But Jack, it's the bad economy!

There were probably 20 TriMet and Metro staff "missionaries" at the Park Avenue Station charette fest Tuesday night.

Their zombie expressions in response to the many complaints over the Not-So-Local plans showed they are vital personel.

No doubt PDOT has the same kind of troops doing mission work.

While the rank and file maintainers get the boot.

BTW
Does anyone remember when Charlie Hales left his commissioner job saying "I'm not a maintainer" ?

That was special.

I was watching a film called, "Meltdown: The Men Who Crashed the World" and of course our beloved Henry Paulson was prominently featured. Did you know his nickname was the Snake....on Wall Street!

Anyway, I hope Portlanders think back to our city council embracing the Paulson family and showering them with our former baseball stadium, even giving them the rights to name it.

One of the prominent people who caused the loss of 30 million jobs, etc...sent his son to our city council and they bowed down and kissed his feet.

Now this same council is in the middle of austerity cuts because of the damaged economy - caused in great part by Henry Paulson - and talking like nobody could have imagined what was going to happen with the downturn in revenue.

One of the bankers tried running that argument by a committee in the film, and the guy responded that they had been talking about it for 6 months.

In other words, all these little pet projects were done at the expense of these service jobs, and the council knew it. Tom Miller and Samsonite knew it, too, or they had their heads so far into the bubble that they couldn't see. No wonder they're heading for the exits before this thing really melts down.

At least this time the cuts in services aren't being described as a way to save the planet. I don't know about you but the garbage pickup thing feels exactly like services were cut in half, despite all the little brown compost boxes, etc...They need a little brown compost box to carry around their B.S.

OK everyone who drives a car or wishes they could afford one step into the RED line.

Now everyone who walks, bikes, or takes public transportation step into the BLUE line.

BLUE line.......... You're safe.

RED line.......... Thank you for your service, please pick up your free 10-pack of Tri-Met tickets on the way out- and have a good (can't say the C word) holiday season.

Those aren't "potholes", they're opportunities to create your very own mini bioswale, courtesy of the CoP. So get out there and start "greening" your neighborhood.

Pragmatic--the "potholes" aren't just mini bioswales, they're also traffic calming devices!

We have an "unimproved road" in our neighborhood. It has degenerated to the point where the only people using it have been kids on their dirt bikes. Last week a PBOT crew arrived! No, not to pave. They graded it down and laid gravel and rolled it. It's already collecting puddles again.

At least they graded it.

At least they showed up ....

Today I saw a PBoT truck on that newly-graded road, so I went over and asked the guys if they were going to be paving the street.

They said no, it was a test case to see if it's cost-effective to simply grade and roll unimproved streets rather than actually paving them.

I (very nicely) said that I'd rather my money be spent on streets than streetcars, and they smiled and agreed with me. Then one of them said that "I didn't hear it from him" but Portland's streets are truly falling apart. They seemed to be frustrated with the way money is spent in their bureau.

....and bioswales are no doubt secure...

Are they ever!
Stark/Washington Avenues around SE 85th are getting them right now.
A great antique store there, can it be good for their business to take away needed parking?
Anyway, how much do these huge cemented configurations/bioswales cost?