In early 2024, a car hit and killed 71-year-old Tom Amato at the intersection of Southeast Woodstock Boulevard and 97th Avenue in the Lents neighborhood.
His death came nearly six years after the city first promised to make the intersection safer, deeming it a particularly dangerous place for motorists and pedestrians. The Portland Bureau of Transportation pledged $4 million in 2018 to improve stretches of Southeast Foster Road and Woodstock Boulevard, including by painting a crosswalk, installing a traffic median and stoplight, and improving sidewalks at the intersection of 97th and Woodstock.
The city initially promised the improvements would be completed by 2020. In 2020, the city promised them by 2022. After Amato died, the city said the project was at 60% design completion—none of the improvements had been made…