Last night I attended the NE Holman Neighborhood Greenway open house held by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. I don’t quite live in the neighborhood, but as a North Portland resident whose friends live primarily in the Cully neighborhood, I have personal interest in the project that would make improvements to a route I already use on a weekly basis.
NE Holman and 13th Now
Neighborhood greenways (formerly known as bike boulevards) are family friendly streets that make travel by foot and by bike safe and convenient. The City of Portland has a vision for a network of neighborhood greenways that connect all of Portland so that no one has to go more than a few blocks from home to travel on one of these safe, pleasant streets.
After the open house as I pedaled East on the soon-to-be Holman Neighborhood Greenway, I felt very much in love with my city for a number of reasons.
1. The room was packed. People in Portland care, and they show up. The crowd was totally engaged in the conversation whether the topic was expansion of the neighborhood pocket park or the placement of curb extensions.
2. City staff are smart and awesome. The PBOT staff presenting handled dozens of pointed questions with clear, supported answers and reasoning, and as the evening progressed, it became clear how creatively and efficiently City staff were using limited resources to accomplish shared goals: stimulus funding to provide directional signage and pavement markings, Bureau of Environmental Services funding to provide stormwater management that will double as curb extensions, transportation funding to provide traffic signs, crosswalk markings, curb ramps, and pedestrian refuge islands/diverters. Only together do all of these elements create a neighborhood greenway.
3. The room was buzzing about a piece of the plan to turn pavement into park. Neighbors and City staff identified an opportunity that’s not in the standard Neighborhood Greenway toolbox. At 13th and Holman there is a little pocket park that could be extended right through the street providing through access to bikes and pedestrians while diverting auto traffic. The project is not set in stone, but it made it to the drawing board with clear understanding that it would be a cooperative effort between PBOT, BES, possibly the Parks Bureau, and most probably some neighborhood sweat! Life is good in the City that Works. . .Together!
While the BTA continues to push our elected officials on all levels for a more wholesale reprioritization of transportation funding, we salute the professionals and community members who are doing awesome, creative work to improve our community with the limited resources we have.
There are two more neighborhood greenway open houses left for the current phase of planning. Is one of them in your neighborhood?
