(Photo by Noah Nelson)
Concerns from Community Members, Response from City
The recently completed Greenwood Avenue Pilot Project includes a host of changes that run from Wall Street to Second Street, through Downtown Bend. This is part of the greater plan for the City of Bend to provide safer, more accessible biker, pedestrian and vehicle east-west crossings, providing a safer connection between Downtown and the Central District, which will be the site of many new improvements and developments over the coming years.
This greater plan is the Midtown Crossings Project, which aims to take four current corridors (Greenwood Avenue, Franklin Avenue, Hawthorne Avenue and Second Street) and improve them to provide safer east-west travel, and to encourage private development in the Central District or Core Area, where the City says much of Bend’s future housing and employment growth will be.
According to the City of Bend, the changes (and their statistical significance in terms of safety) are as follows; painted curb extensions and new safer protected crosswalks with a median island (reduces crashes with pedestrians by 31%); buffered bike lanes (reduces crashes with bikes by 47%); reduction of travel lanes for cars to one in each direction with a dedicated left turn lane (reduces crashes by 29%); accessible ADA parking spaces; safer, wider, buffered parking on the south side of Greenwood Avenue; and new crosswalks to access parking on side streets.
Despite the proposed benefits, the response from many community members, including many business owners of Greenwood, shows a stark contrast. A host of business owners have reported many issues, from a significant increase in traffic time, a lack of real safety for pedestrians and bikers, and a steep drop in accessibility to their respective businesses caused by a new lack of parking, combined with congestion so severe that some prospective customers and clients are opting to stay home instead of dealing with the new street.
Christine Mehner, the executive director of the Cascade Theatrical Company located on Greenwood Avenue, said that the decrease in parking could result in a loss of thousands of dollars per month. As a community-owned theater that serves a wide variety of clientele, including many elderly theater fans, Mehner expressed concern over the overall accessibility for many of her customers. Despite the addition of accessible ADA parking spaces, the overall decrease in parking has caused many theatergoers to park much further away; with a team of 200 volunteers working behind the scenes (and the rise of permit parking in more and more areas) that can cause some logistical issues.
In addition to accessibility concerns, Mehner raised following concerns over the safety of the new road, citing many instances of emergency response vehicles no longer being able to traverse the road quickly and safely due to congestion and fewer driving lanes. Ryan Buccola, owner-broker at RE/MAX Key Properties, also located on Greenwood Avenue, raised the same concern regarding emergency vehicles. He also cited many instances of close calls between vehicles and bikers/pedestrians, along with some small fender-benders since the road reopened. “It’s been very mixed,” said Buccola. “On one hand, we do have slower vehicles overall and that should be safer, but the increase in traffic congestion is suffocating. In terms of crosswalk safety, I use the one across Greenwood maybe four times a day, and those crosswalks need flashing lights because once you get one vehicle turning and it blocks the view of traffic, you have to be very defensive when you’re crossing.”
While the City provided data regarding the statistical benefit of the proposed upgrades to Greenwood Avenue, some in the community say the data is insufficient. Michael Walker, a civil engineer with 47 years of experience and a managing partner of a small building on Greenwood, raised concern over what he perceived to be the City’s message regarding the Greenwood Avenue Pilot Project and the rest of the Midtown Crossings Project. “They [the City]said, ‘if you build it, they will come,’ and when I look at it objectively, I see no data to back that statement,” said Walker.
Walker evaluated the pilot project in question, and claims that, as a scientific experiment, the project is invalid for the following reasons; the closure of Portland Avenue from Ninth Street to the Portland Bridge within weeks of the start of the pilot project; the closure of the Wall/Portland/Olney intersection on February 3; the anticipated re-opening of Portland Avenue from Ninth Street to Wall Street in May, but Olney Avenue from Wall Street to Third Street will remain closed until December.
In addition, he pointed out that “the collection of travel time data for Greenwood Avenue was only from Wall Street to Third Street. This limit completely missed the impact of the queuing west of Wall Street intersection and of the Third Street intersection, plus further to the east.”
