Franklin Street - Moving Forward

Above: The "urban boulevard" concept from the first Franklin Street study.

There's a public hearing tonight at the East End School to discuss the next step for the Franklin Street plan. You'll recall that "Phase 1" drew up three general concepts; this phase will narrow it down to a preferred, specific design for the new street, plus plans for new intersections for reconnected cross-streets, areas that will be made available for redevelopment, and pedestrian crossings and cross-town bike routes, among other things. The goal is to have a solid set of plans and cost estimates to prepare the new street for actual reconstruction.

The process has some good elements - there's an emphasis on a design that will encourage neighborhood vitality, economic development, and reducing dependency on oil. There's a good deal of concern, though, since Maine Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) engineers in Augusta are officially in charge, and they've inserted their own emphasis on moving more cars so they can collect more gas taxes.

Still, if they mess this up - what should be a high-visibility economic development and neighborhood revitalization effort - then Portland will be unlikely to put up any local money to make the project a reality, and MDOT will have an expensive, politically poisonous failure on their hands.

So this will be a high-profile case study for state leaders to decide whether or not Maine DOT is worth the money, or if, as many suspect, more local control over these project might be a better option. The whole Exit 7 fiasco, and Augusta's failure to plan for pedestrians in the first place, has already put their agency on the state's money-wasting shit list - so if they're smart, they'll try to redeem themselves.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
5:30 PM – 6:45 PM Franklin Street Feasibility Study Discussion
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM I-295 Exit 7 Discussion

Where: East End School Community Center
195 North Street, Portland

Maine Turnpork Authority Gets Audited

The Maine Turnpork Authority, the high-rolling, quasi-private corporation that owns a lucrative monopoly on virtually all of Maine's interstate commerce, is being audited by a state oversight agency following its controversial plans to spend $50 million on a new tollbooth. From seacoastonline.com:

AUGUSTA — A government oversight office that scrutinizes the accountability and performance of state government agencies has begun a significant probe of the Maine Turnpike Authority...

Among the key concerns detailed in the preliminary report, OPEGA [the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability] determined the MTA has not provided any revenue to the state since the mid-1990s. Under the terms of the Sensible Transportation Act, which Ashcroft said was passed at that time, the MTA is to transfer to the Maine Department of Transportation annually any "operating surplus."

"There is a lack of clarity about why MTA no longer transfers any funds to MDOT annually despite the statutory requirement and whether the state even still expects to receive any surplus," the OPEGA staff wrote in the preliminary report.

The fact that the Turnpork Authority has been hoarding funds to capitalize new tollbooths in the midst of multi-billion dollar shortfalls in state government should raise serious concerns for legislators.

What's more important, schools or fast food service plazas?

Help Set Portland's Agenda for Better Cycling and Walking

The City of Portland's new Bicycle and Pedestrian coordinator, Bruce Hyman, will be joining the Portland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee tonight for our monthly meeting tonight at 5:30 pm.

While we have him, I'm hoping we'll get an insight into what the City is working now, and bend his ear about what we'd like to focus on in the future. And it will also be a good time for our group to broadly review our top priorities and strategies - something we did last in 2008, when we met with Public Works to prioritize our "most-wanted" infrastructure projects.

I don't typically blog about bike/ped meetings here, although everyone is always welcome. But it would be especially useful for the group to hear from a broad range of voices tonight, as we set our agenda for the next year. We'll brainstorm our top priorities for City policy and for infrastructure improvements. Then, we'll vote as a group as to which initiatives and projects we'd like to focus on and implement in the next year. I hope you can make it - and if you can't, feel free to share ideas and priorities in the comments or by email.

JULY 2010 MONTHLY MEETING
Portland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee
5:30 pm, Room 209 of City Hall

Back in 2006 and 2008, the Committee held two other priorities-setting strategy sessions. Here's what we wanted to work on back then:

From 2006:

1. lobby for policy change, incorporate bike/ped facilities into site plan standards [in progress: we've already added bike parking requirements, and reduced car parking requirements, to the city's rules for new development]
2. restructure metro board [not sure if this has been done]
3. bike/ped members on city committiees such as transporation, planning [accomplished with the election of two former committee members to City Council]
4. formalize connection with outside groups [our collaborations with other groups aren't "formalized," but they are robust]
5. power with city or away from city & budget [we've determined that we're better off as an independent, ad-hoc group associated with the city]
6. staff person/time for bike/ped at city [accomplished: grant-funded position for Bruce Hyman as City Bike/Ped Coordinator]
7. ADA sidewalk compliance [in progress: the city is making focused investments on filling in gaps in the city's sidewalk network]

