Travel Oregon has negotiated a historic breakthrough for bicycling and walking: An agreement with the National Parks Service to prohibit cars and all motorized vehicles on Crater Lake's Rim Drive for an entire weekend.

The deal has been percolating for years among high profile bicycle advocates like State Parks Commissioner and former owner of Bike Gallery stores Jay Graves and the non-profit Cycle Oregon. This year, given the early snowmelt, Travel Oregon seized on a window of opportunity to finally propose the idea and NPS has accepted. Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio was also instrumental in making this happen.

Crater Lake National Park Superintendent Craig Ackerman announced the agreement late today. The plan is to open East Rim Drive to bicycling and walking only this weekend (June 22nd and 23rd). Here's more from Ackerman:

"The early snowmelt at Crater Lake gives us a window to create a nationally unique opportunity to walk, run or ride a bike around the lake and, essentially, have it all to yourself."

Congressman DeFazio says, "I have encouraged the National Park Service to provide this kind of opportunity at Crater Lake for several years. I applaud their willingness to allow this kind of use this weekend, giving Oregonians a great chance to experience the park in a different way."

Here are more official details:

Under the plan, East Rim Drive Road will be open to non-motorized vehicles only (except for administrative and emergency vehicles) from North Junction around the East Rim of Crater Lake all the way to the intersection at Crater Lake National Park Headquarters and the Steel Visitors Center. Hwy 62 through the south end of the park, West Rim Drive and the North Entrance Road will be open to vehicles. Regular parking areas will be open, but generally fill up quickly.

Rim Drive is a legendary, 33-mile loop that circumnavigates the lake. The road was designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

I had the pleasure of riding Rim Drive on Cycle Oregon 2007 and managed to snap a few photos...

This is a big deal! Too bad it's such late notice but I hope many people take advantage of this opportunity. I also hope this becomes a regular occurrence.

Former Mayor Bud Clark is no stranger to Portland public art or bicycling. In fact he has reached iconic status for both. Clark, who was our mayor from 1985-1992, is known for his promotion and participation in Bike to Work Day and his appearance on the "Expose Yourself to Art" poster made him a household name in the 1970s. (Disclaimer: I had a copy of the poster on my bedroom wall through high school and college without even knowing anything about Clark or Portland).

Now Clark is set to lead the Expose Yourself to Art Ride as part of Pedalpalooza.

Clark posed for the famous poster in 1978 and he has remade it for the BTA with a more bicycle-centric theme. Clark, who owns the Goose Hollow Inn bar and restaurant in southwest Portland, has remained a part of the community since retiring from public office. He has ridden in the annual, invite-only "Policymakers Ride" a few times and he pops up at bike-related and other events throughout the year.

Bud Clark in 2008.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Tomorrow's ride is co-sponsored by the BTA and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. It leaves from the 2nd Floor mezzanine of the Portland Building (1120 SW 5th) at 6:00 pm (get there a bit early if you can).

I have not been out on many Pedalpalooza rides this year. After missing the big opening weekend while I was in Europe, I just haven't gotten into the bike fun groove. I'm also being pulled by the strong magnetic force of home where my two year-old son and growing daughters don't really care much about biking because it's just what daddy does when he's not with them.

I did however get out last Friday night for the Midnight Mystery Ride. This is a monthly tradition that's been going on for over 10 years in Portland. The premise is simple: Show up at the announced meet-up spot, hang out for a bit, then "at midnight we ride" goes the slogan. The destination is only known by the ride leader.

It has been years since I joined an MMR. Besides the fact that it made me feel very old seeing all the new and young faces that had gathered in huge groups along both sides W Burnside and 18th, it felt great to be out on the streets on my bike at night with a huge group of people. The turnout was pretty big, which made it feel even more exciting than usual (the warm skies and "Pedalpalooza bump" were surely to blame).

We took a unconventional route to the final destination — south through town and then up onto SW Terwiliger (disclaimer: I turned back after the first big regroup spot but heard later the ride ended somewhere on the western shores of the Willamette River south of downtown). I bailed out early (my boy wakes up, ready to play at 6:00 am), but still got to chat with a few friends, meet some new people, and enjoy a solitary and wonderful ride home through nearly empty streets.

I hope everyone is having a great Pedalpalooza. Check out a few more pics from the Midnight Mystery Ride below...

