Pre-member meeting bike ride

 

Last month, The Street Trust held its June Member Meeting at BG’s Food Cartel food cart pod in Beaverton. 

The Street Trust members, board members, staff, Washington County elected officials, and Washington County community leaders came together to discuss our work and theirs, and find ways we can collaborate and support one another.

To emphasize our dedication to the entire region, The Street Trust has held our first

June Member Meetup at BG's Food Cartel

 two in-person member meetings in Milwaukie (May) and Beaverton (June). We’re actively recruiting to increase our membership in these communities, which have a big role to play in the future of our region. Through this outreach, we have found that these diverse communities also have an intense need for active transportation and transit organizing- and we are eager to support them. We’re particularly interested in organizing along corridors of concern, such as with our recent Farmington Road Study Tour.

We kicked off our June member meeting with a group bike ride that started at the Beaverton Transit Center. During this ride we experienced what Beaverton has to offer in terms of bike trails, multi-use paths, quiet greenways, bike lanes, sharrows, highway sidewalks, and highway-side railroad gravel. Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty generously shared details about the many City transportation projects and other community issues as we biked through Beaverton for a wonderfully in-depth look at the city.

We’re so grateful for everyone who could make it out! If you’re not a member yet, join us, July’s member meeting details will be announced soon–like our previous two meetings, it will be easy to access by walking, rolling, and transit. Save the date of Monday, July 18th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Become a member!

The Street Trust June Member Meeting participants at BG Food Cartel

Metro Councilor Juan Carlos González, Julian Dunn, The Street Trust Community Engagement Manager Madi Carlson, Nic Cota, Shawne Martinez, Councilor-Elect John Dugger, Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty, State Representative Dacia Grayber, Eric Wilhelm, State Representative WLnsvey Campos, Councilor-Elect Kevin Teater, The Street Trust Board Member Dave Roth, The Street Trust Strategic Partnerships Manager Anouksha Gardner.

The Street Trust Reciprocal Memberships

 

The Street Trust welcomes Parking Reform Network, Forth Mobility, and Business for a Better Portland as our newest Reciprocal Business Members. We value partnerships with organizations where we can further each of our missions and collaborate to make our transportation future better. The membership is catered to the needs of each organization and allows for mutual promotion and participation in public and member events.

Parking Reform NetworkForth MobilityBusiness for a Better Portland

We have business memberships available to businesses and are open to forming partnerships through reciprocal memberships with businesses and organizations that share our mission, values, and priorities . These partnerships make our advocacy more powerful, by bridging communities across differences, issue areas, and geographic focus. They also strengthen your business through the technical support and robust networking TST membership offers. 

We believe that we are stronger together than apart. We value partnerships that make it easier for us to collaborate for a better transportation future. PRN, FORTH, and BBPDX are all reciprocal members: unique partnerships designed to meet the needs of each organization. They allow for mutual promotion and participation in public and member events.

If you would like to join our work, please contact Strategic Partnerships Manager Anouksha Gardner: [email protected]

 

A Pacific Northwest winter provides so many exciting bicycling environments: relentless rain, very cold temperatures, long hours of darkness, snow, and ice!

Here are 10 tips to help you bike in some of the conditions winter might present.

And if you’re a member of The Street Trust or Business for a Better Portland, join us for an hour-long virtual Winter Biking Clinic on January 24th to learn even more.

