As a followup to our poll of the other day, here is the photographic evidence from the other day's groundbreaking for the jackup of the Moody Avenue streetcar line. From the looks of things, the most medicated politician appears to be Congressman Wu, but actually, Mr. Blumenauer's looking a little spacey there too, isn't he?
Meanwhile, the righties are howling that all the "employment and innovation" talk from the event was simply hot air. The Moody Avenue project, they say, is really all about (a) diverting money to the mystery train to Milwaukie, and (b) raising the grade of the street so that OHSU won't have to excavate so deeply into the toxic muck that sits under the surface of some of its planned development sites.
If we had to bet, we'd say the critics give the far more plausible account of the motivation here. And as for results, we've all heard lots of talk about jobs in SoWhat, for a decade now. So far it's been a load of outrageously expensive bunk.
Comments (22)
I think they all look delusional. That same grin that comes from blowing other people's money on their wet dreams.
Earl just looks constipated most of the time. God forbid he had a real job with any stress.
The scarier thing is that SW Moody started out as $27M, then I thought $31M, then in the O yesterday it was $51M and now this says $66.5M - Even after we just built it 3-4 years ago. I guess I should've learned from the Tram budgeting better.
There must be some kind of manliness contest among our reps to see who can glom on to the biggest money blow amongst themselves.
Just to let you know Randy and PWB are spending your money wisely:
"The project budget is funded with a mix of TIGER ARRA Funds, Federal High Priority Earmark, Federal TCSP Funds, Water Bureau Funds, OTIA Funds, System Development Charges and City General Fund."
We can't afford to replace 21 year old buses (with federal grants that even dead people can qualify for and would pay 90% of the cost of the bus), but we can spend $40 million to rebuild a pratically brand new stretch of streetcar line that has no development, no stations, and costs more to operate than a bus - in part because the streetcar track was flawed (with a 5 MPH S-curve underneath a support pier for the Marquam Bridge).
It's nice to know that we can't fix what's broke, but we have plenty of money to fix what's unnecessary.
Don't get too sick Mr. Grumpy, we need your comments and to carry on. Watchdogs are needed.
I got that sinking feeling myself though when I saw once again the ubiquitous photo of elected officials standing by their "pork projects." Are we supposed to cheer? rah rah rah!!
Steve:The scarier thing is that SW Moody started out as $27M, then I thought $31M, then in the O yesterday it was $51M and now this says $66.5M - Even after we just built it 3-4 years ago. I guess I should've learned from the Tram budgeting better.
Is even one of the officials in that photo going to question the money here?
How can this be, from $27M to $31M, the most questionable how yesterday it was $51M and now it says $66M?? Go by streetcar!
What amazes me is the seemingly unstopability of these unwanted projects.
You'd think our local 'urban-planners' were experienced heading up settlement building in the West Bank or something. After all, demographic and social engineering is really the ultimate result and I have little doubt is the desired result.
Their problem is finding the dollars to keep funding execution of these plans. However, as we keep observing, increasingly creative methods of doing just that keep popping out of the mayor's head, along with a little help from the Congressman.
"The scarier thing is that SW Moody started out as $27M, then I thought $31M, then in the O yesterday it was $51M and now this says $66.5M - Even after we just built it 3-4 years ago. I guess I should've learned from the Tram budgeting better."
We all know the game. The initial budget is just a teaser, then the cost rises as federal participation is found. This is how various pols, Stacey and Whitbeck, SOJ, OHSU, Homer, and others get so fat, dumb and happy. It's called "pork" for a reason.
"an oasis of employment and innovation"...
Yeah right....like when those bio jobs were all comin' to town!
To paraphrase from "When Harry Met Sally"..."I want what they are smokin'!
So nice the city can come up with the money for this, but they couldnt help keep those schools from closing recently.
Maybe throw some more money at youth outreach to stop all these recent gang shootings?
