After Adams wrapped his State of the City speech today, there was only time for a handful of people to ask questions publicly. Luckily, transportation activist Chris Adams dashed to the microphone and was at the head of the queue. His question about Sustainable Sam’s vote yesterday approving the widest option for the $4.2 billion Columbia River Crossing commuter bridge was very pointed.
Adam’s stance is that voting for the 12 lane bridge was actually an ecologically minded choice that will help Portland achieve World’s Most Sustainable City status. He says that since Portland will have oversight of the project via a CRC committee, the big bridge can be managed (by adjusting tolls, transit ticket prices or the number of carpool lanes) to encourage mass transit. Adams uses the metaphor of a thermostat. From his speech:
“I know, the phrase ‘performance-based active transportation management’ does not exactly roll off the tongue. So we liken this new cross-river partnership to a thermostat. You would not build a home heating and cooling system without a way to regulate the airflow and control the temperature based on the time of day, outside conditions, and who is using what rooms.”
So Chris Smith, a local transit wonk who serves on long list of transportation committees gets up to the microphone. “I’m very nervous about the Columbia River Crossing,” he says.
“I’m concerned we’re putting off big performance decisions about the bridge for the future. 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. And I’m just afraid we’ll build the furnace that will heat the city to 82. How can you ensure that this easy political decision now will not come back to bite us in the future?”
This echoes some other environmentalists’ criticisms of the 12 Lane plan. But Adams stuck to his 12-lanes-can-be-green guns. “The objective that we have is to put together performance goals first and we’ll use that framework to make other decisions about the bridge,” he replied.
Transit Wonk Analogy Battle! Furnace vs. Thermostat: Who Will Win?
Correction for first paragraph — should read “Chris Smith”, not “Chris Adams”.
That’s an interesting and unfortunate still of Chris… he’s really quite personable and not disagreeable.
[Disclosure: I am a moderator/contributor for the PortlandTransport blog that Chris founded.]
Chris Smith is out of touch – think of how many people will be employed by a project on the scale of a new I-5 (and also Sellwood) Bridge, as opposed to the piecemeal streetcar projects.
If there’s a “green economy”, you have to ship the stuff somewhere, and if it goes north of the river, you can’t put containers of solar panels on a bike or a streetcar.
Might I suggest that someone please make some biscuit related posts?
Sarah, I’m not going to forgive you for that photograph…
What’s that sticking out of your fly, Chris?
Adams’ decision was great.
Now Governor Gregoire won’t have to inflict cold hard justice on Sam like he last name was Phillip Morris.
LawyerPepper uses the same argument the timber companies used for years – until the trees were gone, the jobs with them & nothing left behind but ruined forest lands and screwed-over communities with no future. yea, that worked real well. nothing like some short-term greed to create long-term … nothing.