  1. Fender up! Full-coverage fenders will keep that dirty, gritty water and slush on the ground from getting on you, but they also prevent it from making its way into your bike where it will slowly grind away at your drivetrain.
  2. Clean your chain. Wiping your chain clean and applying lube more often throughout the winter will keep your bike running smoothly. Also wipe accumulated snow off your chain as it builds up.
  3. Shield your glasses. Get a visor for your helmet to keep rain and snow off yoBiking in snowur glasses. Or you can make one: remove the button from the top of a baseball cap and it will fit nicely under a helmet.
  4. Wool is warm! Wool keeps you warm even if it gets wet. There’s no great vegan alternative to wool so whether or not you’re wearing wool:
  5. Layer up. Wear base layers under jeans, jeans under rain pants, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks.
  6. Re-waterproof gear. Check your soggy rain gear’s tag or online to see howto reactivate it–many items just need a spray-on or wash-in coating andthey’re like new. 
  7. Bring extras. If you’ve got room to stow extra gloves, socks, or even shoes, do it! You’ll use these extras to replace wet items or to add as extra layers.
  8. Avoid wet metal. Metal plates and grates can be slippery in the rain so go around them whenever you can.
  9. Long stops. Give yourself extra stopping space when the ground is wet–especially if you have rim brakes rather than disc brakes.
  10. Light up! You’re required to have a front light visible from 500 feet away, but a stronger light that illuminates potholes and other hazards is great for riding in the dark.

Join us with your lunch on Wednesday, January 26th to learn even more about biking in winter. Email [email protected] if you haven’t received your invite yet or to check the status of your membership. Not a member yet? Join for $5 a month or $40 a year here.

Winter Biking Clinic

 

The Street Trust had an unprecedented year in 2021. Even as the pandemic continued to disrupt our society, our organization dug into an intensive rebuild with an eye to the future and took action to ensure we’re making an impact across the Portland metro region and beyond. Despite unique challenges, TST pushed the region closer to a complete, safe, low-carbon, multimodal transportation system that contributes to equity in access, opportunity, health, and prosperity for all.

In 2021, the organization hired an Executive Director; forwarded state legislation to get more funding for people walking, biking, and rolling; recruited 18 new esteemed and diverse board members across both the 501c3 and 501c4 boards; published our 2021-23 Strategic Action Plan; and kicked off the #OurStreets campaign – an intensive effort to build tools and community power for better transportation outcomes across the Portland metro region

But don’t take our word for it! We went straight to our team on the ground for their wins from 2021 and their aspirations for 2022 …

2021 was a breakaway year for our advocacy work. Over the past year, we revived and rebuilt The Street Trust Action Fund, our 501c4 political arm. The Action Fund board members represent diverse experiences and perspectives, who aspire to work together for greater credibility and influence in the politics of the greater Portland region. Working in complement to the efforts of our 501c3 arm, they are going to focus on the politics of elevating multimodal transportation as a priority issue at all levels of government and in all parts of the region. Building in greater power will help hold leadership accountable for making real progress in improving transportation options for people in their communities.

TST managers André Lightsey-Walker and Anouksha Gardner at the 2021 Alice Awards.

Policy Transformation Manager André Lightsey-Walker worked intensively in 2021,  writing letters to agencies and officials calling for more equitable, climate-smart mobility options, and serving on committees at every level of government to shape better outcomes. He is most excited with how the organization built up our “capacity and presence at a diverse variety of tables,” adding, “We’ve been impressing folks everywhere we go and building healthy relationships.” André is optimistic that 2022 will bring more opportunities, “to come together in person for walks, rolls, and gathering in Our Streets!” 

 

Partnerships are critical to our work, and this year our Strategic Partnerships Manager Anouksha Gardner made connections that emphasize our commitment to building alliances across many sectors and throughout the entire Portland metro region.

She worked hard in 2021 refreshing existing relationships and building new ones, including signing reciprocal memberships with members of the freight, technology, and business sectors, including Forth Mobility, B-line, and Business for a Better Portland. By adding Killer Queen Cyclery and Icicle Tricycles as new business members, Anouksha kept TST true to our biking roots.

Anouksha also connected with large institutions whose commuters and political influence can work with us to shape the future of Portland, such as Kaiser Community Health and Portland State University. When it comes to community-based organizations, Anouksha kicked off collaborations with Historic Parkrose, Unite Oregon, and the Rosewood Initiative as part of the #OurStreets campaign.

 

Supporting the next generation of walkers and rollers continues to be central to our programming. Education Director Lindsay Huber is proud that, despite school closures and distancing, TST helped schools and students host multiple successful Walk+Roll events in 2021. “We were also very proud to add 123 Oregon schools to the list of schools across the United States celebrating Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day with support from Ruby Bridges herself! This event encouraged students to learn about racial justice and apply it to active transportation.”

