You got that right.

I have to believe any local legislator that sponsors trash like that will get a thorough blog beating by every blog in sight.
Well,,, perhaps BO won't.

Just another phase of the plan to force people out of their cars and onto public transportation. The Fremont Bridge and Ross Island Bridge are not included in the legislation. People will probably be able to walk over the Fremont and Ross Island Bridges faster than those caught in the traffic gridlock of vehicles trying to avoid paying the tolls on the other bridges can drive across. More congestion-type pricing to make the lives of people with lots of money easier. If you live on the east side and don't have a lot of money, forget about driving downtown or to the West Side to work, shop, go to school, see your doctor, etc. For those of you who live downtown or on the West Side, forget Lloyd Center and the Cinemas. The price of ice skating and seeing a movie will be going up.

Hey, Trammy, don't forget a toll on the Vista Tunnel!

It'll be interesting to see the "But I didn't vote for him!" argument transferred from Bush to Adams in a few years...because the two of them have more in common than eiher Democrats or Republicans want to admit at the moment: the temper, the truculence, the gut appeal to the naïve, and the mismatch between stated goals and demonstrated behavior.

Once the cutthroat approach to perceived enemies kicks in, Portland's in for some fun. And watching former supporters try to distance themselves from their savior is going to be as fine theater as it was during Bush's last disastrous years.

"Looking at the last election, I think we’ve reached the point where more legislators are going to be taking a statewide perspective.”

Gotta love Randy - Raise the tolls in Portland to help save the state. DOes he really think anyone believes the versification he engages in on a regular basis?

Tax car addicts and feed money into *public* transportation. Might result in additional money for transit police, for example. WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE ABOUT THIS?

YET MORE mission creep by the CoP. As stated quite clearly in the article, the bridges are owned and maintained by THE COUNTY. Which hasn't taken a position on this idea. So CoP is basically saying, "It's none of our business, but we're going to push for it anyway. Listen to us, MultCo, we know what's best for you."

Oh my GOD!. Could he have thought of a quicker way to divide the city, the have's and the struggling working class. Guess I won't be leaving the West side to eat, shop, or handle any business or personal stuff. And to have to pay a toll to go to the new east side baseball stadium or face the Max gangters on the train. Jack, you need to start adding up all the hairbrained taxes and fee increases being proposed. Between teddy k and the sham it is going to be quite a load

After they get the tolls in then they can make like crooked Chicago politicians and sell the toll rights for a lump sum payment--think Chicago Skyway.
Hey, Goldman Sachs made 9 million bucks as advisors on the deal and many more brokering the sale of the Indiana toll road to foreign firms.
Think the sale of proceeds will go into transportation infrastructure? Think Convention Center Hotel, baby!

It's not just "car addicts" who will be paying the tolls. All kinds of service vehicles (plumbers, cable companies, locksmiths) and delivery vehicles (UPS, FedEx, taxis) will presumably have to pay, and the increased costs will be passed on to us in addition to the tolls we will have to pay to drive cross the river.

If I were living in one of the Eastside areas annexed by the city, St. Johns, the former East Portland or the former Albina, I'd be taking a serious look at whether there was some way to secede or unannex from the City of Portland.

I am all for it as long as they also toll every car that crosses the 405 to get into downtown. Fair is fair.

May I suggest one toll to get on the bridge and one to get off.
My suspicions are that the city smells some fed bailout money coming to fix infrastructure and they're attempting to address the glaring bridge problem with a revenue stream so they can latch onto the fed infrastructure money and build a streetcar to another condo tower.
Can you imagine if the feds gave Multnomah County millions to replace the Sellwood Bridge with not a penny going to the city's fun list? Oh, the pain!

I hate Samadams I hate Samadams I hate Samadams. Is he planning to toll the new MAX and bike only bridge across the Willamette? What about his Pearl District bike-only bridge?

we've reached that point where, to maintain all this massive paved infrastructure we've got is killing us. the cost goes up yearly, and several years ago, maintenance began to go into long-term backlog--nationwide.

in other words, dear readers, we've built so much that we're going broke trying to keep it working--and we're clamoring to build more. same thing's starting to happen with water, sewer, and other infrastructure.

Ecohuman - no, we have not reached that point. What we have done is systematically robbed our trustworthy, hardworking yet unglamorous friend Peter in order to fund the extravagant lifestyle of the hip, green, sustainable, etc. Paul.

Screw Paul. Peter serves all of us and deserves better.

"we've built so much that we're going broke trying to keep it working"

Again, this week Sam Adams said we have $900M in reserves for CoP. Why isn't this ever mentioned? I think you are buying into their story that we need bright shiny new things instead of fixing what we have.

I think you are buying into their story that we need bright shiny new things instead of fixing what we have.

no. i'm saying it's time to do less; for many reasons. we'd done too much already.

the typical response to this, though (by Adams or most anybody) is--"are you nuts? we need more roads! more of everything!"

we never want less, until less is the only option. soon, it will be.

Well, the good thing--Tram Boy's only a city mayor. It's far easier to recall him than it is to get a President impeached. It's never to early to think about starting the recall process, either.

He basically just wants to make it impossible to get around anywhere in the city. He and his "friends" have already royally massacred downtown with that stupid transit-mall redesign, and I'm sure he'll come up with something here soon that will make this pale in comparison stupidity-wise.

"we've reached that point where, to maintain all this massive paved infrastructure we've got is killing us"

Nonsense ecohuman. It's long term mission creep that's killing us.

If our government at all levels had not ballooned into the vast entitlement and dabbling in everything monster it is we could easuly fund the fundemental things government should always be going.

Those are the reasons we pool our resourses. So that core fundemental missions for the public can be accomplished.

The CoP itself has expanded into the absurd.

Tax car addicts and feed money into *public* transportation. Might result in additional money for transit police, for example. WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE ABOUT THIS?

It is unable to be loved simply because the City has proven to be untrustworthy in its use of revenue.

The city has used up the trust of the "car addicts" (people who have to get to work every day in areas either underserved or not served by mass transit) like me. I tried to find a way to avoid driving to Hillsboro. It would be 2+ hours via Trimet or 45 minutes by car.

The powers that be could invest in a more suitable mass transit system, but they would rather buy light rail and aerial trams.

If Sam could lock down the toll revenue and it would in fact go to maintaining and updating what we already have now (no more choo-choos, bike lanes, couplets, or trams) and dedicate it for ROADS, I could almost be convinced.

However, government be it at the federal, state or city level has burned up my ability to trust any of them. The government types need to make peace with the average middle class people with meaningful policy changes.

I for one am tired of surveys, speeches, and buzzwords. Either side of the aisle.

Is the street maintainance fee (tax) next - and then possibly CoP sales tax?

Hmmm, how will Tri-Met pay their fair share? Will each MAX train that crosses the Steel Bridge have one of those electronic thingies? or will each passenger pay a surcharge when he buys his ticket from a vending machine that doesn't work?