And our top infrastructure priorities, from 2008:

1. Peninsula Sidewalks should meet ADA standards like curb cuts, improved sidewalks, filling gaps, inventory [inventory completed in 2008, and improvements are in progress: the city is making focused investments on filling in gaps in the city's sidewalk network]
2. Implementing Franklin Street Plan [in progress: preliminary engineering for the project could begin this summer]
3. Tukey's Bridge: access & capacity for bikes [in progress: a plan has been completed for improved access, and construction of some improvements is expected later this summer]
4. Connecting north end of Franklin St. w/ Back Cove Trail [killed by Maine DOT].
5. Exit 5 improved trail & transit connections [slow progress: new Sewall Street sidewalk completed this spring].

Even though infrastructure projects are inherently slow-moving, it's pretty satisfying to see how much we've accomplished in the past few years. Let's keep it up!

Bike to the Beach

For the past couple of weeks, Jess and I have been going to the beach a lot, frequently after work, and almost always on our bikes. Downtown Portland is within an easy hour's bike ride to no fewer than six beautiful public beaches on Casco Bay, and the bike routes are fairly scenic in their own right (especially if you can ignore the pretentious architectural turds that proliferated along cul-de-sacs in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough through the boom years of the 1990s). You'll cross through pleasant inner-suburb neighborhoods, farm fields, marshlands teeming with wildlife, and undeveloped woods. You'll avoid paying parking fees. And you can re-stock on calories at several excellent ice cream places.

Here's how to bike to the beaches:

View Bike to the Beaches in a larger map

• KETTLE COVE and CRESCENT BEACH: 7.4 miles, about 45 minutes from downtown Portland (or 8.5 miles/50 min. via Shore Road): from downtown Portland, head down to York Street and across the Casco Bay Bridge. At the big intersection on the other side, cross diagonally onto the Greenbelt Trail, then take your first right onto Ocean Street/Route 77. From there it's a straight, 5 mile ride to Ocean House Road (right before Kettle Cove ice cream stand), which leads 1/2 a mile to the beaches. Crescent Beach is on your right, Kettle Cove is a little further on, to the left.
  
  Route 77 isn't the prettiest road, but you could also take the more scenic Shore Road, which is about a mile longer. To take that route, follow the Greenbelt one more block through Mill Creek Park to Cottage Road, then go straight, through Cape Cottage, past Fort Williams Park, and through the historic Delano Park suburb. At the end of Shore Road, in "downtown" Cape Elizabeth, take a left onto Ocean Street/Route 77 and continue on to Kettle Cove.
  


• HIGGINS BEACH: 8.3 miles/50 minutes from downtown Portland via Highland Ave.: On the other side of the Casco Bay Bridge, take a right turn onto Broadway, then merge left before the traffic light to take the first left onto Anthoine Street (alternatively, take a right onto the Greenbelt Trail at the end of the bridge, follow the trail for a block, then cross straight across Broadway onto Anthoine at the light). Climb the hill on Anthoine and take a right on Highland. Follow Highland through the suburbs to the 4-way junction at Pleasant Hill in Scarborough, where there's a fire station on the opposite corner. Take a left there onto Pleasant Hill Road, pass a gorgeous old farm that's being hawked for more McMansion development, and take a right on Spurwink Road at the end. Spurwink Road is too narrow for a car to safely pass a bicycle in the same lane, so ride confidently in the center of the lane, where you're more likely to be seen on the curves, and force motorists to wait until there's a safe passing area. It's half a mile to the Higgins Beach Market, where you'll take a left turn and ride one more half mile to the beach itself. Note that the sucker motorists have to pay $10 to park here.
  
  Alternative route via Spurwink Ave., 9 miles/1 hour: We typically return this way, since it lets us stop at Willard Scoops on the way home for salty ice cream, and it's by far the most scenic route to or from the beaches, even though it's hilly. Coming back from the beach, go straight on Spurwink instead of turning left onto Pleasant Hill Road. You'll ride along the Spurwink River for about 1.5 miles, with its marshes on your right, before crossing the river and climbing a short hill to Riverside Cemetery and Spurwink Church. There, take a left onto Spurwink Avenue and ride through gorgeous open conservation lands along the Spurwink River's headwaters. Then the road enters the woods and goes over two hills before it gets to a light at Ocean Street/Route 77. Continue straight through the light and cross the town line into South Portland, where Spurwink Road becomes Sawyer Street. Sawyer ends at a traffic light on Cottage Road, across the street from Beal's Ice Cream. But the ice cream is better at Willard Scoops: take a right on Cottage Road, then a left onto Pillsbury Street to Willard Square.
  
