Too many phallic symbols to count.

Too bad that "we" have chased away and excluded the jobs necessary to pay taxes, fix the bridges and roads, support the schools, pay our crushing debt load, and a host of other stuff.
If "we" are "building" so much then why is the unemployment rate nearly 10% and every small business in town is suffering and laying off workers?
This makes me SICK! what a load of bull sh*t!

There's a video of Sam's introduction of a showing of that video in China:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q

"Replacing nature with concrete and steel"...."became less habitable"....less people wanted to live here"..... sounds kinda like Barry O apologizing again. Nothing but a back-handed bald faced lie. Remind you of any mayors you know?

Just sayin'

The video:

"Per capita CO2 emissions in Portland have dropped 22% since 1990."

LOL. Per capital CO2 emissions in the United States have dropped 12% since 1990 - I'm sure the difference between the US and Portland can be completely explained by Portland's ongoing deindustrialization - there are a number of polluting plants in Portland in 1990 which no longer exist.

These are all salient acomplishments, but, I feel that the omission noting Portland as the home for setting the record of "Most Hipster's able to fit into an Electric Prius" (23 for those of you wondering; Google it) is especially troubling.

After all, we can be green and still have fun!

"We've built more than 400 bioswales, allowing rainwater to green our city..."

So it's a verb now.

Portland really is an innovator.

In my business travels around the country, I often get asked about Portland. They say they hear such great things all the time and they wonder if they should move here.

I tell them the truth. I tell them about Metro and its "Great Leap Forward" plans for the region, the city's semi-autonomous real estate development arm, the PDC, the crappy, too-expensive to operate public transportation options that are as effective as a slow conveyor belt in a factory, the bricked off streets, roads and bridges falling apart or falling down, micromanaged behavioral engineering, the huge increase in the cost of living in just a few years with more on the way, the biking fanatics, the car-haters, the taxes, the outrageous rates for crappier and crappier services, the arrogance and snobbery of the green-noses, the anti-family anti-child vibe, scandalous politicians over and over agian, chronic secrecy or misinformation in government, and the city's constant advertising that this is paradise.

In short, I say I wouldn't because it's a trap. I say imagine thinking you're on a train that's you believe is evacuating you to a safe haven until you discover it stops at a place with a sign that says "Work Makes you Free".

No mention of the plan to destroy our pure and natural water system with concrete bunkers and mercury-filled UV bulbs.

No mention of the extreme debt financing which is driving people away and taking away from vital services

No mention of the increased security apparatus which is taking away more and more of our constitutional rights

Those undemocratic, unlawful activities should be of great interest to communist China.

OMG these people are unhinged liars!

Now they are claiming "64 miles of streetcars and light rail has sparked $11 billion in new and re-development"

A few months ago it was $8 billion.

In 2006 it was 3.5 billion.

So have we seen billions in new development since the real estate market crash? Or are the liars becoming bigger liars.

Grumpy that's the greatest summation/rant I've seen in awhile, and my thoughts exactly.

And until we get another garbage rat update, let me just say we awoke to find our compost pail on the curb crusted with leftover-undumpable bilge surrounded by food scraps on the street.

I am thinking that wherever Sam takes this video (think resume) someone should follow with a "truth" or "behind the curtain" video of what has taken place here.

Yes we have 900 bioswales here and 324 miles of bicycle paths, but people will not be able to afford their water bills.

Worse yet, by the time the agenda by PWB is done, we can forget the clean drinking water. PWB's huge debt is leading to privatization and all those "greenies" here either haven't a clue or don't care that toxic chemicals may be added to our good clean water!

So now according to this video, we finally achieved The City That Works and must export ambassadors/consultants to spread the good news while the City of Roses dies on the vine.

Mr Grumpy,
That is what I do as well. I do not encourage anyone to live here. My 2 minute TIF lecture usually puts them off right away.

Great metaphor clinamen!
Remember when Gomez Adams gave Morticia the buch of "roses that were nothing bu the thorny stems? Well, Sam has given us a "bouquet of thorns as well.

Maybe I'm picky, but in the middle of this embarrassing video, was that a lone cyclist which blew through the stop sign while turning left?

Anybody know the cost of this drivel?

At least the video was truthful with regards to the bicyclist blowing through the stop sign at about the 1:44 mark.

Portland Native,
I was going to say it felt like a thorn in my side to watch the video.

I say too that if anyone ever comes to your city to promote "Portland's vision" run 100 miles the other direction.

Are we sure this isn't another episode of Portlandia?

$11 billion in new development along the MAX lines?

A cycling culture that has added $90 million to the local economy?

I'd like to see how these figures were arrived at. Other than just sitting in a planning office somewhere manufacturing numbers from whole cloth. And even assuming these numbers are correct, from whom was that money extracted?

I notice the video did not included the slop buckets.

Reading this post gave me a great PR idea:

Lets create a sustainable, self-sufficient bloc of Oregon counties led by Metro and free of corporate powers.

We can call it the Greater West Oregon Co-Prosperity Sphere

Should play really well in East Asian countries like Korea and China!

Thanks
JK

If I read one more time about rail "sparking" development, I think I'll go postal.

This reminds me of some years ago when the Katz regime tried to claim that Portland was the only city in the world that had already met the Kyoto protocol for greenhouse gas reductions, then stayed quiet when one of the local papers debunked the claim because it was based on totally bogus statistics.

Eventually the "Big Lie" is perceived as reality and is sure to attract investors and new residents if they don't pay close enough attention.

Those of you stuck or wanting to remain here, stop reading now.

For you others, we need to pump up the PR, to attract naive newcomers and others to purchase the homes on the market, being sold by the smart and critical thinkers who have figured it out, and who have decided to relocate to more sane locales.

The reason our CO2 emissions have gone down is because we generate our power in Boardman and truck our methane-producing garbage to Arlington.

Portland's CO2 smokestack is located 150 miles east of Portland, and since the Cascades does a pretty good job blocking much of it, it stays out there in the eastern part of the state.

That, and with fewer people commuting (due to fewer jobs) and the loss of most of our industrial base...

Wonder who wrote the script? Certainly doesn't appear to be any fact-checking. Not to mention the mayor and his minions have a habit of linking cause/effect to random disparate facts that a freshman philosophy student could rip apart in minutes.

"doesn't appear to be any fact-checking"

Now that's funny.

Bill you should have said that.

Too bad there isn't a freshman philosophy student in office of Mayor instead of the current occupant.

Too bad there isn't a freshman philosophy student in office of Mayor instead of the current occupant.

Where's Roland Chlapowski when you need him?

San Francisco May Not Be as Green as Advertised, Energy Experts Say
By John Upton
Published: November 19, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/us/san-francisco-may-not-be-as-green-as-advertised-energy-experts-say.html?src=rechp

Portland undoubtedly uses the same phony calculus.