…instead, send this link to the person who manages your benefits.

If you are someone who manages a Portland-area employer’s benefits, that’s great! You should brag about your benefits on this 4-minute survey right now.

Here’s the deal: Portland Afoot is creating the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the best commuting benefits across the metro area. We’re talking free transit passes, swanky bike lockers, generous telecommute options. That sort of thing.

We’ll use the results of our survey to publish a special edition of Portland Afoot that’s going out in April to 6,500 local households that care about low-car life. The rankings will also run on our website, where they’ll probably be our most popular feature of the year.

You don’t have to rank at the very top to get credit, either. We’ll track at least the top 100.

If all this sounds familiar, it should. Last year, with the help of local commuting expert Alexis Grant, we ranked downtown Portland’s best commuting benefits. This was a big success – so this year, we’re kicking it up a notch by ranking the best benefits in the whole city and all the ‘burbs.

But we can’t do this unless we ship this link to a commute-benefits specialist in as many local workplaces as possible. Please, take a moment right now to help us out: Forward the link to the right person in your company, or to someone who’d know who the right person is.

Thanks, PDX – we’re as eager to see the results as you are.

Coffee or beer or a million love songs

Black on Black on Black – m4w (Loyd Center Max stop) 22yr

(Jan. 21)

I’ve never done one of these before, but after seein you this afternoon its hard to think about anything else
You: incredibly gorgeous girl wearin a black leather jacket, black thigh high boots and black black hair, waving bye to me outside of the max, after it had been sitting there wayyyy too long. I kept tryin to look away, but I was completely floored by you.
Me: white boy in plaid shirt and paint-stained jeans holdin a banjo, probably rocking out a bit too much to my music and tryin to catch your eye
I would love to buy you coffee or a beer or write a million love songs to you if you’re interested.
Really hope you see this and hit me back
Max (thats my name)

Unexpected harmony

westbound 14 stop across ‘castanga’ – w4m (hawthorne & 19th) 19yr

(Jan. 5)

I was singing to myself waiting for the bus the other night. you were passing by and told me I did the song beautifully. I asked if you wanted to join. you did, which I found fantastic.
I was Megan in army green coat with fur (faux) and (lots of) curly hair. Can’t remember if you said your name but you had dark hair and eyes, maybe a little taller than I. You were pretty handsome and I think we should meet again and these are embarrassing but I’m okay with that. Name what we sang!

Getting to the point

nose ring #9 – m4w (The Bus)

(Jan. 19)

We were riding the #9. You had a nose ring. You smiled. I smiled. We smiled. And that made my night. Thank you. You’re beautiful.
Hi.
Let’s talk endlessly.

(Creative Commons banjo boy photo by Sylvia McFadden.)

Thirteen percent of Berliners’ work commutes happen on a bicycle, 26 percent on public transit and an amazing 30 percent of commutes are afoot.

So it’s pretty cool that, from now until June, Portland Afoot will have a woman in Berlin. It’s Lillian, our podcast producer, who’s studying there and will be working from an apartment she refers to (dubiously, in my opinion) as "suburban."

That’s why Berlin’s the main focus of our monthly commuting podcast for January. The two of us discuss frequencies, fares and auto parking in Berlin, what Portland can learn from them, and what sort of city it takes to get Lily off her bicycle and onto the sidewalk.

Warning: this trip outside the Portland echo chamber had some complications: As Lily notes in her intro, the first 10 minutes sound a little like she’s recording inside a large steel tube while I do my best Kanye impression. We’ll get the audio cleared up for next month’s.

Also, we recorded this the morning before the Oregonian reported that TriMet may be taking a different tack than the one I mention in the podcast: retaining free transfers but eliminating fare zones to create a flat $2.50 fare.

In the meantime, we’ve also got a commuting tip of the month, our favorite tweets from Portland transit riders and a story that could only happen on the MAX. And of course a great piece of low-car music. You can subscribe for free in iTunes here – check it out.

(Creative Commons S-Bahn photo by Lillian Karabaic.)

The Oregonian reports that TriMet is indeed nearing a staff recommendation to eliminate fare zones and replace them with a flat $2.50 fare.

It’s not entirely clear, though, whether they think you should need to buy a daypass for $5 in order to transfer to a second vehicle. In this scenario free transfers would be eliminated; As we’ve been reporting, this would be a massive change to the system, especially for folks who use TriMet for more than just the daily back-and-forth work commute. Admirably, the O’s Joe Rose has tracked down the documents that move this proposal into broad public debate as soon as possible.

