Fright Rail

The Oralgroanian reported yesterday that our overlords at the Metro Council have “unanimously endorsed plans to extend light rail from Portland to Milwaukie.”  Their social engineering plan includes the first bridge built across the Willamette since 1973.  According to the O, the “bridge would carry the Portland streetcar, buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians — but no cars.”  The light rail line will allow easier transportation from Portland to its last stop in the Oak Grove area of Clackamas County.  Many expressed excitement over the vote, most notably drug dealers and pimps eager to expand their territory, along with others who work so hard at keeping Portland weird.  The Metro Council was unavailable to comment on fixing the pothole on my street, but did offer me a bus schedule.

Pretty In Pink: Sam Adams demonstrates the future of motoring in the metro area.

Keep Portland Congested

In order to reduce current congestion and what is forecast to be constant gridlock, progress is being made on replacing the ailing I-5 bridge between Oregon and Washington. A smooth flowing I-5 is vital not just to the Metro area, but the entire West Coast, as evidenced by the ever present trucks. So what is in the works to alleviate the bottleneck? Proving once again that environmentalism is a religion, and a fundamentalist one at that, Portland pols and Metro councilors are proposing replacing the 6 lane bridge with . . . a 6 lane bridge! But what about the congestion? Nothing a Max line and bike and passenger lanes can’t solve! This brought to mind a quote I read in the NYT last Sunday. The French then deputy mayor for the environment, Yves Contassot, said the following about those with the audacity to still drive an automobile: “It is only by making them live in hell that we’ll get drivers to renounce their cars.” The planners in government and their politician bosses are in thrall to a philosophy that will force us to live in apartments, walk or bike to not just work but everywhere we want to go, and become effeminate, latte sipping, NPR listening, vegan members of the “creative class”. (Just kidding about that last one.) (I hope.) My question for the leftists running Portland and Metro: If we make driving cars impossible, where will we put our “Keep Portland Weird” bumper stickers?