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This photo, taken Jan. 13, shows SW Naito Parkway.
(Mike Zacchino/Staff)
In Seattle, the transportation department aims "to achieve bare and wet pavement on specified streets within twelve hours after a significant lull in the storm," according to that city's winter-weather site.
In Portland? The goal is apparently five days - and counting. Instead of bare and wet pavement, city arterials remain iced over and packed with snow despite no new accumulation since last Wednesday. Major Portland streets - including "priority" routes for public transit - are deformed by deep ruts that make for hazardous and teeth-rattling rides. And despite crews laying down sand for traction, the strategy adopted by city and state transportation officials is best summarized as: Let it melt.
This is no way to run a city. Already students in Portland Public Schools have lost eight school days due to the inability of the city and state to provide sufficiently safe streets. It's unknown whether that time will be made up.
Businesses, too, have been hurt by lost sales and their employees idled. And while the difficulty of navigating icy streets may be a mere inconvenience to some, it can be far more serious to those with disabilities or those who depend on social service agencies for assistance.
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Spokespeople for the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Oregon Department of Transportation defended their response, pointing to the amount of snow that walloped the region and the continuing cold temperatures that kept it from thawing. Certainly, that merits some slack. A record 6.5 inches of snow fell last Tuesday, followed by another 1.5 inches on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Considering the Portland area doesn't regularly get snow - much less the dumping that fell last week - it's understandable that the city largely shut down, with government offices, schools and many businesses taking the day off.
But that turned into another day. And then another day. By Monday, despite clear weather and no new snow, such essential hubs as the downtown transit mall remained a mess of ice ruts. Commuter buses run by C-TRAN from Vancouver have not come downtown since last Wednesday due to safety concerns over the poor conditions of the transit mall, said Christine Selk, a spokeswoman for C-TRAN. Meanwhile, de-icer, sand and gravel have been of limited help and cars continue to skid off roadways.
Both city and state officials need to assess their response and report back to the community on strategic changes - such as using salt, as Seattle does now, despite years of refusing to - that policymakers should consider for the next time Portland gets snow.
PBOT's website also needs to be updated. The snow and ice plan on the site dates back to 2010 and assigns responsibilities to managers who no longer work there. The bureau should delete the lengthy explanation justifying why Portland can't attend to all its streets and instead tell residents what they can expect and in what time frame.
If the City Council's attention is needed, so be it. Develop and commit to a new policy that recognizes that snowstorms happen - and may be happening more. The city cannot afford to shut down interminably, waiting for the weather to wash away what other cities capably confront on their own.
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Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches, John Maher and Len Reed.
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State transportation officials, who have been using salt in a five-year "pilot" project, need to drop the pretense of studying a substance commonly and effectively used throughout the country and move forward with recommendations regarding whether and how it should be used.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature is going to wreak a little more havoc before bailing the city out. With freezing rain forecast for Tuesday, the ice-grooved roads may well turn into a skating rink. "The city that works" needs to show that eventually, it will.
- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board