Oh my fucking god. Toll the highway and use it to fund a fareless TriMet. Then we wouldn't even be CONSIDERING spending half a billion dollars on some shitty, science-debunked trophy highway-widening project. You know why? BECAUSE BOTH MOVES REDUCE TRAFFIC AND MAKE THE PROJECT REDUNDANT!! Portland has enjoyed high praise as one of the country's leaders in city planning, but it has an opportunity to be a WORLD LEADER on how cities approach their carbon footprints for the next thirty, forty, fifty years. Instead, the mayor is suckling on a regressive low-hanging fruit to look good to a bunch of people who don't know how transportation planning works. The proposed Rose Quarter project is Page One, Day One of Common Misconceptions in Transportation 1-0-fucking-1 - enjoy being in worse gridlock for another five years, then better traffic for about six months, then even worse traffic than there is now. Instead of embracing an incredible opportunity, we're staining our reputation. I've always loved this town for being one of the most progressive in the country. We can't let that disappear along with everything else. Let's think big, Portland.