Who needs paved streets? After those two and their toadies get done, there'll be nowhere to go and nothing to do around here... except maybe ride around on a throwaway bike searching for dropped change, food scraps, and other discards.

Can we ban snow tires as well? Even this year, with barely any rain, let alone snow, I'm hearing them all over town.

I've always wondered....since the case can be made that the city is failing to perform one of it's primary functions by not fixing the streets, could they be sued by city residents for damage that occurs to our cars due to this failure to perform?

Doesn't matter to me anymore, I live in The Couv but oh, what a class action suit that would be!

Damn. So in addition to invoicing the mayor for the huge Whiskas bill I'm incurring to feed my team of kitty exterminators that deal with compost-spawned rats, I'm going to have to start forwarding my Auto Zone bills to the jerkfaced cretin too? Gah!

Effing madness. I hate the leadership in this city.

It's not leadership, it's eagership -- as in eager to please their private masters. And new eager beavers are already lined up to take their places. And the beat down goes on....

Well put, Mojo.

Good lord, I don't even know where to begin - and I'm a city employee! There is so much crap that the city is paying for, they could probably triple the amount of road maintenance in the current budget and still have plenty of monopoly money to play with.

And - what business in their right mind wants to come to a city where getting from Point A to Point B is nearly impossible, not to mention costly to the condition of any vehicle traveling on Portland roads.

People - get thee to the budget forums, get online when the chance to participate opens up, and FLOOD the comments with a get back to basics message.

PS - Can we please find an adult candidate for mayor?

Yes but, elevated bike paths and trolly cars earn more ink in the Times and that sells more bunkers in the Pearl and beyond. Who cares what goes on back stage?

Outrage! Sam finds $2 Million for a rental bike program, which should be totally free-enterprise, but won't can't find the $4 Million for street paving. And all the bloggers here could make a long list of other screwed up priorities that Sam is exhibiting.

One that is irritating is the $20 Million he took from the Sellwood Bridge replacement to help fund the cities portion of Milwaukie Lightrail. A prudent person would fund street repair instead.

And as a former insider in the NA / Neighborhood coalitions bunch, I want to send a real big raspberry, bronx cheer, and shout out to clowns like Marianne Fitzgerald, SWNI CHair; Roger Averbeck, SWNI Transporattion Committee Chair, and especially the knave Stephanie Routh, Willamette Pedestrian co - alition, all of whom have whored for months, nay years, and climbed into bed with Miller, Adams and company supporting every hare brained scheme the City could come up with in the sadly mis taken idea that by "going along" they wou;d get some crumbs for local projects.

What amazing fools.

After those two and their toadies get done, there'll be nowhere to go and nothing to do around here... except maybe ride around on a throwaway bike searching for dropped change, food scraps, and other discards.

Hey, this is perfectly good watermelon...

http://youtu.be/QCfJ2NbPATo

This seems discriminatory towards motorists. It's an equity issue. Maybe instead of using their new budget to hire 11 paper-pushers the Office of Equity could instead use the money to repave some streets?

Don't need streets when all transportation is either by rail, bike, or foot. It's all in the Climate Action Plan.

What really gets me is they have no problem generating $40M a year more in water fees with a 50% raise and if you want to build a building:

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2011/12/16/balls-pearl-plan-25m-in-city-fees.html

Bob Ball is paying $2.5M in go-away (aka SDCs) money to CoP to build a $25M building.

It is still not enough at the rate they are pissing it all away - An schools are still crappy, potholes abound and gang bangers are still shooting innocent people.

