: The Bike Pile

Does anyone else have a “bike pile” in the garage? My kids’ bikes, scooters, helmets, tricycles, and whatever else – jackets, nerf guns, jump ropes–always seem to end up in a giant heap, with the desired bicycle perpetually at the bottom of the pile. After months of digging and tripping over bicycles, my husband finally had enough.

We needed a better family bike parking setup. Most of the bike parking solutions we’ve seen have involved hanging bikes on various hooks and hangers. We didn’t want any vertical hanging options because we want our kids to be able to access and park their bikes without our help. And I don’t want to have to hang bikes up, or wrestle them down, every time a kid, or all five kids, want to ride. We needed a way to keep the bikes orderly and easily kid-accessible. And my husband wanted to keep costs low. Spending money on a fancy bike rack was not an option.

After a little consideration, my husband found a solution online. It’s a cheap, easy DIY bike rack that the kids can use without help, and it even includes scooter-parking. My husband made it all with scrap wood and someone’s free leftover paint. As a final touch, he added a few hooks for hanging up helmets. Finally, we have bike parking, instead of a bike pile!

Family Bike Parking Problem #2: No Garage

If we were still living in our previous rental (a two-bedroom duplex with an open parking lot and no garage) I don’t think I would own a bike today.Without bike parking, I wouldn’t be biking.

As we tackled our own bike-pile problem, I began to think more about family bike parking issues. We have a big family, and it just so happens that – for the first time in our lives – we also have a big garage. This makes parking our bikes at home feel easy, weather-proof, and secure. However, we haven’t ever had a garage prior to this. In the past decade, we’ve lived in six different places, and we’ve never had a garage before. In a few spots, I kept a personal bike in a spare room, or even a corner of the kitchen, and in a shed, in a rental unit shared laundry room, and on a covered front porch.

For a single person, it might not be a big deal to store a bike on an apartment wall, or in the living room. But the bike storage dilemma gets bigger if your family size grows (especially when living space doesn’t keep pace). For families living in an apartment, condo, or garage-free house, it’s a real issue to figure out how to store one or two adult bikes, plus two or three kid bikes, a bike trailer, a tag-along, scooters, or — good grief! — a cargo bike.

In fact, if we were still living in our previous rental (a two-bedroom duplex with an open parking lot and no garage) I don’t think I would own a bike today. I’m certain I would not have purchased a cargo bike, and I wouldn’t even have considered buying a family e-bike. For me to invest the money in a cargo bike, and then an e-cargo-bike, I needed to be able to sleep at night, knowing my investment was safe. I’d want the bike covered and secure, and easy to get in and out. To be clear: without bike parking, I wouldn’t be biking.

That realization has set me thinking. Is bike parking a limiting factor for families who might otherwise bike? What options exist for biking families without private garages? And is there something to be done about it? Can we add more bike parking in our city? Is it needed? If so, what should that bike parking look like? How can we better accommodate the unique bike parking needs of families (longer bikes, large box bikes, scooters, pile of kid bikes, bike trailer, tandem bike, bike with tag-along: many of these common family bike scenarios don’t fit easily on a standard bike rack)?

I hate to think that a lack of parking would prevent anyone from riding a bike. Tell me, especially garage-free folks, how do you park your family bike(s)? Has a lack of parking ever prevented you from getting a bike? And if you could make bike parking better for your family, what would a better situation look like?

Colorado’s impressive push for e-bike riders has Oregon advocates inspired

The state of Colorado is pedaling circles around other states and local governments when it comes to getting its residents on electric bikes. And Oregon advocates are envious.

Rachel Hultin, sustainable transportation director at nonprofit Bicycle Colorado, shared an update on their efforts at Portland’s Electric Bikes for All working group meeting last week. From what Hultin shared, it’s evident Coloradans have realized electric bikes can be a serious tool to replace car trips.

Here’s what they’re up to…

City of Denver

The City of Denver has an e-bike rebate program funded through the city’s voter-approved Climate Protection Fund sales tax. All Denver residents are eligible for a $400 e-bike credit, and income-qualified residents can receive $1,200. Plus, there’s an additional $500 available for people buying more expensive e-cargo bikes, which many families can testify is a great substitute for the gas-guzzling minivan as a way to schlep their kids around.

In order to qualify for Denver’s e-bike rebate program, which offers 2,000 vouchers a month on a first-come, first-serve basis (they were snatched up in nine minutes this month!), you have to buy your bike from a shop with a brick-and-mortar retail location in Denver. As such, e-bike sales have boomed, demonstrating another benefit of these programs: they’re good for the local economy.

But Denver isn’t the only place in Colorado taking e-bike action – it’s happening throughout the state, including in more rural areas. Like Oregon, Colorado is a geographically large state with many remote pockets outside the large Denver metro area, and lawmakers statewide have realized electric bikes can be feasible in these rural areas, too.

