This Week in the Mercury

I Love Television™

Columns

I Love Television™

Into the Donkey Abyss


Bombad Three Dees!

Film

Bombad Three Dees!

Ooo! Da Phantom Menace! Deesa Besto Star Warsie!



  |  

Thursday, December 3, 2009

News Five Predictions For Friday's Big CRC Meeting

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 12:58 PM

The Governor has called a blatant media stunt press conference in support of the $3.6 billion Columbia River Crossing project! This can only mean one thing: a major, possibly negative decision on the big bridge must be near. Indeed, the bigwig Project Sponsors Council will meet tomorrow morning to discuss and possibly vote on the recent "refinements" ($680 million in downsizing) to the CRC.

The governor, transportation activists, environmentalists, everyone wants to know what will happen at the meeting tomorrow. BikePortland says it'll be a showdown. Here's my predictions:

1. If the project comes to a vote, Metro Council President David Bragdon will vote no. This didn't require a crystal ball, but just a phone call to Bragdon, whose opposition to the bridge has recently reached a fever-pitch. “You can’t ‘refine’ a fundamentally flawed project,” says Bragdon. “I still think there are good reasons to do a project, it just needs to be one that meets realistic demands at a price we can afford. The one that’s being proposed is just not viable, but we can come up with a version that does work.”

2. So will Mayor Sam Adams. "He wants better information on what impacts this project and its refinement will have in Portland," confirms Adams' spokesman Roy Kauffman via email. "He remains concerned that Vancouver will not support tolls necessary to help pay for the project and prevent gridlock in downtown Portland." I talked to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance's Michelle Poyourow (who walked off the CRC project in September) about the upcoming meeting and summed up the pressure on Adams: "This is the last opportunity for our elected officials to stand up and do what's right... this is the point where we want to see them stand up and stop playing along with this failed project."

3. So committee leaders will maneuver to avoid a vote. Bragdon and Adams are only two of ten people on the committee and the others will do anything to avoid getting two of the most important players on the $3.6 billion project to voice undeniable lack of support for the current plan. Though the committee is supposed to make a recommendation on whether they support the 10-lane design, the group will figure out some way to avoid a vote to approve or deny the design. Instead, they'll pussyfoot around an up-or-down vote and instead send the design back for more refinements. All talk, no action, no controversy.

4. Pro-bridge leaders will present the situation as having only one question: "To CRC or not to CRC?" They'll say, basically, either you support the bloated design we're looking at or you support doing nothing at all. There is no chance of creating a better option or investing $4 million or so in an independent analysis to come up with a better idea than a new big freeway.

5. Big bridge-backers will write off the opposition protest outside as an unrealistic, ragtag crowd who haven't presented any real alternatives to the 10-lane option. They'll say we need to break ground on this project now to create jobs, jobs, jobs and that all the funding will fall into line very soon. Oh, sorry. That's three predictions. It's just becomes clear when you've heard it all before.

 

Comments (5) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
Bragdon's right: WA and OR DOTs proceeded here to design a bridge without the necessary harness of budgets (and perhaps reality).

That a grossly over-built public project should proceed because it would bring jobs to the community is corruption - a misdirection of public monies.
Posted by J Renaud on December 3, 2009 at 1:10 PM · Report
2
The CRC is a Christmas Tree. It started as a way for I5 trucks not to get caught in traffic. It has become a potential architectural monument by a big name architect, a way to cure Vancouver downtown's isolation due to poor planning (see the award winning park to cover I5 in Vancouver), a way to build ever grander Washington interchanges with roads bringing commuters to the East, spiffy interchanges to dump Washington commuters onto Portland secondary roads in North Portland, lanes to bring Washington shoppers to Janzen Beach for tax free shopping and a rallying point for "don't tax me don't toll me, government can do no good, except when they are doing it for me" Vancouver commuters after good paying jobs in Portland. If the bridge is destroyed in the big one, NoPo will get a break and the big trucks will use 205. Meanwhile, the Washington Legislature, probably Oregon too would rather spend funds under a different Christmas tree.
Posted by R on December 3, 2009 at 1:47 PM · Report
3
"Who cares if we don't have the money, let's build it anyway!" is exactly how this country got into the mess it's in in the first place. I can't believe people are still unabashedly thinking like that.
Posted by Andy Mesa on December 3, 2009 at 2:41 PM · Report
4
I want to see how they really think that cutting 20% out of a project won't force them to redo the EIS. If they don't, it will just end the project up in court, where a judge will throw the thing out. The entire case will take 20 minutes, _I_ could argue it. For instance, many of the originally planned interchange improvements were how they got the "safety" purpose and need satisfied. Without the interchange improvements, the bridge is no safer than it is today, (and the bridge isn't the problem today, it is the interchanges.) They cut those, the alternatives stack up differently, they fail to meet the purpose and need, and they'll need to start over at the beginning, with a new purpose and need or at the very least, with a new set of alternatives. Which is exactly what the environmental organizations want them to do anyways.

Also: I remember the ODOT chair saying at the city council meeting that they wouldn't build this bridge without Portland's support. They don't have it. End of story. He needs to be thrown out of office for lying, either then, or now for saying that the bridge will proceed. Where is the recall for that guy?
Posted by Matthew D on December 3, 2009 at 3:23 PM · Report
5
We need the jobs. We can't afford not to expedite this project.

Nothing says big carbon footprint like bumper to bumper traffic (Portland in the 19th worse in the nation).
Posted by science+logic on December 3, 2009 at 3:46 PM · Report

Add a comment

Our Friends

Our Enemies

/images/adoftheweek.gif

ad of the day

The Handyman Pro - Your Honey-Do Specialist
Don’t let our name fool you. The Handyman Pro, LLC is a repair and remodel service provider with over 25-years experience. We cover all aspects of construction and repairs for residential and commercial clients.go


post an ad

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use