M arch 2011
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The Southwest Portland Post • 5
New sidewalks and bike lanes
slated for Multnomah Boulevard
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
The Portland Bureau of Transporta-
tion held an open house last month on
proposed new sidewalks and bike lanes
on Southwest Multnomah Boulevard.
Virtually none of the people who came
and either spoke to staff or signed writ-
ten forms were against the proposed
$4.5 million Phase One program. Some
were disappointed there isn’t more.
Project manager Rich Newlands
told The Post that quite a few people
were disappointed that sidewalks were
proposed only for the north side of the
boulevard. Part of the City’s motiva-
tion, he said, was to stretch inadequate
resources as far as possible.
Hillsdale and Southwest Trails activ-
ist Don Baack noted that the plans call
for bike lanes on both sides of the boule-
vard, and suggested that the south side
be designated a combined “bike-ped”
facility. “That’s the way it will be used
anyway,” he said.
Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc.
land use chair Marianne Fitzgerald
was disappointed that the sidewalks
extended only from Southwest 22nd to
31st avenues.
“I’m glad that they’re designing
this out to 40th [The stretch from 31st to
40th avenues would have to wait for Phase
Two funding sometime in the future] and
glad that we’re finally getting some
sidewalks, but I would have liked to
see them come closer to Multnomah
Village,” she told The Post. City staff
has “admitted they’re picking the low-
hanging fruit, the easiest to do.”
Baack had several other sugges-
tions. One was a bike boulevard from
Multnomah to Southwest Troy Street at
25 th Avenue, with a signal at Troy Street
and Multnomah Boulevard, to provide
access to the Hillsdale neighborhood.
Another was a new bikeway from
Multnomah south to Southwest Barbur
Boulevard connecting to an existing
signal at 24 th Avenue, this last as a more
direct route to the newly-remodeled
Safeway Market. Finally, he called for
an outdoor drinking fountain, with a
spout for dogs, at Safeway.
Newlands said he agreed, at least in
principle, with the proposal for a new
route to Safeway, saying that using
existing routes involve either unsafe
practices or “a lot of out-of-direction
travel.”
Noting that Southwest Portland has
44 arterials without sidewalks, Fitzger-
ald said grimly, “One down, 43 to go.”
Part of Multnomah
Boulevard to be repaved
With the installation of new pressure
sewer lines and water mains under
Southwest Multnomah Boulevard
virtually complete, the thoughts of
City representatives and neighbors
has turned to thoughts of making the
battleground “good as new.”
Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc., and
the Ash Creek Neighborhood Associa-
tion have both called on the City to com-
pletely repave the street, not just patch
over the parts that had been dug up.
Last month Bureau of Environmental
Services spokesperson Stephen Sykes
told The Post that the City has agreed to
a full repaving of Multnomah between
Southwest 31st and 45th avenues.
“It was in poor condition when we
started our project,” Sykes said. “This
is in the long-term good for everyone.”
However, Sykes said, BES did not agree
to the same full-pavement treatment
for Multnomah from Southwest 45 th to
69 th avenues, as Ash Creek requested,
because it was not in as bad a shape.
Ash Creek chair Jack Klinker told The
Post he was not as concerned about this,
since the City has plans to repave the
street in the near future anyway. He
was disappointed that BES would not
fully repave lower Multnomah until the
weather improves in the spring.
Multnomah resident Kim Isaacson (left) talks with a City of Portland transporta-
tion planner at the Multnomah Boulevard Open House, Feb. 17.
(Post photo by Don Snedecor)
South Portland Jail
(Continued from Page 8)
use to move forward.”
Both Leonard and Mayor Sam Adams
voted for the amended resolution,
Leonard without comment. Commis-
sioner Dan Saltzman was absent.
“Four out of four. You can’t beat
that,” a smiling Davis said after the
vote. He later added, “This is the first
time I’ve been this pleased in a long
time. This took a lot of work, but I
wasn’t alone.” He gave credit to fellow
South Portland board members Kerry
Chipman, Bill Danneman, and Kelly
Doyle.”
As Fish pointed out, the new require-
ment does not mean that the proposed
detention facilities will not be built.
It seems unlikely that this would be
acceptable to some South Portland
residents, especially parents of the
new Southwest Charter School across
the street, under any conditions. Davis
suggested that the length of the process
alone might defeat the development.
Leonard later told The Post, “I fear
that many people who opposed this
facility will assume that they won. This
facility will inevitably be approved,
and when it is those people will be even
angrier than before.”
Leonard had wanted to simply attach
some conditions as part of Council’s
approval, “but I didn’t have the votes.
A majority of Council had already
decided that this should have a condi-
tional use.”
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