Walker also expressed a common concern among other business owners and community members, including former Bend Mayor Allan Bruckner. He said that the preliminary meetings and open houses held by the City felt more like an announcement of an agenda, rather than a chance to provide honest and detailed feedback. “It felt a bit like presenting a brochure,” Walker said. “The unfortunate truth is that many of the studies that we were presented were not applicable, and most came from advocacy groups who were advocating for specific change. The data they often cited was based on big cities, which is not always representative of Bend.”
That agenda, mentioned by many community members, refers to the overall push to make Bend more bikeable and walkable; a sentiment that nearly everyone, even business owners on Greenwood, can agree is, overall, a good one. However, the issue lies in the transition; as Bend becomes more bikeable and walkable, many feel as though there isn’t enough being done to keep things accessible for the thousands that still need to commute by car.
However, there is still an important detail to this issue that Buccola raised: “It is still completely possible that things are this bad because we are in a transition period. Once the other crossings are completed and people get used to the new traffic flow, it’s possible many of these issues could get better.”
This aligns with a statement shared by the City of Bend, which states, “The Greenwood Avenue quick-build project was done before the rest of the Midtown crossing project to provide a main east-west route and to make essential upgrades for driver safety. Oregon state law requires that cities provide a viable detour route for all modes of travel. This means we must have a detour route that can be used by drivers, walkers, bikers and rollers. This is why changes and safety improvements were made to Greenwood Avenue first, so when the Olney Avenue and Wall Street intersection closed, Greenwood could be used as a safe detour route by all users of the road.”
This sentiment is also shared by the DBBA in their own statement, “The Downtown Bend Business Association (DBBA) has been closely monitoring the impacts of the recent changes along Greenwood Avenue, commonly referred to as the “road diet.” While we understand that these changes are often implemented with the intention of improving long-term traffic flow, safety and multimodal access, we are concerned about the current and immediate impacts on our downtown community. The backup of traffic on Greenwood Avenue in both directions — especially during peak hours — has become a noticeable issue. Congested roadways discourage people from visiting areas where traffic delays are expected, and unfortunately, this can negatively affect foot traffic and overall business activity in Downtown Bend. It’s important to note that the true impact of the Greenwood road diet is difficult to assess at this time, as it coincides with the closure of nearby streets such as Portland Avenue and, more recently, Olney Avenue. These concurrent projects are no doubt contributing to the congestion, and until they are completed and traffic patterns stabilize, we won’t have a clear picture of how much the Greenwood changes are independently affecting the area.
“We are particularly saddened to hear how some of our neighboring
businesses — such as Cascade Theatrical Company — have been directly impacted by the loss of parking and reduced accessibility due to the road diet modifications. Supporting the vitality and accessibility of our downtown is our top priority, and we believe that small businesses, arts organizations and local entrepreneurs deserve to be part of the planning conversation when changes like these are proposed. The DBBA will continue to advocate for solutions that balance safety, accessibility, and business vitality, and we look forward to engaging with city officials and community members to ensure Downtown Bend remains a thriving and welcoming destination for all.”
Still, Buccola, Mehner, Bruckner and more would like to see more transparency and compassion from the City. Mayor Pro Tem Megan Perkins acknowledged these concerns, and stated that, “It’s important for all council members to understand that when we are talking about Greenwood, we need to speak with more compassion. We hear from people who tell us about the impact on their businesses. It’s a sign to all of us that we need to do better at understanding the effects of these projects, and to start those conversations earlier in the process as opposed to reacting later. We need to go in, follow the data, listen to our community members and use this pilot project to learn what is best for Greenwood, and our community.”
Community members are encouraged to provide feedback on this project to help the City build out permanent improvements. The link is live now on bendoregon.gov. Community members can navigate to the “Midtown Pedestrian and Bicycle Crossings Project” page, and click the box that reads “rate the new Greenwood” to share their opinion.
