I live uphill from tram city. "Revitalization" aside, I don't know what this bridge is supposed to give us. No one I know has any interest in going down to the glass waterfront, particularly by foot.

Good money after bad... and so many things the city could have really done for neighborhoods.

Adams will dump money on any bridge except the Sellwood Bridge, which endangers the lives of the many that cross it everyday. Shame on Adams...

I bet the curve of the span added more to the cost than the original estimate.
PDC staff reported the North Macadam Plan as feasible in recommending approval when it was adopted in 1999.
The pedestrian crossing over I-5 at Gibbs/Gains was estimated to cost $1.636 million and scheduled for completion in FY 05/06.
Now at $12.6 million, money short at every level and SoWa looking like the Beaverton Round how is it even a priority and getting built?

Is there even a real need or simply a want?

Chaos reigns supreme.

The existing pedestrian bridge across I-5 at the Barbur Transit Center needs to be replaced.

It is a plain, utilitarian, U-shaped steel structure with absolutely no decoration, connecting a neighborhood to a regional transit hub. I propose immediate action and spending at least $15 million to replace it.

Likewise, the Failing Bridge on I-5 north between the Going and I-405 interchanges is a utilitarian concrete structure that is not iconic enough...replacing it with an iconic, artistic structure would revitalize the neighborhoods and better connect them with Kaiser Permanente and the Interstate MAX line.

I recommend swift action on replacing these two bridges in the name of the children.

Revitalize? Isn't this project still being built? The phrase that comes to mind is polishing a [censored].

Man, is sure is expensive to be a multi-modal mecca©.

Wouldn't it be refreshing to have somebody involved with this debacle just say, "this is a total train wreck"?

I look at my kid's school, and think of all the money stolen from it, and just shake my head. Disgusting.

His nibs invented a totally new Portland neighborhood at the festivities today---he discovered "Laird Hill". Must be his Scots background.

I thought that the 11 years of North Macadam urban renewal at over $190 Million dollars in just spent TIF dollars was suppose to "revitalize" this area.

PDC can't even add up all the other tax dollars, subsidies, etc. that has gone to "revitalize". Now Sam proclaims we have to "revitalize" a "revitalized" urban renewal area.

How absurd is he, and probably his staff who wrote his glorious words.

I'll help Roy out, I've been involved and commenting on SoWhat for a long time- SoWhat is a total train wreck.

he discovered "Laird Hill"

I believe a while back, he also discovered "Tyrone Creek."

If you read the article it states the price tag is $12.6 million, which is what the tram was originally supposed to cost. What is the over/under on the actual cost of this white elephant.

Let me add that minimally we should examine the SoWhat URA to analyze the proposed Central City URA that Jack posted yesterday as reported by the NW Examiner.

There are several planning trick scenarios developing for Central City URA that were used for SoWhat.

There's the. "let's just vote to accept a preliminary acceptance of urban renewal and work out the details later".

Then the, "lets start out with three Amendment Agreements with stakeholders (developers/property owners) for refinement".

Then time passes, "lets add additional Amendment Agreements.

Then when neighbors, neighborhood associations, other interested groups like Affordable Housing advocates, a few environmentalist find concerns in all these prior Amendment Agreements, then there's the so-called refinements like lets have, "Standards" to address their concerns.

But these "Standards" (like limited building heights, maximum floor plate square footage, minimum open space between buildings, building dimensions/orientation to insure view corridors) will be exceeded like they have been in SoWhat in Design Review. CoP will say that Design Review will insure that the particulars of these Standards will reconcile all these "important details for sustainability and design relationships".

Beware NW Portlanders, Goose Hollow/ Downtown Neighbors and even back down into Lair Hill, which is a part of the SoWhat URA. Use SoWhat as an example what Urban Renewal means to Central City as practiced by PDC, CoP, and Sam.

$12.6 million for a foot bridge to nowhere. Are we mentally handicapped?

I'm not even living in Portland right now, and I can't help it:

Barcelona.

Is Barcelona hopelessly insolvent? Somebody check.

So, I pose the question, is Portland local government really just a 'greenwashed' real estate development scam?