Elevating the roadway will allow the city to cap adjacent brownfields, open up large parcels of land for development--including a hospital--and transform this district, as Portland Mayor Sam Adams said, into one of the city's greenest areas.
Mayor Adams turns brown into green. This benefits those who create brownfields as taxpayers pay to clean or work around them.
More debt for our children to pay and more brownfields (safely cleaned now?) for our children to play in.
open up large parcels of land for development--including a hospital
Do we really need another hospital? I'm sure Portland has plenty of hospitals; and many of those (Good Sam probably being the exception) have plenty of room to grow.
In fact, there's even a couple of closed, or barely open hospitals - the old Eastmoreland Hospital, the old Woodland Park Hospital (now a "speciality hospital" but much of it is unused), the old Adventist Hospital (I believe it's now a retirement home), the old Bess Kaiser Hospital (now the Adidas America headquarters, but they are slowing moving employees to the east coast), and whatever hospital it used to be directly across from the Rose Quarter which is now partially used for the Oregon State Hospital's Portland facility (and otherwise vacant). And most of these AREN'T in floodplains and on unstable fill soil.
Charamba, Douro 2008
Horse Heaven Hills, Cabernet 2010
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills Pinot Grigio 2011
Avignonesi, Montepulciano 2004
Lorelle, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2011
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2007
Mercedes Eguren, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Lorelle, Columbia Valley Cabernet 2011
Purple Moon, Merlot 2011
Purple Moon, Chardonnnay 2011
Abacela, Vintner's Blend No. 12
Opula Red Blend 2010
Liberte, Pinot Noir 2010
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Indian Wells Red Blend 2010
Woodbridge, Chardonnay 2011
King Estate, Pinot Noir 2011
Famille Perrin, Cotes du Rhone Villages 2010
Columbia Crest, Les Chevaux Red 2010
14 Hands, Hot to Trot White Blend
Familia Bianchi, Malbec 2009
Terrapin Cellars, Pinot Gris 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2009
Campo Viejo, Rioja, Termpranillo 2010
Ravenswood, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2010
Waterbrook, Reserve Merlot 2009
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills, Pinot Grigio 2011
Tarantas, Rose
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La Vielle Ferme, Rose 2011
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Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir 2009
Lello, Douro Tinto 2009
Quinson Fils, Cotes de Provence Rose 2011
Anindor, Pinot Gris 2010
Buenas Ondas, Syrah Rose 2010
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Conundrum 2012
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Penelope Sanchez, Garnacha Syrah 2010
Canoe Ridge, Merlot 2007
Atalaya do Mar, Godello 2010
Vega Montan, Mencia
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2009
Portuga, Rose 2011
Revelation, Chardonnay, Pays d'Oc 2010
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 2005
Monte Alto, Tinto Reserva 2005
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cabernet, Indian Wells 2009
Espiral, Vinho Rose
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14 Hands, Hot to Trot Red 2009
Rodney Strong, Cabernet, Sonoma 2009
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #11
Portuga, White 2010
La Bourgeoisie, Red 2009
Januik, Red 2009
Three Rivers, River's Red 2008
Kirkland, Alexander Valley Merlot 2008
Muga, Rioja Rose 2010
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2009
Mauro Molino, Barbera d'Alba 2009
Garda Chiaretto Rose
Columbia Crest, Two Vines Vineyard 10 White
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L'Hortus, Rose de Saignee 2010
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Trader Joe's Pinot Gris 2009
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Garda, Classico Chiaretto Rose
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Chateau de Montmirail, Vacqueyras 2008
La Granja 360, Syrah 2009
Montgras, Carmenere Reserva 2009
Lange, Pinot Gris 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet 2008
Kirkland, Pinot Grigio 2010
Trader Joe's Coastal Syrah 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Merlot 2008
Trader Joe's Coastal Chardonnay 2009
Vieux Papes Red
Domaine de l'Aujardiere, Chardonnay 2009
Santa Rita, Cabernet, Medalla Real 2007
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2008
Guild, Red, Lot #02 2008
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Laforet, Burgogne Chardonnay 2009
Columbia Winery, Merlot 2007
Bonterra, Cabernet 2008
Elk Cove, Pinot Gris 2009
Maquis Lien 2006
Scott Paul, Pinot Noir, Le Paulee 2007
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Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Timothy Egan - The Big Burn
Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five
Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
F. Sionil Jose - Dusk
Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting
Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 21
At this date last year: 52
Total run in 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Comments (22)
I think they all look delusional. That same grin that comes from blowing other people's money on their wet dreams.
