The Metropolis of Portland says a undertaking that may have remodeled North Broadway right into a family-friendly, civic most important road is now on pause resulting from funding uncertainties.
You might need already heard {that a} provision in President Donald Trump’s price range invoice handed by Congress final week included an entire rollback of a Biden-era transportation grant program. As BikePortland reported in March 2024, Portland acquired $488 million by the US Division of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods grant program. $450 million of that was for the I-5 Rose Quarter undertaking and $38.4 million was for the the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Broadway Most important Road & Supporting Neighborhood Connections undertaking.
The lion’s share of the I-5 Rose Quarter’s $450 million has now gone again to the feds, and now I’ve confirmed PBOT’s funding for Broadway can also be seemingly gone.
Reached at present through e mail, PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer informed BikePortland that the cash would possibly not be accessible.
“We’re upset to share that the $38 million in federal funding for our Decrease Albina Streetscape Venture (aka Broadway Most important Road & Supporting Neighborhood Connections undertaking) seems to have been rescinded final week as a part of the federal reconciliation invoice,” Schafer stated through e mail this morning.
The undertaking would have allowed PBOT to increase a separate undertaking, the Broadway Pave and Paint (which is domestically funded and transferring alongside properly) west from NE seventh Avenue all the best way to the Broadway Bridge. At a gathering in 2023, a PBOT staffer informed an advisory committee that the objective of the undertaking was to create a streetscape that may enable somebody to, “take a pleasing stroll with their younger little one from NE seventh to Waterfront Park.”
Venture parts had been set to incorporate: a brand new, raised bikeway shielded from auto customers by a planted median; a number of improved pedestrian crossings; a redesign of the Broadway Bridgehead at N Larrabee; improved entry to Rose Quarter Transit Middle, and extra.
Now it’s unclear if the undertaking will ever transfer ahead. And it’s all due to the Trump Administration’s embrace of tradition wars and irrational and childish worry of “fairness.” To the present administration, livable streets the place you may safely stroll together with your grandchildren are nothing greater than a nefarious plot by liberal Portlanders hellbent on forcing everybody to get pleasure from their lives outdoors of vehicles.
Like a lot of what comes from the White Home nowadays, the language within the price range invoice that slashed this and lots of different main infrastructure initiatives throughout the nation was imprecise and has to date lacked detailed follow-through. This implies grant recipients are left in limbo and should plan for the worst-case situation no matter what occurs subsequent.
PBOT’s Schafer stated, “Although we’ve but to obtain formal discover from USDOT, the bureau is working to find out subsequent steps and can present extra data when it’s accessible.”
The rescission is a part of 126 lively federal grants totaling $387 million that the Metropolis of Portland is having to re-evaluate to verify they don’t run afoul of latest Trump Administration insurance policies round fairness and social justice. In response to an announcement from the Metropolis Administrator Michael Jordan, “Portland is going through difficult selections about how to reply to the Trump Administration’s calls for that cities get rid of some insurance policies and packages designed to assist Portlanders who’re folks of shade, girls, and different oppressed teams overcome tons of of years of systemic discrimination.” Of the $387 million federal grants at present in play on the Metropolis of Portland, a brand new federal coverage affect evaluation reveals that 58 of them totaling $197 million fund transportation bureau initiatives and packages.
I haven’t discovered how a lot work had already been finished on the Broadway undertaking, however Schafer added that, “PBOT stays dedicated to discovering methods to enhance the protection and performance of this vital hall.”
