On February 25, Mayor Sam Adams led city council in a 4-1 vote
approving the biggest, most car-friendly option for the Columbia River
Crossing to Vancouver: 12 lanes.
Surprisingly, Portland’s environmental groups have so far refused to
openly criticize the supposedly green mayor’s decision to build a huge
new bridge. Instead, a group of private citizens have stepped up to
organize their own rally against the project, now set for April 5 in
Waterfront Park.
Adams reiterated his ambitious goal for Portland to become the most
sustainable city in the world at his sold-out State of the City Address
on Friday, February 28. But only 48 hours earlier, the mayor refused to
support Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s modest green amendment to his big
bridge proposal. Her motion to include environmental justice advocates
on a new bridge management committee died for lack of council
support.
The major advocacy group that has been pushing for a smaller,
cleaner option for the Columbia River Crossing is the Coalition for a
Livable Future (CLF). Last spring, CLF member and economist Joe
Cortright came out swinging against the 12-lane option, releasing a
report comparing the bridge’s $4.2 billion proposed price tag to
constructing “80 OHSU aerial trams” [“Bridge to Disaster,” Feature,
March 13, 2008].
Cortright says council has yet to answer basic questions about
funding for the bridge. But when asked whether Adams can still be
considered a green mayor, Cortright responded, “I’m not going to go
there. Let’s just say it’s not a green decision.”
CLF Co-Director Jill Fuglister says she was disappointed in the
12-lane option, but also had no comment on Adams’ vote, specifically.
And while the big bridge may create some big environmental
problems—like increasing vehicle traffic—the state’s go-to
environmental group, 1000 Friends of Oregon, has taken no stance on the
bridge debate, either. The group had no comment on Adams’ decision to
vote for 12 lanes.
The day after the council vote, Adams’ staff defended his green
reputation.
“Sam is definitely still a green mayor,” says Adams’ spokesman,
Roy Kaufmann. “We have a long time to work out all the details on the
project. We’re not wavering on our environmental objectives.”
Adams believes the management committee’s oversight of the project
will lead to carpool lanes and mass transit options. In his speech on
Friday, Adams compared this ongoing oversight to a “thermostat.”
But independent city transportation activist Chris Smith was first
in line to question the mayor’s plan at City Club. “I imagine there
will be disagreements between Portland and other parts of the region
about whether this thermostat should be set at 64 or at 72,” said
Smith. “And I’m just afraid we’ll build the furnace that will heat the
city to 82.”
“Where’s the big outcry from an advocacy group leading the charge on
this thing?” asks Jonathan Maus, whose website BikePortland.org lit up with dozens of
angry comments about the bridge last weekend. “The project is going
forward exactly the way the highway planners want it and you haven’t
heard one peep about it, except for testimony at city hall.”
Maus also says he has seen a lot of disappointment about the Bicycle
Transportation Alliance’s (BTA) tepid criticism of the bridge: BTA boss
Scott Bricker told Maus last Friday that “it’s not about the number of
lanes, it’s about the bridge’s impact on the community.”
The BTA’s Michelle Poyourow clarified the group’s stance
more forecefully on Tuesday: “We are disappointed in the council
vote,” she said.
Meanwhile, outraged citizens have taken it upon themselves to
spearhead a protest. When syndicated Portland bicycle columnist Joe
Kurmaskie posted two comments online proposing a rally against the
12-lane decision, he received emails from 100 people in 48 hours, he
says.
“I had not stepped up at the city council meetings because I thought
for sure this would be killed—because we have the sustainability
mayor,” says Kurmaskie. “It’s very much a stab in the back for me.”
Ironically, Kurmaskie’s planned Waterfront Park rally was plotted
over tables at the bar Vendetta on N Williams last Saturday
afternoon—not in the boardroom of one of Portland’s environmental
nonprofits.
“Citizens have had to fill in for the leadership void,” says
Kurmaskie, ruefully.
I am at a loss as to why we’re so focused on a 12-lane bridge; no matter what is built across the river, the freeway is still three lanes in each direction…or two, depending on where one is. If the number of lanes on either side of the bridge remain unchanged, the bottlenecks will be LA-like.
Is there a reason we’ve read little to nothing about this??
If you want to let the power structure know that you care about Portland’s future, come to the April 5th rally at noon @Waterfront Park. Only taking to the street will get the mainstream media’s attention and put the options and alternatives out there for the public to think about.
you people want to be isolated back to being a colony of Quakers, look dumb ass its about moving goods not stopping them daily in in traffic jam worse than LA. Get off the Bong, Portland is swimming in pollution from not allowing the free flow of traffic, your daily HOV fraud is costing millions, and you people have the arrogance to think the I-5 is all about Portland, It isn’t. grow up and get it already. Jerry’s dead, get a job