A blue print for bankruptcy
When mass transit usage is down, employment is way down, and there's no real hope in sight for the local economy, what does Portland do? Why, spend years devising plans to build more streetcars, of course. They're so clean, so green! (Unless you're a salmon being chopped up by a turbine at a hydropower dam, that is. Or somebody downwind of Boardman.) And best of all, no essential government services are ever cut to raise money for streetcars -- they cost nothing to build or run.
So go by streetcar! Save the whales and be a part of the magic.
| Posted at 10:34 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (5)
It must be tough wishing for fiscal conservatism or even logical spending from Democrats (though most Republicans aren't any better now days).
Posted by Joey Link | September 10, 2009 12:25 AM
I have an idea for the ultimate Portland mode of transportation: 40 bicycles welded together in the general shape of a streetcar.
Posted by Bill McDonald | September 10, 2009 1:22 AM
Coming on the heels of the report yesterday that the big Bush II plan for NASA to reach the moon and Mars being woefully underfunded, I'm not surprised. Big projects like these are really easy to approve, especially when the perps who voted for them are long-gone by the time the bill comes due. It's really easy to point to the stars and yell "Look! A miracle!", especially when it's your friends and former staffers who are going to be employed for years on this sort of idiocy.
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | September 10, 2009 8:48 AM
I suggest the city explore harnessing the power of zoobombers with a giant hamster wheel driving a generator.
Green as it gets.
Posted by cc | September 10, 2009 8:52 AM
Bill McDonald -
I don't remember where, but I swear I saw a picture of something that was very similar to this idea. Was it a nightmare or are you referring to the same picture?
Posted by native oregonian | September 11, 2009 7:53 AM