Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2012)
street roots Feb. 3, 2012 Portland Afoot is getting around The city s transportation magazine gives consumers a monthly rundown o f the controversial and cool BY ISRAEL BAYER S T A F F W R IT E R transportation problem for East Portland? ichael Andersen launched Portland M .A.: There were a number of very dumb Afoot, a print and online magazine things (laughing). One of the worst ones is about transportation in 2010. Since the Midland Library. It’s a high traffic that time, the publication has grown to location a with people and kids coming and readership of more than 1,000 subscribers going all the time. There’s a TriMet stop engaging them on issues of public directly across from this colossal 122nd transportation, walking and biking in the Avenue. The nearest crosswalks are far Portland region. away and there’s no effort to let cars know The publication offers a range of news that there are people sprinting across all of stories on transportation life, and gives the time. It’s par for the course on 122nd readers information on topics ranging from Avenue. pedestrian laws in Portland to information about car sharing and the best I.B.: How do you feel the publication is employers for low-car being received? commuters. MT LÀ M D On its Web site, M .A.: We launched on a shoestring portlandafoot.org, the group budget. Recently, I ’ve been going to events describes itself with this and people have said, you’ve only been wt hun«a, èffe?, ««si declaration: “We bus. We around for two years? It feels like you’ve bike. We M AX. We walk. been around forever. Who knows, maybe We’re fifty thousand families two years is the new forever (laughing). We strong, and just by getting can’t claim the new kid on the block around without a car anymore. Really, the entire project has been sometimes, we’re word of mouth. transforming Portland We’ve struggled with this tension. The i ortland step by step. We all reason it’s in print is we’re trying to be know Portland’s got universally accessible. We want it to be r something people don’t have to think about issues when it comes PCX's lö-animits newsmagazine to getting around. But to consume. There are so many groups about, buszs, bikes & low-cartifs where’s our voice? covering transit issues: Bike Portland, The What’s our Oregonian, Street Roots. What we want is to conversation? And by make it super easy, digestible and efficient. the way, how can I get We all have so much coming at us and so my boss to pay for my much on our minds. You can spend 10 rail pass?” minutes with Portland Afoot a month and Andersen is an Ohio your minimally informed enough to be native and has lived engaged as a consumer. and worked as a journalist both in I.B.: What are the biggest issues public Vancouver, Wash., and transportation is facing right now? Portland. Besides M.A.: There’s so much; budget cuts to heading up Portland sm », stad few'-fcW fare increases to an all-out disaster brewing Afoot, Andersen also works with Mercy over funding in the next few years. The shifts in the fare structure with adding flat Corps as an editor and fare zones, which will have the biggest writing coach for their impact on central city folks. Both of those Global Envision project, a things are probably going to happen sooner blog about market-oriented rather than later. And of course, cutting global solutions. back on services further. Israel Bayer: Tell us I.B.: So really, poor people are more or less about Portland Afoot. screwed and middle- and upper-income folks Wt!s«f-S«S«s may choose to take a different mode of Michael Andersen: The transportation. Are raising the fares the only magazine is a 10-minute news publication about low- option? IS S U E car life. We come out once a M .A. If you look at the numbers, you can month. It’s four pages long see why TriMet is into raising fares. The and short enough to read in amount of money they can raise in the 10-minutes. It’s a fun read. We do weird short-term is so much more rewarding than things, we do serious things, and we mix it cutting whatever TriMet thinks is the non- up. essential services left. We have no idea how Last month, we did a cover story about that will affect the system over the long tips and tricks for dealing with cold weather term and if they’ll lose that revenue when on TriMet. We talked to a bunch of people people stop riding. about things like how TriMet sets the air- There’s a lack of creativity to think about pressure higher on the M A X during cold other revenue streams. There’s also a spells, so when the door is open the complete failure at the federal level to think temperature goes out instead of in. The about the funding structures. There’s what month before we did a story on the 10 feels like a bottomless well of money flowing dumbest transportation problems in East into rail structures at the same time cities Portland. We looked at things like how a are gutting services. Don’t get me wrong, I specific bike lane would vantage right before love trains, but federal priorities aren’t a dangerous intersection. helping the problem on the ground. I.B.: What was the number one dumbest M i |rö •AFOOT B •AFOOT I! /ORTLAND ìAFOOT MALL I.B.: I don’t just want to stay in the doom and gloom surrounding local transportation. What can we be hopeful for and continue to appreciate? P H O T O B Y M IC H A E L SCH O EN H O LTZ Michael Andersen, founder o f Portland Afoot. M .A .: The fact that cities are becoming more vibrant all of the time is something to be hopeful about. Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen a cultural shift. Crime is falling in cities, the amount of public investment in cities has risen and people are responding. This is driving the upsurge in biking, public transit, walking and so on. If we can manage that well, that’s great for people at all levels. It makes a more class diverse and efficient environment. While we have challenges around all of these things, we also have a great base to work from. I.B.: Portland continues to embrace bike culture? M .A .: We have so much momentum in bike culture, and all of the investments we have made over the past decade are paying off. Smart and innovative people, poor people and others are all taking advantage of Portland in one way or another through biking. It’s something I believe will continue to grow. It’s important for all of us (advocates) to be noisy and to give politicians cover for projects supporting the bike culture, but it’s important to note, that we’ve had some great leaders and advocates who were the politicians. I.B.: Anything you’d like to add? M .A .: The biggest social challenge of the next five or 10 years for media is how do we serve ordinary and poor people with niche media. General interest media has been on a slow decline that won’t be turned around. So we as a community have to find a way to get news and information to the people. That’s why Portland Afoot, Street Roots and other media outlets become invaluable. At a local level, everybody wants to do the right thing, but people don’t have access to always knowing what the right thing is. There are so many people without power that want to know what’s happening, and so many people in power that make decisions that are completely uninformed about the products of their actions. One of Portland Afoot’s main goals is to lower the cost of being informed. To fin d out more or to subscribe to Portand Afoot either through the mail or on-line, go to portlandafoot.org. Please make sure you buy from badged vendors, confirming that they have attended the vendor orientation and are authorized to sell the newspapers. Your vendor will thank you!
