Advocacy groups aim to put their stamp on the selection of the next person to run ODOT.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

After 14 years at the helm, Oregon Department of Transportation Director Matt Garrett resigned last month. For many reform-minded transportation advocates and professionals, he won’t be missed.
[Read more…]

NYC transportation hero Janette Sadik-Khan
visits town next month.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

More than any time since I’ve been here, it seems as if Portland is opening its arms and ears to good ideas from elsewhere.

In the coming days and weeks we’ll be welcoming a bunch of nationally known experts on transportation for some timely talks. Delightfully, all of them are free.

With some, we’ll be doing more extensive previews based on advance interviews. With others, we’ll attend and report what they say.

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David Bragdon earlier this year.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Apparently this is what happens when an elected official doesn’t have to play nice any more.

Former two-term Metro President David Bragdon launched a politely spoken but blistering attack on the Oregon Department of Transportation Friday, urging his former state to reform its transportation system in response to “incompetence or dishonesty at the highest levels of ODOT,” among other factors.

Bragdon, who left office in 2010 for a top planning job in New York City and now runs a nonprofit think tank called TransitCenter, spoke in a lunchtime address to the City Club of Portland. His prepared remarks focused on the need to change what he called “the insanity of Oregon’s transportation governance system” but his criticism of the department’s leadership deepened in off-the-cuff answers to questions afterward about the Columbia River Crossing.

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There’s a fantastic pair of events coming to town on Thursday.

Remember David Bragdon? Yep, our former Metro president. Well, he went off and moved to New York and worked for the Bloomberg administration for a while. Now he’s leading a non-profit called TransitCenter, a group that advocates for “improving urban mobility.”

TransitCenter is sponsoring two events on 10/22 that will offer lessons and insights about the “role of citizen activism influencing transportation reform.” Learn more in the press releases below.

[Read more…]

Bragdon was an active supporter of
active transportation projects and
initiatives.
(Photos © J. Maus)

[via The Oregonian]

Metro announced this morning that Council President David Bragdon has been hired as Sustainability Director for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Here’s a snip from a statement just released by Metro:

“Beginning in mid-September, Bragdon will serve as director of long-term planning and sustainability for the nation’s largest metropolis. He will lead the mayor’s PlaNYC initiative to create a “greener, greater” city.[Read more…]