This racket is a ratchet
The car-hating children with the stranglehold on Portland's "transportation" bureaucracy are dancing their superiority dance again this week. They just threw one of their patented hissy fits and got the city transportation commissioner, Mingus A Um, to back off the proposal to rip out the recently installed bike tomfoolery that has the hotels and business owners on Broadway downtown tearing out what little hair they have left.
How dare anyone even think of removing the precious bike toys! Once they're put in, they can never come out, no matter how bad an idea they turn out to be.
And old Mingus, he wants to be mayor so bad he can taste it. One threat from the Spoiled Spandex Space Cadets and he and his "transportation" queen ran for cover. What a pushover.
Well, party on, kids. Ride your two-wheelers right on through the dead downtown to wherever it is you're going. Instead of getting hit by a door on your right, you get hit by a door on your left. What an accomplishment. Yes, it's truly a day for rejoicing.
What would the city rather have, a functioning downtown complete with a 5-star hotel and happy business owners, or those poor bicyclists being terribly inconvenienced by pedaling 1 or 2 blocks or west or west to 9th/Park, or slap down some bike chevrons on the 5th & 6th transit malls - two options that are slow moving, single lane, idea for mixed slow moving traffic.
ReplyDeleteNo one wants the enormously safer option.
Another thoughtful win by the people who gave us Vision Zero.
There was a massive misprint- it should have read ZERO VISION...
DeleteRegardless of whether it's a good idea or not, once it was pointed out that the project was largely paid for with federal grant money that would likely need to be repaid, PBOT reversed course pretty quick--what with having a $32M budget deficit and all. Maybe Mapps would change his mind (again) if the hotels offered to repay the Feds on PBOTs behalf.
ReplyDeleteMoney that never should have been spent on such foolishness. The hotels will be sold to worse operators, and some will close. Maybe they can be converted into more fentanyl addict day spas.
DeleteI never understood the reverence for the story about the tail wagging the dog
DeleteWell, being an adult means that there are times that you have made a mistake, and pay accordingly. Apparently the people that run the city are still in toddler mode.
DeleteIt’s downright offensive that the small minded minions down at PBOT even thought this project was ok in the first place. Downtown businesses/hotels need all the help they can get right now, and this garbage does the opposite.
ReplyDeleteThe success of Hotel business and downtown retail are symbols of capitalism. Any success in that arena would delay the March of socialism.
DeleteThey say the neon lights are bright on Broadway (On Broadway)
ReplyDeleteThey say there's always METH in the air (On Broadway)
But when you're BIKING down that street and you ain't had enough to BITCH
The FACADE rubs right off and you're just another NARCISIST (on Broadway)
Few if any, of the bikers have ever bothered to look at actual data to discover that biking is 3 - 10 times a dangerous as driving. (http://www.debunkingportland.com/bicycles_kill_people.html)
ReplyDeleteOf course they are not alone. City Councillors also seem to be totally unaware of this, or of the fact that we voted against increasing neighborhood density by a 3:1 margin in 2014. (http://www.debunkingportland.com/smart/metrodensityvote.htm)