“Fairness and equity is the criteria that I have to use everyday as the transportation commissioner,” Adams says, drawing a parallel to Mayor Tom Potter’s objections to moving the Sauvie Island Bridge to NW Flanders. The council is just launching into the discussion and vote on this project—one that Adams has championed as a unique way to reuse an old bridge to connect two sides of a NW Portland bike boulevard. Potter, meanwhile, has griped that he’d rather the $5.5 million for the project go towards things like sidewalks in Cully (Adams shoots back that the vast majority—90 percent—of the funding can’t be used elsewhere).

But, Adams says, his “decisions are based on fact,” focusing efforts on areas where “the most lives are being lost, and to reduce injuries where the most injuries are occurring.”

“Based on the statements I’ve heard and seen in the media, I would vote against this project as well,” Adams says. Which is why he and his staff have a presentation ready, with a power point and three big poster boards outlining the project.

Adams has jumped out from behind the council dais and is taking the helm of the power point presentation. He’s literally facing off against Potter, who is avoiding eye contact. It’s fitting—the council chambers are filled with cycling and pedestrian advocates who already support the project; They don’t need to hear Adams’ spiel. Potter, however, has been stubborn about the facts in this project.

Adams is outlining where transportation money has gone, across the city. Now he’s got a chart laying out pedestrian and cyclist collisions and fatalities. The Burnside corridor tops the list with 211 pedestrian crashes and 14 fatalities, followed by 82nd with 184 collisions and 15 fatalities. Those two have 69 and 66 cyclist collisions—and one and zero fatalities—respectively.

More wonkery, followed by what I predict will be laudatory public testimony and then a last valiant effort by Potter to speak out against the project, after the cut.

Adams is hitting on an important fact that, frankly, he should have been pushing harder throughout this debate. One sound bite around this issue has been whether it's cheaper to build a narrow concrete slab—an option that's been cited as costing $3.5 million to the Sauvie move's $5.5 million price tag.

That $3.5 million number is a guesstimate based off of the cost for a pedestrian bridge slated for SW Gibbs. But building a similar bridge over NW Flanders wouldn't happen this year, which is the year of that cost estimate. It would be roughly five years out, as part of the Burnside-Couch couplet project. According to Adams' presentation, "$3.5 million is a low confidence cost estimate subject to inflation every year we delay the project."

He cites some numbers related to inflation that would drive up the $3.5 million number—construction materials have risen 6.5 percent in the last year, steel 8.2 percent, and "materials costs" for highway construction 12.8 percent, according to the Daily Journal of Commerce on April 23. (By my math, if we take the average of those, or 9.16 percent, and wait five years to build the skinny slab bridge, it'll cost about $5.4 million. And what's the cost of not having a crossing for five years?)

Snap! Adams is now taking on Potter's argument that Cully needs sidewalks. In 2006, Adams asked for $4 million to fund "Neighborhood Arterial Improvements" in Cully, via the budget process, a line item the mayor rejected. Adams did get some funds for Cully on another project that year, $275,000 for a "green street" proposal.

Meanwhile, the data on pedestrian and cyclists crashes along Cully are low—six pedestrian collisions and one fatality, three cyclist crashes and no fatalities.

Adams' overall conclusion is that the proposal "Saves lives, saves money, and saves the environment."

Wanna geek out? Check out the presentation here, where I translated it to a YouTube slideshow.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman has questions about the contract, reiterating his point that he doesn't want the contract with Kuney signed

Potter has unearthed a 2006 document from Adams' staff, saying if the community didn't come up with $1.5 million in private funds, this project wasn't feasible. Moreover, Potter says, the urban renewal funds can be used outside of the urban renewal area, if you look to what the council did in the last few months creating a "satellite" urban renewal to fund a school in East Portland. "I think it's inaccurate to say it can only be used in the urban renewal area itself," he says. Same for the system development charges (SDC), which Potter argues can be used anywhere in the city.

Adams says this project is on the SDC project list, which Potter voted for (but he also said the council could change that if they'd like). His read on the urban renewal satellite scheme is that the council would have to amend the rules to create another satellite—the criteria for creating one is quite tight. And the point about the community funding was to tell the community that they needed to prioritize this project if they wanted to see it happen.

Leonard is asking that public testimony is succinct, given Adams' "thorough" presentation. That, and he has to jet to a retirement party for a long serving 911 operator. Adams asked for a quick show of hands of the audience to gauge general support and opposition of the project. Less than a dozen raised a hand in opposition, while 30 to 40 raised their hands in support. There will still be testimony, however.

Susie Kubota—aunt of Tracy Sparling, who was killed on Burnside while riding her bike last October—is up, and Potter better watch out. She's citing his Oregonian op-ed of yesterday, and says she headed up to Cully to see what's those streets are like. Sure, they need sidewalks. But they haven't seen the number of fatalities that the Burnside corridor has. "You are misleading your children when you imply that the funds can be used elsewhere," she says. "There is no equity in death."

For some reason, mayoral candidate James B. Lee—sitting in the front row of the audience, just behind Kubota—is fidgeting and waving his arms, apparently in frustration (he's opposed to the project). Commissioner Randy Leonard is scolding him silently from the dais.

...nearly two hours later, after tons of public testimony, Adams is wrapping things up. "I'm trying to apply a more disciplined approach" to heading up transportation, by assessing the most dangerous areas. "All of the investments are intended to make it safer. When it gets safer, we can move down the list. But we haven't had this fact based, methodical" method for prioritizing transportation funding before, he says.

Pointing to other projects around Portland, like the future Gibbs crossing or the Springwater Corridor bridges, Adams says "you could draw a circle around any one of those projects while it's in play," and "play it against the rest of the city and alarm the rest of the town that they aren't getting their fair share." But he'll keep moving down the list.

Since this was a first reading, the council isn't voting on it until next week.