Bring your crayons (Jack Bog's Blog)

You can't make this stuff up. Fresh from his hastily convened workshops to figure out which kinds of new taxes the City of Portland needs before it can attend to basic transportation needs like fixing potholes and traffic signals, Sam the Tram is now holding another event. This time, everybody gets to fantasize about all the cool new streetcar lines we need to build:

In addition to learning more about the current and future plans for streetcar corridors, participants will be able to roll up their sleeves and work with friends, neighbors, City of Portland planning staff and Commissioner Sam to discuss where future streetcar corridors could occur....
10:15 AM Streetcar System Small Group Exercise: Workshop participants divide into small groups and work together with maps, trace paper and markers to discuss and diagram what a future streetcar system would look like (note: if you're coming from outside the City of Portland, please bring maps of your location).

No mention in the agenda of how we're going to pay to operate the new lines, each of which costs the city around a quarter of a million bucks a year to run. That's because that money falls from the sky.

Comments (9)

Hey Sam, where is the part where we discuss whether or not we want more costly, obsolete, 100 year old technology, street cars blocking traffic on our streets?

Thanks
JK

(I tried to post this on Sam's blog, but got Access denied. Maybe he doesn’t like dissent from Homer's party line?)

Posted by jim karlock | July 17, 2007 12:35 PM

Sam needs to quit playing "Sim City".

Posted by Dave Lister | July 17, 2007 12:49 PM

How about some funding for social services and housing before we add more options to help the yuppies scream around town?

Posted by Hula | July 17, 2007 12:56 PM

Sam, the hypocrite, should advocate a moratorium on any new lines as he did with Hayden Island development.

Or hey just let the public decide with a vote.

More streetcars and PDC stuff or

fix the steets

Make it a 7 year comittment.

Sorry, citizen Smith.

Posted by Ben | July 17, 2007 2:41 PM

I'd guess that this is being aimed at people living on the East Side. Therefore, the answer to Jack's question is simple: If you have no intention of actually building anything over there, why go through the hassle of dreaming up a funding plan?

Posted by Roger | July 17, 2007 3:30 PM

building anything over there

Hmmmm, now that the streetcars in Homer Williamsville are all built and running and bleeding the city, let's talk about maybe starting something "over there"...

Posted by Jack Bog | July 17, 2007 5:58 PM

Not to worry all you Portlanders have deep pockets and Sam the Scam loves to reach in those pockets...never-mind that rail is a terrible scam [ I will not call it an investment]. Whatever Sam wants; Sam gets...now about being mayor...

Posted by KISS | July 17, 2007 7:32 PM

Paris Journal -- Let Them Ride Bikes, By KATRIN BENNHOLD, July 16, 2007.
PARIS, July 15 — “I’m never taking the subway again,” said a beaming Justin Hill, 47, a real estate broker from Santa Barbara, Calif.

More than 10,600 of the hefty gray bicycles became available for modest rental prices on Sunday at 750 self-service docking stations that provide access in eight languages. The number is to grow to 20,600 by the end of the year.

The program, Vélib (for “vélo,” bicycle, and “liberté,” freedom), is the latest in a string of European efforts to reduce the number of cars in city centers and give people incentives to choose more eco-friendly modes of transport.

The outdoor advertising company J. C. Decaux is paying for the bicycles, docking stations and maintenance in return for exclusive use of 1,628 urban billboards owned by the city. The city receives the rental income, and city officials say they are hoping the program will bring in millions of euros.

Vélib is the brainchild of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, a Socialist and longtime green campaigner who has set a target for the city to reduce car traffic by 40 percent by 2020. ...

Not just that it is in the NYTimes, it is their Top Ten most popular emailed items. A 'swarming' consideration.

(I never know if or how long these NYT links last, my apologies if it don't click.)

Posted by Tenskwatawa | July 17, 2007 11:05 PM

Well of course it does! Take a look at Metro to see how it's done.

Posted by Max | July 18, 2007 7:58 AM

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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Bring your crayons

Comments (9)

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