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News Article from The (Portland) Oregonian - August 2, 2007
Brad Perkins has long envisioned a bike path stretching 4.3 miles from
Portland Peace Memorial Park beside the Steel Bridge to Northeast 122nd
Avenue along Sullivan's Gulch, giving eastside bicycle commuters a
direct -- and safe -- route downtown.
Because of the unstinting efforts of dreamers like him, the proposed
Sullivan's Gulch Corridor Trail is a quarter of a million dollars closer
to reality. In March, Metro, through the Metropolitan Transportation
Improvement Program, contributed $224,000 to study the engineering
problems, legal obstacles and construction costs. The city donated an
additional $26,000.
Perkins, an Irvington resident, hopes the future trail will encourage
more Portlanders to ride their bikes. He says many would-be riders are
frankly afraid to share the street with cars and trucks, even in marked
bike lanes. The Sullivan's Gulch trail would give bicyclists their own
thoroughfare.
The proposed route will follow the north slope of Sullivan's Gulch above
Interstate 84 and the eastside MAX line and stitch together such parcels
as vacant property under overpasses.
Some day, Perkins sees bicyclists jumping on the trail near the Lloyd
District, riding past Hollywood and landing at the Gateway Transit
Center. The path passes under more than 17 overpasses and by 10
neighborhoods.
Perkins said the city will push for easements through areas that are
densely covered with parking lots, warehouses and railroad tracks.
Decade of dreaming
Bicycling advocates have long eyed a Sullivan's Gulch corridor as a
possible off-street bikeway. In 1996, the route was included in
Portland's Bicycle Master Plan, but it remained an unpaved idea. A group
of Portland State University students designed an engineering plan for
the Sullivan's Gulch Corridor Trail as a class project. Again, nothing
happened.
And finally one day, Perkins peered out of a MAX train window and saw
the "industrial wasteland" below him as a biker's dream. Amid freight
trains and a barren landscape, he saw the possibilities for a bike path
that was safe and convenient.
So he organized a seven-member Sullivan's Gulch Corridor Trail
Committee, which met once a week for 18 months to do the grass-roots
organization. They notified 23 neighborhood associations, designed
brochures and recruited local officials such as Metro Councilor Rex
Burkholder to support the program.
In March, all the work paid off when Metro approved the study grant.
Perkin's committee had turned a PSU class assignment into a city
project.
"You can make what you visualize a reality," Perkins said. "You just
have to do a lot of work."
Now Portland Parks & Recreation, with Metro as a partner, is taking the
lead on the project and will start the study in fall 2009. Perkins said
he hopes the city completes the plan within that year because he hopes
to see commuters on the trail in five.
Avid Portland biker Chris Achterman is ready to test the trail on his
lime green Trek bicycle, but he said the proposed bike trail can offer
more than recreation. Achterman said the 16- to 20-foot wide path will
nudge property owners to give abandoned areas under overpasses a
face-lift, so MAX riders coming from the airport can peer down at more
pleasing views than discarded shopping carts and dead auto parts.
"The overpass at Sullivan's Gulch is ugly and full of junk, you don't
necessarily see our best side," he said. With the trail "visitors will
see Portland as this bike crazy town."
Property payoff
Perkins said the bikeway will serve property owners, too. As more people
pass through the area, he predicts that property values will rise. "It's
all this land not being used to its full potential," he said.
Guy Kyle of Sullivan's Gulch Neighborhood Association said the trail
might entice some Portlanders to switch from a car to a bike.
"When you're on the bicycle you can feel threatened by the traffic,"
Kyle said. Until that day, Perkins will ride around in his candy red
Toyota Camry Hybrid while his bike collects dust in the garage.
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