The Southwest Portland Post., September 01, 2014, Page 3, Image 3

September 2014
NEWS
The Southwest Portland Post • 3
Commissioner Novick brings OurStreetsPDX media tour to Multnomah
By Erik Vidstrand and Don Snedecor
The Southwest Portland Post
Community activists, reporters, and
city officials gathered at the corner of
Capitol Highway and Garden Home
Road, across from Handy Andy’s in
Multnomah Village, on Aug. 19 to meet
with Portland Transportation Commis-
sioner Steve Novick.
This was the last stop on a media tour
of a few of Portland’s maintenance and
safety needs as part of the Our Streets
PDX transportation funding conversa-
tion.
The tour showcased busy streets that
lack sidewalks and commercial corridors
in need of preventive maintenance.
City officials also introduced the Port-
land Transportation Needs Guidebook,
an online compilation of the maintenance
and safety needs identified by the Port-
land Bureau of Transportation and priori-
tized by community input over the years.
The main topic at the news event was
the extreme cost of putting in sidewalks
along Capitol Highway from Taylors
Ferry Road to Garden Home Road.
It’s been 18 years since the completion
of the 1996 Capitol Highway Plan, which
called for sidewalks and bike lanes the
entire length of the road. Large segments
of that plan are still incomplete.
According to Don Baack, president of
SW Trails, it currently costs $21.7 million
per mile for full street improvements
(streets, curbs, sidewalks, and storm-
drains).
The reasoning behind this is that the
topography and stormwater management
is more complicated in Southwest.
Novick said that first and foremost is
the safety of citizens and maintenance of
all the city’s existing streets.
“We must get a handle on the most basic
street needs before constructing improve-
ments,” Novick explained above the roar
of cars and buses traveling along Capitol
Highway.
According to Baack, who spoke first,
the city must find more efficient designs to
improve transportation and stormwater
management.
“If we can build seven times as many
sidewalks using different approaches,”
Baack suggested, “SW Trails strongly
support that effort.”
The organization has been supporting
all steps toward improving connectivity,
safer crossings, more complete streets,
which in turn will make the community
more livable.
Keith Liden, a Bridlemile resident and
bicycle commuter, suggested that the key
Baskin-Robbins to be torn down and
replaced by OnPoint Credit Union
THE COUNTRY STORE
By Erik Vidstrand
The Southwest Portland Post
Bob Dylan sang it, “the times, they
are a changin’.” Sorry ice cream cake
lovers, the Hillsdale Baskin-Robbins is
no more. Demolition is next. That, and
construction of a new concept for the
community.
Located in the Hillsdale town center,
OnPoint, a community credit union, re-
cently broke ground and will serve the
area in a so-called “credit union desert.”
Community leaders have been trying
for years to draw some type of business
at the site of the old Estby gas station.
Bankers from JP Morgan Chase had
presented plans to build a branch at the
site some years ago, but activists and
business leaders shut them down due
to several issues the community did
not agree to.
OnPoint was founded in 1932 as
Portland Teachers Credit Union. Six-
teen schoolteachers gathered to create
a safe place to save their money and to
provide low-cost loans for those looking
to build a better life.
Two other branches are also being
built: one on the bus mall at Stark and
Fifth; the other on West Burnside at
20th Avenue.
The branches will create approxi-
mately 25 jobs for the local community.
“We’re committed to the financial
well-being of our members and adding
new branches is one way we are help-
ing them achieve their goals with better
access to our financial products and
services,” said Rob Stuart, OnPoint’s
president and chief executive officer.
The Baskin-Robbins has been in the
Hillsdale neighborhood since 1967 and
has no plans to reopen anywhere else.
The closest one is in Garden Home.
The project will consist of a four-unit
commercial building spanning both
sites and won’t open its doors until
early next year.
Richard Brown Architect AIA has de-
signed a building to replace Hillsdale’s
Baskin-Robbins and the vacant lot next
door. (Drawings courtesy of Richard
Brown Architect AIA)
to building new streets
and sidewalks in South-
west was for the Bureau
of Environmental Services
and the Transportation
Bureau to work together
on improvements and to
find ways to reduce costs.
“We need to be cre-
ative,” Liden said. “We
need efficient designs to
improve the safety of the
streets.”
Baack suggested that
recent improvements to
rural Maplewood Road,
which expanded gravel
shoulders to allow for
pedestrians, was the kind
of solution folks in South-
west were looking for.
Mark Lear, a planner
with the transportation
bureau, said that ap- Keith Liden (left) and Commissioner Steve Novick (right)
proach could work on listen as Don Baack talks about the lack of sidewalks in
low traffic streets, but not Southwest. (Post photo by Erik Vistrand)
on major arterials such as
and Southwest Portland,” Novick said.
Capitol Highway.
“We need to have the best bang for the
The Post asked Novick why the city was
buck.”
continuing to issue “waivers of remon-
For more than a year, Mayor Hales and
strance” to developers building homes
Commissioner Novick have been calling
on unimproved streets, in a community
for more investment in transportation.
so badly in need of improved streets and
They have been addressing longstanding
sidewalks.
issues with diminishing resources from
Novick, who lives about 10 blocks from
the gas tax.
this event, explained that new construc-
Since January, Hales and Novick have
tion projects create floating sidewalks
asked
the public for input on transporta-
(there is an example on Multnomah
tion priorities and options for raising
Boulevard across from Grand Central
money. They expect to have a proposal
Baking).
for City Council to consider in November.
“If we could have this money pooled,”
According to Novick, workgroups have
Novick said, “more important sidewalk
been created to work on the street tax. One
improvements could be developed to al-
group is looking at business fees; another
low for better connectivity.”
at residential fees, a third is considering
One of Novick’s aides explained that
how low-income residents can contribute.
the new website, Our Streets PDX, is an
“We’re trying to find a new formula,”
interactive site with tabs for maintenance,
Novick said. For more information about
fees, repairs that are needed, and a list of
the transportation funding conversation
“safe routes to school.”
visit www.OurStreetsPDX.com.
“I don’t want to compare East County