“If our transportation system works for e-bikes, it’s going to work for everybody.”
– Rachel Hultin, Bicycle Colorado

A ‘Can Do’ Attitude

Hultin shared details of the Can Do Colorado Community Challenge, a program formed to “provide resources to local communities and businesses to help safely reopen the economy after COVID-19 restrictions and work toward a healthier, more sustainable future.” Through this program, the Colorado Energy Office committed $500,000 toward an e-bike pilot in 2020, giving 13 low-income essential workers in the Denver metro area a free e-bike and all the necessary accessories (helmet, lock, lights, etc.) as long as they pledged to use their new bike as their main mode of transportation.

Participants of this pilot program were asked to use an app to track their trips and provide information about how they were using their e-bikes. Apps like the recently-relaunched Ride App serve a similar purpose to give local governments an idea about how their programs are working to encourage e-bike ridership.

A report detailing the results of the 2020 e-bike pilot illustrates how the participants’ lives changed after they got their new bikes.

“Since I got the e-bike, I’m no longer using a car… I only want to take a ride or a walk on foot. It’s changed me a lot,” one participant said. Another person said they like riding their e-bike because “it frees [their] mind up away from the world for just a moment.” The psychological benefits of riding a bike versus driving a car are not to be underestimated.

Since the pilot had only 13 participants, the insights gleaned are fairly limited, but Hultin said advocates were excited to hear what they had to say – and since the program was expanded the following year, it looks like policymakers listened, too.

State of Colorado

In 2021, the State of Colorado provided $700,000 in grant awards to communities statewide to encourage e-bike access. In addition to allowing opportunities for e-bike ownership, the grants also funded some e-bike share membership programs, which Hultin said have made a big community-level impact.

This makes sense – bike share programs spread the love. Here in Portland, the Biketown for All program has allowed people who meet income requirements to access e-bikes for free. Denver has an e-bike share system too (which, like Biketown, is also operated by Lyft), but is taking on shared electric bike access from another front with its e-bike library program.

Finally, the state is developing yet another e-bike program as part of an air quality bill, which will give $12 million to programs expanding electric bike access across the state. In addition to giving more e-bike rebates to Colorado residents, this program will include an electric bike cargo commercial delivery pilot to study the feasibility of alternative freight delivery methods.

These programs are all very exciting and have proven successful to get people on bikes. But affordability isn’t the only factor preventing people from riding bikes, electric or otherwise. Even the best e-bike rebate program will fail to deliver desired results if people don’t feel safe riding their bikes to the places they need to go. Hultin said this is something advocates in Colorado are keeping in mind.

“It’s glaringly obvious there are more people riding e-bikes for transportation,” Hultin said. “It really amplifies the need to make those investments in the infrastructure.”

Hultin described the presence of e-bikes on the streets as an “indicator species of a healthy transportation system” – a sign that policymakers are investing in the right things.

“I really believe that if our transportation system works for e-bikes, it’s going to work for everybody, because it means our roads are safe. It means people have access to affordable transportation and it also means we’re really proactively working to mitigate our climate crisis,” she said.

Hultin further emphasized the political will for e-bikes in Colorado by bringing Senator Julie Gonzales, a recipient of one of Colorado’s e-bike rebates, to speak at the E-bikes for All meeting about how important her bike is to her.

“It’s such a great way to be able to move my body and also do something that’s good for my community and the planet,” Gonzales shared.

While some Oregon policymakers, like e-cargo bike rider Representative Khanh Pham (right) and national e-bike incentive advocate Rep Earl Blumenauer, have shown a personal relationship to bikes that might elevate their political commitment to the cause, Coloradans have actually moved beyond words, have taken action, and are speeding past us on this issue.

But e-bike advocates in Oregon are well-organized and impassioned, and won’t stop their work until we’re on the same path. “An exciting thing about the Colorado program is that they have some clear funding and it seemed like having that pilot project really allowed for them to make it a bigger project in the following years,” said E Bikes For All member Kiel Johnson, whose gears are already turning on how best to copy Colorado’s ideas.

See Hultin’s slide presentation (which has links to great info and resources) here.

Who’s responsible for dangerous Willamette Greenway Trail bumps?

Conditions on Willamette Greenway Trail path adjacent to River Forum Building. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Who exactly has jurisdiction over a specific piece of bike path on the Willamette River? Downtown Portland resident Amy C. is learning the hard way that no one seems to know who’s in charge of this popular piece of public right-of-way.

On July 18th, Amy was riding her bike northbound on the Willamette River Greenway just south of the Tesla dealership and north of Cottonwood Bay Park. She told me she recalls watching a group of bike riders coming toward her, “And then my bike literally flew up in the air and slammed into a lamppost.”