Road carnage in America has reached epidemic proportions. Consider the barrage of news I've encountered in the past 24 hours...

— The Portland Police released photos and offered a reward to try and find a man who drove his large pickup truck into 59 Mike Cooley as he rode home from work up N Interstate Avenue on Saturday night. Cooley has very serious injuries and remains hospitalized while the police search for the suspect.

— A major study from the Harvard School of Public Health has found a link between autism and air pollution from motor vehicles. As in, the unborn children of pregnant women that breath tailpipe emissions are impacted by our transportation policies that put the auto access and capacity above everything else. Do we really care more about auto traffic "flow" than the health of our babies?

— Michael Hastings, a young and talented investigative journalist who contributed to Rolling Stone magazine was "killed in a car accident" in Los Angeles. (It struck me how the reporting on his death just accepted the traffic collision as minor fact. As if it was something completely random and ordinary.)

— Also yesterday afternoon, 65-year-old Scappoose, Oregon resident Wayne McCormick was driving his Buick on Highway 30 when 39-year-old Mark Thomas's SUV crossed over the center median "for an unconfirmed reason" and slammed into him. McCormick died instantly and Thomas has life-threatening injuries.

— Scott Van Hiatt of Neskowin, Oregon was arrested Monday for criminally negligent homicide. On May 14th, Van Hiatt drove his pickup into Seattle resident Richard Swanson and killed him as he walked on Highway 101. Swanson had planned to dribble a soccer ball from Seattle to Brazil.

— And this morning, a semi-truck plummeted 65 feet from the top deck of I-84 westbound as it transitions onto I-5 in Portland. The driver, who apparently collided with a small car prior to the wreck, sustained life-threatening injuries and had to be extricated from the cab by rescue teams.

—
This is just a sampling of the carnage that hits my inbox and Twitter feed every day. It's disgusts me and it's embarrassing as an American citizen to know that this happens in my country. It's also got me wondering... Why isn't there a massive civil response or national dialogue about the rampant traffic deaths and destruction we experience every day? Look at the national movement to defeat and cure cancer. Where are all the 5K runs and fundraisers to raise awareness and create urgency to stop this madness? Can we at least pick a color and make some bracelets? Are we really just going to continue business as usual and accept this? Maybe I'm part of the problem because I just sit here and rant about it on my blog.

Until the awareness and urgency about traffic behavior and transportation policy moves beyond the livable streets advocates and wonks, I'm afraid nothing will change.

What do you think?

Following an overwhelming vote of support from their membership, the City Club of Portland is wasting no time in getting to work on implementing the recommendations in their report on bicycling in Portland.

On June 13th, City Club members voted 254 to 31 in favor of the report which recommended that local elected leaders and policy makers make a much stronger commitment to cycling because it is, "an affordable and efficient means of transportation that is essential to continued growth in the local economy and overall quality of life for Portland residents." The report recommended a stronger focus on bicycling in local and regional transportation plans, more physically separated bicycle infrastructure, more bicycle counters to help with data collection, more funding set-asides for bicycle infrastructure, a 4% excise tax on new bicycles, and more. (See all the recommendations here.)

Greg Wallinger, City Club's research and policy director, said they've already begun to form an Advocacy Committee that will lobby to implement their recommendations. The committee will be chaired by Craig Beebe, who currently works as communications and development coordinator at 1000 Friends of Oregon, a non-profit that works on land-use issues. Beebe recently discussed the report as a guest on OPB's Think Out Loud radio program.

Advocacy committees based on their reports are relatively new in City Club's 96 year history but Wallinger says they've become a more central part of the organization in recent years.

In 2010, the City Club's Forest Park Advocacy Committee achieved seven of 13 recommendations outlined in their Forest Park: A Call to Action report. They successfully pushed the City of Portland to hire a park ranger and conduct user surveys to inform policy and funding decisions. City Club reports have also impacted policy discussions around major issues at the state level like PERS reform and redistricting.

Wallinger says the Committee will report back about the success (or failure) of pushing through their bicycling recommendations in 12-18 months. If you're interested in being part of the committee, they're still accepting applications via their website.

The Portland Police Bureau has released images and a reward in the case of the serious injury hit-and-run that occurred on Saturday night.