(An earlier version of this post said TriMet was proposing eliminating free transfers. See the comments for some discussion of this issue.)

Who needs Clackamas County anyway?

Looks as if TriMet could save $25 million of its own money by lopping off the planned Orange Line one stop south of the county line, Scott Johnson reports in Portland Transport. As he notes, it’s not a very cost-effective stretch of track.

Federal taxpayers would save another $50 million. And Clackamas County taxpayers, a few of whom headed up to condemn the new MAX line at Wednesday’s board meeting, would also save $25 million – though a lot of that would just be shifted onto commuters who’d have to make it to Milwaukie by bike, car or bus.

And TriMet might even get to claw back some of the $40 million it’s currently planning to borrow from its own basket case of an operating budget.

Hmm.

(A previous version of this post said “just south of the county line”; the Lake Road stop in central Milwaukie, of course, would be in Clackamas County. Thanks to reader Joseph for the correction.)

The senior member of TriMet’s board said Wednesday that she knew her development company wasn’t allowed to pave a Pearl District parking lot when tenants started asking about it in 2008.

But the prominent Portland developer said she did it anyway, because she disagrees with the city’s ban on adding surface auto parking downtown. Her company charged $100 a month per space in the illegal 112-space lot for three years.

"I think it’s a goofy code," said Tiffany Sweitzer, president of Hoyt Street Properties. "I think it needs to be changed."

Sweitzer’s firm was a primary landowner of the future Pearl District and helped engineer the walkable, transit-friendly neighborhood with the help of major investment by city taxpayers. She’s served on TriMet’s volunteer board of directors since 2004.

Despite a 2008 complaint, The Portland Tribune first reported in November, the city chose not to enforce its code. So Hoyt’s lot at Northwest 10th and Overton remained in place for three years. In December, a city hearings examiner estimated its potential revenue at $11,000 per month, and the Tribune said it "may have netted more than $100,000" for Hoyt.

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Sweitzer said Wednesday that the lot was "not a huge revenue maker" for her company, which describes itself as "Portland’s largest developer." She said she’s not sure if the lot is profitable any more, because of its original development costs and several thousand dollars in fines the city began issuing last summer.

Central city parking has been serious business since Mayor Neil Goldschmidt‘s council capped downtown auto spaces in 1975. It was part of the string of planning reforms and air-quality measures that also included the transit mall, Fareless Square, Pioneer Courthouse Square and Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The cap on new spaces was lifted in 1997; the ban on new permanent surface parking remains.

Sweitzer called the dispute irrelevant to her work overseeing local transit. "I don’t think it has anything to do with TriMet," she said.

Sweitzer said it doesn’t make sense for the city to allow short-term parking on a gravel lot while forbidding a more permanent paved lot. Nevertheless, she said the lot has now been closed to traffic by removing lifters her company had once set up to let cars enter.

She noted that her company had also added a community garden to the property and provided short-term parking for free to some who asked for it. Not all of the nearby businesses and residents the lot serves are her company’s tenants, she said.

"I’m providing a great service to the neighborhood," Sweitzer said.

According to the Tribune, the city issued a $5,500 civil penalty for the three-year violation and began requiring Hoyt Street Properties to pay $1,475 a month for city inspections.

Hat tip to Al Margulies, whose blog picked up the Tribune story in December.

Here’s a heartwarming little trick for cheap entertainment on public transportation.

It comes from Julia Turner, a daily New York transit commuter, an editor at Slate and one of the hosts of their “Culture Gabfest.” (I haven’t missed an episode for years.)

Here’s Turner:

If you’re in a bad mood on the subway or on any form of public transit … if you imagine everyone on the subway laughing – imagine what they might look like when they’re laughing and what sort of thing might make them laugh – (a) it will entertain you for entire subway rides, and (b) it just makes you instantly empathize with and see the humanity in the teeming masses that surround you. Because you know, faces look different when they’re laughing, you can kind of tell from the crinkles in the laugh lines.

What a great little game. You can listen to Turner’s brief description here and subscribe to their podcast by iTunes or RSS.

(Creative Commons subway smile photo by hiroshiken.)

I’m a content creator, of course. We’re rigorously respectful of copyrights here, and always will be.

