Pressure is building once again for the City of Portland to repair and re-open the Bob Stacey Crossing elevators. A story in Willamette Week<\/a> published April 2nd detailed the latest vandalism and maintenance problems, a Southeast Portland mom who bikes with her kids to school is actively lobbying Mayor Keith Wilson\u2019s office and advocates are coming together to make their voices heard at neighborhood meetings.<\/p>\n In response the City says they\u2019ll install security cameras and focus on more patrols of the area, but other than that they cite a lack of funding to take more decision actions.<\/p>\n The bridge is a vital link in the network because it provides a way for non-drivers to cross five railroad tracks and detour around the infamously long and disruptive freight trains that block nearby intersections.<\/p>\n The overcrossing (named<\/a> after a former Metro councilor and land use advocate Bob Stacey, who died in 2022) opened in 2020<\/a> and has likely been closed more often than it\u2019s been open. It\u2019s so bad that less than one year after it was renamed in his honor, Bob Stacey himself told BikePortland<\/a> that the broken elevators were, \u201ca mark against us as a community.\u201d In 2022 BikePortland reported<\/a> that at least one elevator had been closed for eight months. At that time, the Portland Bureau of Transportation blamed a bad motor and supply-chain issues for the untimely fix. They also said they didn\u2019t expect further issues.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, they were wrong.<\/p>\n Julie Mumford is a Southeast Portland resident and neighborhood advocate who bikes to Winterhaven Elementary School with her two daughters. She recently shared a video<\/a> with BikePortland that shows her girls hoisting their bikes up two flights of stairs while a boarded-up and closed elevator can be seen in the background. After helping them awkwardly carry their bikes, Mumford has to get her own, 80+ pound bike up and then down the stairs. In an email sent yesterday to Mayor Wilson, Mumford wrote, \u201cI understand this is only one elevator in one neighborhood, but it represents this City\u2019s broken priorities: we are underinvesting in the public health of our\u00a0community. If we can\u2019t help kids get to school on safe infrastructure on safe routes, then we are failing.\u201d<\/p>\n Another nearby resident and frequent user of the crossing, Xavier Salazar, has shared a steady drip of complaints on social media<\/a> about the broken elevators. You might recall Salazar as the person behind the AreTheElevatorsBroken.com<\/u><\/a> website, which he created in 2025 to help himself and others plan their trips around the frequent closures.<\/p>\n Salazar says the north elevator (at SE 14th and Taggart) has been closed for over two months now and the south elevator (on SE Gideon near 13th Place) was \u201con the fritz\u201d for nearly a month and was closed entirely a few weeks ago after its glass doors were shattered. Salazar says he\u2019s frustrated not just because of the inconvenience, but because there hasn\u2019t been adequate signage about a detour or a number to call for help.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had to give out verbal directions multiple times to people,\u201d Salazar shared with BikePortland yesterday. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a wheelchair user with one leg stuck at the north side with a load of stuff and they couldn\u2019t get down \u2014 while a train was parked in the intersection\u2026 It really is unbelievable that it\u2019s been unusable for this long.\u201d<\/p>\n Mumford wants to the city find a long-term solution to the problem and believes the answer might lie in how the city coordinates with a nearby homeless shelter. At the suggestion of a representative from the Mayor\u2019s Office, she participates in the Clinton Triangle Oversight Committee, a group formed as part of the Good Neighbor Agreement between the City of Portland and the firm that runs the Clinton Triangle Shelter Site<\/a>. But Mumford has been unimpressed with the meetings so far and feels there\u2019s a lack of accountability when it comes to preventing the vandalism, camping, and other human activities that result in the closure of the elevators.<\/p>\n Mumford believes Urban Alchemy\u2019s permit to operate the shelter should include a requirement for minimum elevator up-time. Other solutions she\u2019s floated are to make the elevator doors metal instead of glass. At a recent meeting Mumford attended, she learned from a TriMet rep that their agency has spent $100,000 in recent years repairing vandalized glass and has since moved to a metal door for their nearby Rhine-Lafayette Overcrossing. Since that change, Salazar says TriMet\u2019s elevators, \u201chave largely been operational, clean, and reliable for a year or more now.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bikeportland.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stacey14.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>