Bing Blog the Which is Where?

Ding! Dong! The Witch is dead!

The CRC, a massive highway expansion project to place 5 lanes of travel from SW Washington into a 2-lane bottle neck, may have finally breathed its last breath.

Or on its deathbed?  Fatally wounded? Maybe a zombie? Okay fine, it could just be playing possum. It is rather confusing. Take, for example the fact the CRC office has admitted defeat and initially decided that it would spend the next 6 months packing up the office.

Curious. Ya know how sometimes ya hear people ask, "who does your hair?" we have a similar question about who is cutting their checks.

Either way the little guys celebrated a victory. We have been in the business of trying to encompass this titanic behemoth of 1950s design for so long (this blog itself has been pumping out the hits since Spring of 2009) we are not completely sure what we will do now.

We would like to believe that our reporting and testimony means something to the people who would call themselves our "representatives". But what really killed it was that Olympia doesn't like Vancouver (Washington) very much (in fairness it is mutual).

The fact is as long as there are people benefiting from bad design we will continue to get more sprawl and more of all the crap that comes with it. We should stay vigilant as these insane projects are popping up all the time. Meanwhile everywhere our infrastructure is failing.

At least there are good opportunities for lols. 

Savior from the North

Bizarro World keeps turning. As if watching the Oregon Legislature approve to fast track funds for the CRC a couple weeks ago was not insane enough, having Olympia step in to say, "OMG CRC WTF" was nearly as stunning.

With the appearance of federal transportation director Ray LaHood in Olympia standing beside the Washington Governor pleading that "it is now or never" many were convinced that Washington would soon find itself in a similar position as Oregon pushing the Columbia River Crossing forward and that all of the Northwest could all rest easy snuggled up in a blanket of debt, forever.

But thank be to logic for the Senators and Representatives in the state of Washington have balked on "keeping up with the Joneses". According to this other CRC hating blog, the Columbia River Crossing might be dead in the water (or unsound in the Sound, perhaps?)

Sure, the added pressure of having a neighbor pay 450 million dollars for a big hunk of infrastructure might give the backers of the CRC some clout, but then perhaps those members didn't count on the Washington legislature to say, "Vancouver? That's in Canada!" 

The state of Washington has some major road projects in the works and most of their big highway improvement dollars are not leaving the vicinity of the Sound. Asking for legislatures to commit all their dollars for what most in Olympia view as a "Portland project" especially when the Representatives from Vancouver are decrying the project as a boondoggle.

We hadn't expected conservative neighbors to the north to be our saviors, but if they can kill this project we may be sending them a candygram.

Vancouver Rally to Stop the CRC

With the Oregon legislature expediting wasteful spending the fate of Cascadia turns to Washington where they hate tolls almost as much as they hate lightrail. They have even organized a rally coming up soon!
 
We shall not go quietly. Gather the forces and connect with others!

Date: Friday, March 29th.
Time: 2:30pm to 4:00pm; 4:00 to 6:00pm – Post-Rally Social Gathering

Location: Grand Ballroom at the Vancouver Red Lion at the Quay, 100 Columbia Street, Vancouver, WA 98660


Want more info? Here the organizing group's website: http://www.crcfacts.info/

So many meetings so little time

It has got to be hard building a massive bridge. You gotta get lots of little detail work done, papers filed, taxes levied... it's work!

That is part of why Oregon Governor Kulongoski made 30 million available for the CRC. It is gonna take a lot of money to convince all these people that their kids should be saddled with a massive debt.

But it takes more then money. Like George Burns said, timing is everything. So why have one community meeting when you can have two, at the same time!

* CRC community meeting @ Former Hayden Island Yacht Club
12050 N Jantzen Drive
Portland, OR 97217
Thu, September 10, 7:00pm – 8:30pm

* CRC community meeting @ Vancouver Housing Authority
2500 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
Thu, September 10, 7pm – 9pm

Not enough meeting in your Thursday diet? This could help us loose our shirt and our lunch.

* Congestion Pricing Meeting @ Metro Regional Center
council chamber
600 NE Grand Ave., Portland
Thu, September 10, 12pm – 1pm

The idea that some force is conspiring to keep CRC opposition as diffuse as possible would be considered strange, outlandish even. What does our government have to fear from its people?

