We have a serial killer in the middle of our neighborhoods of Southeast Portland and no one is doing anything to stop it. Its latest victim was claimed Friday night, a 70 year old womant. Below the fold I will tell the whole sordid story.
Everyone knows the identity of this serial killer. It is a stretch of road named Powell Blvd that is approximately five miles long that runs through the neighborhoods of Southeast Portland, Oregon from I-205 to the Gresham city line. Powell Blvd is what the Oregon Dept. of Transportation (ODOT) calls an "orphan highway".
What is an "orphan highway" you might ask? It is a road that belongs to the state, but exists within a city's limits. Orphan is really the wrong term but to the people at ODOT it sounds better than what it really is, a neglected and often abused child (highway) by its parent, the state of Oregon, and its extended family, the city of Portland. Just like with humans, abusing and neglecting a highway has consequences, often times where people pay the ultimate consequences.
First a little more information about the killer. From I-205 to the Gresham city line, Powell is only two lanes. It runs through some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the entire city. It has almost no sidewalks along the whole stretch. In addition it has very few places where a pedestrian can cross. Off the shoulder, there are ruts and pot-holes that fill with water and become mud bogs when it rains which is six or so months a year. To make things worst there are very few street lights. Because of this, this five mile stretch of road has eight out of ten of the highest "crash corridors" in the city of Portland.
If Powell and all of its problems existed in the midst of an affluent neighborhood, I am certain that these problems would have been resolved a long time ago. But it isn't in an affluent neighborhood. Powell runs through neighborhoods that have higher concentrations of poorer, older, disabled and people of color. This is the dumping ground where people who have been displaced by the gentrification of other parts of the city are forced to move. Thus, the demographics mentioned above are becoming more pronounced as gentrification devours more neighborhoods.
These changing demographics are making the situation worst, increasing the chances of people being seriously injured or killed. Higher proportions of these populations are reliant on public transportation and walking. Your choices are simple: walk through the water-filled potholes and mud bogs or walk on the road surface with the cars, buses, and trucks that go anywhere between 35 to 50 mph. If you choose the latter, you also get the added bonus that there is no center left-turn lane which means that cars, buses, and trucks pass on the right at full speed causing them to drive in the bike lane and what shoulder does exist. People in wheelchairs, mothers walking their children and pushing strollers, and anyone else who walks this road regularly walk in the bike lane because there is no other option.
I cannot completely say that ODOT hasn't done anything. They spent a few million dollars making "safety improvements". ODOT used its entire annual safety budget for the metro area. What were these "safety improvements? It comprised repaving the road from I-205 to Gresham. That was the bulk of what they did. They added three crosswalks, and they redid the curb-cuts at the few major intersections. For those of us who don't drive, they gave us a couple feet of asphalt on the other side of the bike lane, repainted the stripes and added those little bumpy things that warn drivers they are crossing the white line.
For the cars, it was a great deal. They got smoother roads which means they can drive even faster. They also got a wider shoulder so they can pass on the right when someone is turning left. For us walking types, it was a pretty sucky deal. Sure, we can keep our feet more dry by walking on the pavement if your willing to risk getting hit by that distracted driver texting or messing with the kids in the back, or the passer on the right. I went to a town hall meeting last February when I first heard of this "great" plan, and asked how a white line was actually going to keep me from being killed. No one had an answer. But when you live where I live, these are the proposed solutions, half-assed and gimmicks.
So Friday night around 6:30 pm I had my wife drive me to the convenience store. It is only .5 miles away, but like I described above this is not a road you want to walk along in the dark, and while it is raining. The traffic in the direction of the store was moving at a crawl. Clearly something had happened up in front of us. As we inched pass the accident, we could see a SUV in the lane. In front of it, on the pavement laid a body. It was a small form, and my wife was convinced it was a child around 11 or 12. Alas, when I looked at the Oregonian on line, it turned out to be a 70 year old woman who was trying to cross the road. Sgt. Pete Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau was quoted as saying:
"It's not the best place to try to cross the street,"
To which I say, "no shit Sherman", THERE ARE NO GOOOD PLACES TO CROSS. This woman crossed at that spot for reasons that will not be known. However, I can guess: she could cross at the closest place possible to her needs or she could have walked up to the light 3 1/2 blocks away and then 3 1/2 blocks the other direction. Being 70 years old, this could have been extremely difficult in and of itself. In addition, there is absolutely no place to walk in that 7 blocks that isn't in the road. You see, a used car company uses both sides of the road in that area to park its overflow stock, and part is a parking lot for a strip club.
Ultimately her age and reason for crossing where she did don't really matter. What matters is that Powell Blvd has claimed its latest victim. She died from her injures Saturday.
What also matters is that this tragedy and many of the others that have occurred on Powell were preventable. As this story high-lights, the problems on Powell are far from news. The conditions on Powell, and the problems they have created have been 40 years in the making. It has been 40 years of inattention and outright neglect as both the city and the state refused to take responsibility for the maintenance and upgrade of a road that has only become increasingly used by a growing community.
This is also a story of shrinking budgets, due to the austerity fetishists at the federal and state levels, for important infrastructure and how that has a disproportionate impact on those who need it the most. This is an example of income inequality at one of its worst. The failure to provide these neighborhoods the same kind of infrastructure as more affluent parts of the city has many aspects. It is also about elected representatives and their failure to be responsible to all those they supposedly represent.
The failure to provide adequate and equal infrastructure sends a message to the people in these neighborhoods that they are not as valued as others. It also perpetuates problems of the community from substandard housing to making it more difficult to obtain and keep employment, to shopping, to getting kids to school safely, to even going for a walk. And yes, it costs us our lives.
The community that lives with this serial killer is fighting for equal justice through equal services. On this coming Tuesday, there was supposed to be a celebration at one of the few new crosswalks that have been put in on Powell Blvd. I for one will be attending, but I will not be celebrating. I will be going to commemorate the woman who died, and demand that more adequate action be taken to provide us with what is our rights.
10:39 AM PST: I just read in the Oregonina, that the woman was identified. I will not post her name, but from it, one can assume she was an Ukrainian immigrant, we have a large population in this part of town. In a perfect world, a 70 yro Ukrainian immigrant would get as much attention as a young pretty white co-ed getting abducted, but I doubt it.
11:25: First let me thank everyone who has recced the diary and commented.
Someone in the comments was surprised that there would be a celebration for a crosswalk. Let me tell you another story.
Earlier this year, we were all excited that SE 136th Ave. was going to get a sidewalk along one side from Holgate to Powell, give or take .5 miles. Then the incoming mayor, Charlie Hailes who is a real dick IMO decided it wasn't need so he took it out of the budget. His mantra is fix what we got before we build anything new. Almost immediately after the announcement a five year old girl was killed crossing the street. Suddenly, the money was back in the budget for the sidewalk. And amazingly, State Rep. Shemia Fagen (D. Portland and one of the good guys) got even more money for SE 136th that runs from Foster Blvd to Division. That is approximately 3 miles.
Sadly, it takes shit like 5 year old girls and 70 year old ladies being killed before people act.