The Portland Bureau of Transportation, preparing to cut $16 million from its upcoming budget, proposes to stop repaving major roads for the next five years.
It's not as though drivers will notice - under Portland "mayor" Sam Adumbs, roads haven't been maintained anyway. But mayor Adumbs has to find $2 million to bring a spiffy bicycle-rental program into town (though of course, that enterprise should be entirely funded by private enterprise, and is in no way related to the City's core missions).
Adumbs and company have also "committed" to helping pay for construction of a new Multnomah County-owned Sellwood Bridge, and of course, millions toward construction of a seven-mile Crime Train line to suburban Milwaukie. As well, they want to build more bio-swales to show how "green" they are (last summer, the City provided tanker trucks and paid unionized workers to water the plants in the bio-swales that they've already peed our money into).
And don't forget, Sammy needs money to contribute toward construction of a "Sustainability Center". And bike lanes! Sammy needs more bike lanes!
Freight, groceries, services, and ordinary folks hoping to get to work and back home can just suck it up and take another one for his "green" dreams. Don't like it? Fine. Move away.
This is Sammy's dream, complete with bike lanes and bio-swales. It's "walkable" - even "lounge-able". All it needs is a streetcar. Welcome to Portlandia!
