Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkDaMan
And once again they're squabbling over light rail. They know light rail is a must for Oregon support, so if they haven't come around to accept that, why are they asking us back to the table? Time to toll the 5 and 205 at the state line.
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Truly hilarious and also entirely predictable. This is when we need a good, strong, genuinely progressive mayor to raise their hand and say "um, excuse me". The city of Portland needs to stand up, flex its considerable muscle, and say that no capacity expansion on I-5 will be tolerated,
period (seriously, did they not see the 12-year warning regarding climate change and emissions?), but that we are more than willing to discuss tolling both interstate bridges from the state line, seismically upgrading the existing I-5 bridges, and building a brand new, world-class arterial bridge between the Vancouver waterfront and N Portland, complete with platinum-level pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, a yellow line MAX extension, and no more than two lanes of auto traffic in each direction. Portland's elected leaders (starting with the mayor) showing even the smallest bit of spine, not to mention simply abiding by their own stated values and years of very expensive planning, would be a significant wrench thrown into the state-level negotiations. And if members of the Clark County Republican Death Cult aren't interested in negotiating, well, fuck 'em. We should toll the bridges unilaterally and punish Clark County however we possibly can until they step into line -- the time for "nice guy" politics from this side of the state line needs to come to an end starting now.