By Tina Kimmey
South Tabor had a great Land Use meeting in October talking with neighbors and Portland Bureau of Transportation Neighborhood Greenway and Bikeway Missing Links Coordinator, Scott Cohen. This was the first neighborhood meeting dedicated solely to finding a solution to the unsafe conditions for pedestrians on this narrow, sidewalk-less block of SE Woodward and we had a good turnout.Â
The majority of attendees agreed that this part of the neighborhood had some challenges and were engaged in the discussion. Scott shared traffic counts of the street from earlier in the year and proposed ideas to increase safety for pedestrians and bikers along this stretch of SE Woodward that narrows.Â
Diverters are one of the ideas that the Land Use Committee has proposed and was discussed at length. Scott explained that PBOT looks at all the areas that would be effected from a change like this and devises strategies to minimize negative effects throughout the area. We will continue to be in contact with PBOT and discuss this and other land use items at November’s meeting.Â
At the board’s general meeting there was a presentation on the Division Transit Project from Thomas Scharff, a Trimet Community Affairs Representative. The project will bring articulated buses (the kind with the accordion in the middle) to Portland to provide greater capacity for the number two line.Â
There will be fewer stops, so you might have to walk a couple more blocks to the stop, but the hope is for the bus to have shorter travel times to downtown. Construction will begin soon on the new transit stations that will line our neighborhood along Division St. For more information check out trimet.org/division.Â
There was also an announcement of a change coming to the group email list. For years we have been using yahoo groups but it is shutting down so we will need to migrate to groups.io.
More details to come. We are still looking for volunteers for the newly formed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee contact info@southtabor.org if you’re interested. Some items we discussed for the committee would be board trainings and outreach.Â
Mireaya Medina a staff member with SE Uplift was in attendance and she mentioned the coalition can help with trainings including a Renters Rights Workshop to raise awareness and bring new folks out to engage. Did you know renters make up approximately 46% of our South Tabor neighbors?
Thanks to all who attended in October and just a reminder that November meetings are the last planned meetings for the year as we do not meet in December. Land Use next meets November 19, 7-8:30 pm and the next General meeting will be November 21, 7-8:30 pm.
All meetings are held at Trinity Fellowship, 2700 SE 67th Ave. Enter on the east from the rear parking lot. For more information go to southtabor.org or send questions to info@southtabor.org.