A gaggle of Metro Councillors wrote an op-ed piece in the Tribune today that tells some real doozies. It would actually be funny if it weren't so insulting that our elected officials think we are so stupid to not be able to see through their B.S.
The issue is the draft transportation plan that the feds kicked back to Metro, saying they maybe ought include a little transportation planning in it.
Rex et al defended the plan by lying about it. They say the problem is that there is no new revenue source to pay for new transportation projects. What about the billions spent on light rail? Maybe if that money wasn't squandered, we could have added to road capacity a little.
But the best part is when they answer the charge that Metro's plan doesn't balance different transportation modes. They say: "Achieving that balance — well-maintained roads and highways, efficient mass transit, as well as safe walking and biking routes — should be a primary goal for the regional transportation system. This is exactly what we’re doing."
Oh really!
So spending half the tranportation funds on light rail lines that are used for 3% of trips is balance?
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11 comments:
it's way past time for the federal government to start withholding all transportation funds from any state or local government that does not spend at least 90 percent of all federal transportation money on car and truck modalities.
Amen! I heard Kathryn Harrington speak at a Town Hall in Hillsboro yesterday and she was spewing the same crap! When one of the attendees asked her point blank if some money could just be allocated to building and expanding roads, she suggested that everyone start voting for "higher taxes" to pay for it. She and the rest of the Metro junta are like the Cylons in the new Battlestar Galactica TV series....they were created by us...they evolved....now they look like us....and they've got a plan! So watch out!!!
Light rail has been an utter waste of money. Trimet admits that it only carries the same number of commuters as one lane of freeway, but fails to tell us that 2/3 of its riders would ride the bus, so it only removes 1/4 to 1/3 of one lane’s worth of commuters from the freeway.
See: DebunkingPortland.com/Transit/RailAttractsDrivers.htm
Thanks
JK
appears increasingly obvious that the only folks who don't understand just how dismal a failure the Metropolitan Service District (Metro) really is are the people who run the show in the country's only elected regional "government".
Gee. This was supposed to be a "model" for the rest of the nation. Ever wondered why, thirty-plus years later, nobody else has followed that "model"?
Led by bicycle-happy councilor Rex Burpholder (no, wait...) ahem...that's supposed to be David Bragdon, but it doesn't really matter. Rex is the guy who grabs the headlines, telling us all that we need to live close to where we work so that we can ride bikes or walk or take (cough) Mess Transit to get to and from where we need to go.
There's just one teeny little problem there: Metro's "planners" have "planned" most folks right out of Portland. Who has a million bucks to drop on one of Homer Williams' tower condos? And who really wants to live there? Sure, there's a shiny streetcar, maybe an aerial tram/
But when you earn forty or fifty grand a year, and you want a three-bedroom, two-bath home with maybe a bit of yard for the kids to play in - what are you going to do? Pretty much what many are doing. Leaving Portland. In droves.
The folks at Metro rely on "planners". They love them to death, and hire more and more of them at high salaries and great benefits. "Planners" are the be-all and end-all at Metro.
And when the feds stuff Burpholder's grant application back in his face, noting that all they're "planning" are bike paths and fixed rail - no road expansion - why, Rex just can't believe how insensitive the feds are to our needs. Buy a clue, Rex. Your "plans" don't even come close to addressing our needs - they only serve as a blueprint for your desires.
We don't care about your desires. And if they involve exchanges of bodily fluids, we really don't want to hear about it. If you get off on your bicycle, that's fine and all. Just quit trying to herd the rest of us around to conform to your view of the perfect lifestyle. We don't try to force our views onto you, so give us the same degree of respect.
You've become the poster boy that illustrates just how far out of touch Metro is with the people it claims to "serve".
Build some roads. Fix some potholes. And by the way - we don't need any more stinkin' condo towers. Quit pricing us out of places to live.
Really I wonder how many years till the f-word is uttered about Metor planning methods.
You know - FRAUD....
That is what this plan really was. Public funds used to cook results so they can pursue projects that never pencil out by the rules of the game.
and the C word
Conspriracy
Port officials, PDC officials, local mayors, city councils, county commissions and various state officials have long been fixing the game behind the scenes.
Long before any "public participation"
Their fool proof methods to stop what they dislike and advance what they scheme involves the press as well.
However, there are NO signs of anything but more of the same for many years to come.
The more apt F word is
Futility
Great comments folks. I really enjoyed reading these.
Folks missed a great opportunity by not voting for Tom Cox.
Oregonian reporters missed a great opportunity not voting for Tom Cox. I would subscribe to the Oregonian if I could follow that play by play.
Just to point out something. Kinda funny isn't it that the D's are in charge over the federal purse and now Lightrail doesn't offer enough balance? It's also kinda funny how in Vancouver right now the D's on the Clark County side are opposing lightrail.
It shows how far to the extreme left Portland is when other D's can't see any logic in their plans. Why are they opposing it - taxes.... Of course the Multnomah D's then call the Clark County D's "selfish" because they don't want to sacrifice their standard of living for a mass transit device they will never use.
Sound familiar???
Great comments all.
For some time I've been subscribing to Portland Online's feed. If you can make your way through the torrent of bureaucratic notices, occasionally you'll find something in some committee's minutes or a memo.
Since we're considering government mismanagement, let me share with you the emerging theme which government will mismanage around in the near future:
Sustainability
At the recent "Fifth Annual Leadership Summit on Oregon's Economy" sustainability was the "rallying cry" behind which we are to fall-in. On that Summit's coat tails, Dan Salztman (Portland City Commissioner) has taken up the charge and initiated the "Sustainable Industries / Clean Energy Initiative".
This theme is very powerful. Many identify with the desire to be "Sustainable", heck, it's sexy. Beneath the glamorous distraction of "Sustainability" our elected officials are making plans, the hypocrisy of which will cliche' this powerful theme (It's a shame really).
From rightOregon.org Commissioner Saltzman's initiative will:
1. Use public funds to juice the investment returns of investments available to a small, select class of elite investors.
2. Legislate an artificial market into existence and manipulate energy market demand at public expense.
3. Reward unproven organizations with public subsidies.
Sound familiar?
geoffludt
4. Prop up unproven government agencies with more blind support.
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