We saw the no-CRC table as we passed, but didn't see you... was around 3pm I think.

A beautiful day for a bike ride, although my partner and I just did the lower loop -- we didn't brave the climb over the top of Mt. Tabor.

Chris old buddy, WE WANT PICTURES and/or videos OF YOU AT THIS EVENT!

Don't forget, I put your campaign sign on my front lawn over here, PAYBACK TIME!

Why don't we just make all of downtown a car free zone to get a feel for how we can live like the third world?

The upside of this would be to let downtown die a natural death and no longer require massive subsidies from the rest of the city.

Thanks
JK

JK -

The upside of this would be to let downtown die a natural death

Not sure why you're bringing such cynicism and negativity to the table (at 5 in the morning, no less), but there's no comparison to an occasional weekend event with massive turnout and the draconian measures you propose for downtown.

(Somehow, yet again, I get the impression you DON'T actually want to turn downtown into a car-free-zone, and you're just making a specious argument based on false perceptions of people you oppose. Please correct me if I'm wrong and that you are actually advocating for removing cars from downtown. It's hard to tell sometimes, as you've mixed in a lot of arguments you don't actually believe in the past.)

I saw hundreds of faces (perhaps thousands) yesterday, and nobody had the look of being trapped in a third-world country. Quite the contrary.

I can understand the neo-Libertarian perspective of wanting to remove subsidies of any kind from the public sphere, but it's one thing to advocate for a supposedly-neutral economic system where the chips fall where they may, and another altogether to wish for the "death" of a large chunk of a city. So now we know that "Save Portland" really equals "Death to Downtown".

I think it would be brilliant to move Sunday Parkways into some business districts, to illustrate what has been found in many other places such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam - that cyclists and pedestrians make the best shoppers.

As long as we're talking about subsidies - everyone who lives in the state, whether they drive or not, is subsidizing your ability to have nicely paved roads and parking lots and highways and freeways. How's that? In fact, they're also, to a much lesser degree, subsidizing highways and freeways in other states, too.

Really, if you're going to get into this kind of thing, do it somewhere that it's relevant (not on a post about something totally unrelated), and secondly, know what you're talking about. If you want, have some informed discussion, but don't just rant.

Two possible keys for success for any permanent closure of business streets to motor vehicles:
1. Very nearby MV access - - one block to major through streets and lots of parking as well as major transit lines.
2. Location in middle of major residential area. This has probably been the killer of such attempts in the US over the years - - think Eugene. Traditional zoning may be a real culprit.

So there may be some potential in the Pearl or SOWA, but not for almost all other traditional shopping streets.

Yesterday was glorious! Glad they're doing five next year. I think doing one in NW would be fun. Close down 23rd to cars; I'll bet the shop owners would love it! It would be like the pedestrian only shopping streets I've seen in Amsterdam and Rome.

I had the same thought; 23rd is frequently undriveable anyway.

Where would 23rd private/commercial and line 15 traffic go? Nearby streets also have their problems and parking is tight throughout the area. Otherwise, with its long standing mixed use neighborhoods, NW Portland would be ideal.

I'd reroute auto and bus traffic onto 21st.

Would 23rd and 21st function better as a one-way couplet? (And has there been any though of extending the PSC from its current western endpoint at 23rd and Lovejoy down 23rd/21st?)

R A Fontes Says: Where would 23rd private/commercial and line 15 traffic go? Nearby streets also have their problems and parking is tight throughout the area. Otherwise, with its long standing mixed use neighborhoods, NW Portland would be ideal.

You'll get an opportunity to find out in January when the City starts street work on 23rd.

Two possible keys for success for any permanent closure of business streets to motor vehicles:

Buffalo NY was able to basically put the last nail in it's downtown coffin by making Main St available only to pedestrians, bicyclists, and the METRO Rail line. In no way was it the only cause, but it was a complete failure. Now they're trying to return vehicle traffic to Main St as an urban renewal project.

I'd reroute auto and bus traffic onto 21st.

The ramps from the Fremont Bridge to US-30 would need to be reconnected to shut down NW 23rd without causing a number of problems I'd think. That and NW 25th would probably end up taking the brunt of it. As a residential street that's very close to a school, that would be a pretty bad idea in my opinion.

Would 23rd and 21st function better as a one-way couplet? (And has there been any though of extending the PSC from its current western endpoint at 23rd and Lovejoy down 23rd/21st?)

I think the Conway site redevelopment proposal (that was promptly rescinded) included a streetcar extension up 21st, across Thurman, back on Vaughn, and then down 23rd back to where it exists today. Serving Montgomery Park, Food Front, new development at the Conway site, the NW Library, etc with the Streetcar doesn't seem like a bad idea, but a lot of my neighbors were very put off by the scale of the proposed development required by Conway to make it pencil out.

I want pictures and/or videos of our fearless leader!

The ramps from the Fremont Bridge to US-30 would need to be reconnected to shut down NW 23rd without causing a number of problems I'd think. That and NW 25th would probably end up taking the brunt of it. As a residential street that's very close to a school, that would be a pretty bad idea in my opinion.

Just to clarify, my suggestion to reroute traffic to 21st applies only to if 23rd was closed as part of Sunday Parkways. Obviously, if it were to be closed to auto traffic permanently, that's a whole other thing entirely.

For Sunday Parkways, I'd close 23rd only as far north as maybe Kearney or Lovejoy, so as to not interfere with Streetcar ops.

Are spammers bothering the site again? Twice today I've seen "service is busy" error messages when trying to read.

The site is always bothered to some degree by spammers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of spam comments being processed every day.

For Sunday Parkways, I'd close 23rd only as far north as maybe Kearney or Lovejoy, so as to not interfere with Streetcar ops.

Makes sense, but I'd still rather see it on 21st. But I also like Silver Dollar and love the idea of redeveloping the Conway parking lots.

The site is always bothered to some degree by spammers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of spam comments being processed every day.

Thousands?
WOW!
What happens to all of it?
Spam folder?

CHRIS SMITH ATTENDS BICYCLE EVENT:

PICTURE

Speaking of bicycles, here is some pretty decent video of the naked ride.

It's a play list of three videos.

RIDE NAKED

JK said:

Why don't we just make all of downtown a car free zone to get a feel for how we can live like the third world?

A better example than the third world might be the car-free Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, Vermont:

http://churchstmarketplace.com/

Which is the wildly successful commercial center of that downtown area.

Parkways was a ton of fun! 'Gratz to the organizers.

Not to mention the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California.

Really... I shouldn't have to mention it. I've pointed this out to JK on this web site twice before. It's becoming an annual thing.

One of the "Premier Shopping Destinations in West Los Angeles" is not what I would consider a third-world country. (Insert gratuitous LA/Third World joke here.)

Sadly, that very successful mall has a checkered history -- an elderly motorist became confused and drove more than 1,000 feet through the closed-to-autos farmers' market held there, killing 10 people and injuring 63 others. Not the sort of thing an errant solo bicyclist can do.