Even if urban planning started out as a good idea, there's way too much money involved now and that always leads to only one thing... corruption, corruption, and did I mention, corruption?

Don't forget, corruption.

With a side of corruption to go with it.

Mayor Sam Adams said the bridge will create an easier, safer path for pedestrians and bicyclists.

I think the homeless need to be part of the equation. I envision "sharrows" for panhandlers, their dogs and parapharnelia.

It has a certain ironic symmetry, I think.

Plus, it will slow down those Lycra clad untouchables to a sustainable pace; all the while exposing them to the less fortunate among them.

We all need to share, no?

Yes, Sam invented the neighborhood of Laird Hill. And Jack invented a hill: Lair Hill. There is no such geographical feature; Lair Hill was a person, not a hill.

"If you read the article it states the price tag is $12.6 million, which is what the tram was originally supposed to cost."

Hey, they are spending $30M to raise one street (SW Moody) in SoWa 10 feet, so for this bridge, I'd say the over/under is $48.3M.

Remember folks, we have no money to keep the mentally ill off the streets, for schools or the Sellwood bridge.

It should be interesting when the homeless crew that camps on Lair Hill finds its way over the new bridge to the SoWhat Poodle Poop Park. Between that and the immigration jail, the condo dwellers in the projects down there are in for some colorful experiences that Sharon never told them about at the "discovery center."

"My life fades...the vision dims, and all that remain are memories. I remember a time of chaos...the wounded streets, this wasted land. And yes, I remember the Bikelane Warrior, the man we called Irate Ian."

Steve -

Its fun to bash, but it accomplishes little.

Far more would be accomplished if we each understoon the actual contents of each governmental entity's charter and core mission, and screamed bloody blue murder whenever some local pol embraces mission creep in an effort to appeal to a larger voting bloc in preparation for a bid for higher office.

For example:

Schools are the respomsibility f school boards and the state supt of Education -- not the Portland Mayor, not the county.

The Sellwood Bridge is the responsibility of Multnomah County - it is one of the few boots on the all too brief tenure of Ted Wheeler as county chair. Funding is a county responsibility, period. With Cogan in Chair's seat we are sadly back to the days of Diane Lynn and the clowns.

Mass transit, whether Max or bus or streetcar is primarily the responsibility of the TriMet folks, with input from Metro.. Not the City of Portland, not Milwaukie, not Clackamas County.

And I am very much opposed to the Lake Oswego trolly and M

Nonny Mouse,
Mixing and scrambling works!
Has people mixed up and then scrambling to pay for it all.

Hey, let's start a lottery pool and take bets how much this project will go over. 100%? 200? 500?

Didn't the tram, "Portland's Eiffel Tower", about go over about 400%?

Some of you may not know that this is minimally the third time this bridge has been designed.

The last design, after bidding, came in over $14.4 Million. Then PDOT Yates takes it back through another design process for over a year to come up with the present design/bid.

Yes, the original budget for the bridge was $1.6 Million. Then a few years later it became $8 Million. And actually, even today, it was not to exceed $8 Million.

But when every project cost in SoWhat has been exceeding 3 times or more than budget or bid, why do we need to worry about this simple pedestrian bridge that Sam ended up requiring to be an "icon"?

That small Laurelhurst Park pond clean-out was 100% cost overrun. .
we can only imagine that this project will be more.

These people are spending other people’s money. If they go over, so what, (hence the name So What District) we are the ones who will pay. They can collect their pensions and drink margaritas on cruises. Do they not have a conscience?

just another bridge to nowhere

What's comes to mind is a family household with children in the back rooms going without food, fighting, and even freezing to death, while the parents out front are obsessed with fancy kitchen remodels and fashionable clothes.

Mr. Grumpy,
Or . . . in this case, in the back rooms goodies and perks, while out on our streets and neighborhoods, the poverty exists.

But put up a facade, call it South Waterfront Park, glitzy development and all looks well? Must continue that bridge of facade? Window-dressing needed or more contracts? Perhaps this bridge is “necessary” to give the face that all is starting to look better at SoWhat now?