This last week was an intense and pivotal week for the Portland Safe, Sound, and Green Streets program. As you probably know, after losing Mayor Potter’s support, Commissioner Adams announced that he would seek to refer this transportation program to the November ballot.
I would like to publicly express my frustration over where we find ourselves in this process. After months of continuous meetings and public outreach, we find ourselves faced with a time-consuming and costly campaign. This campaign, that promises to be chock-full mis-information, has effectively been forced on us by the petroleum and anti-tax lobby and fueled by political considerations.
The BTA is taking a short breath and diving back in to ensure that this program is passable by the voters and one that will build the next generation of family-friendly bicycle facilities.
I want to thank the hundreds of you that engaged yourself in the process. I look forward to the next leg of this campaign.
Please read my Wednesday’s testimony to the City Council below (as posted on Bikeportland.org.)
“I’ve been involved with the Safe Sound and Green (SSG) process since close to its inception. I’m going to be more blunt than I should about this issue…this has turned into a good-government/bad-government issue. Over the last nine months I have participated in good government. I’ve sat on an executive committee, a steering committee, and me and my staff and the people who I work to represent have attended over 20 public meetings and town halls.
Through that process we have built community support. Yes there have been changes, yes there have been things that have had to be tweaked. That is part of the process. To come out at the end with support from every member of an 89 member group [referring to the steering committee] is monumental. That is good government. That is inclusive government.
What is poor government to me?
Poor government is having an organization and its affiliates not participate in the process even though they were invited, not seeing them at any of the meetings, come in at the end of the day, demanding things…and then, saying, ‘well, we don’t want to participate but we’re just going to bomb this whole thing’.
The discussion over the last two weeks has been framed almost exclusively by the lobbyists of these big specials interests. I’d love to say that the bicycle industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. We are the less expensive alternative, we require donuts instead of petroleum and we don’t have the big money but we have community support. There is a wide range of community support on this, but this discussion has continued because of special interests.
This program is about the fact that our roof is leaking, our roads are falling apart, our children are dying, our families are getting killed and injured and can’t walk to school. If your roof is leaking in your house, you don’t really have a choice; if you don’t fix that, two years later it’s going to cost 10 times as much to fix. We are in that situation now.
I urge you to unanimously pass this measure. I urge you to get behind the process that has been developed and I really hope that this can be done with the the people who we’ve so strongly elected, the five of you unanimously, as opposed to going to a special interest battle and referendum. Thank you.â€
You can be assured we are not giving up on this transportation funding measure and look forward to working with our members and others to see to it that it passed.