So more volunteers are needed to help ask the right questions.

Todays burning question is: Why are so many people willing to burden the future for their own comfort?

Couve Traffic Warning

TRAFFIC ALERT

ALL THOSE DRIVING IN THE CITY OF VANCOUVER[break] IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON[break] TODAY ON THE DATE OF 9/4/09[break] BETWEEN THE HOURS OF FIVE PM AND TEN PM[break] TAKE WARNING. ON THESE STREETS

• SEVENTH
• EIGHTH
• NINTH
• TENTH

YOU WILL BE ASKED TO GO AROUND[freak].WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE

Car-Free Couve

Vancouver Car Free day is this Friday!
September 4th from 5pm - 10pm,
On swanky Main St between 6th and 11th.






There is no telling what will happen in that space. It was only a couple months ago that a naked cyclist was arrested after being hit by a cop car.

Most Portland Bikers:
A) loose their frigging minds over Sunday Parkways and
B) do not happen upon car free streets in Vancouver often.

Therefore I invite you all to join me, revphil (the top score holding writing person on this whole blog) on a bike ride from Farragut Park (7700 N Vancouver Ave) to Car-Free Vancouver
We will meet at 4pm and ride shortly after 5pm.



My Amazing google skills demonstrate the northern Delta Park to I-5 bike path.

View Larger Map
There will probably not be a truck blocking the way tomorrow.



That this has not been more publicized (or even publicized at all?) is of significant concern. Internet searches for Vancouver Car Free Day 2009 (w/ a variety of non-BC qualifiers, and relevant dates and places) came up with no results for anything from Southwest Washington.

Is Car-Free Couve totally underground?

Is Greg Raisman the next Jonathan Maus? maybe not but we are thankful for his photo just the same.

volunteer to help

Sometimes folks feel daunted by the massive force that is pushing the CRC agenda. While it is true that the people working to oppose the CRC do not have a newly approved 30 million dollar budget, it is also true that the opposition have people. But they always need more and your opportunity to join in the fight is coming up soon!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

email volunteer[-AT-]stopthecrc[-DOT-]org to get on board with any or all of these events:

Vancouver Peace & Justice Fair
http://vancouverpeaceandjusticefair.org/
Saturday, Sept. 12th
9am – 4pm
Esther Short Park
8th and Columbia St.
Vancouver, Washington

We are looking for folks to table as we connect and network with Vancouver’s progressive community. Two cities, one love! Help represent & create a unified Vancouver, Portland resistance to the CRC!

Muddy Boot
http://muddyboot.org/
Saturday, Sept. 12th
12pm – 6:30pm
and
Sunday, Sept. 13th
12pm – 6pm
St. Philip Neri Church
2408 SE 16th Avenue (near 18th & Division)
Portland, Oregon

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
lots more volunteer specific info available over at:
http://stopthecrc.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/help-us-outreach-at-2-events-sept-12-13th/

How bad do you want it?

The Columbia River Crossing has many different players and affects many groups and as such is getting lots of interesting cross talk.

Sometimes they talk about freight and the poor, pathetic semi-truck drivers who for whatever reason are not bright enough to use the I-205 crossing (when in fact professional drivers have access to technology that helps them avoid traffic by not driving in cities during rush hour, amazing!).

Other times they talk about safety. Usually about the condition of the current bridge itself and specifically the timber pylons. "Did you know we are trusting our lives to wood?!?" But they don't bring up that nearly every other bridge in Portland has a lower safety rating according to their own investigations.

Then sometimes they talk about the river boat captains who run the risk of hitting the I-5 bridge because the opening does not line us up the railroad bridge just to the west. Alas, they never mention how the railroad bridge actually does need to be replaced, and could be done so for 1/400th of the cost of the current CRC proposal.

But today good reader we are all about the Tolling!

The pro CRC people have created a survey that is pretty interesting. I hope that everyone take 5 min to fill it out. http://survey.columbiarivercrossing.org/

They dance around the issue of tolling like a pro bowl quarterback dancing around defensive linemen. What a study in framing the discussion! The survey is awe inspiring in its ability to pacify the otherwise rabid opposition. I think, however that we can greatly simplify the matter for the majority of people:

Would you be in favor of a replacement I-5 bridge if it had a $4.00 toll?

