We’re using one of the nerdiest days of the year, May Fourth (also known as Star Wars Day) as an excuse to try out a hybrid model for our Lunch and Learns.  

Join us Wednesday, May 4, as the Performance and Data Strategy teams update us on how they’re making our bureau work smarter and harnessing analytics to advance our goals. You’ll learn more about:    

• PBOT’s Performance Management Framework, an organized tracking system, and our annual performance reporting calendar;  
• The Data Self-Assessment, tracking what’s working well and where we can up our data game;  
• PBOT’s Data and Performance Catalog, a new tool for staff to see data we have access to and how we use it to evaluate impact   

In celebration of Star Wars Day, in-person attendees get a nerdalicious ice cream sundae bar!   

Attending in person? Join us early at 11:30 a.m. in room 1501 on the 15th floor of the Portland Building to ensure you have time to mingle and, maybe more importantly, create your sundae!  

Important note if you’re joining us in person. This is our first hybrid event. We are using this as a learning opportunity on hosting hybrid events. If we reach room capacity, we’ll ask you to join us virtually instead. Apologies in advance if this happens.  

Joining virtually? Log in at noon using this link or find the calendar hold shared via the Scoop. 

Questions? Reach out to Emma Sagor or Lauren Spear. May the Fourth be with you!    

By Kailyn Lamb 

After two years of tremendous change, we’re shifting again into hybrid work. Emotions in the bureau span the entire spectrum from elated to devastated. We honor all the feelings and want do what we can to share information, tools, and tips to make hybrid work more comfortable and hopefully fun for all of you. 

For me, two things about hybrid work have already been challenging. One is timing my commute (wow, I have to get up so much earlier!) and the second is using a different process for hybrid meetings. I haven’t mastered the technology in the meeting rooms. I’ve forgotten how to book a conference room. I haven’t even run my own hybrid meeting yet. But I’m learning, and I'll be sharing resources in Street Cred and the Scoop in case you’re having these challenges too. The first tip comes courtesy of BHR. 

Make hybrid meetings work for virtual participants first 

In the April 19 BHR Bulletin, BHR shared a list of tips on running hybrid meetings, as well as this 10-minute video titled How to do Hybrid Meetings Right. I recommend watching the whole video. The big takeaway is that hybrid meetings should be run with your virtual participants in mind first. This means things like everyone bringing their laptops to sign in virtually to make the experience better for everyone.  

By Kailyn Lamb

Hopefully you knew BIKETOWN was free last weekend. Turns out Portland crushed it with bike-share ridership records set on Saturday and Sunday!  

This is the last week for this round of Coffee Talk! If you haven’t scheduled your final chat, make sure to do so ASAP. For participants, keep an eye out for an email from Kailyn Lamb with a survey about your experience. This feedback helps her make the program the best it can be.  

If you’ve never participated in Coffee Talk and you have questions, please reach out to Kailyn Lamb. Signups for the next round coming soon.  

Big thanks to everyone who participated this round!  

As more PBOTers head back to hybrid work in-person and as it starts to get warmer out, there are more opportunities to take a break and explore! Meet up with a coworker you don't normally see and explore somewhere new. Do you have a favorite Wildcard activity or adventure that you want to share? Email thescoop@portlandoregon.gov with pictures of your walk/ride/break or with a description and chance to be featured in an upcoming Scoop or Street Cred newsletter! Here are some ideas to get started:  

Kerby: Walk a loop around the hospital grounds - it's about a mile 

1900 Building: Take a walk to Poets Beach  

Portland Building/Sixth & Main: Take a walk to the Central Library 

Streetcar: Walk to Jamison Square Park  

We'll continue sharing out ideas in the coming weeks, so be sure to tune in!

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past few days, it’s that Portland loves free compost. In five days, Sunderland Yard saw 3,336 vehicles roll through and haul away about 4,000 cubic yards of compost! "We were able to safely navigate all these vehicle through the yard, once again, without any incidents," Tom Godkin, Sunderland Acquisition Specialist and Storekeeper II told us.

The event brings folks from all over the region. It’s a feel-good unifier. Noticing how many non-English speakers participated in our first event in 2018, we’ve continued to grow our outreach to these communities. This year, we created signage and promotional materials in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Vietnamese. We also did outreach to media organizations like the Chinese Times and Slavic Family Media. 

Check out this post from a Reddit thread where PBOT’s compost giveaway brought together neighbors who speak different languages:

This event would not happen without the work of the Sunderland Yard crew. Not only do they work overtime and deal with A LOT of traffic coming through the yard during the compost giveaway, the event comes after all the hard work they do through Leaf Days. 

