Just after midnight on June 3, Amy Hoffmann stood on what had always been a drab concrete pedestrian bridge spanning Interstate 205 in her Lents neighborhood.

The Southeast Steele Street footbridge is a vital part of the Portland neighborhood’s daytime life, as parents and kids shuffle back and forth across the freeway to Oliver P. Lent School just east of the torrent of traffic. Hoffmann said she would never normally go to the pedestrian bridge at night. But she had to see it this night, so she snuck out without her waking her husband and kids.

“It did not feel dark and scary at all,” Hoffmann said. “It was such a magical moment.”

Hours earlier, Hoffmann and more than 60 neighborhood residents of all ages spent the day injecting life into the sad, utilitarian structure encased by a chain-link arch-like roof. They painted chickens, bees, hearts, quotes from Malcolm X and Kanye West, an homage to the nearby Portland Pickles baseball team and more amid a backdrop of bright warm colors.

The volunteer-led project, funded through hundreds of dollars in donations from the neighborhood and area business, wrapped up six hours later. The Pickles donated coffee and mascot Dillon the Pickle and some players helped paint.

Then on July 3, the email from Oregon Department of Transportation officials arrived, demanding Hoffmann “restore all unpermitted painted areas back to previous conditions.” The state gave her until July 10 to paint the bridge gray again.

“If there is any unpermitted art work after ODOT’s restoration, it can result in legal action,” the state wrote.

Hoffmann knew her project didn’t have a permit, but she says that’s only because she finally gave up and decided to pursue a “guerrilla art” project after nearly three years of trying to navigate the state’s onerous permitting system. At points in the past two years in particular, she’d felt progress was nigh, but then state officials who knew of her application moved on to other posts, and Hoffmann said she had to start from scratch. She said she met with city officials, who referred her to the state, and state officials who said she needed an intergovernmental agreement between the two entities. Hoffmann said she was also told the volunteer painting project, which is not visible from the freeway below, needed federal approval to proceed.

She tweaked the project and submitted a new application to focus on sprucing up the stairs leading up to the bridge and not the bridge itself.

None of it seemed to matter. She felt like she hit a brick wall of state and local bureaucracy.

She’d finally had enough: The project would move forward without a permit.

Then last week the nitpicking began. She was told to remove the Portland Pickles reference because it was a corporate entity. She was told to cover graffiti on the bridge’s walls.

ODOT said its art rules were consistent: “ODOT has a few locations where the process has worked to realize the community’s desires for art balanced with ODOT’s requirements for safety and maintenance,” spokesman Don Hamilton said in an email.

Hoffmann found the state’s sudden interest in the bridge’s appearance amusing.

The Lents footbridge viewed from the west side of Interstate 205

Her husband gifted her a stiff broom after the couple moved to the surrounding neighborhood in August 2016 because she frequently took to sweeping broken glass from the urban eyesore because state officials didn’t. She now has an Adopt-A-Highway agreement to maintain the area but admits it’s tough to keep up. The bridge runs perpendicular to the I-205 multi-use path, a place like many in Portland these days where homeless campers and trash are common sights.

On a trip to the bridge this week, this reporter found graffiti, discarded clothing, and trash on the ground on the bridge and on the approaches to it. On the western side of the bridge, charred bushes line one side of a staircase to the bridge, remnants Hoffmann said, of a firecracker incident a year ago.

After questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive, the state this week said it would no longer require the walls be painted by July 10, extending the deadline to July 31 “to bring resolution to this initiative.”

“ODOT understands that this project is a good neighborhood project that should be able to meet all requirements for public art on ODOT property in collaboration with the City of Portland’s support,” Hamilton said in an email. He said the state “wholeheartedly supports this community initiative in promoting neighborhood pride.”

He said the state typically required an “intergovernmental agreement outlining maintenance roles and responsibilities,” because “we know that graffiti and other forms of vandalism are not uncommon.” The state said it is waiting on signatures from the city and Hoffmann’s group to “ensure maintenance responsibilities are clearly defined and carried out.”

According to documents, Hoffman already adopted the bridge. Her permit application calls for litter removal and minor landscape maintenance. The document indicates the state will provide paint to cover the graffiti. Her agreement runs through March 19, 2020.

Dylan Rivera, a Portland transportation spokesman, said the city supported efforts like Hoffmann’s to “paint or otherwise beautify public assets.”

“These projects are a great way for neighbors to come together, connect with each other and create something that enriches their community,” he said.

Rivera said the city wouldn’t be responsible for maintenance. It never was to begin with, since the footbridge is state property.

When told of the state’s new extension, Hoffmann called it “wonderful news” and she said the standoff was about more than a permit.

“I believe that we can work together to not only save this incredible project, but to make the permitting process more accessible for other communities who wish to engage in placemaking activities on ODOT-managed structures and properties, communities that, by virtue of their location are disproportionately challenged to do so,” she said.

She also hopes to install 26 painted panels on the steps leading up to the bridge on the westside, colorful designs she and neighbors already painted years ago. They’ve been sitting in storage. She’s still waiting for the permit.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen

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