Hawthorne goes under the knife..
The City of Portland is starting a major construction project on Hawthorne on July 17th. If this project is anywhere near as intrusive as the one on Sandy you should expect some pretty big delays throughout the construction (scheduled to last one year). The construction will include adding curb extensions, speed bumps, pedistrian islands, trees, new lights and various other improvements. I am interested in hearing what the public thinks of this. Generally things like this are done to increase safety to pedestrians and promote more foot traffic. However, it seems there are always people out there that would rather the streets stay as they were. I think this will improve Hawthorne in a lot of ways. The only downside I can see is the traffic. Any thoughts?
Photo courtesy of Portlandground.com
I think the problem is that they take so frickin’ long to get this stuff overwith. A year? A year??? How come a Kohl’s, World Market, Best Buy, and an entire strip mall with parking lot and landscaping have gone in a couple months next to my house? Oh, because the private companies hold the contractors’ asses to the fire.
I love the way the downtown bus mall reconfig is billed as starting in January, 2007.
But all those closed stops and blocked off lanes now are part of the reconfig, according to one bus driver I talked to - they’re starting some of the underground work now in advance, he said.
On the flip side, a year-long construction project that causes significant traffic-flow problems and eliminates a lot of neighborhood parking could significantly disrupt business for many of the independently-owned, small stores in the area. As has happened in many places (around the country) before, customers avoid the retail area during the construction (noise, dirt, inconvenience) and have formed new shopping habits by the time construction ends, so they have no interest in returning to the old, “improved” neighborhood. We can only hope that doesn’t happen to Hawthorne.
The street might benefit from some additional crosswalks - but they could be added to the boulevard quickly and pretty cheaply. Pedestrian islands and trees seem gratuitous - the lame remenants of beaurocratic dullness passed in the hopes of looking concerned and effective.
The best improvement to Hawthorne - for pedestrians, existing businesses and the neighborhood at large - would be encouraging (perhaps through grants?) new, independent businesses to start up in the area. The creativity and spirit of local residents is what makes Portland special.
Potential customers could care less about speedbumps if a neighborhood has interesting, engaging shops. Do you really think curb extensions would effect the foot traffic on 23rd?