Gov. Kotek paints over I-84 graffiti on ‘entryway to city’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When a 5-mile stretch of I-84 was shut down for 12 hours on Sunday, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek was among more than 150 people who beautified it by cleaning trash and painting over graffiti.

The closure impacted the entire stretch of I-84 between I-5 and I-205 from late Saturday until noon Sunday. Crews also closed several I-5 northbound lanes over the Marquam Bridge. PBOT crews additionally closed the bridges over the highway one at a time — including the Congressman Earl Blumenauer Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge and the bridges at Northeast 12th Avenue, 21st Avenue and 28th Avenue.

At an early Sunday morning press conference, Kotek was flanked by leaders from ODOT, TriMet and Union Pacific. She thanked the crews who worked overnight and over the past few months on this.

“This is what it means to solve problems here in our state,” the governor said. “When the Central City Task Force said one of the things we have to work on to bring back our city is to make sure we’re dealing with the livability issues, particularly around litter and graffiti. And people talk about I-84 as the entryway as you’re coming in from the airport into our beautiful city, either if you’re on the MAX or driving in, how this looks and feels is really important to how people feel about their communities.”

She thanked the legislature for an infusion of cash toward projects to “really make a difference here.”

“Do we solve everything in one fell swoop in one weekend? No. Do we make significant progress? Absolutely. So when folks are back on these roads they’re going to see it cleaner, they’re going to see things cleaned up — and probably more importantly, they’re going to say, ‘Look! We can do things!’ People can come together and solve problems,” Kotek said.

“As your governor, I’m here to be a partner, side by side, whether I have to paint things over or talk to folks and get some resources, I’m going to do that,” she added. “This city matters to the entire state of Oregon. And how it looks and how we think it looks and how we know it looks is really important.”

ODOT Director Kris Strickler said more than 150 people were working together to clean up this 5-mile stretch of I-84 over the previous 12 hours.

“It’s more than about cleaning up what we have. It’s more than the graffiti, it’s more than the litter. It’s an opportunity for us as ODOT to continue to provide maintenance service for areas that are, frankly, a little bit unsafe in other times of the day,” Strickler said. “We’ve been doing drainage work, landscape work and other work that wouldn’t be accessible to us without a closure like this.”

The stretch of highway became an eyesore over the past few years as homelessness and drug use skyrocketed in the region. Kotek recently signed into law a rollback of Measure 110 to curtail the open-air drug use that led to many issues.

But Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson is not currently planning to have a diversion program with addiction services in place in September when the rollback begins.

Kotek said Multnomah County is “on target to meet the initial goals of the new legislation” designed to prevent open-air drug use on the streets.

“The metro area needs a 24/7 open sobering center,” Kotek said. “They need to get there. They’re going to get there. They have a plan to get there. And my job is to make sure they get it done.”

The governor was also asked about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

“Violence in a political setting is completely unacceptable. That’s not who we are as Americans. And we should all frankly be sad this morning that that happened in our country. I’m thankful that former President Trump is recovering. I’m incredibly sad that folks have been critically injured and have died. And we as Americans should know this is not what our democracy is about,” she said.

“We need to have free and fair elections that focus on the issues and not on violence.”

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