Portland to test Old Town auto ban
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland Mayor Sam Adams wants the city to consider converting an Old Town section into a "pedestrian-only" area on weekends.
Adams is proposing a pilot program that would close Northwest Third Avenue between Northwest Everett and Burnside streets to auto traffic on Fridays, Saturdays and "major holidays" between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. The program would also close one block on "each of the perpendicular feeder streets" Northwest Third Avenue and Couch and Davis streets.
The program aims to make it safer for those hitting bars and nightclubs in part of Portland's so-called Entertainment District.
"On weekends, the Old Town Entertainment District (E-District) sees thousands of visitors as it turns into a hotbed of nightlife activity," Adams wrote in a city website post Tuesday. "This kind of vibrancy contributes greatly to Portland's character, but the sheer volume of people, density of bars, and the centrality of alcohol consumption makes weekend nights active for law enforcement downtown as well."
Five of the six spots that generate the most police calls within the Old Town area are within those blocks, Adams said. Many such calls relate to pedestrians hit by motorists.
"The Portland Team discovered that establishing a pedestrian-only area in an E-District during hours of high pedestrian traffic can enhance safety and reduce calls for service in other cities around the country and in Canada," Adams wrote.
Those who park within the district during the street closure hours would be towed.
The pilot would last for 180 days, in two phases.
Adams said the city worked with local businesses to develop the plan.
The Portland Business Journal is a KATU News partner.
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How about testing a bicycle ban? Hee hee!
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Can we get this jackass out of office now before he ruins this city?
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Do us all a favor, Adams. Just SHUP UP AND LEAVE OFFICE!! You've already caused this city to suffer enough!
Idiot Sam.
Oh Lord, Sam is almost gone (mentally already). Â Get rid of the stupid mostly empty buses. Â If this actually goes through (depending on how many council members are stupid), I'll have to find night life somewhere else. Â If it goes through, motorcycles, bicycles and wheel chairs should all be banned. Â If it has wheels its banned. Â Just to increase sales, authorize prostitution and dope sales.
I don't see why the citizens can't just refuse this idea of the mayor's en masse by petition or protest.
Way to make a person with a disability feel excluded. Not everyone can walk for blocks and blocks.
 @Freckled_Girl Exactly and I believe it is against federal law as it shatters ADA accessibility there. Perhaps K2 or some other motivated news outlet would like to investigate this aspect?
Another stupid idea. Who wants to walk around there several blocks to get  back to their car?  There are still a lot of rough street drug dealers  sex offenders and other "solid gold" (sarc/) citizens loose down there. I guess the mayor wants to help their businesses of muggings, assaults and drug pushing be more successful. Last time I drove through there  2 guys were *whipping it out" and pissing on the wall of a building on one corner and  two others were selling drugs on the next. Wow.
get this guy a free ride home in a cab and mail him the rest of his money due.Â
Just one more reason to stay out of that toilet. Â Between the deadbeats, panhandlers, yuppie wannabes and the worthless politicians, there are no good reasons to go into downtown Portland anymore. They ran the good businesses out and now they are running the regular people out. Â But, they can still claim to be the most screwed up city on the west coast with the most weirdos and wackos per capita.Â
Well..I for one am not a fan of Sammy by any means...but, this is a good idea for the weekends in that area...plus, this wasn't all his idea. Â PPB's entertainment detail deal with the clubbers in that area and there are a lot of drunks who cross 3rd and pay no attention to the traffic...I work downtown and I've witnessed this. Â There have been way too many close calls with people getting run down by vehicles on 3rd at that time of night (and probably a good number of them driving drunk as well)...so, let's see how this works out. Â Might just cause more of these drunk kids to hang out longer and in the middle of the street which could cause more fights?? Â We shall see.
Cars are for LAZY people!!!!
 @Michael R. Newton Nice. I have a disability in my leg making it hard for me to walk or ride a bike. What an ignorant comment.
 @Michael R. Newton Cars are for disabled people, dork.
