Spring is coming, get ready!

Dear parents, caregivers, educators, and community, 

Although snow is not a distant memory, daylight savings time is less than one week away—Sunday, March 9! And for many of us who aren't Winter Weather Warriors, that means more time to walk, bike, and roll on our streets. As we inch closer to warmer weather, make sure to mark your calendars with these free Portland Bureau of Transportation events to help you get ready for spring:

• Basic Bike Maintenance Workshop: Friday, March 28 from 3 to 5 p.m. at Midland Library (805 SE 122nd Ave.)
• New to Portland Ride: Lents: Thursday, April 3 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (start location TBD)

Make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and tag us in your stories so we can share your success with our Portland community.

With gratitude,
Safe Routes to School Team | Brittany, Dana, Gui, Janis, Jeri, Josh, and Meaghan 

In this newsletter

• Celebrate Earth Month this April
• Community spotlight: LaQuisha Minnieweather
• Congrats to schools that participated in Winter Walk + Roll to School Day!
• What is the state of biking in Portland? Take survey before March 7!
• Intersection improvement coming to the Laurelhurst neighborhood
• Events, grants, and opportunities
• Apply for a Block Party permit
• Personal safety resources
• Job and volunteer postings
• What we're reading

Celebrate Earth Month this April

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22, but we can celebrate our planet all month long by walking, biking, and rolling to school!

In the spirit of reducing waste during Earth Month, Oregon Safe Routes to School will not provide physical material incentives. Instead, we're encouraged to get creative about how we celebrate walking, biking, and rolling for the earth—whether it’s all month or just on Earth Day.

Check out these resources and ideas about how to celebrate Earth Month:

• Use this Earth Month toolkit to help spread the word and plan activities, e.g., organize a walking school bus or bike bus.
• Plant seeds at your school or around your community.
• Write thank you cards to the Earth.
• Create a collaborative mural at your school about walking, biking, and rolling to school.
• Have students make posters about why they love the Earth.

Learn more about how to celebrate Earth Month this April

Community spotlight: LaQuisha Minnieweather

We're interested in sharing stories about the amazing work that everyday folks in Portland do to help make our community better. LaQuisha Minnieweather is one of those people helping kids and their families walk, bike, and roll to and from school and more!

James John Elementary School parent volunteer, Jessica Fletcher, nominated LaQuisha calling her an "outstanding parent leader" at César Chávez School (K-8) in the Portsmouth neighborhood. Jessica describes how LaQuisha's "tireless efforts and remarkable advocacy have created transformative impacts for families in our community, embodying the spirit of service and resilience." LaQuisha helped The Kidz Outside, a community group based in St. Johns, distribute 110 bicycles in addition to over 500 backpacks, schools supplies, food, and 80 haircuts to ensure kids and their families "started the school year feeling confident, prepared, and supported." LaQuisha is "building a stronger, more connected community." Continue reading to learn more about LaQuisha!

Question: Why did you get started helping kids and their families walk, bike, and roll to and from school?

Answer: Getting bikes to kids was very important to me, especially for back-to-school time, which is stressful for many families. While we give kiddos backpacks, we also need to make sure they have a way to get to school on time.

Q: What is one bit of wisdom for people who want to do something like what you're doing?

A: Remember that when showing up for the community, meeting them where they are at is very important. Go to the community, don't ask them to come to you.

Q: What is something you have learned while doing this work?

A: Sometimes you will hear a lot of "nos" before you get a "yes." Not knowing how to find and share resources can feel really defeating. But it is important to show up for underresourced communities.

Q: What keeps you motivated?

A: No matter the journey when trying to share resources, seeing those smiling faces always keeps me motivated.

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself!

A: I'm a solo mother of three who loves to collect plants!

Do you know someone who is helping kids and their families walk, bike, and roll to and from school or making our streets safer? Tell us about them by filling out this nomination form!

Learn more about how to nominate someone in your community

Congrats to schools that participated in Winter Walk + Roll to School Day!

You make our community great!

Abernethy, Alameda, Atkinson, Beach, Bridger Creative Science,  Bridlemile, Capitol Hill, Chapman, Clark, Creston, Duniway, Forest Park, Glencoe, Irvington, James John, Jason Lee,  Kelly, Lincoln Park, Maplewood, Peninsula, Richmond, Rieke, Rigler, Rosa Parks, Rose City Park, Sabin, Ventura Park, Vestal, Whitman, Woodlawn, and Woodstock elementary schools; Laurelhurst K-8 School; George, Jackson, Kellogg, Lane, and Sellwood middle schools; and Grant, Jefferson, and Lincoln high schools.

Learn more about Winter Walk + Roll to School Day

What is the state of biking in Portland? Take survey before March 7!

Portland is known as a bike-friendly city, but do Portlanders feel the same way? Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) wants to know what you think about bicycling, whether you currently bike or not. Our short survey (takes about 5 minutes) will help inform future planning and community engagement at PBOT. All answers are anonymous, and you can enter for a chance to win a $50 Visa gift card at the end of the survey! 

