The Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) Program at Portland State University is well-known for giving students the opportunity to participate in community improvement projects. Oftentimes, MURP students work with the same community partners over the course of multiple terms.
Last spring, students in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning course—Joshua Miller, Shane Morrison, Ilan Gerould, and Alex Gill—began to evaluate West Burnside Street in Portland, Oregon for Better Block PDX, a nonprofit that aims to make public spaces that prioritize people over cars (Phase One). West Burnside Street is a high-traffic corridor whose size discourages movement between the sides of the road and creates an unfriendly environment for pedestrians. It connects the west and east sides of the city via Burnside Bridge, which is due to close in the next couple years so it can be replaced with an earthquake-ready alternative.
The closure will allow Better Block to help the neighborhood implement new strategies aimed at transforming the street into “a corridor that supports human connectivity, safety, placemaking, and equity.” (Project Decisions and Performance Measures)
Last fall, students in the Active Transportation and Design Studio course built upon the Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning class’s work, helping Better Block PDX establish a high-level overview of the street’s existing conditions (Phase Two). Students Alan De Anda, Cian Redfern, Casey Dobbert, Jesse Tapia, and Jiahui Ma developed a forty-five-page plan detailing the existing conditions of the area and what steps to take to prioritize safety, access/connectivity, and equity in the area’s redesign. They offered multiple solutions that would center those project goals.
This year, the baton has been passed to MURP Workshop students to continue research (Phase Three). Their goal is to deliver a 90 percent plan to Better Block PDX by the end of the class in June.
“The project is focused on studying activation opportunities and economic mitigation options during the bridgeless phase, while also identifying a vision for making Burnside a signature street that is welcoming to foot traffic once the bridge is restored,” said Ryan Hashagen, Better Block PDX representative who has been working with students since the beginning of PSU students’ Better Burnside efforts.
The students participating in this phase of the project are Alex Gill, Brian Bill, Eric Gasper, Jackson Morrison, Michael Azierski, and Michel Rojas. Gill also worked on the Better Burnside project during the Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning course, and they were looking forward to working with Hashagen again on such an impactful project.
“The Better Burnside project is a historic opportunity to transform Portland's most iconic thoroughfare from what some officials have referred to as a 'car sewer', into a place where human beings are put at the center,” Gill said. “Portland deserves to have West Burnside transformed from just any other stroad, to a location akin to San Francisco's Market Street.”
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Photo: View of the Portland sign from the Burnside Bridge. Credit: Google Streetview, May 2024