Amy had run over a series of severe bumps and cracks in the pavement. She hit her head (“I saw stars after I fell,” she recalled) and got a few bruises on her shoulder, but luckily her bike and helmet took the brunt of the collision. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just any bike. Amy, who moved to Portland in 2020 and uses her bike as a volunteer for Food Not Bombs, spent years searching for her dream bike: A 1999 mixte made by Georgena Terry (a legendary builder known for making bikes that fit women’s bodies).

Amy’s bike at work (left) and after the crash. (Photos: Amy)

“Every agency was blaming a different agency or saying it was a responsibility of a different agency. I was really pissed. I was like, there are these hazards here and nobody’s responsible for them?”
– Amy C

The bike’s frame crumpled upon impact and is now damaged beyond repair. “I waited for this bike for 22 years and I had it two months and it was demolished,” Amy shared with me last week.

The day after the crash, Amy started researching the bumps. She called the city and told them what happened and she warned them more people would crash until the bumps get fixed. In addition to smoother pavement, she thinks a larger sign is needed. Currently, there’s only one warning sign (see below) that tells people about the bumps. It’s small and is only posted in one direction — not the direction Amy was riding. “I just wanted ample warning for people so it didn’t happen anybody else.”

Amy immediately got the runaround.

Since the path is a major bike route listed on city maps, she started with the Portland Bureau of Transportation. But they said the path was a Parks & Recreation responsibility. So Amy called the Parks bureau. They told her it was private property and she’d have to contact the owner of the adjacent building.

“Every agency was blaming a different agency or saying it was a responsibility of a different agency. I was really pissed. I was like, there are these hazards here and nobody’s responsible for them?”

On July 26th Amy filed a claim with the City of Portland Bureau of Revenue and Financial Services. About one month later, she got a response from Senior Claims Analyst Rosalia Radich. It was denied. In the response letter, Radich wrote:

“We regret to let you know that we are denying your claim. We understand that what you experienced was very difficult and we take claims such as yours very seriously. Every claim is investigated before finalizing our decision. According to our information, the area where the tree roots are located is not owned or maintained by the City of Portland but is, instead, maintained by the private property owner of the adjacent building.”

Radich gave Amy the contact information of the building’s property manager, Hannah Knutson, who works for Jones Lang LaSalle (the building is owned by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Clarity Ventures). Amy spoke to Knutson on the phone about replacing her bike and the initial conversation was very encouraging. Then Knutson ghosted her.

With so many dead-ends and the bumps still there, Amy turned to BikePortland.

I’m familiar with this location because I’ve heard of others crashing here over the years. In 2018, a BikePortland subscriber even shared a post about it. “Can we do anything about the pavement breaks and bumps on the Willamette Greenway Trail?… It’s dangerous,” he wrote.

Chris Thomas, a lawyer with Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost (a BikePortland advertiser) who specializes in bicycle law, was also aware of the location. “I know at least a couple of people who’ve been hurt there,” he told me in a phone call last week. He said he was “surprised” the City of Portland said it was a private property owner’s responsible. According to Thomas the jurisdiction question is important because a different set of laws applies if the responsible party is a public or private entity. Regardless, Thomas said, “I think it needs to be looked at careful. There shouldn’t be ambiguity. Confusion about who is responsible may be contributing to the bad conditions.”

It’s relatively common for the city to have a public right-of-way easement across private property. In fact, we’ve dealt with access issues several times over the years on this same path. In 2016, a condominium company near the Steel Bridge closed a gate on the path to keep people out and the city forced them to re-open it. And in 2015, business owners in Riverplace tried to prevent bike riders from using a section of the path.

Both Thomas and myself have pending inquiries with Portland Parks & Recreation about who exactly is responsible for the paths and the bumps that have hurt multiple people and have destroyed at least one beloved bicycle.

Even though the City of Portland Financial Services Bureau denied Amy’s claim and said it was between her and the property owner, Parks makes it seem like it might not be so cut-and-dry. Thomas first contacted someone at Parks about it on September 1st. He and I have both yet to receive any clarity on the issue. Last week, Parks spokesperson Mark Ross shared via email that, “This will require some analysis of various property ownership and responsibilities/easements.”

We still haven’t heard back.

Meanwhile, Amy remains frustrated and sad to have lost her dream bike, which she estimates would cost about $5,000 to replace with something custom that fits her as well. She feels like, even if jurisdiction is murky, something should be done sooner rather than later.

“If it’s a greenway, even if it’s private property, whoever establishes greenways should be paying attention to the condition of their greenways and enforcing safety measures along the way. I just don’t want anybody else to get hurt.”

Governor Brown nominates Lee Beyer to Oregon Transportation Commission

Lane County Democrat Lee Beyer is poised to be the next member of the Oregon Transportation Commission. Governor Kate Brown made the announcement as part of a slate of nominations made public on August 31st. If confirmed, Beyer would replace Commissioner Alando Simpson, whose term expires at the end of this year.