Our Sunderland Yard family puts in a lot of extra hours through Leaf Days and beyond to make sure all that organic material has a place to “cook” and become next year’s compost. A hearty thank you to:  

The main team making it happen: 

• Mike Murry, Site Operations Crew Leader 
• Tom Godkin, Storekeeper II 
• Joe VanDeLaat, Construction Equipment Operator 
• Ivan Eells, Utility Worker II 
• Bobby Flowers, Utility Worker II
• Bob Pyle, Operations Program Manager, Sunderland Yard 

Extra help on Saturday and Sunday: 

• Tish Leos, Site Operations Crew Leader
• Mike LaPlante, Utility Worker II 

Honorable mentions: 

• Josh Richards, Construction Equipment Operator: Josh is part of the main Sunderland crew but has been out unexpectedly during the event. He is critical to operations at Sunderland Yard. 
• Angie Hopper, Sign Maker: Angie made 10 signs for us to make sure our multi-language signage was done before the event started.
• PBOT's Communications & Public Involvement team: For the event promotion and translation services support! 

By Abby Hauth 

The Development Review division of the Development, Permitting & Transit (DPT) group is a relatively small 26-person team. Together they coordinate major right-of-way improvements without the use of public funds. The team includes civil engineers, traffic engineers, engineering technicians, transportation land use planners, and administrative staff.  

As public stewards, the Development Review division balances many competing interests for use of the street, curb, sidewalks, and utilities that are on, above, or below ground. They manage and reduce impacts from Portland development, ensuring improvements to the streets and sidewalks meet PBOT’s strategic transportation goals. It requires countless hours of coordination with developers, their architects and engineers, other city bureaus, and other departments within PBOT all while working under a strict deadline to approve work permits.  

This story is the third in a series highlighting the Development Review team and the vital work they do. To read the first article in this series, about five new projects at the North Portland Amazon facility, check out our Feb. 2 issue of Street Cred here. To read the second article in the series, about PBOTer Tammy Boren-King and the early assistance process, check out our March 2 issue of Street Cred here.  

Two sides to the same street 

In our third installment of Development Review features, we’re zeroing in on a single intersection in the Woodstock neighborhood of Southeast Portland. Where SE Woodstock Boulevard meets 51st Avenue, two new developments have recently popped up. On the northeast corner of the intersection, we have a small, single-family house turned multi-unit apartment building. Across the street a sizeable apartment building went in on an empty lot.  

Tammy Boren-King explains how the existing conditions on the lots and the timing of the permit proposals, built within a year of each other, created two very different development outcomes.  

If you remember last month’s Development Review article, we learned about the two triggers that developers face when determining what improvements they’re required to make. In this case, both properties meet the first trigger: increased trips to the property. Because of this, developers will take on the responsibility of improving frontages to these properties.  

A tale of two developments 

Looking at the photo below (circa June 2019) we start to see the differences between these two properties. This empty lot on the southwest corner of SE Woodstock Boulevard and 51st Avenue had an unpaved, gravel road.  

Another requirement of this development was to install water management. Since the gravel road didn’t include a sidewalk, there was no existing curb line. When a curb line doesn’t exist, the Bureau of Environmental Services requires developers to put in stormwater catchment. New stormwater collection planters can be seen in between the freshly paved sidewalk and street.  

Across the street, on the northeast corner of SE 51st Avenue and Woodstock Boulevard, the street was already paved and a curb already existed. Because of this curb, stormwater management was in place. While this development wasn’t required to create new sidewalks, paved streets, or stormwater catchments, they were required to widen the sidewalks on both SE Woodstock Boulevard and 51st Avenue to comply with the Pedestrian Design Guide. Below, you can see these updates from July 2019 (first image) and February 2022 (second image).  

Curb extensions: now required 

If you happen to be driving east down SE Woodstock Boulevard today, you will pass by both of these new apartment buildings on either side of SE 51st Avenue. You’ll notice that the apartment on the northeast corner of the intersection has a curb extension bumped out into Woodstock, while the curb in front of the apartment on the southwest corner of the intersection does not. What gives?! Tammy explains that even though these developments were under construction at the same time, the fact that their permits were submitted a year and a half apart impacted this final result.  

The property on the southwest corner submitted its permit in May 2018 while the northeast corner was submitted in November 2019. In June 2019, a new rule (TRN 1.28) requiring curb extensions went into effect. This underscores the fact that even on the same street, the rules may differ depending on timing.  

This one intersection paints a big picture of the many rules and intricacies that contribute to the development review process. If you multiply this intersection by thousands of others citywide you start to get an idea of the amount of work that goes into developing the city’s right-of-way!