September 20, 2023

To: Portland City Council

Good morning, Portland City Council:

My name is Sarah Iannarone and I am here on behalf of The Street Trust and am a registered lobbyist. PBOT is facing significant revenue challenges and thus should be competing aggressively for substantial federal grant funding opportunities while the short BIL and IRA windows are open. We applaud staff for their hard work on this front.

You may not be aware, but The Street Trust is regularly asked by agency staff to submit letters of support for grant applications like this. Already this year, we've supported funding requests for the Montgomery Streetcar extension, Gateway Transit Center, and even the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project, among others. The Street Trust has been engaged in both the Rose Quarter and 82nd Avenue stakeholder processes and we wholeheartedly support the grant applications under consideration today, especially given their potential to benefit historically marginalized communities.

However, we are here to share our serious concerns that PBOT leadership is currently jeopardizing our competitiveness and undermining our prospects for winning these two grants.

There is circulating in the media a directive from leadership to staff calling for the unprecedented removal of a crucial section of our protected bicycle network from SW Salmon to NW Hoyt along Broadway, a vital connection not only for your workers, but PSU staff and students, folks heading to OHSU, and many other major employers in the city.

I understand that some business owners along this corridor have expressed concerns about their customers’ comfort with the bike lane and we hope that PBOT will work with them to find a solution. I’m not here to pit the hospitality industry against city council’s approved complete streets policies. Our concern extends far beyond this stretch of curb to issues of governance and fiscal responsibility within the bureau as related to the grant applications under discussion today.

You’re being asked to approve applications to the U.S. Department of Transportation for projects focused on improving safety for people walking, bicycling and accessing transit along 82nd Avenue and in Lower Albina, including for construction of additional protected bike facilities on E. Broadway. The total funding request is approximately $80 million which, as you heard, does not require a local match. This is very special money.

The current proposal to remove the protected bike lane along W. Broadway, which directly connects to the bike lanes for which we are applying for federal funding along E Broadway, raises a significant question: why would the federal government fund infrastructure installation that PBOT might later decide to remove? Estimated costs for removing the westside lane range from 50% to a staggering 300% of the original installation cost. It's difficult to imagine why USDOT would entrust PBOT with their money when there appear to be issues locally with project planning and implementation as well as fiscal responsibility.

Prior to the bike lane installation, W. Broadway was host to 1 in every 42 crashes in the city - it is an empirically proven successful Vision Zero investment. This is particularly critical in light of the Climate Investment Plan proposal under discussion this afternoon to fund additional 6000 e-bikes for commuters on our streets. I highly doubt that our federal delegation will champion grant applications aimed at improving safety while PBOT spends its limited local dollars making streets more dangerous.

Thank you for hearing our perspective today.

Sincerely,

Sarah Iannarone

Executive Director, The Street Trust