Aerial tram 2.0
The real estate developers and construction weasels of Portland never cease to amaze. They always have an angle from which to bilk the taxpayers.
Quick to pick up on the latest progressive buzzwords, these days they're all about racial equity. Uh huh.
So get this: We're going to spend 1.2 billion (with a B) tax dollars to put a cap over the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter, because somehow that will repair the harm done when Black families and businesses were chased out of there in the bad old racist '60s and '70s.
Whom are they kidding? It will be a festival of overpriced apartments that the descendants of the abused Black families of Portland will neither be able to afford nor ever want to occupy. With the obligatory Pearl District gentrification shlock on the ground floor. Hipster restaurants with names like "Slurp" and "Placemat." Beauty salons. Cellphone stores.
Sammy Davis Jr. ain't coming back to Portland, kids.
But of course, the more preposterous and phony an idea is, the more unanimous the Portland politicians will be in pushing for it. Now our governor, Killer Kate, has signed on. In a "brokered deal," no less. She's bragging about it. Yes, Governor, we'll all be broker when it's finished.
At least the squatters will have a nice, new place to camp.
I know, this whole thing is so preposterous. I am a long time NE PDX resident and even went to grade school in that general area in a school that has long been demolished. As I remember, the school (Holladay) served a mostly black student body. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle......those days are long gone never to return. That these bureaucrat types think that by somehow capping the freeway that black Portlanders will somehow flock back to the area is not only a lie, but is insulting to boot.
ReplyDeleteHow long will the pipeline vacuuming the exhaust fumes out from under the cap have to be so that the exhaust doesn't disproportionately impact historically disadvantaged communities?
ReplyDeleteI remember when Vera came up with this idea about 25 years ago. What a stupid idea and a complete waste of money. Portland- The City that works...you over.
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