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In July 1993, the city of Portland broke ground for the arena now known as the Moda Center. Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen and then-mayor Vera Katz wielded backhoes to begin construction of the glitzy new arena.
Most of the city was excited at creating a new home for Portland's only major-league sports team—but bicycle advocates were chafed.
Hard to imagine now, but the original plans for the area had no bike lanes. The green boxes that carry cyclists across the Broadway Bridge and up to the Vancouver-Williams corridor weren't in the plans, and neither was the bikeway on the lower deck of the Steel Bridge.
Portland's nascent Bicycle Transportation Alliance wanted to change that, and thought it had a trump card in the Oregon Bicycle Bill, a 1971 law that requires the inclusion of facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists wherever a road is built or rebuilt.
The BTA asked city commissioners to update the plans, and were rebuffed. Commissioner Earl Blumenauer, now a bow-tied U.S. congressman who makes bikes part of his shtick, told the BTA the project was exempt from the Bicycle Bill. According to BTA co-founder Rex Burkholder, Blumenauer attempted to dissuade the BTA from pushing the issue further.
Katz also opposed updating the plans to include the bikeway that now connects to the floating esplanade named for her. According to Burkholder, she said, "So, sue us."
The BTA did just that, filing the landmark lawsuit Bicycle Transportation Alliance v. City of Portland. On March 8, 1995, the BTA won in the Oregon Court of Appeals, and the plans were redrawn.
The area, which became a crucial connection point to North and Northeast Portland, currently gets 3,000 to 4,000 daily bike trips, numbers rivaled only by the Springwater Corridor and Hawthorne Bridge.
And it's not just about bikes: Try to imagine the gentrification of North and Northeast Portland if bike-loving hipsters had to cross all the way down at the Burnside Bridge.
"It put the state and other cities on notice that if you wanted to construct or reconstruct any individual roadway, you were going to have to provide bicycle paths," says BTA spokesman Gerik Kransky.
Kransky cautions against celebrating the Bicycle Bill or court judgment too much.
From the Archives:
Power to the Pedal, February 17, 2010 cover story on the Bicycle Transportation Alliance
1974: Mt. Hood Freeway Killed
1975: Soccer City, USA | A Vet Shuts Down Nuclear Power
1976: A Home for Refugees | Intel Changes the Economy
1978: Bill Walton Sits Down
1979: Busing Ends in Portland Schools | Oregon Wine Gets Famous
1982: Courts Pave Way for Nudie Bars | The Other Daily Paper Folds
1984: Satyricon's First Show | A Bartender Becomes Mayor | The Air Jordan Saves Nike
1985: First Female Police Chief Ousted | Wieden+Kennedy's Most Important Ad
1986: Dark Horse Comics' First Issue
1988: Inaugural Oregon Brewers' Fest | Rise of Hate Groups
1989: NW Rowhouses Burn | Gus Van Sant's Portland Hits Screen
1990: Our First Great Restaurant | Oregon's Longest Tax Revolt
1991: Cleaning up the Willamette
1995: Bicyclists Sue Portland
1996: Vera Katz Builds a Wall | March to Save City Nightclub | Powell's Rebuffs Amazon
1997: Path Cleared for Pearl District
1999: Stumptown Coffee Opens | Fight Club Hits DVD
2000: Largest Union Pension Fraud Ever
2003: Fred Meets Carrie | Suicide of Elliott Smith
2004: Gay Marriage Legalized (Briefly) | Goldschmidt Exposed | Eastside Portland Rises
2006: The Death of James Chasse Jr.
2008: Our Fanciest Restaurant Ever Bombs
2009: Sam Adams Admits Lying
2011: Occupy Portland
WWeek 2015