page 12________________________________________
Commentary________________
Street Roots «May 6-12, 2016
Temporary gas tax the smart, responsible plan for Portland
Nick Saume is the
executive director of
ROSE Community
Development. Maxine
Fitzpatric^is the
executive director of
Portland Community
Reinvestment
Initiatives, Inc. Eli
Spevak is the founder
of Orange Splot LLC.
BY NICK SAUVIE, MAXINE
FITZPATRICK AND ELI SPEVAK
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS
magine you’re a single parent in Portland.
You’re stringing together paychecks to keep
up with your exorbitant rent at the
apartment complex on the edge of town, the
only one you can afford. Despite your best
efforts to save money, you’re vulnerable to any
unexpected economic turmoil. Heading home
from your overtime shift, you hit a pothole on
that beat-up street you drive every day, and you
find out that the repair to your car will cost
almost an entire month’s rent You don’t know
how you’re going to be able to take transit to
your job the next morning, especially since
your child can’t independently walk to school
on the dangerous roads lacking crosswalks that
lie between your apartment and the
elementary school.
How did we get to this point? Years of
declining revenues leads to the chronic
underinvestment of the basic functions and
services of city government, and the lack of
funding has significant implications to a
region’s economic vitality, public health and
livability. The negative impacts of this chronic
underfunding leads to disproportionate burden
faced by marginalized populations located
literally and figuratively on the margins of our
community. Now, community leaders are
building a coalition to support a measure to
raise revenue to address the immediate
backlogged community need, and are bringing
I
business and community advocate groups
together to take a first step at addressing the
problem.
For Street Roots’ readers who have been
following Portland’s ongoing affordable housing
shortage, all of this probably sounds very
familiar. Yet it also describes the current state
of Portland’s roads, streets and sidewalks.
That’s why the three of us, each affordable
housing advocates, encourage Portland to vote
YES on 26-173 and pass a temporary, four year,
10-cent gas tax to raise $64 million for street
improvements next month.
Our gas taxes, the primary source of
transportation funding, have not produced
N orthwest
Beyond Limitations"
revenues to keep up with the required
maintenance to our streets. This is for a
variety of reasons, including inflation,
increased fuel-efficiency in vehicles, and
reduced per-capita driving. While we’ve
patiently waited for the federal and state
governments to increase their gas taxes (which
they haven’t done since 1993 and 2009,
respectively), Portland’s streets have continued
to deteriorate. An independent report
conducted by the City Club of Portland last
year confirmed that we simply have not
allocated enough money for Portland to
address the glaring lack of maintenance.
According to city estimates, every dollar we
spend on maintenance now can save as many
as 10 down the road by avoiding costly road
rebuilds. Portland’s low-income communities
are disproportionately burdened by poor
maintenance on our streets; many families
can’t stomach paying $500 for a broken axle
caused by a pothole (and if you hit a pothole
while biking, it costs even more to fix a broken
collarbone).
In addition to our maintenance concerns,
Portland’s streets desperately need basic
infrastructure improvements to make it easier
for every Portlander to walk and bike on their
local neighborhood street Community
advocates including APAÑO, Families for Safe
Streets, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon,
and Oregon Walks have been working with the
City to adopt Vision Zero, the philosophy that
traffic fatalities are unacceptable and that
cities should use engineering, policy and
education campaigns to eradicate the notion
that streets must kill people. Traffic violence,
not unlike the violence of houselessness,
disproportionately targets the vulnerable,
including individuals with substance abuse and
mental illness. A disproportionate number of
Portland’s traffic fatalities happen in East
Portland. The combination of high speeds,
underfunded crosswalks and large numbers of
students and senior citizens navigating
potholes and puddles around speeding cars
and trucks creates an all-too-often lethal
combination in our underserved communities.
The temporary gas tax also includes $8
million in funding for increased sidewalks,
5312 NE 148th Ave.
Portland, OR 97230
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Requirements:
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crosswalks and traffic calming near elementary
and middle schools. The rates of walking and
biking to school have gone up 36 percent since
the City of Portland began their Safe Routes to
School program a decade ago, and the Fix Our
Streets proposal would direct funds to
neighborhoods that need it the most. With
PPS families concerned about transportation
logistics due to the forthcoming school
boundary changes and Portlanders citywide
concerned about the number of children
without safe routes to school in East Portland,
the temporary gas tax couldn’t come at a
better time for Portland’s children..
The $64 million raised by the gas tax would
be spent on already-identified projects,
including safety improvements for drivers and
walkers alike on 122nd Avenue, crosswalks on
the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, and repaving
parts of Foster Boulevard. Revenues received
by the temporary gas tax would be reviewed by
an independent citizen advisory committee
reporting annually to City Council to ensure
accountability and transparency. Check our
website at www.fixourstreetsportland.com for a
full fist of projects, endorsements, and other
information about the campaign. Our only
organized opposition to the campaign is funded
by the Oil Lobby.
Undeniably, Portland urgently needs to
address our ongoing affordability concerns, so
that everyone can find a home in a safe,
walkable neighborhood. The Fix Our Streets
Portland proposal directly addresses these
concerns by making cost-efficient, equitable
investments on the streets and in the
neighborhoods that need them the most.
The temporary gas tax is a smart, fair> cost-
effective investment to ensure the longevity
and safety of our transportation system.
Affordable housing advocates,
environmentalists, business advocacy groups,
and Portland’s entire City Council and top
mayoral candidates all agree that this gas tax is
a necessary first step to avoid costly road
repairs in the future and to help stem traffic
violence in East Portland. Please vote yes for
safer streets this May; we can’t afford to wait
any longer to fix our streets.