Be part of this important research project and help improve Portland by taking the survey, coordinated by NW Opinions, before it closes on Friday, March 7.

Take the survey before March 7!

Intersection improvements coming to the Laurelhurst neighborhood

This summer, Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will start construction on the NE 41st Avenue and Glisan Street Intersection Improvements project—an essential connection for students and families in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. Currently, the intersection is challenging to cross, particularly for people walking, biking, and rolling. At the same time, people driving on NE Glisan Street may not expect people walking, biking, and rolling to cross at this intersection. This project intends to increase safety by making the intersection easier to cross, shortening crossing distances, adding protected bike lanes, slowing vehicles, and increasing driver awareness.

This is one of the Neighborhood Greenway Traffic Calming Projects and was prioritized after a traffic crash at this location in 2023.

Project elements

• Add push buttons accessible to people biking
• Add short sections of bike lanes or bike lane improvements
• Add concrete curbs
• Remove outdated pedestrian signal infrastructure

Informed by community needs

Together with the local school community, PBOT identified this intersection as an important connection for students and families travelling to and from Laurelhurst School (K-8) during a Safe Routes to School outreach process. 

Made possible by Portland voters

The NE 41st Avenue and Glisan Street Intersection Improvements project is funded by Fixing Our Streets, the 10-cent citywide gas tax approved by Portland voters in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

Learn more about the NE 41st Avenue and Glisan Street Intersection Improvements project

Events, grants, and opportunities

Rose City Self-Defense youth personal safety classes

Registration opens Tuesday, March 4 

Apply by Monday, March 31

The Teen Advisory Board fosters collaboration for Teens in the Driver Seat, a peer-to-peer safety program for youth, by engaging youth to be empowered and to speak up about transportation safety. Teen Advisory Board members will have opportunities to enhance the program; learn effective ways to incorporate positive behavior change; and gain valuable skills, experiences, and opportunities for leadership development.

Learn more about the Teens in the Driver Seat Teen Advisory Board

Project Yellow Light scholarship competition

Due Tuesday, April 1

People know distracted driving is dangerous, but they do it anyway. As a Project Yellow Light applicant you have one clear mission: create a public service announcement to encourage your friends to avoid distracted driving, specifically using your phone while driving. Scholarships range from $2,000 to $8,000. 

Learn more about Project Yellow Light's scholarship competition

Apply for a block party permit

Block parties are a fun and easy way to build community and get to know the people next door. Portland Bureau of Transportation's Block Party program is intended for neighborhood-scale gatherings. Gather your neighbors and host a block party on your street or turn the street into a playground for kids. Best of all, the permit is free! 

Learn more about how to apply for a block party permit

Personal safety resources

We want to help create a transportation system that allows all people to feel safe getting where they need to go. Check out our webpage full of resources that address personal safety on our streets, including information about how to:

• report a non-urgent traffic safety concern,
• sign-up for a personal safety workshop,
• report a bias incident or hate crime,
• stand up against street harassment, and more.

Portland is a sanctuary city. The City of Portland's Immigration & Refugee Program offers free legal services and has information about how to report violations of Oregon's sanctuary laws. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center created “Red Cards” to help people assert their rights and defend themselves. 

PDX 311 is available to help with any local government questions or service needs. Staff are fluent in English, Spanish, Romanian, and Tagalog and have resources for additional languages. 

Learn more about personal safety resources

Job and volunteer postings

The City of Portland posts new job opportunities every Monday.

Planning Commission

Apply by Monday March 24

The Planning Commission makes recommendations to City Council on the city’s long-range goals, policies, and programs for land use and planning. In making recommendations, it considers the economic, environmental, and social well-being of the city in an integrated fashion. The membership of the Planning Commission aims to include a broad representation of Portland’s community and reflect the dynamic nature of this changing city. Planning Commission members are volunteers.

Learn more about the Planning Commission

Summer Recreation Employment

Apply by Monday, April 28

Portland Parks & Recreation is hiring people for summer recreation employment opportunities for the Summer Free for All Free Lunch + Play program in parks and for the mobile program that travels daily to East Portland apartment complexes. The program runs from late-June to mid to late August. These are part-time positions with flexible hours and might include working during the day, evenings, weekends, or holidays.

Learn more about Summer Recreation Employment

What we're reading

• ‘Walking school bus’ helps reduce chronic absenteeism, increases student safety (Big Island Now)
• Walkability isn’t just good urban planning: It’s a public health intervention (The Urbanist)
• Fancy a stroll? Across Europe, young people like me are finding friends by walking our cities (The Guardian)
• Who should pay to fix the sidewalk? (Bloomberg CityLab)
• Mode switch: How cities are engineering the bicycle revolution (Esri Blog)
• Denver paid people to bike in ‘a fascinating psychological experiment.’ Here’s what 6 riders learned (Denverite)
• “When you design roads, that is public health.” (Harvard Public Health)

Parts of this document were drafted with the support of ChatGPT. The content was edited and fact-checked by city staff.