Creative bike racks? Intersection painting? Street seats? Get the city to pay for it!
(Photo of heart painting by Ted Timmons, others by Jonathan Maus)

Been itching to do an intersection painting in your neighborhood? Or how about a bike parking corral with a few creative flourishes?
[Read more…]

From a PBOT email sent out yesterday.

Streets are not just for driving on. This is a fact that the City of Portland’s transportation bureau is embracing wholeheartedly these days. A few new tweaks to the City’s rules for neighborhood block parties is the most recent example.

With spring weather finally here after one of the darkest and wettest and coldest winters on record, Portlanders are ready to party in the street — and PBOT just made it much easier and cheaper to do it officially and safely.

Starting this year PBOT no longer requires block party permit applicants to get signatures from all the residents on the block. All you have to do is share a flyer about the event with your neighbors. Also new this year is the ability to do the entire application online.
[Read more…]

Pull in some logs, plant some flowers, and a street can be transformed. This is urban forester Dave Barmon (Fiddlehead Landscapes), who helped us find and place the logs.
(Photos: Chris Anderson)

This post was originally submitted as a Subscriber Post by long-time BP reader and supporter Chris Anderson.

The author in full DIY mode.

Portland is full of unpaved and unimproved or deteriorating roadways. While a nuisance and a sign of disrespect from City Hall to some, many of us feel these streets are an element of our city’s character to be celebrated. But at the same time, a lack of clear policy about how we can make them better leaves these spaces feeling neglected. Neighbors who want to improve their block have to be trailblazers willing to pave their own way.

That’s what I did (without the paving). Here’s my story…
[Read more…]

City’s rendering for the new Ankeny Plaza, a prototype of their new Livable Streets Strategy.

The City of Portland’s transportation bureau got past a key milestone on Wednesday when City Council voted to move forward with their Livable Streets Strategy.

Specifically, council supported the city’s $149,158 contract with consulting firm Nelson/Nygaard to come up with the framework of the strategy and set into motion what we’ve called “a new era of open streets.”

But during Wednesday’s otherwise uneventful council session we got a unexpected preview of the political debate that might lie ahead.
[Read more…]