EDITORIAL
2 • The Southwest Portland Post
April 2009
Capitol Hill Road traffic calming project leads to acute e-mail congestion
COMMENTARY
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
A group of neighbors led by Mellani
Calvin is trying to do something about
the traffic speed on Southwest Capitol
Hill Road between Falcon and Nebras-
ka streets. With the assistance of City
transportation planner Will Stevens she
has put together a program to install
between nine and 11 speed “tables”
(a longer, less steep version of a speed
bump) on the street. The $2,200 per table
cost would be bourn by adjacent prop-
erty owners on a voluntary basis.
To get the ball rolling, she needs the
endorsement of more than 50 percent
of adjacent property owners, and of the
Hillsdale and Multnomah neighbor-
hood associations. Calvin told Hillsdale
last month that 67 percent of these own-
ers had pledged their support and “only
five are adamantly opposed.”
For one of these, however, “adamant-
ly” may not do the man justice. Steve
Sagnotti said he concedes that there is
a problem; he just doesn’t think that
speed bumps are the solution. He cited
Southwest Sunset Boulevard, where
speed bumps were installed in 1994
and, he said, the problem is still there.
In mid-March the debate shifted to e-
mail, with some 30 messages exchanged
in a few days. The main correspondents
were Calvin and Sagnotti, but others
weighed in on both sides.
“I would very much like to see the
speeding on Capitol Hill Road signifi-
cantly reduced,” Sagnotti wrote. “Based
on the city’s own traffic studies I do
not believe that can, or will, be accom-
plished by installing speed bumps.”
According to Sagnotti, “It is my be-
lief that the only true solution to the
problem is enough enforcement of the
speed limit to modify behavior; the
only way we’ll get that enforcement is
when enough of us call Officer Hannah
and demand that the speed problem be
addressed.”
Sagnotti said, “There is a dirty, insidi-
ous little secret; regardless of the posted
speed limit the Portland Police will
allow speeding 10 miles per hour over
the posted limit before they will get
interested in stopping the speeder.”
There was considerable debate over
what the “data” showed. One respon-
dent said that speed bump technology
has improved considerably since the
1994 Sunset installations. To this Sag-
notti replied, “A speed bump by any
other name is still a speed bump. The
more it is designed to be more innocu-
ous at legal speeds, the less effective it
will be in reducing speeding.”
A speed table supporter, Lisa Broten,
wrote, “I have spoken to one of the
women who spearheaded the campaign
to reduce speed on Sunset (Boulevard)
in 1994. She states to me that the speed
has dropped significantly on Sunset
even though it is not perfect; she will
have her kids walk on the street, and she
will ride her bike. The cars don’t go 40
or 50 miles an hour as they did and as
they do now on Capitol Hill Road.”
Rian Meguire wrote, “Data aside, I
can’t ever think of a time when my aver-
age speed increased when confronting
elevated speed bumps/tables along a
road.”
Commenting on Sagnotti’s proposed
solution, “Joe” wrote, “I don’t think
it’s realistic to expect the local police to
station an officer on Capitol Hill Road
24/7 permanently.”
Barbie Schott wrote that she and
her husband Joel Kleinbaum walk
constantly to destinations such as the
Hillsdale Library, Food Front, Baker
and Spice, Annie Bloom’s Books and
Village Coffee. She spoke of confront-
ing speeders by “scowling and star-
ing at license plates,” “brandishing a
flashlight,” “jumping out of my yard
SWAT-style.”
One such motorist demolished their
fence, she wrote, and had it not been for
the fence would have hit their house; it
was replaced by massive boulders.
“I would rather not present myself as
the bitter, unhinged woman of (Capitol
Hill Road),” Schott wrote. “Proactively,
I choose to calm CHR the way the City
offers to me: speed tables.”
Sagnotti has attracted at least one
ally: Arthur Henry, who lives across the
street from Calvin. When Calvin argued
that she had been seeking an effective
solution for three and a half years and
had investigated several other strate-
gies, Henry commented that she hadn’t
consulted him.
He argued that if residents agreed to
participate in the project, they would
lose the legal right to object to any
future City action and be compelled to
pay for it as well. At that point Stevens
stepped in to try to settle the issue, say-
ing the rules Henry referred to do not
apply to this program – and promptly
became embroiled in the fight.
Henry demanded legal reassurance of
Stevens’ point, and set off a fresh debate
as to whether an e-mail is a legal docu-
ment. He declined to come to a meeting,
writing, “I have all the ‘data’ I need to
confirm my ‘opinion’ that speed bumps
are not a good idea.”
Decision-points on the issue are a
public meeting April 2 at West Hills
Christian School, 7945 S.W. Capitol
Hill Road, and the Hillsdale and
Multnomah board meetings on May
11 and 12, respectively.
Meanwhile, one correspondent wrote,
“Our small street calming project seems
to have deteriorated into a blog, or
thread or something like that. If we are
not careful we are going to consume
more energy in running computer serv-
ers than in melting asphalt.”
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