When next the City of Portland (CoPo) pleads poverty, remember that they've got money to burn! Not only did they spend a lot of highly-paid staff time on the design of a spiffy new brochure, they paid to have it printed and mailed. Not only that, they've assembled a veritable treasure-trove of goodies to "give away" (all paid for out of your tax dollars, of course): they've got CoPo and TriMet information, biking and walking maps in case you can't find your way around, event calendars, flyers, faucet aerators, hose nozzles, rain gauges, and Oh! If you act now, they're gonna throw in tickets to a hot show, right on the Strip! No, wait...that's the Tahiti Village ad, so nevermind that last part. But they do have other "free" stuff, just for ordering: you can get a "nifty" bumbershoot emblazoned with "Portland Smart Trips" or a bandana with a bike map printed on it, or a "Transportation Options" T-shirt. Maybe even a pedometer, as they show one but don't mention it.
Plus, within two weeks of receiving your order, they'll hand-deliver it to you by bicycle! How cool is that? Yes, you actually pay folks to come up with hairball ideas like this. They get paid well, too - likely more than you get paid, when all the hidden benefits are considered. You pay them to waste time and resources on silly little schemes (which they think are "edgy") intended to guilt-trip you into getting out of your car. After all, if you aren't driving, then you won't have any reason to complain about their ongoing failure to maintain existing infrastructure. So then they can spend your money on other great, "green" and "sustainable" hairball ideas.
We got our spiffy brochure the other day, but oddly, it doesn't look as though they had them printed up by members of their core constituency: unions. We looked high and low and never did spot a union print-shop logo. Maybe they were trying to save some of your money.
