Happy New Year Neighbors! I hope you had an amazing holiday season and are ready for an amazing 2026 in Sunnyside, Portland and hopefully, a better year for the country writ large.
In December, the SNA hosted a special General Meeting to discuss traffic safety issues on some of our neighborhood corridors, particularly César E. Chavez Blvd and 30th Avenue. This was prompted by the tragic accident that took the life of Richmond resident, Grey Wolfe, as she was out for her daily walk up to Mt. Tabor. We had representatives from the PBOT office of Vision Zero, which has been seeking to eliminate traffic-related deaths and serious injuries for over a decade (with mixed results), a senior PBOT traffic engineer, who is also a Sunnyside resident and parent of SES students, as well as Councilmember Morillo and representatives from Council VP Tiffany Koyama Lane’s office.
We learned about how Chavez Blvd is one of the city’s designated High Crash Corridors, which despite encompassing only 8% of Portland roads, account for 67% of traffic-related deaths. These corridors are a priority for the agency, but as we know, infrastructure change comes slowly. Work will soon begin on the southern end of the four-lane section of Chavez between Powell and Holgate, but unfortunately, work on the northern section, starting at NE Sandy Blvd is still a long way, and many budget dollars, away. But, there is some good news for advocates of safety on Chavez coming soon. PBOT is planning to use its emergency authority to lower the speed limit on Chavez from 30 to 25 and to add two radar signs that will help drivers realize how fast they may be driving through our neighborhood. This is not the panacea of putting this road on a diet by eliminating general travel lanes and improving the atrocious sidewalk situation, but hopefully it will save lives, as reductions in speed directly correlate to lower crash fatalities.
On the west end of the neighborhood, SE 30th has seen some recent “improvements” that we don’t believe are helping too much with safety at a major crossing for the Salmon St. Greenway. PBOT added “speed cushions”, which include cutouts to allow emergency vehicles to pass unimpeded, and freshly painted crosswalks. Unfortunately, the speed cushions do not seem to be having the desired effect. Drivers are easily able to use the gaps to pass through without slowing down a bit and if they do hit the bumps, the angle of the hill appears to make the bump less effective as drivers approach the intersection. Also, these changes do not protect pedestrians crossing at Main and Taylor, which are both downhill from Salmon, meaning they have very limited visibility into oncoming traffic that is cresting. Spurred by neighbors on this issue, the SNA Board agreed to sign on to a letter to PBOT seeking remediations to this project and further monitoring to ensure the changes are effective. Area neighbors are seeking help for purchasing crossing flags to aid pedestrian safety, particularly for the many school children who use this route. You can contribute at gofundme.com/f/keep-se-30th-and-salmon-safe-for-pedestrians.
Also traffic-related, the Board named a new chair for our Land Use & Transportation Committee (LUTC). Connor Lirot is a new Board member this year and lives just off of another of our corridors–Belmont. He has a passion for traffic and land use issues and has the mandate to examine a wide swath of the issues affecting the neighborhood.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page for an announcement about LUTC’s meeting schedule and upcoming agendas. You can reach out to the committee with issues at [email protected].
That’s it for now. As I write this, we are still planning our regular January General Meeting; keep those ideas and concerns coming to us at [email protected] and on our Facebook page.
Wishing you peace and joy in 2026.
