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
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B
•AFOOT
I! /ORTLAND
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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.
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