Southeast

Tell Metro where bus stations should go on Powell, 82nd and Division

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

It’s not yet official which route the line will take between Powell and Division, but project staff are pushing hard for that because of all the destinations on 82nd.
(Map: Metro)

This is a small preview to a big story we’ve been working on about Metro’s next big Southeast Portland project: the Powell-Division bus rapid transit corridor.

“Bus rapid transit” is the neat, fast-spreading idea of making a bus line feel and function like a train line. Part of that is that instead of a stop every two or three blocks, the big new buses will have stations (don’t call them “stops”!) every six to 12 blocks.

That means it’s especially important to get the station locations right. An online survey open through the end of this week asks where the stations should land.

10 a.m. southbound bike traffic at 26th and Powell.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Two of southeast Portland’s most-ridden bike lanes are slated to be removed at the insistence of the state of Oregon.

The bike lanes on each side of Southeast 26th Avenue near Powell draw something like 600 to 800 people per day (even in winter) and run in front of Cleveland High School. They will be paved over sometime in the coming months and not replaced, the Oregon Department of Transportation said last week.

Portland is at a crossroads..
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

In their open-ended comments about traffic diverters and speed bumps proposed for Southeast Clinton Street, one Portlander after another has chimed in to support the concept of making Portland’s most important bikeways more comfortable to bike on.

“Please fix things before my girlfriend moves to Detroit,” one frustrated Clinton Street user wrote.

As we reported last month, people who’ve participated in the city’s very public open house and its online survey have been overwhelmingly in favor of the diverters. But as fans and critics of the city’s plan both organize politically, the city has received memorable comments on both sides of the issue. Here’s a selection of what they said, lifted from results of the open house and online survey that we requested under the state’s open records law.

Doug Klotz is a longtime Richmond Neighborhood
Association board member. He also co-founded
the advocacy group Oregon Walks.
(Photo: Oregon Walks)

One of Portland’s longest-serving neighborhood association board members survived a recall vote Monday night by the thinnest margin possible.

Doug Klotz, a member of the Richmond Neighborhood Association since “around 1993” and a longtime advocate for Portland to become more walkable, bikeable and transit-oriented, won the right to stay in office by a single ballot out of 252 cast.

The neighborhood association’s bylaws require a 2/3 majority to agree with the recall proposal. According to a count Monday night and a recount Tuesday by the Southeast Uplift neighborhood coalition, opponents of Klotz found 167 votes out of the 168 they would have needed.

Portland’s second-most-ridden neighborhood greenway is being lined up for possible improvements.

Southeast Clinton Street currently sees auto traffic volumes near 26th Avenue that are triple the city’s target for a neighborhood greenway and long stretches where auto speeds are 6 to 8 mph above the 20 mph limit.

Three months ago, after joining Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick to call a summit about bike safety, Mayor Charlie Hales said the city “will experiment with diverters — which allow bicycles through but block cars — at different locations.”

It was the city’s single most substantive response to a series of major biking collisions this spring, and followed years of pressure from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and a year of noisy organizing by BikeLoudPDX.

SE Clinton Street.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Southeast Portland has always been the heart of Portland’s biking culture. But as the last few weeks have made horrifically clear, it’s still full of problems.

In an article published Friday on the Southeast Uplift neighborhood coalition’s website, a new member of that organization’s board laid out three concrete and seemingly achievable suggestions for making the area a bit better — as well as a perceptive theory about the recent problems on Southeast Clinton Street.

Some people bike on Woodstock Boulevard’s sidewalk to avoid the door-zone bike lane that would be upgraded as part of the 20s Bikeway Project.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

The Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association is trying to stop Portland from widening the four-foot door-zone bike lanes along four blocks of Woodstock Boulevard.

The four blocks would be a key link in the planned 20s Bikeway, the first continuous all-ages bike route to stretch all the way from Portland’s northern to southern border. But Kurt Krause, chair of the neighborhood association’s bike committee, said the benefits of a continuously comfortable route aren’t worth the costs of removing curbside parking in front of seven large houses that overlook the Reed College campus across the street.

