DRAFT- NOT YET APPROVED
These Are Our Streets!
Since it was platted by Edwin Russell, William Page, and George Williams in 1872, the city of Albina (now Eliot) was set up with a Manhattan-style grid with long east-west blocks that are 2.5 times as long as the north-south blocks. This, combined with the steep cliffs separating the neighborhood from the river made all the north and south streets important connections for a huge area north of Eliot over the last 140 years. In 1888, the Steel Bridge opened and life on the east side was booming. Electric streetcars started running over the bridge in 1889 on the original Albina line. In the early 1900s, streetcars ran up and down Williams and Union (now Martin Luther King, Jr.) Avenues. The speed limit before cars came along was 6mph, with streetcars allowed to go 12mph. Crossing the street was no big problem for the early residents of Albina.
Imagining a Different Course for MAX
In 2001, a light rail line opened with service between the Portland Expo Center and downtown Portland. This service could have included service to residential Eliot and Legacy Emanuel Hospital with two stops on the east side of I-5. Imagine a dense commercial and residential corridor linking MLK with lower Albina along Russell Street. Vancouver Avenue would have been one block from the MAX, thriving with new businesses housed there. In southern Eliot, imagine the parking lots between MLK and the Broadway Bridge supporting residential or commercial buildings and lower Eliot with parking problems all day every day instead of just during Blazers games. Imagine pedestrian-scale connections around the Broadway/Williams intersection, connecting places that you want to visit, shop, or use to get from point A to B. Would Eliot have been better served?
Eliot Neighborhood 