Investigators believe that the suspect vehicle is a white 1993-1997 Ford F350 Crewcab pickup. The truck is believed to have two chrome step-up bars, at least on the driver's side, and damage to the right front headlight area.

There's a $1,000 cash reward for information that leads to an arrest in this case.

Leave a Crime Stoppers tip online at http://www.crimestoppersoforegon.com, text CRIMES (274637) and in the subject line put 823HELP, followed by your tip, or call 503-823-HELP (4357) and leave your tip information.

In case it didn't come through in the two stories I've posted about new PBOT Director Leah Treat today, I want to make it clear that she likes bikes. Treat rides bicycles regularly and she's not shy about sharing her appreciation of bicycling with the public. Does this matter? Yes. Does it mean everybody's bike dreams will suddenly come true? No.

As we've unfortunately experienced for the past four-plus years, politics often trumps good policy and projects here in Portland. But that being said, I think Treat's love of cycling and her understanding that bicycling plays a crucial and valuable role in the urban transportation mix, is an extremely important trait that is likely bode very well for Portland's future. This is especially true when her perspective is combined with that of her two bosses — Commissioner Steve Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales — both of whom are very supportive of bicycling and seem poised to shake up the local transportation status quo.

What evidence do I have that Treat likes bikes? Here are a few things quickly gleaned from the Interwebs...

On Twitter @leahtreat, many of the stories she shares are about bicycling. She also posted a photo of her new cargo bike back in May...

Meet the latest edition to the Treat fleet! pic.twitter.com/bsB4wE0eVK

— Leah Treat (@leahtreat) May 19, 2013

Also via Twitter, we know she's married to a "bike fanatic" and she shared a photo of herself astride an "awesome" Divvy Bike:

There's also this from the Willamette Week today:

Treat tells reporters in a conference call that she's interested in increasing the percentage of trips taken in Portland on bicycle.

"I get around on a bike," Treat says. "We're working hard [in Chicago] to make the roads safe for them. I definitely will be interested in increasing biking's mode share in a way that's safe for everybody."

And it's also worth noting that Treat has worked closely on the launch of the two largest and most successful bike sharing systems in America. While in D.C., she worked the finances to help make Capital Bikeshare a reality and as chief of staff to Gabe Klein in Chicago she was heavily involved in the launch of Divvy Bikes. Both of those systems are run by Alta Bicycle Share, which happens to be the same company at the helm of Portland's upcoming bike share system.

With all these ties to bicycling, it will be interesting to watch how the local media portrays Treat. The Oregonian already found it necessary to label her as "a cyclist", thereby beginning the narrative they'll use to try and define the motivations behind her every move.

Regardless of how the local powers-that-be try to define Treat, I think her record is promising and I think having her at the helm of PBOT might be just what we've needed to get our groove back. Stay tuned...

When it comes to our region's multi-use paths (known by wonks as MUPs), it's not a stretch to call the I-205 path the "Granddaddy" of them all. Built by the Oregon Department of Transportation with money from our heralded "Bicycle Bill" (that mandates 1% of new highway funds go toward bicycling), the first section of the path opened in the 1970s and it was "completed" in 1982. Today the path connects five cities, ten neighborhoods, and stretches 16.5 miles from the Clackamas River in Gladstone to Vancouver, Washington.

Last night, staffers from ODOT and TriMet led a Pedalpalooza ride (sponsored by the Women's Transportation Seminar) that gave attendees a chance to learn more about the path's past, present and future.

Before we got rolling, it was fun to hear the reasons why each person showed up on a weekday evening for a wonky tour of the I-205 path. "This was the closest Pedalpalooza ride to me tonight," said one guy. Another guy said, "I do all of the wonk rides." We were also joined by a a married couple named Michael and Wendy. Wendy shared that they live just one block off the path. "I love having this path next to our house," she said, "because I could re-learn how to ride a bike without cars scaring the crap out of me."

Michael and Wendy. They live one block off the path and they love it.

We began at the Gateway Transit Center where TriMet active transportation planner Jeff Owen shared his agency is working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation on the East Portland Access to Transit project. Among other things, that effort will result in more bike parking at Gateway as well as a new bikeway that will connect east Portland, through the transit center, and onto the I-205 path.

TriMet's Jeff Owen.