The five-member OTC is the most powerful transportation decision-making body in the state of Oregon. They are in charge of the Oregon Department of Transportation and tell the agency how to implement their policies and which projects to fund.

Senator Beyer, 74, lives in Springfield (near Eugene), has been a member of the Oregon Legislature since 2011 and has been involved in politics for nearly four decades. Sen. Beyer has also been a key figure in transportation policy at the state capitol. As a co-chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation he was a leading proponent of House Bill 2017, a major transportation funding package. Beyer is also a co-chair of the Joint Interim Committee on the Interstate 5 Bridge.

In 2013, Beyer voted in favor of funding for the ill-fated Columbia River Crossing and is an ardent supporter of its successor, the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program.

Seen at the Bike Town Hall on Saturday. (Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)

Also in 2013, Beyer said taxicab drivers should have the same exception to the cell phone law as police officers do. When bike advocates sought an expansion of bicycle funding on the 50th anniversary of the Bicycle Bill in 2021, Beyer said there just wasn’t enough money to do it. “It is not that the state is not supportive of bike paths,” Beyer said. “We would like to do more. Our primary responsibility however, is maintaining the freight and intercity traffic routes.”

Late last year, Willamette Week noted that Beyer was the sole Democrat to donate to the gubernatorial campaign of Betsy Johnson, a former state senator running as an independent. “I think she could make a good governor,” Beyer told Willamette Week.

Beyer’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate Rules Committee, but a date for that meeting hasn’t been finalized.

Transportation advocates seem poised to mobilize against the decision. Portland resident and Chair of Bike Loud PDX Kiel Johnson, was seen riding around Saturday’s Bike Town Hall event with “Reject Lee Beyer for OTC” scrawled across a sign attached to the rear of his pedicab.

State lawmakers get out and ride at annual Bike Town Hall

House Rep Khanh Pham speaks in a parking lot on NE Cully and Prescott. (Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)

“We cannot continue to have children dodging cars to get to school. I cannot be mourning with another family again.”
– Khanh Pham , Oregon State House Rep

Our world was sepia-toned this weekend as smoke from nearby wildfires settled into the Willamette Valley. But the hazy air and wind didn’t deter dozens of people from showing up to the annual Bike Town Hall on Saturday morning. In fact, the visible representation of the climate emergency just made the event – which focused on achieving climate and transportation justice by transforming Portland’s streets – all the more important.

The Bike Town Hall was hosted by Oregon House Representatives Khanh Pham and Barbara Smith Warner and Senator Michael Dembrow as a way to discuss important issues related to Portland’s streets while biking through them. The event gave attendees a chance to see what’s happening on the ground and talk to legislators who can push for change from their desks in Salem.

The ride started at Leodis V. McDaniel High School on 82nd Avenue, where state Rep Khanh Pham, who represents Oregon’s 46th district (which includes parts of east Portland), talked about why she cares so much about making streets safer for people walking and biking – especially in historically neglected, predominantly lower-income areas where many immigrant communities and people of color live.

With 82nd Ave recently entering city control, advocates hope the corridor (which is currently prominent on the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s map of high crash streets and intersections) can become a more comfortable place for everyone.

Gesturing to 82nd Ave behind her, Pham talked about her experience working as a community organizer in east Portland and seeing the tragic ramifications of traffic violence in the area.

“Every year we had to mourn at least one community member who died on 82nd or on Division St or on Powell Blvd. Each of these individuals had a whole family, a whole community, neighbors that were connected to them,” Pham said. “We cannot continue to have children dodging cars to get to school. I cannot be mourning with another family again.”

Ashton Simpson, current president of pedestrian advocacy nonprofit Oregon Walks and incoming Metro councilor, also talked about the urgent need to improve safety in east Portland.

“[82nd Ave] is the dividing line of our city. This is why we have ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, and the ‘have nots’ live across the eastside,” Simpson said. “If we want to have racial equity in that space, we have to have true urgency in getting into those communities and providing the resources to transform their infrastructure.”

Rep Pham on her Rad Power electric cargo bike, which she said has been a “game changer.”

After discussing 82nd Ave, the group headed west to check out what’s going on in the Cully neighborhood in northeast Portland. The roster was jam-packed with speakers who touched on a wide range of topics affecting everyone who uses Portland’s streets. These speakers included Ernesto Fonseca of the Hacienda Community Development Corporation (CDC), who talked about about affordable housing projects and neighborhood revitalization.

We ended the ride at Cully Park, which sits on an area that used to be a landfill until climate justice organization Verde NW entered a partnership with the City of Portland to create a park and enrich the neighborhood, which was in vital need of green space.

“You’re standing on what used to be a landfill, and now is a beautiful park,” Verde Director Candace Avalos said. “It’s an example of the way that green infrastructure changes communities.”

