Scooters at CATC Tonight

The Citizen Advisory Traffic Commission meets tonight the 8th to talk about a left-turn restriction on 12th Street at Cannon Street.

12th & Cannon SE - note "no left turn" sign below posted speed

I don't know anything about this, and maybe more will surface. CATC is one of those secondary committees for which the City hardly publishes anything - no meeting packets, no printed minutes or other notes, usually just the barebones agenda.

This is right at the Wye where the 12th/13th couplet splits, there are some other driveways and small streets, and it's complex and messy.

(Not really affected by the proposal, but in the area, the northbound bike lane here is not very comfortable, and drivers too often whip a right turn onto east-bound McGilchrist without yielding or checking properly to see if there are any people in the bike lane. That intersection is always harrowing.)

CATC agenda, January 8th

More interesting is the "e-scooter discussion." But again, there is no indication about any draft proposal or concept.

In the paper a couple summers ago

See "What Should the City do with Scooters?" and all notes about them here.

CATC meets at 6pm Wednesday the 8th on the third floor at City Hall in the Public Works Conference Room.

Traffic Violence was Bad in 2019 and even Worse in 1919

The numbers are superficially similar, 43 in 1919 and 49 in 2019. The number of traffic fatalities in Portland seems hardly changed after a century. But of course cherry-picking numbers like that hides so much more than it reveals.

War, death, and speed:
Aerial combat in World War I as trope for driving*
November 23rd, 1919

Yesterday the Oregonian published their year-end summary of traffic violence. Last year, a terrible year for traffic death, they note drivers killed at least 49 people.

Today on Oregonian front page

Exactly 100 years ago, for 1919 Portland newspapers reported drivers killed 43 people, "an alarming increase over 1918" when drivers killed 28 people.

Speeding Driver Kills Jaime Le Ann Hall on Skateboard Friday Night

A person apparently speeding and making an unsafe pass of another car struck and killed a person on skateboard late Friday night.

The investigation developed very quickly, and the paper published a relatively complete story before the Police published a press release on their flash alert public wire:

A Salem man was charged with manslaughter and DUII after he allegedly struck a skateboarder with a car Saturday in northeast Salem.

Salem Police officers and medics responded to a crash around 2 a.m. in the 600 block of Hawthorne Avenue NE where they found a woman dead at the scene.

The suspect, Javier Luevano-Plascencia, 23...was later arrested at the police department after consenting to a blood and urine sample.

The victim was identified Monday as Jaime Le Ann Hall, 42, of Salem...[who] was crossing the street on a skateboard.

According to the probable cause statement, a witness told officers he was driving south on Hawthorne Avenue when the suspect passed him on the left "at a high rate of speed" and struck the woman

Note the active verbs and concrete driver: "he allegedly struck a skateboarder with a car." Also nothing about whether Hall had a helmet or was illuminated like a Christmas tree. This is the right way to report things. It may be in no small reason because charges have already been filed and the initial assignment of blame was unambiguous.

(And 2am on Saturday morning is like last call on Friday night, so I take this as part of Friday night rather than "very early Saturday morning.")

(Updated: Front page on Tuesday the 7th)

Update, October 17th

Sentencing announced today, October 17th

Maybe more will be reported, and if so this will be updated. But this initial phase looks whole.

Before Department of Energy, Berg's Market Used Howard Street Charter School Building

The new site for Howard Street Charter School is almost finished.

Howard Street Charter School almost finished (December 2019)
via FB

The school says

See you on Monday at 3pm for our Ribbon Cutting ceremony and public open house. Students start back Jan 7.

While the building's former use by the State and Department of Energy has got most of the attention, the site has an older and even more interesting history.

December 1st, 1946

It seems like a good time to revisit this. For the whole story, see "Veterans Hall Litigated, Abandoned Before Bergs Market at New Howard School Site."

New Grocery Store - July 12, 1955

Apartments on former State Hospital Site at Planning Commmission

On Tuesday the 7th the Planning Commission will consider the latest site plan review for 246 apartments at the North Campus of the State Hospital.

Apartment blocks in blue; private drive and parking lots
off cul-de-sacs; single detached homes line D and Park

I'm having a hard time thinking about it, though. This will just be a shallow overview, therefore.

I thought we were done with WWI
June 29th, 1914

The Staff Report is also a little confusing.

Staff Recommendation is not strong and gives two choices

Initially it recommends denial, but then says, but if you don't want to, that's ok, and here's an alternative.

After Zoning Tax Fails at Ballot, Zoning Commission Quits in 1926

Before the City could be zoned in 1926, there was drama.

June 22nd, 1926

On June 21st in 1926, all of the Planning and Zoning Commission resigned:

the resignations declared that the "comprehensive bridge program," and activities formerly planned had become impossible following the refusing of the public on May 21 to grant $15,000 for expenses and expert engineer service.

In some of April and throughout May there had been lots of press and discussion about zoning and planning. In April Council had taken the Commission's request for funding and referred it to the voters. Some wanted a "do not pass" recommendation even. Passage was never a sure thing. A Letter to the Editor on May 19th explicitly talked about the values of a walkable neighborhood, the threat to the corner store, and the centralizing tendencies of zoning. (The writer also wanted a nearby garage and filling station. We may return to it, as an example of transition.)

The issue the previous day, on the 18th, had several articles in discussion.

May 18th, 1926

On the election of Friday, May 21st there were four funding items on the ballot:

• A tax levy to provide $5000/year for three years to fund the Zoning Commission's work.
• $30,000 in bonds for a fire truck and other fire equipment.
• A tax levy to provide about $30,000/year for bridge construction and maintenance.
• A tax levy to provide about $22,000/year for street work.

The Election season was strange by our modern standards. There had been a separate school election for the purchase of the future Leslie Junior High School just a couple of days earlier on Wednesday the 19th. Of the four on that Friday, only the fire department bond measure passed.

But less than the politics of the proposed tax levies themselves, it's the underlying planning matters that remain interesting today.

Roll into the New Year with a Helpful New Law

January 1st, 1920

From June earlier; the law passed

Others have written about the safer stopping law better than anything possible here.

See especially at BikePortland:

• "Oregon passes version of “Idaho Stop” law that allows bike riders to treat stop signs as yields"
• "Guest Post: How Oregon got Idaho Stop"
• "Comment of the Week: From Jason Meggs, Idaho Stop law researcher"

And for a New Years Resolution, support our 350.org chapter as they advocate with the City for a Climate Action Plan with teeth: Actionable policies, assessment criteria, and real consequences.