I am very familiar with the sidewalks being 12 feet. I worked with the owner of a property in SE Portland that fronted a major street and he wanted to build a 2000 sqft office 125 ft back from the road.

CoP told him no way would they issue a permit unless he "contributed" 2 extra feet of lot to build a wider sidewalk. According to BDS, they get complaints all the time from neighbors that want these 12 ft sidewalks.

I can assure no one will confuse this street with the Champs Elysee even with 12 ft sidewalks. I guess ol' Sam has his price like any other politician in town - When are we going to finally retire Vera?

Better find yourself somebody good to run against him for mayor -- and quick.

He can't be defeated; I mean, if he could convince people that he--Vera Katz's former COS--was an "outsider" who was going to "shake up" City Hall, he can probably convince anyone of anything.

I think he's a decent guy, just that his ambitions for higher office are as transparent as any politician I've ever seen.

I think he's a decent guy

He's a front for the Chosen Few developers. I don't know if that fits into my definition of "decent."

He's pissing off tons of people across town for flowing millions to developers while claiming there isn't any money to pay for basic street repairs and sidewalks, so it's not a sure thing he'd win the mayoral election. People are going to remember his mismanagement of the transportation bureau, especially when their kids are nearly run down every day on their walk to school. He doesn't care because he's not going to have kids.

"People are going to remember his mismanagement of the transportation bureau..."

Don't be so sure. They keep re-electing Opie, don't they?

IMO, Portland is so overly populated by government-class, birkenstock wearin', sustainability freaks, that you'll never see anyone slightly to the right of Randy Leonard get elected.

I think there will be a number of people working to tell the real story about Sam the Tram for whatever he runs for again. The question is whether the media and blogs will be good at conveying the facts, the two faces, of Sam. Politics.

what would be a proper width for sidewalks, blog readers?

when i attempt to answer that question, i begin to see how difficult it is and why tradeoffs happen all the time on a case-by-case basis.

but, heck--when it's down to how wide the sidewalk should be, it's another case of Rearranging Deck Chairs(tm).

Portland is so overly populated by government-class, birkenstock wearin', sustainability freaks, that you'll never see anyone slightly to the right of Randy Leonard get elected.

yeah--those hippie freaks nested up in the West Hills, Dunthorpe and The Pearl really cheese me off with their german sandals.