(L to R): Natalyn Begay, Lucy Suppah, Jennie Brixey

Members of the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) spoke about Cully Park’s Native Gathering Garden, which is a meeting space for members of local Indigenous communities to reconnect with their tribal first foods, many of which have been increasingly difficult to grow as their native lands change due to the climate crisis.

“This was a landfill before, so it’s pretty amazing to see that our first foods are here in an urban area,” NAYA’s Lucy Suppah said. “We have a lot of people who have migrated here and so they don’t necessarily know about the indigenous plants that grow here naturally. So this gives an opportunity for them to be able to access to these first foods, which is really important to continuing our traditions and our culture.”

It’s also important for elected leaders to get on bikes and experience road conditions first-hand. Seeing Rep. Pham and others riding bikes (especially on a day they might’ve preferred to stay inside with an air filter running) tells their constituents they have a personal stake in how safe Portland’s streets are and they’re willing to get their hands dirty to make them better.

“We know how to address traffic violence, right? We can fight for pedestrian crossings, slowing the speed limit, traffic calming. It’s just about the money,” Pham said early in the ride as we stood near 82nd Ave. “We need to make sure that our budgets are moral documents that are actually showing and reflecting what our priorities are. If we value safety, and human life, and racial equity, we need to be showing that with our dollars.”

Concrete and cinder block wall erected on bike path in Overlook neighborhood

There’s a bit of a border war going on in the Overlook neighborhood of north Portland.

While on a ride through the area on Sunday, someone told me about a wall that had been built on the bike path that connects North Concord to North Going Street. When I went to check it out I was shocked at what I saw: Dozens of cinder blocks toppled and broken, with bent metal rebar sticking out in all directions. As I inspected, I realized the wall had once stood about seven feet tall and it had been held together by mixed concrete. The rebar is secured into the ground and the presence of concrete means it will take a concerted effort to clean this up.

Whoever erected the wall put a lot of effort into it. And so did whoever knocked it down.

Someone who came by while I was out there said it had already been mostly cleaned-up at one point — only to have the builder return and reinforce it again.

From the person who told me about it I had gathered that this was another front in the battle between Portlanders who live in houses and those who live in tent encampments. There’s a very well-established and large community of people who live along the greenspaces adjacent to N Going Street. The wall was erected in a little cut in the soundwall where people can pass between Going and Concord. It’s an important pass-through that gives people a direct connection to N Interstate (and MAX light rail line) and Swan Island (an industrial zone where thousands of people work).

Blocking right-of-way like this is not cool — regardless of why it was done.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BikePortland (@bikeportland)

“Having this blocked off would be safer for everyone. Anyone criticizing this should try living on the other side of it for a week and see how they feel.”

I posted a video about this on Sunday to Instagram and TikTok. One person who saw it said she lives in a house just north of the wall. She said she supports the wall and is glad someone built it because, “Having this blocked off would be safer for everyone.”

“I’ve had people in my backyard threatening to break down my back door with my own tools, a cargo bike stolen at 4:00 am, a person break into my house and go upstairs into my kids room at 6:00 am, my hose turned on in the middle of the night and left on full blast for me to turn off in the dark (I was home alone), drugs smoked and yelling in the middle of the night for years now,” she said.

The person also said the opening in the wall is a popular site for drug dealing. “I have compassion for houseless people but this needs to change,” she added. “It’s become a brutal place to raise kids. Anyone criticizing this should try living on the other side of it for a week and see how they feel.”

I’ve heard there has been some discussion of this wall on the Overlook Neighborhood Facebook page and several people have contacted the City of Portland. But so far, it seems there’s been only finger-pointing as the wall and debris has been there for over a week.

The transportation chair of the Overlook Neighborhood Association posted to Twitter today that he’s reached out to the Portland Bureau of Transportation “multiple times” but has yet to receive a response.

We’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE, 1:25 pm: A tipster says a city crew is on-site and removal is imminent.

UPDATE: Nic Cota just posted a photo of the cleared wall:

Update: it’s been cleared! pic.twitter.com/Pzb0ycE5SB
— Nic Cota (@nictrieslife) September 12, 2022

Comment of the Week: A calm take on Arleta Triangle Plaza

“In Portland, to get extraordinary action from a city agency requires cooperation from bureau(s) with an elected commissioner, of course at some level it is or looks political… I’m just grateful Nadine and Matchu and others could get someone’s attention and get something done.” Jim

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’ve noticed that our weekly bins of comments differ from one another. Some weeks BikePortland gets a lot of thoughtful policy comments, other times a nice bunch of stories about what readers have personally experienced. Obviously, the articles we post effect the tone and style of the comments they inspire.

This past week seemed a little loud to me, so I was happy to see Jim’s very calm comment early this morning.

He describes the meat and potatoes of how things get done in our town—often from the tenacious, boring work of neighborhood advocates. You get your ducks in a row, and then seize the moment when an opportunity arises.

Jim’s comment also gives me an opportunity to plug the “related posts” section which appears at the bottom of every new post. Some of these related posts are automatically generated, but often we hand-select a couple of them because they provide background for the current post.