Walking and rolling to school isn’t possible without a safe way to get there, which is why TST is thrilled with Safe Routes To School Coordinator Nicole Perry’s hard won successes in 2021, including new safe routes for students attending Linwood Elementary and Sojourner Schools in Milwaukie. 

In 2022, TST will work hard expanding our offering of Walk+Roll programs, including a Winter Walk+Roll event to encourage students to get to school safely in cold, rainy, or snowy weather with active transportation; and an Earth Month event in April to help students think about the impact of how they travel on the environment.

 

Despite the pandemic, The Street Trust also continued our critical work in the streets. Community Engagement Manager Madi Carlson, “loved that the 2021 Move More Challenge expanded beyond biking and included walking, scooting, transit, and more in a bigger effort to reduce car usage.”

In addition to the Move More Challenge, Madi hosted inclusive WeBike rides and supported or led other bike rides throughout the year. This included two community rides hosted by Teatro Milagro in SE Portland: Día de la Madre in May and Día de los Muertos in October. She also worked with the City of Portland over the Summer to host an event at Gateway Discovery Park and an events action table in Old Town for the ‘Here for Portland’ weekend. To help fill the void so many of us felt with no formal Sunday Parkways, Madi led our efforts to activate the street outside Teatro Milagro every Sunday in August to create “mini Sunday Parkways.” In 2022, Madi is hoping to return to “more in-person programming for the Oregon Active Transportation SummitBike Commute Clinics, and The Street Trust member events!”

 

Community Engagement Manager Madi Carlson hosting the parklet TST hosted in Oregon City for Parking Day.

TST also deployed grants to support activations that transformed streets across the region into people-oriented spaces. In September, Grants & Impact Manager Henry Latourette Miller obtained a grant from SPIN and worked with the local business community to set up a parklet in a parking space in Oregon City as a part of International Parking Day. He was thrilled to organize the Oregon City event, which, “proves our commitment to serving the entire Portland metro, while featuring a partnership with the local business association, demonstrating our ambition to create innovative alliances across many sectors.”

In a perfect harmony of furthering our mission while building up our community, our biggest street activation of the year was our annual Alice Awards, which we transformed into a lively, intercultural block party at the Friends of the Green Loop’s Ankeny West space. Along with allowing our supporters and allies to gather in celebration of transportation leaders for the first time in over a year, the block party was also an opportunity to take over a full lane of West Burnside Street, one of Portland’s most notorious arterials. 

White Lotus and Dragon Dancers performing at TST’s 2021 Alice Awards

Looking to the future, In 2022, we’re going fight for you from the literal intersections of a public health crisis in which unsafe and incomplete public streets threaten our lives and livelihoods. We’re going to refuse to settle for an autocentric transportation system that worsens disparities and sacrifices our future. We going to stand firm in the belief that we can stop preventable death resulting from inequality, lax safety, and climate change. And we are going to do everything we can to win policy transformation and major investments that save lives, reduce barriers, and expand opportunities to the people and neighborhoods our current system neglects.

In 2022, our work will be defined by a continued commitment to investing in advocacy, education, community, partnerships, and impact. The #OurStreets Community Mobilization Campaign is now underway, with planned collaborations with Rosewood Initiative, Historic Parkrose, and Unite Oregon set to take place this spring. We are supercharged with new faces and new energy ready to take the work of The Street Trust to new heights. 2021 was a year of big changes and bold moves. 2022 is the year those seeds we planted will bear fruit.  

But we can’t do any of this without you. Together, we can have greater impact advocating for public investments that make our region more livable, equitable, and healthy. As a new year begins, please make sure your membership is up to date, gift a membership to street users you love, and sign up to volunteer. In 2022, we’re going to reclaim our streets, and our future – but we can’t do it without you.

