Potholes, On the Road and In the Head

In Friday's Daily Journal of Commerce, Tyler Graf writes, "Sam Adams' road-maintenance fee continues to make political enemies. No surprises there."

Huh? Actually, there is a surprise here.

Graf is referring the plan hatched by Sam Adams and Randy Leonard to put through a road maintenance plan for Portland that breaks the intended fee into a three-part affair so it doesn't have to be referred to voters. He quotes Jason Williams of Oregon Taxpayers United, a reactionary anti-tax organization that seems to favor anarchy, closed schools, laid-off police and firefighters, and of course pothole-strewn roads, all in the name of protecting the masses from the evil specter of paying their fair share to keep our civilized society stitched together. Williams is supposed to stand as the voice of reason in this story.

Williams calls the Adams-Leonard move to stave off a referendum, which would probably be voted down because pretty much any tax measure gets voted down, "sleazy". Maybe it's sleazy like allowing the lifeblood of our economy--our public roads and infrastructure--to crumble.

Graf does point out at the end that some of Williams' points are psychotically off base. Like saying both the tram and even MAX are failures. Or that Oregon already has the highest fees for automobiles in the region when it has the lowest.

Maybe it's just me, but I think finding a way to fix Portland's roads is exactly the kind of thing we as a city should step up and do. And if city councilors like Randy Leonard and Sam Adams can find a creative way to get this deal done, then that's great. I'm all for democracy, but Oregon already has way, way, way too many initiatives referred to the voters. I expect my leaders to lead some of the time, not to patronize us with having to get a rubber stamp for the tough decisions we'll vote down if it saves us half a nickel. I doubt Adams and Leonard are making many political enemies out of this road fee, but if they are, perhaps this is the chance for the voting public to be heard without actually voting. Let's tell the naysayers that an enemy of decent roads is an enemy of ours.

Comments

[Paul]

You hit the nail on the head with this one. Leaders must lead and step up and get things done when appropriate. If everything were left to voters, nothing would ever happen. I also love to hear from people that the MAX and Streetcar are failures. People really do live with blinders on.

[ws]

What do Jason Williams and Paul Romain really want, besides money? It would surprise me if that vaguely anarchy sounding 'refer it to the vote of the people' phrase those guys toss around was anything more than a load. It's those guys that want to take power they've mustered from the special interest coalition mounted to defeat the Safe Streets funding plan and use it to place themselves in the position of deciding matters for the public. They're looking more like megalomaniacs everyday.

Besides asking for a cut on rates for their clients and coalition members, when have Romain or Williams ever offered constructive ideas or suggestions to help improve, repair and maintain the city's infrastructure? And yet they are allowed to show that they can effectively exploit the city's decision making process to stymie sincere efforts to get just such a plan in place. These guys are not functioning in a constructive role to the process of responsibly and competently governing this city.

[Red]

I'm all with you here.. This is a ridiculous attempt by the petroleum industry to interfere with necessary city operations. You can be sure that they will drop a stunning amount of cash to persuade Portland residents to vote No on the referral. In fact, they'll probably spend more than they would've been taxed through the proposal. Clearly, this isn't about money. This is about imposing their extreme right-wing philosophical views on a progressive city. They want to pollute and destroy our city without repercussion.. It's by choice that I don't own a car and this is yet another reason why.

[Tyler "Taylor" Graf]

Um, first thing's first: I didn't write a "story" as you seem to imply; it was a blog post, curiously similar to the thing I'm currently staring at.

Second: The controversy isn't surprising because there will always be a sizable number of people who believe that until we start living in Libertopia -- where the oceans are privately owned, the prisons are run by corporations and the media is blogger-controlled – we’ll never be truly free.

This is not surprising. It's not even really that bad because it keeps the order of things in check. And, from my perspective, it's not really my role to express outrage that a group of people had the temerity to disagree with Sam Adams and his street tax. I’d be more shocked if there was no controversy, frankly.

[Brian Libby]

Tyler,

I REALLY apologize sincerely for getting your name wrong.

In rereading my original post, I very well may have seemed antagonistic, but that was directed at the idea, not you personally. I meant it as more along the lines of, 'I begger to differ.'

Which is not to say that I've changed my feeling about the road issue. That's what I'd like us to keep be the main issue. If individual remarks of mine get in the way of that, I apologize while clinging to the general point that I'd have been happy to see the road improvements get done without putting it to a vote.