Cyclo-Drama
Providence Medical Center likes bikes--except when they cruise by its own front door. Then, some bike advocates say, Providence is peddling hypocrisy. At issue is a city plan to create a north-south bike path to help cyclists cross the Banfield Freeway and Sandy Boulevard and connect to 125 miles of striped bike lanes the city has already created. After almost a year of study, city transportation officials say Northeast 47th Avenue is a good route. But Providence--which provides racks and showers for its cycling employees and sponsors the annual Bridge Pedal event--disagrees. The proposed bike path would run right in front of the hospital's main entrance. Providence officials say the bike lanes would bring more bicycles into potential conflict with ambulances and remove some on-street parking. Not so, according to city officials. In a recent letter to the hospital, City Commissioner Charlie Hales argues that bike lanes make streets safer for cyclists. Hales says the area offers abundant parking for residents and that Providence's parking garage "has more than 300 available spaces on any given day, according to Providence staff." Karen Frost Mecey, executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, calls Providence's stance puzzling. "They should be touting the advantages of biking in the neighborhood and encouraging employees and patients to bicycle," she says. "What a perfect way to combine transportation and health." As for any parking shortage, she says, Providence could alleviate residents' concerns by making sure its employees don't park in the neighborhood. "As I understand it, Providence says it supports marked bicycle lanes, but just not on 47th," adds Drew Gardner, a cyclist and Northeast Portland resident. "That's like claiming you support integration, just not in your neighborhood." "This is a health and safety issue," says Jeff Wright, a cyclist and resident of the Rose City Park neighborhood. "The hospital promotes itself as a leader in this area. I find [its] position against adding a bike lane to 47th Avenue rather hypocritical." Providence officials did not return WW's calls. The "north-south 40s" bike path plan goes before City Council next month. The city's bike program has not yet made a recommendation on the plan. --Bob Young Help Wanted
In a surprise move, Portland Public Schools chief financial officer Ron Stokes is leaving the district after less than eight months on the job. Stokes was hired last November from the James River Corp. to bring order to the district's chaotic financial reporting system. His high-profile arrival filled a position that had gone empty for 18 months. But the honeymoon ended quickly. "It just wasn't a good match," Stokes says. "There were just too many differences between the private and public sector." In particular, Stokes says he had difficulty adjusting to the public nature of his role. "Everything was under intense scrutiny," he says. Although Stokes terms his departure "mutually agreed upon and amicable," it was clearly unexpected. He has no definite employment plans, saying only that he probably will not work in the public sector again. School Board Chairman Ron Saxton declined to comment on Stokes' departure, and acting superintendent Diana Snowden did not return WW's phone calls. --Nigel Jaquiss In the Same Boat
Willamette Riverkeeper, the only group in Oregon dedicated solely to protecting the Willamette River from urban runoff, pesticides, raw sewage and the like, is no longer up the river without a boat. It took a year, but Riverkeeper just bought a 1993 welded aluminum Duckworth for patrolling the river. At a fund-raiser last month--a cruise on the Portland Spirit--Willamette Riverkeeper found itself $6,500 shy of the $18,000 needed to buy the boat. That's when Wayne Lei, PGE's environmental director, threw in $2,000 of the utility company's money and challenged the rest of the crowd to pony up. Gunderson Inc., a company that manufactures, repairs and refurbishes train cars and manufactures barges, added another $2,000 more than what it had already donated, and the hat was passed around the room. In a half hour all $6,500 was raised. Don Francis, president of Willamette Riverkeeper, says the new boat reflects the values of valley residents. "It's owned by the community," he says. "It shows that people take ownership in the Willamette River." The boat, which hasn't yet been named, will take Riverkeeper to what Francis calls the "river people"--the fishers, boaters, kayakers, water skiers and meanderers of the Willamette River. With 230 miles of river to cover, the group can't do it alone. Francis wants the boat to become a floating community center for people to report anything they see on the water--from deformed fish to pipes spewing toxic runoff. Francis says that such reports, combined with the group's own patrolling of the river, will help Riverkeeper paint a more complete picture of the Willamette. But the new 20-foot boat won't be the group's only form of transportation. On July 29, Francis, with other staff members and volunteers, will begin the Willamette Riverkeeper's second-annual canoe trip to bring attention to the waterway. They'll put in at Eugene and paddle 175 miles to Portland, stopping in Salem to deliver their report to Gov. John Kitzhaber. --Patty Wentz FOLLOW UP
