Dear tit_curtain,

The pedestrian-unfriendly nature of the avenue is an issue that no less than 5 local neighborhood groups have been addressing for decades. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Surely you've noticed that the streets in Portland are severely under-served, and those on the east side are even more neglected than central-city and the west side. Which means that basic street maintenance is something we're unable to attend to as a city. Which further means that wholesale street restructuring comes at a massive price.

You may have also noticed that none of our City Council members live East of the river right now (source), and despite the fact that 82nd is the geographic center of Portland, a lot of people still pretend our city ends at 39th.

Additionally, rampant gentrification of North Portland and Central-East Side have pushed a lot of low income folks into East Portland, possibly the last affordable place for working people at this point. And while the influx of diversity has vastly improved our organizing leverage, it's also made it possible for certain Portlanders to dismiss our efforts as being unimportant based on our lower income and, dare I say it, higher melanin content.

So, while we are working on bike and pedestrian friendliness in the face of these challenges, we also just wanted to have a damn food fair. You feel me?