Idiotic Sidewalk Closures Illustrate City Hall's Indifference to "The Rest of Us"
author: Matilda
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You know, I didn't even really think about the absurdity of all the sidewalk closures in Portland until a friend pointed it out. I mean, it was a hassle, it was inconvenient, and it was often dangerous. I didn't like it, but I just kind of accepted it. I didn't really think about the fact that NO other city I have ever been to allows businesses and construction companies to just block off sidewalks like that until my friend pointed it out. And then suddenly, I realized she was right.
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For a city that criminalzes homeless people by passing the notorious and offensive "sit lie" ordinance, I find it pretty brazenly ironic that any Joe Business-Alliance can come along and close the sidewalk at will, forcing me to the other side of the street. The "Sit lie," as you may recall, makes it illegal for people to sit, lie, or otherwise block the sidewalks from pedestrain traffic unless they are sitting at tableclothed tables outside the Greek Cuisina, the Taqueria, or any other downtown restaurant, sipping wine and lattes. Poor people, then, are not allowed to block sidewalks with their bodies, but wealthy people can block them with tables, chairs, and construction equipment. Hell, they can even get permits for it. Which is what they often do.
Try walking down Stark street. Go ahead. Walk from Burnside down toward the river. Hey! Look! You can't. For about a month, it's been blocked on the north side by construction, with a big sign stating, "Sidewalk closed to pedestrians by city permit. You must use other side of the street." It's been a bitch, and I've almost been run down in traffic trying to walk around the dusty chain-link fence hitched rudely across the sidewalk. Inside the fence, dirty trucks lounge on the walkway for no obvious reason. It's not like they needed to work on the sidewalk, either. They're just taking up that space because they can. All the construction work is going on inside the building. How likely do you think it would be that a homeless man could get a permit to block even a few feet of sidewalk, just so he could sleep for a few hours? Not bloody likely. But these guys can completely block it for months, just so they can park their trucks there? Why?
I've gotten in the habit of trying to remember to stay on the south side of the street, in order to avoid having to crawl around that jumble. But sometimes I forget and wind up having to walk around it anyway, creeping out into traffic and around the crooked fence. It makes no sense, really. I mean, why can't the sidewalk be left clear? In any other city I've ever been to, there would have been a scaffold or something set up so that pedestrians could walk through.
So I was already annoyed by this situation. But this morning, it was the last straw. I've HAD it with this. This morning as I walked down Stark, I was met with an idiotic new twist to this irritant. There, on the corner of 11th and Stark, I saw a new sign on the south side of the street, exactly matching the one on the north side. Apparently, BOTH sides of the street are now closed on the same block, so that I was greeted with the absurdity of two rude anti-pedestrian signs squatting on each corner, each demanding that I use "the other side of the street." Was I supposed to walk down the middle of the street? Because the "other side" is closed too! Now, I have been slugged in the back with a billy club once for walking in the street. I watched someone get pushed to the ground and arrested by a sneering police officer (officer Jacobellis) once, for stepping off a sidewalk in the wrong place. So I'm left to wonder, where in the fucking hell am I supposed to go???
Of course, I realize the cops aren't always out pounding on people for walking in the street. They save that as a tactic for repressing political demonstrators. But you see my point. There is a lot of muscle put into pushing people around as they try to navigate the sidewalks, and very little thought given to the simple right of a person to just walk through the city. I'm getting mighty tired of it.
As for the block between 10th and 11th on Stark street, I have to ask. Who gave out these permits? Don't they even think about these things for a minute? Do they not even CARE that some of us have to WALK down these streets? I need to get to work in the morning, and I have to try to remember where all the places that I will have to cross the street to avoid construction are, and it gets harder every day because new signs crop up imperiously demanding that I make way for "progress" on every corner. Why?
As my friend so rightly pointed out, this is the only city either of us has ever been to where wealthy contractors can just move in and commandeer the sidewalks. Anywhere else, from San Francisco to Hong Kong, they are expected to make accommodations for the rest of us. They are not allowed to block sidewalks unless, for some reason, they actually NEED to. And even then, they are expected to erect scaffolds or walkways so that people can get by them anyway. And, they are expected to quickly do whatever it is they need to block the sidewalk for, and then get the hell out of the way. They are NOT allowed to just nonchalantly tell me to blow off, like they are here in Portland. No one hands out open-ended permits to lounge around on the sidewalks while workers have to squeeze by, tiptoeing over cinder blocks and squeezed against chain link fences to keep from being run down in traffic. This is ridiculous. Does anyone at city hall even care about this? If so, speak up now. Mr. Sten? Mr. Leonard? Mr. Potter? Mr. Adams? Do you care? Yes? Then DO something.
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add a comment on this article
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if the fees are low or non-existent then the contractors are getting free to low-cost parking for equipment and vehicles and should not be subsidized by taxpayer dollars
take the lobbying a step further and promote higher fees with a percentage dedicated to overall sidewalk maintenance around the city