The post Jim commented into was an old one, written last March. But he probably arrived at it from last week’s post, Mt. Scott-Arleta residents celebrate vibrant plaza on formerly violent street.

Here’s what Jim wrote:

I live in the area and I haven’t noticed any ramp up in police presence. I’m sure there have been some increase but I couldn’t call it big.
Hardesty is PBOT commissioner and closing the slip lane and adding traffic barrels is low hanging fruit that could be done quickly ; but we’ve been trying to get the slip lane closed for years with no progress.
In Portland, to get extraordinary action from a city agency requires cooperation from bureau(s) with an elected commissioner, of course at some level it is or looks political.
For me, I’m just grateful Nadine and Matchu and others could get someone’s attention and get something done.
Do we need more to be done to deal with the shootings and other crime? Of course we do. What has been done doesn’t deal with the root cause of the nationwide uptick in crime.

Thank you for the nice, low drama, comment Jim! You can read Jim’s comment and all the others in the March post about the plaza, and Jim also has another comment in our latest plaza article.

The Monday Roundup: Heavyweight fight, Boston envy, and more

Welcome to the week.

Here are the most notable stories our writers and readers came across in the past seven days…

Make them pay: A proposal in Washington D.C. would make owners of massive trucks pay an extra $500 registration fee to offset their extreme impacts on streets and human lives. (Bloomberg)

Highway error: Take a visual journey into how America’s highway builders and the politicians that enable them have displaced thousands with their projects and they just keep marching on despite a disgusting legacy of racism and exploitation. (NY Times Opinion)

Just say no to cars: A community board in New York City has done something amazing: They rejected a car dealership project simply because it sells cars. (Sunnyside Post)

The cost of EVs: Please take time to learn about what we do to the earth to mine materials needed for electric batteries. (Washington Post)

How to fix America: This article takes a much-needed systemic view of why America has so many deadly health outcomes and it proposes ways to fix them. I like how the author connects the dots between housing, transportation, and health. (The Atlantic)

This is how you do it: I am in love with the approach Boston’s Mayor Wu is taking with a clear and confident announcement that she wants to make biking better in Boston. This is the type of leadership Portland is severely lacking. (Streetsblog – City of Boston Announcement)

E-bike rebates are working: The City of Denver’s e-bike rebate program is not only wildly popular, but data provided by Portland-based Ride Report says people are using the bikes to replace car trips. (Denver Post)

Generational divide: The choices people make about car use have a lot to do with when they were born, says this writer who explores the gap between her and her mom. (New York Times)

Speed debating: Technology to limit speeds of cars and trucks is coming, and this little guide will help you argue against the haters who will fight tooth-and-nail against it. (Streetsblog)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week!

Mt. Scott-Arleta residents celebrate vibrant plaza on formerly violent street

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty (in blue on left), danced in the new plaza last night. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

“This slip lane was being used for drive-bys and a lot of violent activities.”
– Nadine Salama, resident

It’s rare that a sitting Portland city commissioner will dance at a public event. Rarer still when it’s in the middle of what used to be a street known for regular shootings and traffic-related violence.

But that’s exactly what happened Thursday night in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood as Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty joined neighborhood leaders to celebrate the opening of Arleta Triangle Square (yes that’s what they call it) — a permanent plaza and community space that has sprung up in the former slip-lane of SE Woodstock at 72nd.

As we’ve chronicled since October 2021, people who live near Mt. Scott Park lived in fear of regular gun violence — much of it involving reckless driving. They got together and pressured City Hall to do something about it and found a champion in Commissioner Hardesty, whose interests in non-police public safety efforts, love of neighborhood organizing, and leadership of the transportation bureau proved to be a perfect combination.

Hardesty and neighborhood leaders like Matchu Williams and Nadine Salama put together a multi-pronged approach that — judging by all the smiles and happy people at Thursday’s party — has worked wonders.

Nadine Salama (left) with Hardesty, Gillian Watson, and Habiba Ado.

“This slip lane right here was being used for drive-bys and a lot of violent activities,” Salama shared with me as she applied face painting to one of the many little kids at the event. Salama said they knew from the start a different approach would be needed because the problem was so complex and multi-layered. “We worked with the church to close their parking lot, we worked with Commissioner Hardesty’s office to get the [traffic] barrels down to slow down traffic, and now this plaza, it’s just so wonderful. I’m so grateful.”

The effort also included more patrols by Portland Parks rangers and police officers. But the centerpiece is the Arleta Triangle plaza.

Painted with a vibrant rainbow of colors, the new plaza has a permanent stage on one end, and large, colorful concrete planters at the edges. The site design was donated by Portland-based Bora Architects and Anderson Construction gifted installation of the furniture, benches, and stage. Central City Concern coordinated hundreds of volunteers to paint the pavement. Those are just a few of the many organizations who’ve contributed.