I'm flabbergasted! There's plenty of money available for any project! Really! Why, already close to one million is available for a 2 block long sidewalk on a straight stretch of road that already has a 4 to 6 foot pedestrian lane on one side! And April Bertlesen (pronounced "ber-TEL-sen"), PDOT, has all but guaranteed it!

http://www.hillsdalenews.org/

And Nonny- speaking of visionaries and good ol' "Just do it whether it's legal or not, and then apologize later" Don Blaach is calling for sidewalks on BOTH sides of the street!

http://www.swcommconnection.com/news/story_2nd.php?story_id=132199141736074300

Be sure to look at the picture accompanying the SW Connection article. That stretch of road - which has experienced NO pedestrian accidents ever - really needs close to a million dollars in sidewalks, huh? Meanwhile, the sink holes further up in the residential areas are sinking, sinking, sinking. They get gratuitously filled with asphalt every 12 months or so, but the sinkholes return in about three months.

Nonny, I agree with you about SWNI and several other NA coalitions, besides several neighborhood associations they represent. They sidle up to politicians like Sam and think crumbs will come their way if they play the party line.

What they will do for a piddling amount from the city budget is mind boggling. "You want a sidewalk?", We'll study that, then think about it, and...."

Portland, Oregon, now renamed Pothole, Oregon

Boring! All those basic services are so, so, so boring! Nobody gets invited to speak at all those chic international conferences doing that stuff. "Building the Portland brand," is so much more entertaining.

It's like someone who has a nice shirt, an expensive suit and shoes for special appearances, but is living in their car. Crazy.

Those commissioners are all playing "go along, get along" while the ship goes down, one deck at a time. That's why not one of them will ever get a vote from me again. Somebody should have been saying, "This is not sustainable." Not one of them have.

"I'm flabbergasted! There's plenty of money available for any project!"
---

Same song, but here is another verse:
"How could I be out of money, I still have checks left in my checkbook!"

This is what you get when you vote for oh-so-cool creative feel-good trendy types. It's time for the adults to step in - I hope it isn't too late for y'all. In Jack's terminology, that probably means you'll look for a tighty-rightie.

Guess I will bring up reference to "The Caine Mutiny" again.
What do we do when the Captain/Admiral of a ship are waaaaaay off course
and we are headed for disaster?

What a way to begin the new year!

These decision makers have to know people will be so outraged and upset by this
on top of everything else they have done harmful to the community,
I am having difficulty coming up with words for this now other than downright cruelty!

Right leaning of any stripe will get elected in this town when hell freezes over.

Just somebody who isn't trying to coddle to the planner/developer class will do.

Maybe somebody who isn't in it to save the world, or pandering to some vision of a (Insert buzzword here) Utopia would be nice.

How about somebody who can realistically view the city as it is now, and not how it some vocal dreamers wish it could be.

Left or right, if they can balance a check book, and maybe look six months or a year down the road instead of 30 or 60 years, and may actually want to do a job instead of build a résumé, they have my vote.

Sadly it seems they have left the city. Will the last sane government type please turn off the lights and take down the flag when they leave?

One need only drive the length of (not-yet-renamed) SE 82nd to understand the lunacy of our priorities.

I've already had to replace a tire ruined by a pothole on NE Sandy. It's ugly everywhere, regardless of the transportation needs of the majority of travelers and commuters.

Billions for light rail? Laissez-faire with the streets? C'mon, man...

Same situation in LO. Disrespect, manipulation, lies -- spending money on foolish dreams that no one wants while infrastructure crumbles. Criminals all.

Is it any wonder Adams and Leonard are both looking to ride off into the sunset shortly with their PERS loot in hand.

On SE Clinton street in my neighborhood the city plans to plant art work along with the already existing power poles with half-a-bike mounted on them. Other parts of the city have no sidewalks, such as in the Southwest (Barbur Blvd) area; and these nutcases down at cityhall spend the money on wasteful bike art projects and "sustainability centers."

Sadly, the three leading Mayorial candidates are of much the same cloth as Adams and leonard.

In the city of Portland, the path to election and re-election is to treat grown-ups like juveniles;and juveniles as grown-ups. Sadly it is the winning political strategy in stump town, yet to this very day.

This is what happens when Republicans have presidential debates in P-town.

