Oregon transportation officials say they’ll immediately start spending $20 million in highway cleanup money state lawmakers approved as they wrapped up their winter session.
“Folks should expect to see cleaner highways starting this month,” said Kevin Glenn, communications director for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Trash and graffiti have blighted Portland’s highways for years, but the problem grew acutely worse during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. State officials said they lacked the personnel and funding to address the proliferation of graffiti and discarded shopping carts, couches and other assorted garbage that line the freeways in and around downtown.
So Gov. Tina Kotek made cleaner Portland freeways one of her top priorities for the just-completed legislative session. Lawmakers obliged, including the governor’s $20 million funding request in an omnibus spending bill passed Thursday, the final day of the legislative session.
The transportation department told legislators it plans to spend the money this way:
- Homeless camps: $4 million to work with the city to remove homeless camps along state highways in Portland. The funding will triple the amount available for camp cleanups along the highways during coming year. State officials said this is a top priority because of the high rate of pedestrian deaths among homeless people in Portland.
- Graffiti: $4 million for cleanups. The state says it will prioritize explicit graffiti and remove graffiti twice each month in freeways where crews can work without traffic control, and once a month in areas where they can’t.
- Trash: $4 million to contract with private organizations to remove roadside trash two to four times each month.
- Prevention: $8 million to install barriers that block pedestrian access to bridges, retaining walls other areas that attract trash and graffiti.
At a committee hearing last month, lawmakers from both parties enthusiastically endorsed the state’s plans for the money. But they were also skeptical that the funding will permanently improve the situation, particularly regarding graffiti.
“I really worry that we’re spending $20 million to create a fresh palate for these miscreants,” said Rep. David Gomberg, a Democrat representing Oregon’s central coast.
Transportation officials said the prompt cleanups are among the most effective ways to deter graffiti because people are less likely to paint if they know the state will promptly paint over their work.
Other lawmakers questioned whether Oregon’s penalties are adequate to deter graffiti, and whether new laws could expedite the removal of dangerous campsites along freeways and under bridges.
Mac Lynde, operations administrator for the transportation department, said there are many barriers to effective highway cleanup. For example, he said, it’s very expensive to clean or replace defaced highway signs.
Resources for cleaning up the highways have been in especially short supply since the pandemic, according to Lynde, and he said the problem tends to feed on itself if left unattended.
“We’re not putting nearly enough into graffiti in general,” he said.
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-- Mike Rogoway covers Oregon technology and the state economy. Reach him at mrogoway@oregonian.com
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