 @Michael R. Newton As well as for people who have to drive for their work as well as those who have to drive from jobsite to jobsite and carry all of their tools, equipment, supplies with them!  Didn't think about all of those hard working folks in your short diatribe, did ya? (insert smiley face here)
Keep cars off the roads!!!!
 @Michael R. Newton Keep your soused self off the road.
@Michael R. Newton  Get a JOB ... and perhaps a life
Wrong Civ, sammy didn't run. He knew his chances of being re-erected...
I propose a Sam Adams free zone. Oops............Portland voters beat me to it.
I thought this admitted csucker was voted out . Why is he/she still trying to make things worse
 @Civ You already answered your question.  Because he ". . . was voted out."
"The program aims to make it safer for those hitting bars and nightclubs in part of Portland's so-called Entertainment District."
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Well, yeah . . . it really hurts the buildings when you hit them with cars! Â If people just walked into bars and nightclubs no one would get hurt, right?! Â Yeah, I guess that makes sense--but only in the twisted reality inside Mr. Mayor's mind.
Sam, Sam, Sam. . . Pleeeeeeezzzzz go away!!! If you want to have Mardi Gra, go to New Orleans. What will all the "entertained" folks do between 2:00 (when the bars close) and 3:00 ? By all means lets promote more drug and alcohol abuse in Old Town !! You JACKASS !!!
 @Justmark And muggings and sex assaults... He really one of the worst JackAsses of all time.
Just curious: Â They're referring to this change as creating a "car-free" (aka: pedestrian-only) zone for these particular hours... Â Does this also mean that Sam is making this a BICYCLE-FREE zone??? Â Â Somehow, I just can't see Sam prohibiting his beloved bicycles from going anywhere, anytime.. Â :-)
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(And no, all you bicycle riders... my comment is NOT a slam at you... I'm curious only because bicycles aren't mentioned at all...) Â Â
Ok, you're driving over the Burnside Bridge and you want to go to dinner in downtown. Where do you make you left turn at?
@Billy Batts When you get to Vancouver (or Salem if going south)
Sam, Sam, Sam please just go away and we'll try to forget you ever existed.Â
Isn't there a trip we can send him on for the remainder of his term. Perhaps counting leaves on trees in Thailand? Or a one-way ticket to Madagascar? Or any place where he can spout all his wonderful dumb ideas. How about a cage at the zoo?
 @jpk You get the LSD, I'm sure *someone* will be willing to put it in Sam's froo-froo coffee drink of choice.
Idiots! To increase trade in the area, they should ban aggressive street people and bums from accosting visitors demanding handouts. Who comes up with these idiotic ideas anyway?
 @jpk Sam the Scam
 @whirledworld  @jpk My personal favorite was someone's "yosodomy sam" a while back. That had me laughing for days.
 @jpk In a word:  Sam.
Sam the Sham!
Sam
Sam.
so what happens when drunks stumble out onto burnside? Are they going to shut that down too?Â
 @commonsense33 And boy do they...why must people get completely commode-huggin' drunk every week just to go out on the town?  This is not about being tipsy. This generation is a bunch of raving drunkards...los borrachos! Completely boundary-less, clueless and stupid people.
Don't give him any more ideas.
is he for real? next pilot program, no cars allowed in downtown Portland at all. stay tuned.Â
 @PDXsoccerguy correction: in all of Portland. What the heel does he expect disabled people who live down there to do? There are apts.  of modest/mixed incomes down there affected by this.
@PDXsoccerguy yes because closing 6 blocks of downtown to cars two days a week obviously means that cars will be completely outlawed throughout the city.
so the sidewalks are broken and the cant use then now? Or maybe stop at the traffic light like most normal ppl do? Oh I see, the staggering from all the  "entertainmenting: in the "area" creates a hazard to cars, I see what the issue isssssss...........
 @Zechariah not having enough cops to patrol the drunks roaming the streets down there. Oh yeah. But SamScam took over being in charge of the cops!
Sam's favorite Old Town Eatery...
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@xilef regnu You made my day.
Sam should just go on vacation until it's time for Charlie to take over.
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Sam Adams has done more to destroy Portland than any other mayor. I avoid the place like the plague that it is.