The Hawthorne project
A reader writes in from southeast Portland:
You noted that they waited for the work in the heart of Hawthorne till after the holidays, but they've started too many blocks at once so sites just sit there torn up with nobody working. It goes on week after week and the local business people are hurting. I sat in a nearly empty restaurant today and watched how little was happening at the site across the street. Business is way down and the city planners are in no hurry to wrap it up. I've talked to the guy at Showcase Music about how p.o.-ed he was with city government on other matters. Today I saw him trying to get in his front door, and you practically need a pole vault to make it. It's annoying watching hard-working business people getting dinged because the city couldn't take a block-by-block, rapid approach that didn't stay too long in any one spot. It's almost like they don't give a [expletive deleted].Reminiscent of the transit mall rip-out. In order to help something, the city seems to feel the need to beat it to within an inch of its life first.
| Posted at 7:15 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (7)
"Hi...I'm from the government and I'm here to help you," is, after all, one of the great lies.
Posted by godfry | February 8, 2007 7:35 PM
If parking meters had been part of the plan, they'd all be in by now. Would have been there by Nov. 15.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 8, 2007 7:41 PM
Pulling out at 22nd to get onto Hawthorne this morning, there's a line of traffic. Turns out between 20th & 21st the two lanes of traffic merge into one.
They had to start working before rush hour? Oh well...
Posted by Frank Dufay | February 8, 2007 8:11 PM
Too bad our Transportation Commissioner is too busy posing for pictures and naming Trams that he can't actually do his job.
When do we vote on charter reform?
Posted by Garage Wine | February 8, 2007 8:47 PM
SO LONG AS THEY PAY THEIR TAXES ON TIME, does anybody think the City really cares about Portland's business owners?
Business exists to pay taxes and employ proles: that is their primary function in a statist economic model.
If business owners manage to get rich in the process, they were not sufficiently taxed and probably lied to, cheated, or stole from their customers.
Posted by Mister Tee | February 9, 2007 6:01 AM
Amen.
Amen.
Posted by rr | February 9, 2007 8:07 AM
Update from Hawthorne: They're going back in on the north side of Hawthorne at 37th. I asked one owner about it and he just said, "They screwed it up. They have to do it again. Apparently, water doesn't flow uphill."
That explains the long line of commuters waiting to get through there this morning.
Posted by Bill McDonald | February 9, 2007 9:02 AM