Portland City Hall, Nov. 15, 2024. Portlanders have long lobbied City Hall to address a lack of sidewalks in areas of the city with a high rate of traffic-related deaths.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Portlanders have long lobbied City Hall to address a lack of sidewalks in areas of the city with a high rate of traffic-related deaths. Now, the city’s recently elected officials are trying to take action.
On Monday, the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously advanced a plan to add sidewalks to some of the city’s most sidewalk-deficient neighborhoods.
“If our streets and sidewalks aren’t in good condition, we cannot move around easily regardless of who we are,” District 1 Councilor Loretta Smith said. “We can’t get to work easily. We can’t get our kids to school, nor can we enjoy what our city has to offer.”
About 120 miles of Portland streets lack sidewalks – and most of them are located in District 1 in East Portland and District 4’s Southwest neighborhoods. This is largely due to the city not having funding to add sidewalks when these streets were originally annexed from Multnomah County into the city limits.
The council proposal, led by Smith and District 4 Councilor Mitch Green, focuses solely on adding and maintaining sidewalks in these districts. The resolution approved Monday is part of a larger plan that specifically directs the Portland Bureau of Transportation to draft a plan that would increase sidewalk construction and maintenance in the two districts over a four-year period. A separate plan to boost job creation tied to the construction projects and a funding plan will be tackled separately.
Members of the public who’ve spent years lobbying for sidewalks celebrated the decision.
“This is generational,” said Zachary Lauritzen, director of pedestrian advocacy group Oregon Walks. “We’ve been talking about doing this for decades since annexation, and finally we have a couple leaders saying, ‘We’re going to do this.’ I am so moved by that.”
Green said this plan demonstrates the City Council’s commitment to working across districts as the public adjusts to a new government format, where councilors are elected to represent geographic areas.
“You find your allies where you have overlapping interests,” Green said.
All councilors appear to support the plan to add more sidewalks to east and west Portland streets. Yet, there’s still disagreement on how to pay for such improvements during a tight budget year.
The anticipated sidewalk construction could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Because the transportation bureau faces a budget deficit close to $40 million, this funding would need to come from outside the bureau.
Smith and Green have floated a few potential funding sources. That includes issuing bonds with City Council’s approval, tapping into federal and state funding and using revenue from the Portland Clean Energy Fund. Using the voter-approved PCEF tax, which is meant to be spent on projects that reduce carbon emissions, to fill any of the city’s budget gaps has divided city leaders. Councilor Angelia Morillo, who represents Southeast Portland’s District 3, questioned how using PCEF money to pour cement sidewalks would benefit the environment.
“I want to ensure that if those dollars are going to be touched, that they are going to actually be used in a way that reduces carbon emissions,” Morillo said. “I think we have a duty to voters to ensure that if they voted in a ballot measure about funding climate resilience, that we are actually using those dollars in that way.”
This wouldn’t be the first time the city used PCEF funding on sidewalks. Last year, Portland City Council gave the transportation bureau $20.5 million to build tree-lined sidewalks near schools in East Portland.
Earlier in the meeting, Green argued that adding sidewalks could decrease Portlanders’ reliance on cars, as it could make walking feel safer and create accessible connections to public transit lines. Smith noted that the plan also may also meet one of PCEF’s goals to create green jobs for low-income people of color.
“PCEF is not just climate conscious, it is workforce development conscious as well,” Smith said. “And that’s how it was built.”
The conversation on how sidewalks could be funded will move to the city’s Finance Committee for debate. But Morillo ensured it wouldn’t move forward without a bigger conversation about PCEF funds. She advanced an amendment ensuring that, if that committee recommends using PCEF funding for this project, the conversation be referred to the city’s Climate Resilience and Land Use Committee.
The resolution will also head to the council’s Labor and Workforce Development committee before landing before the entire council for a vote.