Commissioner Hardesty told me that because of all the partnerships, the City of Portland paid just $30,000 for the entire plaza project. PBOT has already secured an $800,000 federal grant to do 2-3 similar projects. “But I think we can do significantly more than three of these if we continue to build the partnerships that made this happen,” Hardesty said.

“This is about thinking of community safety in a way that’s different than just ‘law and order’.”
– Jo Ann Hardesty, city commissioner

When Hardesty first became PBOT commissioner in January 2021 she voiced support for carfree spaces like this one all over Portland. Last night she called the Arleta example a “community space that the community owns.” “This is about thinking of community safety in a way that’s different than just ‘law and order’ and this is a good example of community being in the lead and government being responsive, listening and trying something different,” she said as I tried to hear her over the Bollywood beats of DJ Prashant. “I didn’t know if it would work, but it was worth the effort to try it.”

Has it actually worked? There are a lot of skeptics.

I put that question to Salama, who lives within earshot of the plaza. She mentioned data that showed a clear decrease in gun violence after the effort began. She also said, “All I know is we went from a summer where we had 14 shootings in one month and then 10 the following month, to this summer where we’ve had barely any at all. And everything feels safer.”

A big part of it is just being present and together. “We’re utilizing our spaces in a positive way. We’re occupying this space,” Salama added. “It’s encouraging other people to come out, to go walking, to come to the park.”

And it’s encouraging people to dance.

We can’t wait to see more plazas like this spring up all over Portland!

Land use advocate and Former Metro Councilor Bob Stacey has died

Bob Stacey died Thursday evening, September 8th. He was 72 years old.

Stacey was a former Metro Councilor who spent nearly 50 years fighting to preserve Oregon’s land use policies from the type of suburban sprawl that consumed most other regions in America.

Never one to seek the spotlight, Stacey worked the inside game as well as anyone. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t love showing up at events around town. In 2012 he came up to one of our Wonk Night events at our former office downtown. In 2016 he introduced former New York City DOT leader and current urbanism rockstar Janette Sadik-Khan when she visited Portland. “It’s not a secret we may have lost our edge. So we need to learn everything we can about our peers,” he told the crowd.

Beneath his affable demeanor, Stacey was a brilliant advocate who wasn’t afraid of a fight. He was one of the loudest voices against the Columbia River Crossing project (now called the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program). I happened to take video of his sharp critique of “the really big, fat bridge” at a 2013 event:

And he just kept on fighting, even after he stepped down from his Metro Council post last October due to the onset of a non-cancerous brain tumor.

As I worked on a story back in February about the broken-down elevators on the railroad overcrossing that bore his name in southeast Portland, I was very surprised he wanted to talk with me about it. To Stacey, the story wasn’t just about elevators not working. “It speaks to the imbalance between the amount of resources that get scraped together to build new stuff without having a clear commitment to how we maintain it in the future,” he said. “And I think that falls heaviest on forms of transportation viewed as less important than cars.”

It spoke volumes to me that this person — who once fought the infamous Rajneeshee cult, was Portland’s planning director, had served stints as a chief of staff on Capitol Hill, and almost became Metro Council president — cared so much about what many people thought was a relatively inconsequential issue.

Yes, Stacey was, “The most important person most people have never heard of,” according to a statement from Congressman Earl Blumenauer Thursday night; but in the past year some people tried to change that. Stacey was given the Bud Clark Lifetime Achievement Award by The Street Trust in October 2021 and the City of Portland changed the name of the Gideon Overcrossing to the Bob Stacey Overcrossing last April.

The video below is from the 2021 Alice Awards where The Street Trust Executive Director Sarah Iannarone spoke about his accomplishments and work:

I doubt these accolades meant as much to him as knowing that he helped inspire a generation to follow his lead and stand up for Oregon’s land use and transportation values.

Thank you Bob. May you rest in peace.

A dispatch from SW Gibbs, where development doesn’t come with sidewalks

I already had the story written in my head. All I needed to do was make an early morning run over to OHSU for some more photos and I was good to go.

Another southwest development going in without a sidewalk—43 units this time! Area stakeholders not happy. I know this story like the back of my hand. And I have walked the road, SW Gibbs St, a million times, there was really no need for another visit.

But I sure am glad I went anyway. When I got there and was actually standing on Gibbs, the story I thought I was going to write melted away. In its place is a fuller tale about how the city’s largest employer, the surrounding neighborhood, and private developers have done their parts to make Portland a greener city. And how the city needs to keep up its end of the bargain.

Map of OHSU campus. The dashed lines are the access routes into area. The existing sidewalk on Gibbs stops at 11th St. (Source: 2018 OHSU Elevating People Plan)

The university

My new story begins with the Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU). OHSU is Portland’s largest employer, and the premier hospital and biomedical research facility in the state. It’s also on a steep hill and very constrained for space. In the face of the university’s rapid growth in the early 2000s, the city began capping and regulating on-campus parking.