  
• WILLARD BEACH: 3.8 miles/20 minutes from downtown Portland: This isn't my favorite beach, since South Portlanders bring a hundred pet dogs there every evening and I don't care much for swimming in a place where half the beachgoers are carrying fecal matter around in plastic baggies. But it is close by. On the other side of the bridge, take the Greenbelt Trail to Breakwater Drive, then turn right and ride through the SMCC campus to the beach.
  
  
• SCARBOROUGH BEACH STATE PARK, 10 miles/1 hour from downtown Portland: There's an entry fee for this one, even if you're not using the parking lot, but it's worth it. Follow the directions to Higgins Beach, above, but continue past the Higgins Beach Market for 1 more mile to an intersection. Take a left on Black Point Road, then ride one more mile to the Scarborough Beach State Park entrance [see Scott's comment below for a tip on how to get to the beach for free, by using another street to bypass the park entrance gate].
  
  
• FERRY BEACH, 10.5 miles/65 minutes from downtown Portland: This beach sits at the mouth of the Scarborough Marsh, where the water's a bit warmer, and at the base of Prout's Neck. 1/2 a mile past Scarborough Beach State Park, take a right onto Ferry Road, then follow that street to the parking area at the end. Cars have to pay to park; cyclists don't.

Public Space meets Work Space in Bramhall Square

Bramhall Square is a neglected public space on the West End that's had a hard time living up to its potential. It has a lot going for it: it occupies a prominent place at the junction of several neighborhood streets, and is a kind of gateway to the historic West End for anyone coming into town from the west. It's also a short walk away from the Maine Medical Center, the city's largest employer and a 24-hour hub of activity.

But it also has serious shortcomings. A dense thicket of trees and 70s-vintage park benches make the Square feel dark and neglected. Even though there are lots of historic buildings in the area, the Square's pedestrian space, along the eastern edge of the square, is defined by squat, uninteresting buildings. Things were a lot better three years ago, when Percy's Cycles provided a public gathering spot for people who could drop in and learn a few things about bike repair, and Binga's Wingas next door was a boisterous neighborhood pub. But Percy moved out (he's just partnered up to start a new shop on Parris Street) and Binga's burned down. For the past couple of years, then, the Square's been characterized by a string of marginal businesses and this burned-out eyesore:

View Larger Map

Now, independent developer Peter Bass is putting together a creative new project that would replace the fire-damaged Binga's Wingas building with something that could go a long way towards re-invigorating the Square with new life.

Above: a sketch plan of the proposal from the City's Historic Preservation Board, by Archetype Architects. Bramhall Square is to the left.

Bass is proposing Portland's first office building that would be solely dedicated to "coworking" - shared workspace for freelancers, consultants, and other individuals who need an alternative to working from home. Users would save on overhead costs by sharing things like a conference room, kitchen, wifi, and office equipment, and benefit from an increase in social and professional interactions.

The Cooltown Studios blog has written a lot about coworking projects elsewhere, and how buildings like these can cultivate a city's creative economy by giving freelancers and other workers a more formal, affordable, and collaborative place to do their work.

By replacing an empty eyesore with a dynamic working space - one where workers are likely, on nice days, to bring their flexible, wireless offices outside into the Square - Bass's proposal could also do a lot to bring life and vibrancy back into Bramhall Square.

Important vote Monday to determine the fate of "Fee In Lieu of Parking"

Next Monday's City Council meeting - at 7 pm on the 21st, in the Council chambers on the 2nd floor of City Hall - will decide the outcome of the Peninsula Transit Study's proposed "Fee In Lieu of Parking" concept.

Generally speaking, this ordinance would give developers of new buildings on the Portland peninsula an alternative to opt out of the city's parking requirements by paying into a new "Sustainable Transportation Fund" instead. This fee would be $10,000 per space. So, for instance, a new office building that would otherwise require 20 off-street parking spaces could instead pay $200,000 into the Sustainable Transportation Fund; or, alternatively, build only 10 parking spaces and pay $100,000 into the Fund. The incentive to do so comes from the fact that $10,000 per space is substantially less than the amount of money it would take to build a parking garage, and in many cases, it will also be more valuable for a developer to use their real estate for purposes other than parking.

The net result of this should be that Portland will reduce the costs of development while also diverting private developers' investments away from car parking, and towards sustainable transportation. Or, even more simply: fewer parking lots, more jobs and housing, better transit, and safer streets.