 

Support The Street Trust

 

Burnside Bridge

We are a membership advocacy organization and couldn’t do our work without the support of our terrific members! We’ve recently brought back monthly meetings for our members–virtual for now, but returning to in person soon.

We’re especially excited about December’s meeting and hope you’ll join us:

Burnside Bridge Community Conversation + Q&A
Monday, December 6, 5:00–6:00pm

We’ll welcome special guests from Multnomah County who will brief us on the Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project. Then members of the Human Access Project will share their Burnside Bridge Pedestrian Access Ramp concept. We’ll have plenty of time for Q&A for both groups after the presentations.

Registration is required so please find the invite in your Member Alert email. Missing the registration link or need to check the status of your membership? Email TST Membership Services at [email protected].

Not a member yet? Join us! Individual membership dues are $5 monthly, or a $40 one-time contribution.

Four people in brighlty colored jackets stand with bicycles in fornt of law office.

 

Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost has been working with The Street Trust to improve our region’s transportation network for three full decades. Ray Thomas gave the first bicycle and pedestrian legal clinicin 1992, and since then, TCNF’s bicycle and pedestrian lawyers have continued performing hundreds of clinics across the state. Today, attorneys Cynthia Newton and Chris Thomas present most clinics for the firm. Any interested organizations are invited to reach out to TST or TCNF to schedule a clinic free of charge for your team, community, or organization.      

 

 

On top of their unwavering support of pedestrian and bike clinics, TCNF has also been involved in The Street Trust’s legislative advocacy efforts over the years.  A recent example is Ray Thomas’s testimony in Salem in favor of legislation clarifying that bicycle lanes exist within intersections, even when painted markings are interrupted. Jim Coon has also recently helped draft proposed legislation updating Oregon’s bicycle bill, and spoke at last year’s Active Transportation Summit on that topic.

When asked why safe streets are so important to them, TCNF said, “As injury lawyers we have an intimate view of the impact traffic collisions can have on the lives of our clients, from the acute stages of treatment to the long-term mental and physical repercussions. Unfortunately, fear of another collision often discourages our clients from riding the way they did before, and we know many other would-be cyclists avoid riding out of concern for their safety. We need safer streets to welcome those who want to get around without a car, but don’t currently feel safe doing so.”

The Street Trust partners with a wide range of organizations from non-profit, labor, business, health, education, faith, and other sectors. These partnerships make our advocacy more powerful, by bridging communities across differences, issue areas, and geographic focus. The Street Trust appreciates and values the relationship the organization has with Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost, working together for safe streets for us all. 

The Street Trust is always looking to partner with organizations and businesses. Become a business member/partner here

 

 

 

We’d like to officially welcome our newest Champion Business Member B-Line to The Street Trust!

B-line is passionate about our community and the planet! As a certified B-Corporation, they work every day by working with their customers to reduce freight congestion, CO2 emissions, provide local green-collar jobs, streamlined recycling services, and helping feed those in need via their B-shares program.

Since 2008, B-line Urban Logistics has done this by offering advertising, warehousing, logistics, fulfillment, and zero-emission delivery services to an ever-growing group of businesses in Portland, Oregon. B-Line customers value the delivery time they save, the cost savings of a centrally managed warehouse with dedicated staff, and their ability to help scale quickly with delivery, fulfillment, warehousing, and advertising services in a centrally located solar-powered warehouse on SE 7th and Salmon street.

B-line’s founding premise, that business can be a catalyst for positive change, is quantified in their 2019 and 2020 impact reports.

 

Welcome to The Street Trust Family!

 

 

Become a Business Member and join The Street Trust Family.

 

 

The Street Trust has a new business membership structure for organizations who support investments in safe and accessible streets. We have revised and remodeled our business membership to be accessible, equitable, and beneficial for organizations from all the different sectors. 

 

The Street Trust’s work is done in partnership with a wide range of organizations from non-profit, labor, business, health, education, and other sectors. The support from our business members makes our advocacy more powerful, by bridging communities across differences, issue-areas, and geographic focus.