This fall I was excited to see road crews working on an "unimproved roadway" near us. They scraped it, poured gravel, rolled it, and then left. A couple of weeks later a PDOT truck was parked there, so I went and talked to the guys. They were testing a new system of improving the roads but not paving them. It looks like their test is failing; 3 months later the potholes are already coming back, in the same places as before.

It looks like this is the wave of the future--bandaids on the roads, not fixing the roads.

Oh yes but we must all remember that "cars are evil". Of course the way things are going one will be only be able to get around in a tank!
But maybe that is the grand plan of "behavioral change"; keep the whining masses immobile.

Ha. They are building two bioswales on my street right now. Plenty of money for that.

And for an office of equity, which has no definable mission after a year. And a "water demonstration house." And a thousand "curb extensions" on our city's one hundred bike boulevards.

What a mess. And who is going to change it? Steve Novick? Mary Nolan? Ha ha ha. Maybe Eileen Brady has a touch of pragmatism. Maybe.

Sam is saving up for this:
http://everydayportland.com/2012/01/04/lake-oswego-streetcar-plan-dropped-in-favor-of-moontrain/

Mayor Sammyboy should be on a tricycle instead of a bicycle – and both (tricycles and bicycles) need to be taxed when so-called adults ride them.

Well said, Nonny Mouse.

I was raised in East County and our family lived on a road whose residents voted to remain private. Everyone contributed toward paving and maintenance of that road. Elsewhere around us, people were living on unpaved alleys or potholed roads waiting for the city to get around to them.

This sort of statement from the Mayor is shameful in an era of bloat that encompasses (among so many other things), a Sustainability Tower and the employment of countless hip tweeting toadies in City Hall.

In my opinion NM might be right but if he is who I think he is, he was so abrasive and virulently misogynistic to his peers within the SWNI coalition that all he ever did was cause discord at meetings. They eventually took the extraordinary maybe even unprecedented step of kicking him out, which I suppose is why he refers to himself as a former insider.

It seems like a story of a concerned citizen with decent ideas going to the meetings and then making everyone agree with the other side because he insulted everyone who asked any questions. Nobody can be expected to take a hard look at the merits of their ideas when a loose cannon says they're fuc&*g morons for having certain ideas about building sidewalks.

There's an important lesson here for any public participant: Communicate your ideas assertively but respectfully because if you don't play well with others you marginalize yourself and any good ideas you might have had.

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/when_you_are_up_to_your_ass_in_alligators_it_is/171166.html

“When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remind yourself your initial objective was to drain the swamp”

Here, the job is to address livability the alligators, city council and commercial interests.

Damn right we will get in your face.

....because if you don't play well with others you marginalize yourself and any good ideas you might have had.

What does playing well with others mean here?
Does it mean to go along politely, with city followers who are mesmerized by the city agenda? Can’t have any differing ideas, or dissension at these meetings now, can we?

Of course, that's not what I wrote, clinamen. I thought I made my point clearly, but I'll try to put it another way. By "play well with others" I meant treating your fellow volunteers with common respect. That's all.

It's not complicated. Even excellent ideas will never be popular if their proponent is the kind of person who makes every argument a personal thing, blows up over little differences, and curses well-meaning peers who spend their time at meetings instead of being with their families. Dyspeptics drive away thoughtful volunteers.

NM complained about flawed people, process, and results, but it seemed like his own abrasive communication style made it impossible for his ideas to ever be seriously considered. Policy isn't only about ideas, it's about people and relationships.

TomR ain't just whistling "Dixie" concerning the severe rutting and potholes on 82nd. After not having the pleasure of doing so for quite some time, I just drove up the "82nd Avenue of Roses" yesterday from inner Clackistan to Fremont, and am positive I shortened the life of my car's suspension by six years in doing so.

But is it the city who maintains that, or the state (OR-213)?

Sal, your point is understood. But sometimes "politeness" or "respect" employed by those in the supposed majority/staff, etc. on an issue is disrespectful.