The net result of this should be that Portland will reduce the costs of development while also diverting private developers' investments away from car parking, and towards sustainable transportation. Or, even more simply: fewer parking lots, and more buildings, better transit, and safer streets. These funds could be used for sidewalks, transit facilities, trails - all the good stuff we want more of. The ordinance currently states that the funds could also be used for shared parking garages, and that's something we might want to press the Council to amend. But it's not a dealbreaker - the use of the Fund will be determined annually in public hearings, and as long as we continue to hold elected officials accountable, we can make sure that the money is spent wisely on sustainable transportation.

To give you a rough idea of how powerful this might be: the City has proposed a new 400-car garage for the empty lots along Somerset Street in Bayside, which could cost well over $8 million. But suppose a developer comes along who wants to build on the empty lots down there without paying that much for parking, and having most employees come in on on the new trail or by transit instead.

Instead of giving over an entire city block to a huge garage, they might choose to build a much smaller 100-car garage on a smaller footprint for about $2 million, build more office space where the parking would have gone, and then pay $3 million (that's 300 times $10,000) into the Sustainable Transportation Fund in lieu of parking.

$3 million is a lot of money. It would be enough to buy 4 new buses for METRO and potentially establish a new bus route to deliver employees into Bayside, for instance. Or to build (with matching funds from the state and federal governments) a substantial part of the new Franklin Street. Or pay for a year's worth of commuter rail services between Portland, Brunswick, and Biddeford. It's serious money for the kinds of projects we'd like to see happen here.

So, at the end of the day, this hypothetical Bayside situation would yield:

• more land in Bayside dedicated to functional living and workspace, instead of parking;
• 300 fewer cars coming into the peninsula every day;
• $3 million for safer streets and/or new transit infrastructure;
• 300 more transit riders/walkers/cyclists;
• the developer saves $3 million by building a smaller garage and has more space to rent out as well;
• lower rents for the developer's tenants - i.e., Portland businesses and households.

We should get a big turnout on Monday night from the city's bike/ped community, from transit supporters, from Portland Trails, from environmentalists, business people, affordable housing activists - EVERYONE - to show the City Council that their voters support this idea. I'd like to recruit at least ten people from the Bike/Ped Committee alone. The good news is that this vote is near the beginning of the evening's agenda, which means that it won't be a late night - we might even be out of there by 8 PM. And maybe celebrate with a frosty pint afterwards.

Please comment below if you think you can be there, so I can have a rough idea of turnout. If you can't be there, please consider writing to our Councilors to let them know you support the idea. Here's their contact information.

You can read the Council's evening agenda and its associated backup material here. The proposed Fee in Lieu ordinance packet begins on page 70 of that PDF.

Thanks, everyone!

Recovery?

Over the past couple of months, Portland's Planning Board has received a slow but steady stream of significant development proposals.

The Cumberland Cold Storage warehouse on Portland's waterfront, currently used for self-storage with bricked-in windows, could soon become offices for a law firm (funded with a controversial tax break granted when the lawyers threatened to move across the river), along with ground-level space reserved (for the time being) for marine businesses.

On Congress Street, Avesta Housing is proposing to build a handsome apartment building that would contain 37 efficiency apartments, marketed towards single, creative-economy workers. The building would only have 8 parking spaces for cars (which is probably still too much for a site near half-vacant public garages and abundant bus services right around the corner), 8 spaces for scooters or motorcycles, and 24 sheltered bike racks on the ground floor, in addition to a residential lobby and art gallery space. The building would replace a 33-space parking lot with living space for 37 new downtown residents, most of whom will probably walk or use transit the majority of the time.

And, down on Franklin Street, the old Jordan's Meats factory has been cleared away to make room for a new six-story hotel, condo, and restaurant complex, which has been approved and is already under construction. The eastern half of the block will be a parking lot for the time being, but the site has been used only for leased parking for the past five years anyhow, and the project's developers seem keen to put build something else on the rest of the site soon.

Set aside for a moment questions about the wisdom of spending public subsidies on lawyers who pull six figures, and the mysteriousness of how the Jordan's Meats building burned and collapsed before the construction company had a chance to begin the expensive asbestos removal process (the Fire Marshall declined to investigate).

In the end, these new buildings will all add new jobs and residences to Portland's downtown neighborhoods, contribute to our city's walkable streets with quality architecture and active street-level facades, and convert empty lots and underutilized buildings into new engines for the local economy.