We then rolled north for a stop at the future site of the Gateway Green bicycling and activity park. Neighborhood activist Linda Robinson has been working to make that project a reality since 2006. She told us they've now gotten the green light to start building; but they need to raise money. A fundraising campaign is set to start later this summer. (Stay tuned for more).

Linda Robinson, yellow shirt, leads a discussion about Gateway Green.

From Gateway Green, we rolled south and it didn't take long before we saw just how bad many parts of the I-205 path are. The crossing of NE Glisan St. is atrocious. The path narrows and then is directed into a crosswalk that goes across six lanes of chaotic auto traffic. Then it's up onto a sidewalk before the path starts again. I hoped we would stop at this intersection to discuss this glaring gap; but the ODOT staffer on the ride — Transit and Active Transportation Liaison Jessica Horning — conveniently kept riding. The only thing Horning said about the Glisan crossing is that, "We have partnered with PBOT to tried and figure out a solution."

One crossing south of Glisan is another unfortunate intersection: Burnside. Here, riders must cross two sets of MAX tracks at an awkward angle while avoiding large metal bollards and then ride up onto another sidewalk before rejoining the path on the opposite (east) side of I-205. We didn't stop to talk here either.

Then it was onto yet another less-than-great crossing: the SE Stark and Washington couplet. Here the path is once again routed into a crosswalk then onto a narrow sidewalk before rejoining the path. We didn't stop to talk about this section either.

Finally, at SE Yamhill, Horning stopped the group to have a chat. She pointed out something rather interesting: two diamonds in the path just north of Yamhill are some of the oldest automated bicycle counters in the country. Horning shared that these inductive loops (which sense the metal in your bike and count each one that rolls over) were installed in 1982. They provided data for a few years, but then in the late 1980s, Horning said they fell victim to politics during a period of waning ODOT support for cycling and they were turned off. The good news is, they were turned back on about year ago and are once again providing accurate bicycle counts. So far, the highest date on record is August 19th 2012 when 592 bicycles rolled by. On average there are about 250 bicycles counted on this section of the path.

From Yamhill we continued south to the crossing of SE Division where we got an up-close look construction of the new undercrossing. This new section of trail will give folks the option of avoiding Division Street altogether and it's slated to be done by this fall.

Also at the Division stop, ODOT community affairs staffer Shelli Romero told us about new wayfinding signage ODOT has installed to make the path a bit easier to navigate

At the SE Powell MAX station we heard about TriMet's public art program and bike parking. Jeff Owen explained that for $25 per six months (and a $50 key deposit), you can gain access to any of the bike lockers at MAX stations all along the Green Line. As we stood under the "Money Tree" sculpture by Valerie Otani, Owen explained that there each Green Line stop has work from a different artist and each piece is meant to evoke something about the area's cultural history.

Our final stop on the ride was one of the most egregious gaps on the path. It's not as dangerous or clunky as Glisan; but the "horseshoe" route the path takes just north of Flavel (and south of the Springwater Corridor intersection) is really unfortunate. Instead of just hopping over Johnson Creek to reach the Flavel MAX Station on the other side, the path heads east to the signal at SE 92nd and Flavel before turning back (west) to the path (via a sidewalk) at the MAX station. We heard from ODOT facilities manager Basil Christopher that at least there's something being done about this gap. ODOT has gotten a bridge project on the state's official project list. The list hasn't been finalized and public support is still needed to help make sure the funding comes through.

At the beginning of the "horseshoe".

ODOT's Basil Christopher.

View looking north from Flavel MAX station.
The little yellow spot in the background is a person riding on the path.

The I-205 path is a crucial connection for our bike network. In east Portland, where most of the roads are uncomfortable for cycling, it has even more value. Unfortunately, even though it's been around for 30 years, unacceptable gaps and dangerous spots still exist. There's also quite a bit of glass and trash in many spots. Yes, progress is being made, but it seems like there could be more urgency to make this path a real — and fully connected — bicycle corridor.

A woman who was riding on the path, stopped to pet this dog in an adjacent backyard.

Tons of potential.

Hopefully at future Pedalpalooza rides, we'll get to explore all the great new improvements that have been made. Until then... let's keep pushing to make it better!

Employees at Hillsboro-based Intel Corporation are spearheading an effort to make bike sharing less expensive and more widely available. Using their own volunteer time, a group of employees at the company have been working on the Open Bike Initiative since January. I've heard murmurs about the effort for months and they just released some bare-bones details at OpenBikeInitiative.org.

