stopping a highway: sensible transportation options for people (stop) pwpb
DESCRIPTION
This presentation shows how a small band of neighborhood activists killed a destructive highway project planned to run through the heart of Portland, OR, neighborhoods in the 1970's.TRANSCRIPT
Molly O’ReillyAmerica Walks
Killing Portland Oregon’s Proposed Western Bypass
Freeway, 1989-1995
A Tiny Group – A Big Victory
Tiny Group – Big Victory
How does a very small group of citizens defeat the Oregon Department of Transportation?
We had good luck!
We worked hard and smart!
A Strategy with Many Fronts
We listened and learned• What concerns people?• What did bureaucracies want, and say?• Strengths and vulnerabilities of the
Bypass proposal?• Language: transpo-speak vs. citizen-
speak• Where and how can we affect the
outcome?
We Were Everywhere
Reinterpreted ODOT’s numbers• The study didn’t really say the Bypass
would accomplish very much, long term Joined every committee
• Citizens Advisory Committee, METRO, etc.
Reframed the issue• Broadened question to include our
answers
We took our story to community meetings
Visual Preference Surveys Congestion would expand to the
metro perimeter Solutions?
• New light rail lines, TODs
“If Freeways were theanswer, Los Angeles would be paradise”
Congestion and Vehicle Use: LUTRAQvs. The Western Bypass.
Moving the Process
Demanded one EIS for a 3-stage project
Served on the ODOT Citizens Advisory Committee
Served on METRO’s Transportation Policy Alternatives Committee (TPAC)
Became neighborhood association officers
Monitored City, County meetings
Being Effective
Show up prepared• Read all materials • Identify areas where your issue can be
inserted/deleted Be nimble; opportunities pop up! Reframe and put your reframing
forward Build partnerships, the broader and
unlikelier the better• Use volunteer strengths and interests
Well?
We split the alliance. We gave powerful Bypass opponents
options to work for, and political cover to oppose the project.
We did the grunt-work to take the Bypass out of the METRO Transportation Plan.
We declared victory; no bypass built.