In other words, Rex, it's for the children. In that case, bring it on!

The only useful skills I learned at outdoor school was proper etiquette in a formal dining room (a skill I have yet to use in real life), and how to sneak out of the barracks and navigate a mile or so through the woods to the girls barracks with no flashlight.

The rest of it was pure green washing.

I'll support the soda pop tax, when Rex supports the Bicycle Tax.

5% sales tax for any bicycle, bicycle accessory, clothing, or other item that is directly related to bicycles and bicycling. Books, videos, magazines, parts, lights, helmets, car racks...if it involves a bike, 5% sales tax.

Oh, and maybe a $30/year registration fee too. And since motorists have to pay the fee for both their driver's license AND the license plates for the car itself, let's do the same for the bike. $30 per bicyclist, AND $30 per bike.

Wasn't Rex the geriatric hippie that ran the ads with all the middle aged flower children blowing bubbles in the park?

What an inconsequential ass.

And then there's always the issue of any new tax supposedly going towards one thing when it really winds up going to something else.

Rex has always been at the forefront of behavior modification taxation. He just doesn't follow his own rules. He wants to force people to live in apartments, while he and his partner share a nice detached home with a bit of property.

re Max. Don't they all!

Don't forget Rex will be remembered for fooling the voters with his phony density limitation measure to compete with a real measure that would have taken away Metro's power to mandate density. See: http://www.stopmetro.com/

Thanks
JK

What a bunch of colossal idiot frontmen and greedy bandits run amok in government and "industry" around here. More proof:

Tanking home prices mean Portland schools collecting $8 million less than projected from voter-approved tax to save teacher jobs
Updated: Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 7:54 PM By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/01/_htankingportland_schools_collec.html

After tax notices went out in November, however, district officials learned they would probably only collect $54 million -- 13 percent less than they were counting on.

District officials say they had expected property values would decline, but not by anything close to an average of 9 percent.

Here again, the folly of it all.
Metro dictates density....
Yards for children to play in becoming extinct if they had their way.
Some do have postage stamp size yards so they can sit on a chair on the patio.
We used to be able to play volleyball/badmitten in our yard.
Must have been nice for parents to see their kids safely playing in their yard.
Now we see obesity, blame it ALL on the soda,
certainly cannot be as a result of any "smart growth" plan
or how about junk food. Is that to be taxed next?
Now we need more money so the kids can go somewhere to play outside.

I recognize that times change,
I just don’t see the Metro plans and smart growth as a positive change.
Check the comments in Portland Burnout posted today.
Mark G. wrote: The "Quality of Life" for me and my family has measurably declined.

I realize there are other factors, such as computer games, and more, but you know what - I miss the happy sound of children playing outside.

Rex has always been at the forefront of behavior modification taxation. He just doesn't follow his own rules....

What causes these types to want to force behavior on others, not just in a small arena, but in such a way as to want to force an entire community of people to be lock step with their plan? .....
and yet they themselves are free to do as they please?

Lock step is the key. Then they gotcha!

(See Nazi Germany)

This is the asinine kind of thinking that really gets me. Just because everyone has been a student, everyone is an expert about what constitutes good education. And Outdoor School, while fun, is not good education. It is intended to cultivate attitudes and change behavior, not to teach any real environmental science. One should ALWAYS look for the science-based data (not just a "paper") about the efficacy of a program before assuming it is worth a moment of a child's (or adult's) time - don't just listen to the feel-good propaganda. If the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, then the hand better know what it is doing. Demand proven, data-based education. Spoken as an ex-teacher with an ax to grind. Rex needs to learn what is really worthwhile before he opens his mouth to suggest what to spend public money on. He's a fool.

Wasn't there a Metro high-level manager or staffer that promoted all the density crap...as he lived in a mansion on several acres of land just outside Metro's boundaries in Canby overlooking the Willamette River?

We used to be able to play volleyball/badmitten in our yard.

My house in SE Portland was built in 1903. All the houses around me, for blocks upon blocks, were built around the same time. I couldn't put a volleyball court in my backyard, and I've got one of the larger yards around. I don't know when we "used to" be able to build such things--presumably it was prior to 1903.

Dave J.
The yard was not that large for a complete volleyball court, but enough space to put up a net and play badminton.(spelling corrected) Not a court, but enough room to play a casual game and get exercise.

How many had open space nearby where kids could spontaneously start a game of baseball? Again, a homemade sort of deal.

If the roads continue to fall apart, then kids in most neighborhoods will be able to play sandlot baseball in the streets!

Rex is an OK guy. He's a lightweight when it comes to policy and understanding governance, but he is a good person.

Few have done more in "behavioral change" the past seven decades than the oil/car/car insurance cabal. They systematically took away effective public transit, designed our urban/suburban neighborhoods for cars, dismantled competing interurban connectors, carved up our cities with freeways, and sold us (modified our behavior) on huge behemoth vehicles which are often used to transport a single passenger. Three generations into this behavior modification transformed our nation of into one of an obese, energy dependent citizenry uncomfortable with even so much as accommodating choice in transportation modalities.

just saying : Rex is an OK guy. He's a lightweight when it comes to policy and understanding governance, but he is a good person.
JK: Rex will be in good company with his fellow OK guys that decided they know better how people should live, then the people themselves. You know, society’s master planners: Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Castro Pol-pot.

just saying : Few have done more in "behavioral change" the past seven decades than the oil/car/car insurance cabal.
JK: Public transit fell into disuse because cars are faster, more convenient and cheaper.

just saying : They systematically took away effective public transit,
JK: No they didn’t. People left transit for something better. Mass transit simply does not work very well in modern centralized cities. It has gotten so bad, that now mass transit costs 3-5 times what driving a car costs. Triment now spends MORE on each of its daily riders than the average American (under $70,000 income) pays to own and operate a car

just saying : designed our urban/suburban neighborhoods for cars,
JK: People moved to the suburbs, continuing a thousand year old trend, to have better lives. Less expensive, more space, better schools, less pollution. Why do you have a problem with people living better lives?

just saying : dismantled competing interurban connectors,
JK: They became obsolete because something better came along - the car!

just saying : carved up our cities with freeways, and sold us (modified our behavior) on huge behemoth vehicles which are often used to transport a single passenger.
JK: SO what? Cars improve out standard of living. Rapid transportation saves money and that is an improvement in our standard of living!

Thanks
JK

Rex is an OK guy. He's a lightweight when it comes to policy and understanding governance, but he is a good person.

Really?

He may be as you know him an OK guy, but serving on Metro and making policy, I don't consider that lightweight, and if he is a lightweight when it comes to understanding governance, then maybe he doesn't belong in decision making arenas.