Key advisors on the Open Bike project include Nike, the Westside Transportation Alliance, the Community Cycling Center, Portland State University, and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

According to the website, the main objective of the effort is to design a low-cost device that incorporates GPS/cell data and a locking mechanism that can be attached to any standard, off-the-shelf bike. Then they'll create software that allows the bikes to communicate and be managed as a system via an online portal. The final step will be to freely distribute the results of their work and experiences with an open-source license.

Intel's motivation is clear: Some buildings on their sprawling Hillsboro campus are over 3.5 miles apart. That's too far to walk and the perfect distance for a bicycle ride. Here's more from the Open Bike site:

If successful, the project could provide a template for a new bike sharing model that could be implemented (relatively) easily and (relatively) inexpensively, even by small organizations. Most current bike sharing programs utilize expensive kiosks and costly custom bicycles, and require services from a single vendor. The few emerging “smart lock” based systems eliminate the need for kiosks, but continue to use custom bicycles and proprietary software and services from a specific vendor. This project envisions a model that utilizes standard bikes with minor “do it yourself” modifications and free software. Organizations like corporations, university campuses, housing projects and the like may be able to implement a bike sharing program completely on their own, or new vendors may emerge to supply particular components (e.g., bicycles, control devices, software management, load balancing and maintenance services, etc.). Our hope is that this will result in a significant increase in the number of bike sharing programs, with corresponding environmental, health and economic benefits.

On July 8th, Intel plans to launch a pilot implementation of the system with 30 bicycles on their Ronler Acres and Hawthorne Farms campuses in Hillsboro. They expect to have the technology "fully functioning" by late this summer.

Will this disrupt the current bike share market? Can it work on a larger scale? Stay tuned for more on this exciting project. I'm planning to visit Intel tomorrow for an exclusive look at the science and the people behind the initiative.

"I do believe that Portland has started stagnating in terms of progressive transportation."
— Leah Treat, incoming Director of PBOT

Last month I accepted an invitation from the Mayor's office to be involved in the selection process for a new director of the Bureau of Transportation. The event was billed as a "meet and greet" and an opportunity to have informal, small-group discussions with each of the final candidates. Three finalists had already been through grilling formal interview and the City wanted to hear feedback from citizen transportation advocates. I gladly accepted and agreed to not share any details of the conversations until a final selection was made. One of the people we spoke to that day was Leah Treat, who we've now learned is Mayor Hales and Commissioner Novick's ultimate choice for the job.

The first thing that impressed me about Treat was that before we (myself and three others) even started asking her questions, she opened up the conversation by asking each of us what our priorities were. What followed was an enlightening back-and-forth that ranged from Portland's transportation stagnation, to equity, financing, and other issues. I made an audio recording of the event and the Q & A with Treat is below:

42-year-old Leah Treat is your new PBOT Director.
(Photo: PBOT)

I started things off by telling Treat that my top priority for the PBOT Director was that the person could come in and actually implement the goals and projects we've already adopted in myriad plans. At the rate we're going, I shared, there's no way we'll meet the goals we've set for ourselves. We need someone who can move the needle on everything from better communication between PBOT and the public and getting more projects on the ground.

Here's Treat's response:

"I do believe that Portland has started stagnating in terms of progressive transportation (she also recounted a story from an earlier interview panel when someone thanked her for having the guts to come to Portland and tell us we've stagnated). It's exciting to hear there are plans and ideas to be implemented and you're just looking for someone to get things done.

One of the things I would do immediately if i were selected is put together a two-year action agenda for the department that would be based on community input from different stakeholders and what the mayor's vision is for us to implement. [The agenda agenda] does two things: it clearly articulates to the citizens what you're going to expect from us for the next two years and it also forces the department to work together as a team so all the different divisions are going to have to come together and coalesce around a goal. There will be a timetable, like a project management schedule and how we're going to implement it, who's going to implement it, who's accountable and with clear time-frames. We'll submit progress reports to the public on a six and 12-month basis about how we're doing on what we said we were going to do."

The questions below were asked by other citizens that participated in the interview process.

What kind of innovative financing would you bring to the table?