All seven houses have private driveways and garages on their lots.

Major arterial.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Whether you see it as a battleground or a workable compromise or a national model, the Clinton Street bikeway is one thing for sure: beloved.

A group of Clinton Street fans are meeting at SE 30th and Division Saturday to plan a party this summer that will celebrate this iconic bike route and everything it’s brought to the mix of residential and commercial uses that have made Portland’s Hosford-Abernethy and Richmond neighborhoods what they are.

More bike visits mean less trouble for the neighborhood.
(Photo: PeacockLane.com)

First, it was the Last Thursday art festival. Then, Old Town’s weekend nightlife district.

Now, Portland’s 90-year-old holiday light tradition is also dealing with crowded streets by going car-free on certain nights.

The catch: It looks as if the car-free nights this December on Peacock Lane, which is one block east of SE Chavez Boulevard between Stark and Belmont, won’t be announced in advance.

That’s the word this month from the Peacock Lane Neighborhood Association:

The Linden apartments at SE 12th and Burnside are 98 percent leased, but 39 of their 110 on-site parking spaces, including the entire lower-level garage, have never been rented. These spaces rent for $110 a month, but street parking is free. (Note the occupied bike rack at the back of the garage.)
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

When Steven Van Zile moved from Los Angeles to the Pearl District last year for a job managing Guardian Management’s portfolio of Portland-area apartment buildings, the low number of parking spaces at some of the newer properties made him nervous.

Linden, the company’s new building on Burnside and 12th, had only 110 parking spaces for 132 units. In an interview at the time, Van Zile expressed gratitude to the building’s developer that the on-site parting lot was larger than at some other buildings. But what would happen if garage space ran short?

It turns out that Van Zile needn’t have worried.

Riding on 34th between Clinton and Division.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

After nine months and 270 petition signatures, the people who live on SE 34th Avenue between Clinton and Division just can’t seem to persuade the city to remove five parking spots in front of their houses in order to add a bike lane.

“It’s not strictly a bicycle issue. It’s just traffic working more smoothly.”
— Mark Zahner

“We’re just framing the argument as safety on this block vs. parking spots,” said Mark Zahner, who lives at 34th and Clinton and has led the campaign. “We see there’s a lot of near misses, we’ve acknowledged the problem, we’ve got support from the neighbors. Where do we go from here?”

New bike lane on SE 112th near Powell Blvd.
(Photos: Gretchin Lair)

I love receiving dispatches about bike stuff from readers in parts of town that I don’t often get to myself. I rely on your eyes and ears to help me cover more than just the central city.

Case in point is reader Gretchin Lair. She noticed some lane re-striping and a new bike lane on an intersection she frequents in outer southeast Portland so she snapped a few photos and shared her thoughts.

Take it away Gretchin:

“I noticed new bike lane markings at the intersection of SE 112th & Powell. They’re short bike lanes, lasting for about a block on either side of the intersection, and they exist in both directions. Additionally, a left turn lane has been added in both directions.
Read more

Tell Metro where bus stations should go on Powell, 82nd and Division

City gives in to state demand to remove bike lanes from SE 26th Avenue

In their own words, here’s what Portlanders are saying about Clinton traffic diverters

Richmond neighborhood association narrowly rejects recall of density advocate

City will share options for Clinton Street upgrades at Sept. 16 open house

Fixing Southeast: Three achievable proposals from a fast-rising advocate

Eastmoreland residents organize against wider bike lanes that would remove parking

As Clinton Street’s bikeway turns 30, locals plan a celebration

Portland’s ‘Peacock Lane’ holiday light show will go car-free on busy nights

Two years after Portland’s auto parking wars, apartment garages aren’t filling up

After city balks at neighbors’ request for bike lane, 34th Ave resident goes public

Reader thanks PBOT for new bike lanes on SE 112th

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