Because I read Seattle and Portland area online papers each day I had to double check what city the paper was from because it reads just like PDC in Portland!

What a bunch of rubes.

when i see a project like this/the Tram/SoWa/etc., i always ask:

why are the estimates always gross underestimates? why aren't they big overestimates?

sorry, that's a rhetorical question. because otherwise, most would've been reluctant to sign off on a 60+ million dollar Tram, for example.

or a project that really won't produce a fraction of the "biotech jobs" that were promised. we know that even before the project's done, according to recent articles.

it's really not that difficult to discern. it's lying. if only the lies benefitted the many instead of the few...

It's like the lies they're telling now about the Convention Center hotel and the Burnside couplet. It just goes on and on and on...

At least the Herald reported some numbers at the early stage-unlike the O. It will be interesting to see how their editorial board responds to the info. I sort of know. Then will they report the questioning/opposition to the expeditures?

By the way, inside information about the tram is that it is really becoming a "tourist facility". The revenue from the $4 tickets is much higher than expected, possibly more than enough to pay the 15% operating costs due the taxpayers. That is why CoP is opening the tram on Sundays-tourists. I wonder where they will park? My gosh, our riverfront is becoming a parking lot for OHSU and tourists. That's planning! BioTech, goodbye.

Additional news from up north. Last week the Seattle media was reporting how Sound Transit (their Tri-Met) will be having a ballot measure asking for $48 BILLLLLION dollars to build a lightrail line from Mill Creek (North Seattle)-8 miles south of Everett to Tacoma.

The media up there is strongly questioning the costs. Commentary on KOMO has been negative, even though they recognize they need it.

The dollar amount is also in violation of Seattle area planning requirements that transportation dollars be a 60/40 split where 60% is for highway expeditures. This measure is just the reverse of this edict. Portland doesn't even come close to this 60/40 split, and hasn't for decades.

I suspect the tram tourists will drop off as locals get used to it and it becoems a part of the background.

The tram's long irked me as a waste of taxpayer money to benefit a mostly private part of the healthcare industrial complex that happens to have picked an incredibly stupid location for a hospital.

The "couplet" is such a bad idea I suppose it is a dead letter the City will do it.

Thank goodness I am only thirty years from retirement when I will be forced by property taxes and the difficulty of living in this city to leave!

Simon sez: The tram's long irked me as a waste of taxpayer money to benefit a mostly private part of the healthcare industrial complex that happens to have picked an incredibly stupid location for a hospital.

It's a mostly public healthcare industrial complex that was gifted the stupid location.

mostly public

Yes, when there's a benefit for OHSU by being public, it's public; when there's a responsibility attached to being public, it's private.

Why do these contractors, architects, engineering firms get away with over-runs? Have not these major cities have attorneys to write bullet proof contracts?
It seems that in today's business over-runs are part of the picture.

overruns are figured in, but in small percentages--because materials and labor get more costly over time.

but usually, this is in the 15-30% range. not 300-400% and above.

on the Tram project, it was almost certainly known (by several parties) that it would cost far more than ~$15m.

With infrastructure, the proponents purposely lie, all the time. It's documented. Unless and until it is criminalized, the practice will continue.

Anyone ever read this in the Oregonian or tribune.
The contract to build the Tram was awarded, by city council vote, long before the design and engineering were complete. Is it any wonder that the price soared as design and engineering work progressed? Who (what contractor) wouldn't go for the gusto knowing they had the job locked up and they could come up with any price they wanted for the "extra costs".
There have been many things about the Tram, and SoWa left out of our media coverage.
Why? Are they lazy? Conflicted with monetary interests? Cheerleaders?
What is it?
We know the O editorial page is simply unethical with the editor Bob Caldwell's wife being OHSU's communication director.

Does Fred Stickle et al. other similar conflicts?
Do these OHSU, TriMet, PDC agencies spend so much money in hype advertising in the paper they essentially bought it?

Why doesn't the paper go after PDC budgets like they did this week with the TriMet ridership secrets? The Tram is the tip of one iceberg.
Why oh why oh why?
Jack, can you splain it?

dreamers

play money

no accountability

Remember that the main objective of socialism is taking money by force from the middle (working) class and and giving it to both the upper and lower classes.
Can anybody tell me how it is right, moral or fair to take money by force from people who earned it and give it to somebody who didn't earn it?
It matters little what the money goes for. What matters to the socialists is that is taken by force from the working class and used not only for something that does not benefit the working class (middle) but is often used to undercut the working (middle) class.