 

You can choose to be a Friend of The Street Trust, with getting access to our network and your information on our website, to choosing to be a Champion where you can partake in training and education from experts in the field of transportation and sponsorship opportunities. Partner with us by being either a Friend, Builder, Sustainer or Champion. For more information please email [email protected]

 

Our welcome to new business partners Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC and Florin Roebig for joining The Street Trust Family. 

 

Become a Business Member today!

Board member speaks to other board members at annual mmeeting outdoors

 

The Street Trust has embarked on an ambitious mission to advocate for multimodal transportation options that prioritize safety, accessibility, equity, and climate justice in the Portland Metro Region. Our new Strategic Plan, Executive Director, and Board will usher us into the post-pandemic age with integrity and action. 

 

We are looking for six or more new Board Members to guide this important work. The ideal members believe in our core values and our priorities of Advocacy, Community, Impact, and Partnerships.

 

> Click here to view the Strategic Plan summary [PDF]

 

Our nominees will be chosen by the current board and voted on by our members. Board members serve a two-year term and may renew. The commitment is 2-4 hours per month.

 

> Please complete this brief questionnaire to apply (10 min)

 

Application Deadline: Aug 19, 2021

Board Members Chosen: September 2021

Onboarding and Training: October 2021

The Street Trust staff

From the desk of Sarah Iannarone:

To the #Community,

When I joined The Street Trust this January, our member-elected board gave me a very specific task: lead a strategic planning process to clarify how we serve the community and how we can have the greatest influence transforming transportation across the Greater Portland Region. Today, I’m proud to show you what #TST has accomplished these last few months.

First up: the plan. Together, we accomplished more than a strategic plan – ours is a measurable action plan on a tight timeline to achieve four top priorities: intensifying our advocacy, building partnerships, growing our membership, and increasing our impact. It is full of concrete steps that #TST is committed to taking this year and next (many we’ve already started) that will set us up for success. The plan says that by the end of 2022, The Street Trust will train candidates, build new and more inclusive coalitions, involve more -and more diverse- members in our work, and serve as a resource for the kind of data and information that drives transformation. All while maintaining the programs and partnerships you already know us for. But that’s not all it says – take a look for yourself!

With a renewed vision, mission and values, we’re taking on advocacy for the streets of our future. To make our plan happen, we needed to create some new positions, and I’m so thrilled we got such an incredible pool of applicants from across the country and across Greater Portland. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming André, Anouksha, Henry, and Zeyaad to the team.

These four join an incredible staff already in place – our Education Director Lindsay, Events & Engagement Assistant Madi, and Clackamas County Safe Routes to School Coordinator Nicole are a force for the streets, plus they’re three incredible women I’d trust to lead me on a walk, bike, or transit ride anywhere in our region.

If you’re reading this, you’re seeing it on our brand new website. We’ve restructured to make it easier to find the information you’re looking for, and aligned the branding with the new Strategic Action Plan. You can learn a bit about the new and existing staff on this site as well. Look around, explore, and let us know if anything isn’t working by sending us an email to [email protected]

Along with the new website, we have new database, marketing, and payment systems, among others. This means we will be reaching out to many of you to confirm you want to stay on our email list, or to move your monthly donation to a platform that saves time and money and works better for our members and our future.

Finally, I want to make an announcement I’ve been keeping under my bike helmet for a little while: The Street Trust Board has invited me to stay on with the organization as the Executive Director and lead our organization in executing this plan. No more “Interim” uncertainty – I plan on leading with grit and determination, and using the platform this position provides to advance the vision laid out in the plan. I’ll steer the ship based on what our team hears from the members, partners, funders, decision-makers, and street users who make up our community.

It’s an exciting time to be a part of #TST, and we can’t do it without your support. Right now would be an excellent opportunity to show your support for our new direction: please ensure your membership is up to date and renew your commitment to the streets of the future with a generous sustaining gift.

Thank you for believing in the future with us!

 

See you in the streets,

Sarah's signature, with a large Cursive "S" connected to the "arah"

Sarah Iannarone

Executive Director, The Street Trust