The BTA is partnering with other non-profit organizations to urge the City of Portland to reinstate the Senior Parks and Trails Planner position that has been proposed for cutting. These planners are key personal coordinating the regional trails and greenway acquisition and construction. Such trails include the Vera Katz East Bank Esplanade, OMSI to Sellwood Trail, and others.
Our testimony:
Mayor Potter and City Commissioners
City Hall
1221 SW 4th Ave
Portland, OR 97204
Dear Mayor Potter and City Commissioners:
On behalf of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, I’m writing to express our strong support of Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau and its talented senior staff. The Bicycle Transportation Alliance is a non-profit organization working since 1991 to promote bicycling and improve bicycling conditions in Oregon. We represent over 4,000 members throughout the state.
Today, we are respectfully urging you to reinstate the proposed cut of a Senior Parks Planner.
Demand for recreation, access to nature, and alternative modes of transportation have significantly increased in Portland. Interestingly, the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau Planners have been key players in developing strategies and implementing plans and projects that cut across City Bureaus, government levels, citizens, and business interests.
The Portland Parks Bureau has effectively increased access to natural areas for Portland residents, visitors, and employees while engaging the diverse transportation and business communities. The Vera Katz East Bank Esplanade, OMSI to Sellwood Trail, and the Peninsula Crossing Trail are three excellent examples. Other projects continue to move forward, such as the Three Bridges project, the North Macadam District, and Willamette Shoreline Trails.
Portland Parks and Recreation Planners have been the center of most of these signature efforts. Parks Senior and Strategic Planners have helped leverage over $3 million of federal and regional transportation dollars, have built partnerships with unlikely partnerships such as the Swan Island TMA, the Williams and Dame Development Company, PDC, and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.
Today an unlikely partner is here to urge you to keep this team robust. We value the increasingly active relationship between parks, trails, transportation, recreation, and health professional that your Planners have built. We believe that that the proposed cut a Senior Parks Planner will stifle the City’s effort to leverage a host of private resources and decrease competitiveness for regional and federal funds; perhaps also impacting Portland’s ability to develop applications to the discretionary grants program set up by the proposed Metro Greenspace Bond Measure. Cutting this position will decrease your ability stretch the City’s limited resources.
I appreciate all of you work to slice the City’s budget and make difficult cuts. Please retain the strategic staff of the City.
Sincerely,
Scott Bricker
Policy Director
