Council Votes Unanimously to Advance Improved Burnside-Couch Streetcar Couplet

By Roland Chlapowski

Sam, who came into office in 2005, adopted many projects from predecessors, but most of them were straightforward, and only a few were contentious. The Burnside-Couch Couplet Plan was not straightforward, but it certainly was contentious.

The Burnside-Couch Couplet Plan was developed from a community process that began when it was clear that Burnside needed to be reconstructed. The street was so badly damaged that it needed to be rebuilt from the base up, and when such major, invasive work is planned, it often makes sense to look at larger fixes to achieve broader goals and cost savings. This is exactly what the community did.

The idea, to make both Burnside and Couch one-way streets (like the rest of the downtown grid) and split Burnside's traffic between them, was dramatic and that would inarguably be transformative for downtown Portland. It was whether the transformation was going to be positive or negative, was the question.

For supporters, it eased traffic congestion, allowed for more trees, supplied on street parking, widened sidewalks, provided for new park spaces, increased pedestrian safety, reduced traffic fatalities, improved travel times while reducing auto speed, reduced automobile emissions, and provided for a streetcar that promised high ridership from NW 23rd to E Burnside & E 12th in a corridor that could benefit from higher development.

For detractors, it meant that traffic would move onto streets where it hadn't been before. It was unnecessary. The streetcar was dangerous. It cost too much.

After slowing the project down, reevaluating the proposal and studying new alternatives, and finally weighing the pros and cons, Sam ended up slightly modifying the plan (adding a streetcar) and being its champion.

At the end of the day, after much news coverage and 6 hours of public testimony, Portland City Council unanimously approved moving forward with the preliminary engineering for the plan. It would come up with stronger cost estimates and address concerns of safety and funding strategies.

This process is currently underway, and will return to council for evaluation as early as January 2009.

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