"I have a broad background in public/private partnerships and innovative financing and with the FHWA [Federal Highway Administration] there are all sorts of options through their innovative project delivery team. I also have a background in finding new revenue for departments; but it would really be based on what the mayor's temperature would be to introduce new fees. In D.C. we were able to charge the utilities additional funds when they went into public right-of-way to cut in for new cables. In Chicago we have been able to get utilities to pay a premium if they want to cut into certain roads. It's really the mayor's temperature for charging different users or fees."

How would you describe yourself in terms of playing well with others?

"I play very well in the sandbox. I could not have been put more to the test than I have in Chicago. There are 50 aldermen there. It's 50 fiefdoms. I have a very good relationship with all of them, I've gone and met with them in their districts and have made personal relationships with them. During our budget hearings several of them stood up and personally acknowledged and thanked me. I was very proud of that.

The system of government in the city of Chicago is incredibly bifurcated and there's not really a sense of who's-on-first sometimes. So it's managing a lot of very tenuous relationships and trying to get people to understand what the mayor wants us to do and not what their individual interests are. I have worked in incredibly hostile environments and I don't get my feathers ruffled. I have great ability to keep my cool. I don't take things personally. It sounds corny, but I actually truly like people and would be happy to be engaged with the community here in Portland."

If you had to pick one thing to bring to Portland from your years with Gabe Klein, what would it be?

"I would say bringing a sense of private sector urgency to the way we deliver civic services. That kind of urgency in getting projects done and being transparent about it."

Do you have experience working on projects with disadvantaged communities and bring under-served communities into the fold?

"I believe Portland's infrastructure should be managed on a condition assessment basis. There's a useful life to our transportation infrastructure that you should plan for and manage on a financially rational basis. If there is completely missing infrastructure altogether that's a problem for mobility for everyone in the community and I believe that's an equity problem that needs to be addressed."

Do you have experience addressing that problem?

"In Chicago one of the huge challenges at the the Department of Transportation is that all the general obligation bond money for transportation infrastructure goes to the aldermen. 50 of them split the pie and we give them a menu at the beginning of construction season and they get to pick their projects from hat menu. In the past they've said, 'I really want to build a playground over here,' so they take money set aside for transportation and do something for their community with it which leaves other resources under-served. So this year, we personally went out to each alderman and took our database with condition of assets and the list of customer service requests from citizens (like for sidewalks or ADA ramps) and we gave them suggestions of roads that need to be paved. It actually led to some of the alderman changing their mind about which projects they want to fund."

At this point, I had turned off my recorder (because I didn't think the question was relevant or interesting for the BikePortland audience). When it turned it back on we were talking about the issue of Portland's stagnation.

Here's Treat on how other cities are moving ahead in terms of bold transportation initiatives:

"You guys set the example and they latched onto what you did and they've taken it and run with it. Portland was the leader."

How are we stagnating? What would you change?

"I don't have the crystal ball answer. There's a lot of things and it depends on whether you're talking about modes of transportation or the role of the transportation department in the community. I think the public right-of-way has been incredibly undervalued and there are ways to partner with local businesses to take public right-of-way and make it an economic development opportunity for the business and for the city.

An example in Chicago is we take out a segment of five metered parking spaces and create pop-up public space. A business shares in the cost of construction and they get increased sales for their shops. So transportation has allowed it's right-of-way to go into an economic development arena."

Then I asked a follow-up question:

One of the problems we have in Portland is that PBOT has an irrational fear of the Portland Business Alliance. In fact, with one memo the PBA was able to force PBOT to not do their street seats/parklet program downtown in the central business district. Do you have experience working with intractable business groups?

"Yes. In launching bike share in Chicago we actually had businesses tell us they didn't want bike share stations outside their business because they they wanted cars coming in. We were able to bring them research that local businesses actually get more money out of cyclists than they do from vehicles. The cyclists buy less every time they're there but they buy more because they're coming through every day so you actually get more business from a cyclist. There's got to be some type of data out there that will support what you're trying to do so you can make it seem rational and feed their interests as well."

If you were queen for a day and in charge of the Transportation Bureau, what would you do?

"My first priority is to stand up the agency from the bottom up and make sure that I have talent inside the agency, and if I could do that with a magic wand I would. And to instill a sense of vision and mission with the agency and inspire each and every one of them to be excited about public service and what we do."

Read more about Treat from The Oregonian's City Hall reporter Brad Schmidt.