Earl just looks constipated most of the time. God forbid he had a real job with any stress.
The scarier thing is that SW Moody started out as $27M, then I thought $31M, then in the O yesterday it was $51M and now this says $66.5M - Even after we just built it 3-4 years ago. I guess I should've learned from the Tram budgeting better.
There must be some kind of manliness contest among our reps to see who can glom on to the biggest money blow amongst themselves.
Posted by Steve | March 24, 2011 12:01 PM
From the pictures you linked to and the picture in the Oregonian, Blumenauer looks like he is going mad.
Posted by Garage Wine | March 24, 2011 12:01 PM
Totally mad
Posted by Garage Wine | March 24, 2011 12:03 PM
Just to let you know Randy and PWB are spending your money wisely:
"The project budget is funded with a mix of TIGER ARRA Funds, Federal High Priority Earmark, Federal TCSP Funds, Water Bureau Funds, OTIA Funds, System Development Charges and City General Fund."
http://www.swmoodyproject.com/index.html
I predict water will pass the price of gold in 2027.
Posted by Steve | March 24, 2011 12:13 PM
The surrounded by a desert of unemployment part of Earl's "oasis" metaphor would be correct.
Posted by dg | March 24, 2011 12:13 PM
We can't afford to replace 21 year old buses (with federal grants that even dead people can qualify for and would pay 90% of the cost of the bus), but we can spend $40 million to rebuild a pratically brand new stretch of streetcar line that has no development, no stations, and costs more to operate than a bus - in part because the streetcar track was flawed (with a 5 MPH S-curve underneath a support pier for the Marquam Bridge).
It's nice to know that we can't fix what's broke, but we have plenty of money to fix what's unnecessary.
Posted by Erik H. | March 24, 2011 12:26 PM
A few years ago, they said the land level in the so what had to be raised so that the grade to the toy train bridge would not be too steep.
At the time they envisioned two levels - a top level for toy trains, bikes & peds. And a lower level to hide the cars in.
Of course the whole thing is just delusions of adequacy from deluded planners.
thanks
JK
Posted by jimkarlock | March 24, 2011 12:50 PM
This actually made me sick to read.
Posted by Mr. Grumpy | March 24, 2011 12:52 PM
"we can spend $40 million to rebuild"
$66.5M now. That's a lot to pay for (whoever said it) digging holes to fill them.
Posted by Steve | March 24, 2011 1:06 PM
I like the way our next mayor, Earl the Pearl Blue Manure is standing on the opposite end from our current mayor, Sam the Tram Scam.
Posted by Robert Collins | March 24, 2011 1:06 PM
It's called the Tiger Project? This would have been perfect for David Wu's tiger costume.
So in addition to everything else, he has no fashion sense.
Posted by Bill McDonald | March 24, 2011 1:14 PM
Don't get too sick Mr. Grumpy, we need your comments and to carry on. Watchdogs are needed.
I got that sinking feeling myself though when I saw once again the ubiquitous photo of elected officials standing by their "pork projects." Are we supposed to cheer? rah rah rah!!
Steve:The scarier thing is that SW Moody started out as $27M, then I thought $31M, then in the O yesterday it was $51M and now this says $66.5M - Even after we just built it 3-4 years ago. I guess I should've learned from the Tram budgeting better.