Sticking Their Necks Out
The Port is happy, the environmentalists are happy, Metro is happy, and if all goes well, the turtles will be happy, too. In October 1996, when the Port of Portland presented its plans for North Marine Drive at a meeting of Friends of Smith and Bybee Lakes, it was seen as business as usual for the Port, which has a history of ramrodding projects through with little concern for the environmental impacts ("Err Port," WW, March 11, 1998). The group was outraged by the plan, which was aimed at speeding up traffic from the Rivergate Industrial District to Terminal Six. The Port proposed running a rail line through the parking lot of Smith and Bybee Lakes Natural Area and widening two and a half miles of the road near the nesting grounds of the western painted turtle, which is listed as "sensitive" under the Endangered Species Act. After agreeing to take public comment on the plan, the Port held a series of meetings with both citizens and technical advisory committees. Now, nearly two years later, they've reached an agreement that has everyone tentatively patting the Port on the back. Metro's Emily Roth, who manages Smith and Bybee lakes for the agency, says the Port has gone through the entire public process in good faith. "I think the Port has taken some really positive steps from when they started out in October of 1996," she says. Under the new plan, the controversial rail spur, which was intended to divert rail traffic from crossing Marine Drive, has been scrapped. Instead, a Marine Drive bridge will be built, taking the road over the rail line. North Marine Drive will still be widened to include five car lanes and two bike lanes, but the Port has agreed to several environmental protections, including a sound berm between the road and the natural area to protect turtle habitat. It has also committed to pay $30,000 for a turtle habitat study. For the Port, the compromise has been expensive. The project went from an initial $9 million to $26 million. "It's certainly increased the cost substantially, but it's a good compromise," Darrel Buttice, spokesman for the Port, says of the public process. --Patty Wentz Wage War
On Wednesday, July 8, after months of negotiations with labor advocates ("Night of the Non-Living Wage," WW, Feb. 11, 1998), Multnomah County commissioners proposed a new "living wage" policy. If it's adopted, the county would set a minimum wage of $7 an hour--a dollar above the current state minimum--for an estimated 150 janitorial and food-service workers it employs. As evidenced by the class-war rhetoric that was on display outside the county courthouse on Wednesday evening, however, the advocates were not satisfied. With their boombox blaring, activists from local unions, Jobs With Justice and the Portland Rainbow Coalition played "Living Wage Limbo," a skit that pitted a rich businessman, a middle-class mom and a low-wage worker against each other as they tried to make it under the limbo stick of health care, taxes and housing. In April, labor activists pressured the Portland City Council to guarantee a starting wage of $8 an hour--or 110 percent of the poverty level for a family of four. The county's $7-an-hour proposal falls short, labor advocates say. Activists are also pressuring the county to provide health benefits equal to $1.25 an hour and give preference in awarding contracts to companies that use third-party arbitrators in management-employee disputes. (That type of arrangement is typically found only in unionized shops.) Although the county proposal included things that the city resolution did not, such as a strong pay-scale monitoring system, the county did not include specific health-benefit recommendations or the "union friendly" language the labor advocates wanted. The starting wage, however, is the biggest disappointment to the advocates. "We have to have a bottom line of $8 an hour," Jamie Partridge, spokesman for the activists, says, adding that raising the wage to $8 an hour will securely put working families over the poverty line and keep them off food stamps. Rhys Scholes, aid to Multnomah County Chairwoman Beverly Stein, says the county is worried that setting a wage floor of $8 an hour would force contractors who do business with the city to bump down the pay of workers who are already making $9 and $10 an hour. Otherwise, Scholes says, "the costs could really start to escalate." He says the county is currently doing the math on the activists' wage recommendations, and commissioners hope to be back with another proposal by summer's end. --Josh Feit |
