Amen, Jack.

Thanks for shining the bright light of truth on these shady deals.

The Federal Prosecutors will be able document the path to Portland's insolvency with your blog postings.

The city bonds are to be repaid from a variety of non-property tax sources. They include state gas tax revenues ...

So we don't have enough gas tax revenues to fill potholes or pick up leaves, but we have enough to buy a choo choo train?

I don't know, Jack. I wouldn't be surprised if bow tie gets elected mayor, governor, then maybe nominated for emperor.

It continually amazes me how many medicated sheeple there are in this city that can't see past the cloud of smoke from their 'bowl' and think everything City Hall does is 'on the right track'.

The parking rates will go up too along with the water bills and don't try to do any business expansion or remodeling, those SDC will be seriously increased.
The toy train lobby is serious about their graft and corruption.

Will Milwaukie or Portland be better off if the Milwaukie Light Rail line is built? Will Portlanders come shopping in Milwaukie or the other way around?

If they fixed the Sellwood bridge so buses could use it Milwaukie citizens could get to downtown and southwest Portland quickly and cheaply. The Milwaukie MAX line takes so much from so many to benefit a few people (and the owners of downtown Portland.)

Region wide the neglect of basic infrastructure and essential services has never been greater.

If people think the era of neglect that left the Sellwood bridge closed to truck and bus trafic is behind us think again.

It is far worse today at every level.

And while the raid on revenue reaches new heights of irresponsibility little is being done to stop it.

Clackamas County may be the place the madness finally gets stopped.

The Lynn Peterson/Metro racket did much damage in piling up county debt and initiating some usual policies that promote lunacy and negligence.

But there is a multi faceted uprising occuring to reject Milwaukie Light Rail funding, rejection of the LO streetcar and rejection of the new Sellwood bridge fee scheme, rejection of Metro planning mandates and a sea change of elected officials who are pushing back hard against the expansion of the insanity.

Peterson is gone and some genuine and effective scrutiny is being applied to what she and her minions have been up to.

The next bond will say something about first born children in every household.

The people making these decisions definitely exist in a PARALLEL UNIVERSE which answers the question as to WHY they keep moving forward with the silliest of projects while Rome is burning around them!

The over-arching problem with Portland is that the City says "yes" to every idea. Some of the ideas may be good, some may be bad, but they say "yes" to every single one regardless of cost.

When you take on every new idea that pops into a Commissioner's head, it starts to add up.

If you ran your household this way, one month you'd say "let's renovate the bathroom!" and put it on the credit card. The next month you'd say "let's take the whole family to Hawaii!" and charge that. The next month would be a new car... and so on.

You can't say "yes" to everything. You have to pick and choose.

Regarding Earl B., I heard his speech to the City Club, and got the feeling that if anything he would be WORSE than Sam.

No wonder Fireman Randy wants to jack up parking charges.

This whole matter is one creepy affair!
We are dealing with the web of power.
No matter how broke we are, we need to shovel out that money for this light rail project! Never mind the cost or how the money is "finagled."

Earl B. is a big player in this.
He needs to retire, been in the public arena far too long and for all his working years as far as I can tell.

Mentioned earlier in another thread, we can no longer afford to have Earl or any other familiar name that pops up or is being propped up by this web of power to make decisions for our community.

"The over-arching problem with Portland is that the City says "yes" to every idea."

You mean like fixing potholes and the Sellwood bridge?

This town easily has an IQ (ignorance quotient) high enough to elect Earl.

Yes, those parking charges!

More charges for parking, and of any idea they can come up with, will most likely be coming after the "right people" are promoted and elected after the current financial misfits have sent us on the path of bankruptcy.

Ever notice how traffic signals make cars wait unduly and just generally gridlock working in their favor to get more people on the rails. Eventually, parking meters on the park and ride stations? on bike lock-up stations?

Bicyclist's day may come when they may be led down that merry path of paying as well. Tolls for the bike lanes are very possible, however, only after they elect the "correct sustainable ones."

Clackamas County residents ought to put a charter measure (or whatever the equivalent is for the county) that calls for a public vote for any transportation project in which the county must pay more than $5 million.

Better yet...vote out TriMet and Metro and form their own transit district (Lake Oswego can do their own thing.)

The next bond will say something about first born children in every household.

The assumption is the children will pay for the debt.
No need to have it in writing.

Does Earl really want to run for mayor again? I think the DC gig would be better.

Looking back, he probably would have been better than Vera the weirdo in '92. Sam Adams wouldn't be mayor today, either.

NEW LightRail 4.0 - Now with Adjustable Speed -

Speaking of traffic signals, the huge delays built in to the current "management" system has to be a boon to oil companies. I recently purchased an auto that tracks gas milage. Resetting it as I leave Troutdale and taking the freeway home, I average 32mpg. Resetting it as I leave Troutdale and driving home on Halsey, which has some traffic signals, I am down to 23 mpg. But if I take Stark street with it's jam packed, long wait signals, I am down to 18mpg.

All I can say is huh?

Catching up on feeds and coming late to this. This is the package Adams pledged out of savings from the Sellwood bridge? (Like when I decide I can't afford to go to a restaurant and then "use the savings" to go to a bar?)

Excerpt must be from a city hall document, I guess?