For instance, many times a contrary opinion is treated with "could you bring up your point with staff (or an individual) afterwards? We need to move along". Or "your interpretation of past discussions is not our collective thinking, so let's move on". Or a moderator, staff cuts off a contrary opinion that might have used only a minute, but someone else with majority opinion is allowed to talk on for five times as long.

Many times a contrary opinion needs a few minutes to explain how the opinion might be factually based or develop the reasoning that might be new to the group.

To many, those approaches and words are just as disrespectful.I won't elaborate on how the choice and tone of words can be demeaning. Leaving out "hell" doesn't necessarily make phrases much less demeaning. I've been in too many meetings to think otherwise when you figure out the real agenda of these kinds of controlling words.

Sal, you hit a sore spot with me. Do us a favor and start spending MORE time with your family. I don't know where you're from but
those of us in SW PDX Hillsdale are sick and tired of the "chosen few" in the local neighborhood association sticking their noses into our lives and telling us how we "should" live. There is so much interference in people's lives in Hillsdale that the HNA has become a four letter word. I certainly don't subscribe to cursing at public meetings, but I likewise don't believe that organizations with no legal authority should try to bully others and stack the deck at meetings, which is the way the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association (aka self-proclaimed "neighborhood activists") operate.

Sal,
Treating your fellow volunteers with common respect, as you stated, I believe most people attending meetings try to abide with that in mind. However, respect is a two way street and if the meetings are set up with no or little respect towards the volunteer citizens, what does one do?

How do you deal then when the meetings/committees are stacked, when one knows the "fix" is in, when those dominating are those from staff wielding over the volunteers, or those with vested interests are outnumbering the volunteers thereby assuring a certain agenda/plan outcome?

At some point, time after time, if in fact these are the type of meetings NM was referring to, one can no longer just sit there and be totally respectful. It has been my experience that respect is demanded from the volunteers, but is not given in return. This can be done in a myriad of ways.

I may very well be jaded by what I have witnessed at various meetings. I have brought forth ideas in a nice manner, and if it isn't in sync with a certain plan or "clique", those ideas are brushed aside and any objections are seen as interference.

In my view, many citizens stay away, far too distressing after a few meetings of "negative" treatment.

Clinamen and Janey, do you think it's OK in any circumstances to call Marianne Fitzgerald, Roger Averbeck, and the "knave" Stephanie Routh "clowns" and "fools" who have "whored for months?" I don't, even if I disagree with their ideas, no matter how frustrated I get. Reasonable people can disagree about ideas, and should express their contrary opinions, but those words sound ugly, angry, and misogynistic to me. I think it's especially dishonorable for a man to communicate with women that way, and any man who does so has lost my respect.

"whored": A person considered to have compromised principals for personal gain.

Personal gain could be various, besides money or vanity.

Sal, you miss the point. We are talking about something much deeper than name-calling. Clinamen stated it perfectly. Why take time out of my life to attend meetings where any objection falls on deaf ears by the NA cliques? The Hillsdale NA claims to want more "community" involvement, but, in truth, don't bother unless you buy into its agenda. When a conflict arises, the HNA makes sure that petitions are circulated before the meeting on the issue and that attendance for the vote is stacked against the dissenters.

Kinda late to the meeting here, but folks in my neighborhood (Hillsdale) who have attended an HNA meeting have said they returned home afterwards to take a 30 minute hot shower to get the stench off.

By the way, Sal, care to share with us how many multiple tens of thousands of dollars have been flushed down the toilet by the HNA in the name of "planning" the future of Hillsdale? Really, other than hanging flower pots, what do you have to show for the money? Oh, but it's "grant" money... not real money.

You people are a bad joke. Enjoy it while it lasts.

your parents have done what they could
they can bring a horse to the water brink
but that horse may choose whether it will drink

Beautiful, Sal. But seriously, how much money has been been thrown away? You can set to verse if you pleases you.