Lufthansa read the tea leaves a year ago. POP should have given them the same deal Delta/ Northwest received. Over $100 million for a new office structure they did not need could have helped keep some people employed.

The POP engineering staff is second only in size to ODOT and they both need busy work as has been evidenced in the past twenty years.

Where ODOT makes plans and constantly updates them, the POP actually builds things and how.

What does Horizon's decision have to do with the Port of Portland, or Lufthansa?

Horizon is cutting its workforce as it is eliminating its CRJ-700 fleet. It is cutting service to several cities. With fewer aircraft it simply needs fewer pilots, fewer flight attendants, fewer mechanics.

Why should the Port of Portland (whose aviation businesses would earn a profit if it were not a government agency) subsidize Horizon Air, a private, for-profit company, just so it can continue to fly money-losing flights on expensive 74 seat jet aircraft that burn three times as much fuel as the Dash 8-Q400 aircraft that Horizon otherwise uses? For most of the routes, you cannot tell the difference in the aircraft; the turboprop (Q400) is 10-20 minutes longer on the longest Horizon flights. It still beats the alternatives - driving, Greyhound, or Amtrak (another fine taxpayer subsidized service.)

Want to talk waste? Why did ODOT spend over $30 million to buy two trains to run between Portland and Eugene which average less than 25% load factor (not to mention the $5 million annual operating cost); when contracted buses could have provided the same level of service with $0 taxpayer subsidy - either capital, or operating?

"Where ODOT makes plans and constantly updates them, the POP actually builds things and how. "

ODOT would love to build their plans, but they get roadblocked six ways from sunday on every single one of them - some for good reason, and some because there are a lot of people that hate cars and trucks.

How long has it taken to move one shovel-full of asphalt on the "sunrise corridor" ? The 99W to I-5 connector in Tualatin / Sherwood? Dundee Bypass? We don't even need to talk about the westside bypass, CRC, or other doomed projects like the Mt. Hood Freeway...

ODOT would love to build their plans, but they get roadblocked six ways from sunday on every single one of them - some for good reason, and some because there are a lot of people that hate cars and trucks.

Good point, Fred.

If the eco-Nazis actually woke up and listened to themselves for once, they'd realize that they are supporting the airport, which has 400% the carbon emissions per person as a single-occupant motor vehicle. But, it must be OK for those trips to Australia, Tokyo and Amsterdam - right?

If they saw that the construction of PDX is on top of unstable fill soil that would be disintegrated in an earthquake; that PDX's land used to be vast wetlands and wildlife habitat (like most of downtown Portland back when the only civilization was over at that God awful "suburb" called Fort Vancouver), maybe they'd realize that air travel ought to be banned from Portland as hugely polluting and not Portland's style. And think how many wind turbines and solar panels could be built on top of the reclaimed land that is now PDX... (Not to mention, getting rid of the Air National Guard - Portland's only major military presence!)

But, as long as those planes take the eco-Nazis to Europe for their vacations, they can always buy a "carbon offset" while demanding that our streets are more congested, that cars sit longer in traffic, and light rail be expanded to where nobody wants to go, while the buses that go where people want to go are cut further and further. Because Portland's priority is to make sure that Delta Airlines still flies a Boeing 767-300 to Amsterdam and Tokyo once a day - screw the "little people" who just need to catch a bus to their minimum wage job serving coffee and lunch and making photocopies to the "creative class" people who demand it.

The biggest problem with PoP is that it epitomizes taxation without representation. The governance of that entity is all political appointees from the gov's office. But they tax a lot of us and we have no say over what they do with our money. The idea of home rule is abhorrent to the powers that be at the Port. And if you ask anyone how you could go about doing a ballot initiative for home rule of the Port you will be told that that the boundaries of the jurisdiction are nebulous or so MultCo elections once told me.

Erik H.

The Lufthansa comment would be related to reaching out to Horizon to help them in their transition. Try to make Portland less unimportant than it already is as far as having reasonable service to smaller cities. POP did not build on "fill" soil...it is sediment residual from past floods. Subject to liquifaction if an earthquake strikes. Surface structures will then disappear as we know them.