Is even one of the officials in that photo going to question the money here?
How can this be, from $27M to $31M, the most questionable how yesterday it was $51M and now it says $66M?? Go by streetcar!
Posted by clinamen | March 24, 2011 1:17 PM
What amazes me is the seemingly unstopability of these unwanted projects.
You'd think our local 'urban-planners' were experienced heading up settlement building in the West Bank or something. After all, demographic and social engineering is really the ultimate result and I have little doubt is the desired result.
Their problem is finding the dollars to keep funding execution of these plans. However, as we keep observing, increasingly creative methods of doing just that keep popping out of the mayor's head, along with a little help from the Congressman.
Posted by Mr. Grumpy | March 24, 2011 1:48 PM
SoWhat is going to be the "Innovation Quadrant"
http://www.pdxinnovation.com/iq.html
With innovative 19th century transportation technology like streetcars and light rail.
Posted by Ryan | March 24, 2011 2:34 PM
"The scarier thing is that SW Moody started out as $27M, then I thought $31M, then in the O yesterday it was $51M and now this says $66.5M - Even after we just built it 3-4 years ago. I guess I should've learned from the Tram budgeting better."
We all know the game. The initial budget is just a teaser, then the cost rises as federal participation is found. This is how various pols, Stacey and Whitbeck, SOJ, OHSU, Homer, and others get so fat, dumb and happy. It's called "pork" for a reason.
Posted by PD | March 24, 2011 2:50 PM
"an oasis of employment and innovation"...
Yeah right....like when those bio jobs were all comin' to town!
To paraphrase from "When Harry Met Sally"..."I want what they are smokin'!
Posted by portland native | March 24, 2011 4:11 PM
Steve -
Interesting quote about the various sources of money, including "Water Bureau Funds".
What is the quote from?
I really want to look a little closer into how and what Water Bureau Funds went intio this and why.
Thanks,
Posted by Nonny Mouse | March 24, 2011 4:39 PM
Blumenauer's looking a little spacey
Well of course. His toilet paper tax proposal is back in the news. "Water Protection and Reinvestment Act,” H.R.3202
"The project budget is funded with a mix of TIGER ARRA Funds,
No wonder Davey Wu was on hand.
Posted by Max | March 24, 2011 4:48 PM
So nice the city can come up with the money for this, but they couldnt help keep those schools from closing recently.
Maybe throw some more money at youth outreach to stop all these recent gang shootings?
"For the children." Im sure...
Posted by Jon | March 24, 2011 5:38 PM
Elevating the roadway will allow the city to cap adjacent brownfields, open up large parcels of land for development--including a hospital--and transform this district, as Portland Mayor Sam Adams said, into one of the city's greenest areas.
Mayor Adams turns brown into green. This benefits those who create brownfields as taxpayers pay to clean or work around them.
More debt for our children to pay and more brownfields (safely cleaned now?) for our children to play in.
Posted by watching for our children | March 24, 2011 6:05 PM
open up large parcels of land for development--including a hospital
Do we really need another hospital? I'm sure Portland has plenty of hospitals; and many of those (Good Sam probably being the exception) have plenty of room to grow.
In fact, there's even a couple of closed, or barely open hospitals - the old Eastmoreland Hospital, the old Woodland Park Hospital (now a "speciality hospital" but much of it is unused), the old Adventist Hospital (I believe it's now a retirement home), the old Bess Kaiser Hospital (now the Adidas America headquarters, but they are slowing moving employees to the east coast), and whatever hospital it used to be directly across from the Rose Quarter which is now partially used for the Oregon State Hospital's Portland facility (and otherwise vacant). And most of these AREN'T in floodplains and on unstable fill soil.
Posted by Erik H. | March 24, 2011 8:23 PM
What is the quote from?
http://www.swmoodyproject.com/index.html
CoP Bureau of Transport WEBsite
Posted by Steve | March 24, 2011 8:44 PM