But the reason Portland Afoot uses a Creative Commons license (you can use all our stuff anywhere for free as long as you credit us) is that we think that these days, it makes a lot more business sense to encourage your fans’ creativity than to discourage it.

Be informed, and take action if you feel it’s right.

Something is brewing in TriMet management’s battle with its union.

Barring either (A) a substantial tax hike, (B) a huge service cut or (C) a rapid and unforseen transformation of the U.S. healthcare system to European cost-effectiveness, TriMet can’t afford to keep its promises to its workers. So managers have increasingly been looking for ways to bring the public around to the idea of breaking those promises.

The Oregonian’s labor-skeptical editorial board reports today that Gov. John Kitzhaber "will soon announce two new appointments to the TriMet board of directors. … In addition, some shakeup is likely in the makeup of the three-person Employment Relations Board."

Under current state law, TriMet’s dispute with its union can’t be resolved by a strike. Instead, they’d face binding arbitration in which union and management present "final offers" to an appointed state official. Arbitration hasn’t been going well for TriMet lately.

Linking to the O’s editorial today, TriMet union member and blogger Al Margulies said he’s "heard rumors" that TriMet’s top manager "has been in Salem and trying to get legislative action to resolve his labor issues." Though any workplace rumor should be taken with at least a spoonful of salt, it would definitely make sense if TriMet managers were looking for a way to change state law and force a strike.

If management can frame this as a choice between public-sector benefits or good public transit, they think they can win that game.

(Tom Brady photo by Keith Allison.)

Portland’s most prominent transit advocacy organization is restructuring to take advantage of a major new grant and "make sure that organizing is front and center of all the work."

The Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon‘s co-Executive Director for two years, has dialed down his role, leaving co-founder Jonathan Ostar as sole executive director.

A new hire, Galadriel Mozee, has taken the new title "director of organizing" and will continue some of Santos-Lyons’ previous responsibilities overseeing direct outreach and organizing of TriMet riders. Ostar said Friday that his own duties now "lie primarily with fundraising, relationship-building in a broader sense."

The new grant that will pay for most of Mozee’s time is a two-year, $150,000 award from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, announced last month. This triples OPAL’s 2009 $50,000 grant from the local foundation.

Santos-Lyons will remain as a part-time contractor for at least a few months. Ostar said the split was amicable, praising Santos-Lyons as "a visionary and a leader" in a blog post this month. Santos-Lyons will continue to serve as part-time executive director of the Asian Pacific-American Network of Oregon.

"Joseph was juggling two very different organizations," Ostar said.

Some of the group’s decision to restructure, Ostar said, was motivated by Mozee, a nonprofit consultant hired by OPAL last fall to evaluate its organization. She "was able to provide a very quick and accurate assessment of what our strengths were and what our weaknesses were," Ostar said.

Among the weaknesses, Ostar said: "supporting staff and retaining members." Though it’s never had more than four full-time equivalents on staff, OPAL has seen at least six staff turnovers in the last two years, with Ostar as the only constant – even as its volunteer lists, funding base and prominence in local policy circles have grown.

"It was hard for [staff] to know how to move the work forward when Joseph and I were really kind of just juggling" duties, Ostar said. As an example, Ostar cited his own tendency as a policy analyst to "get out a little bit in front of the organizing work" by taking a public position that hadn’t first been agreed on by OPAL’s membership.

"That’s just not what our values are," Ostar said.

Mozee is a former program coordinator for the Healing Roots Center and associate director at Sisters of the Road. I happened to meet her last month at OPAL’s first event for its East Portland Bus Stop project and came away impressed. When I pressed Mozee on why it’s worth calling special attention to eastside stops, she gave as good as she got – making her points with thoughtfulness, passion and respect, all while cheerfully offering doughnuts and coffee to nearby transit riders.

In her greeting to the OPAL community, Mozee wrote:

Environmental justice work is human rights work. … At the heart of my work is a belief in self-determination, that the voices of those most impacted by discrimination and oppression are the voices that will and must determine and define the work going forward.

Full disclosure: OPAL is a partner of Portland Afoot. Its supporters can sign up for free subscriptions as part of our East Portland media equity project. All the more reason for me to congratulate OPAL, Mizee, Santos-Lyons and Ostar on their new paths and wish them well as they look for ways to give transit riders more muscle in the political scrum.

(Photo of Ostar by Michael Schoenholtz.)