With parking limited, and rapid growth underway, OHSU and the adjacent Homestead neighborhood became a test case for the city’s growth, transportation and parking policies. The results look very good, although the ride has been bumpy.

Michael Harrison, the director of local government and neighborhood relations for OHSU, told me the university has only one parking spot for every three employees. And the resulting mode-share is enviable: 30% of OHSU employees use public transit to get to work, 17% bike, and 6% walk (these are pre-covid numbers).

Moreover, they are in the process of planning 500 locked and covered bike stalls on the Marquam Hill campus to comply with the city’s new bike parking regulations.

The neighborhood

The restricted parking puts pressure on the surrounding neighborhood. It is difficult to find street parking, and in the past some neighbors have rented parking spots on their properties to OHSU employees (the city has since curtailed that). Although OHSU is well-served by public transportation on the approach from the east, areas to the west are poorly served in terms of both public and active transportation.

This brings us to SW Gibbs St.

Pedestrians walk down Gibbs on the fog lines.

The only access to the university from neighborhoods west of campus is along SW Fairmount Blvd and down Marquam Hill Rd to Gibbs St. Most streets in southwest Portland don’t have sidewalks or bike lanes, this route is no exception. (Gibbs has a sidewalk from the OHSU campus to 11th Ave, the boundary of the white background on map above.) Nevertheless, people bike and walk to OHSU along this route. A walk down Marquam Hill Rd requires the pedestrian to zig-zag across the street three times in search of a walkable shoulder.

About a decade ago, I lost my footing on the edge of the asphalt on Marquam Hill Rd, turned an ankle and fell. The ankle was so swollen I couldn’t walk on it for a week. This is not a safe route. Not to mention that these are narrow roads with a decent amount of car traffic, traveling at about 30 mph.

The development

Right across the street from where I twisted my ankle, a new 43-unit apartment building is being built.

Neighborhood associations take a keen interest in development, partly because it is the main avenue to getting active transportation improvements in southwest Portland. The Homestead Neighborhood Association is unhappy because the Development Review department within the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is not allowing the private developer to put in a sidewalk on Gibbs. You read it right, “not allowing.” This is a headscratcher, because all the stakeholders want a sidewalk—the developer, the NA, even OHSU has worked for years with neighbors and the city to improve active transportation infrastructure in the area.

Speaking generally, “It is critical that our employees and students have safe ways to bike and walk to our campus,” OHSU’s Michael Harrison told BikePortland.

Homestead NA President Ed Fischer said, “All I can figure is that they have blinders on, they are not looking at this as a system.”

The developer explained in a public meeting that,

PBOT has pushed back on us providing a sidewalk along our frontage on SW Gibbs. However, we are proposing a wide shoulder to accommodate pedestrian travel on our property… A safe sidewalk along Gibbs will help not only existing neighbors, but our future tenants as well.

I visited the site yesterday morning and spoke with a Senior Superintendent at Edge Development, Patrick Beaston. He told me that the new development was “bike-friendly” and that the building will have 1.2 bike racks per person, charging stations and storage, including for e-bikes and tandems.

The shoulder will be five feet wide and bikeable, he explained, and the shoulder at their other development down the hill on Gibbs (at 12th Ave), would be seven feet wide.

The street becomes very narrow in front of the site. For cycling, a wide shoulder might be the best improvement to navigate this steep hill. Pedestrians would probably be better off with a curbed sidewalk. Neither group will be well-served if drivers use the shoulder to illegally park their cars, although a five foot shoulder might be narrow enough to discourage car parking.

The city

Development Review can point to lack of stormwater facilities as a reason for not requiring developers to build sidewalks, but in this case stormwater doesn’t seem to be the issue. Allowing or requiring cement sidewalks along the frontage of these two new developments would be a significant addition toward extending the existing Gibbs sidewalk to 11th through 14th Avenues.

I reached out to PBOT’s Interim Director of Communications, Hannah Schafer, for clarification about the sidewalk decision, she replied:

We required a 6-foot shoulder widening on SW Gibbs for the frontage of this development. Unfortunately, due to significant storm water, soil, and topographical challenges on the hill we couldn’t require a standard curb and sidewalk improvement. Shoulder widening is a common requirement for projects in Southwest Portland that have similar constraints.

This is an unsatisfying response given the area of a sidewalk would be tiny relative to the large footprint of the building, and stormwater runoff from the building will be “appropriately managed via collection and discharge to a combined sewer main in SW Gibbs,” according to city staff analysis presented to the Hearings Officer.

But there you have it, another neighborhood association-Development Review skirmish in southwest Portland. These will probably grow in intensity as the city implements congestion pricing and raises the price of downtown street parking without providing or requiring adequate alternatives to driving in this quadrant of the city.