This is the blunt question the CRC does not want to ask (especially the "build it now!" - type dittoheads in Vancouver). Even though the CRC folk haven't been forthcoming with all the information they have gotten the hint from Obamma that the federal government wouldn't pay for it outright, and since they are only a few billion dollars short... hey with a $8 toll (adjusted to $10.50 by 2017) we could pay for this bridge by 2050.

So would you be in favor of replacing the I-5 Bridge if it means paying a $4.00 toll to cross it?

third bridge option

The CRC moves on despite calls and emails and letters to the editor. We believe that since the 20-30 person task force was able to think of their options as

1. 10-lane bridge
2. 12-lane bridge
3. no build. leave it as it stands.

As the 1st two options are pathetically close to each other we feel it is our duty to bring some new ideas to the table.

Another alternative to the "one bridge to fix them all" thinking. This one advocates for leaving the existing bridge and adding more capacity to the west.




We hope to hear more from these cats about the prospect of digging a tunnel from swan island to the Columbia.

spanging 4 billions

Yes we are stil in the heat of Joe Cortright days.

"With an estimated price tag of $4 billion, this proposed five-mile, 12-lane freeway would be the most expensive public works project in the region's history. The cost works out to more than $8,000 for each four-person household in the region or roughly the equivalent of 80 OHSU trams." - Joe Cortright

In this Oregonian article Cortright proposes a simple question. "who is gonna pay for all this?"

The sound of everyone not raising their hands is pretty apparent.

The Economy of the Future Part 3

Joe has some pretty good numbers. In this final episode of his testimony he explains the fallacy of the Safety concerns the CRC people are selling us.


Moreover He shows hos important it is that we improve the railroad bridge for moving freight.



Here is Joe Cortright's 6 Prudent Steps for solving the problems the CRC is trying to solve.

1. Toll the existing bridge
2. Improve transit
3. Fix the railroad bridge
4. Seismic upgrade for I-5 bridge
5. Modify Hayden Island ramps
6. Light rail to Clark County

The Economy of the Future Part 2

What about funding?



Yes he said the CRC is "80 times more expensive than the Ariel Tram"

Not to sound like a jerk, but how dense is PDX? How about the Couve? What about the planners who expect that planners who think that we can build our way out of congestion?

Stand by for the conclusion of Joe Cortright's testimony to City Hall, "The Economy of the Future Part 3" " available here tomorrow.

The Economy of the Future Part 1

Joe Cortright provides some spirited info about the future of building more driving capacity.

Get your econ on.



Thanks for sharing, Joe!

Wait for "The Economy of the Future Part 2", coming tomorrow!

Who Benefits?

This uninvited guest commentary comes via myklelabs. The entire post is excellent but I will limit myself to reposting only a section:

KNOW YOUR OPPONENT

Okay, so the CRC is a terrible idea. Why don’t we just ix-nay it and get on with the good life? Unfortunately, there are a lot of powerful people trying to sell our region this bridge, and they’re making progress. Who are these CRC supporters, and why do they support it?

• Well, obviously property developers like it, especially those sitting on undeveloped land in northern Clark County and/or unsold exurban condo ghost towns on the northern edge of Vancouver civilization. They need to sell the lie that these plots are somehow near a city, and that living there won’t be isolating and dull. What they don’t need is a real, lasting solution to congestion — with a quick fix, they can make their money and split.

• Some downtown Vancouver landlords, too, are hoping that the bouquet of overpasses and off-ramps planned for hooking up this monster to their street system will somehow reinvigorate their deserted downtown. Alas, we know from experience that overpasses do not attract families or businesses.

• Likewise, the big-box mall operators of Jantzen Beach dream of more cars on the bridge, because they equate it with more customers in their malls, regardless of what else might be collapsing in the global economy.

• Recall that Wal-Mart wants to build a store on Hayden Island. This bridge will let them do that, so we can count on their support. The viability of edge-of-nowhere chain superstores is directly related to the level of traffic on I-5.

• Finally, for some reason our elected officials are falling all over themselves to support this. Sam Adams is the obvious big disappointment, but there are others. Politicians and planners like these sorts of big projects; it makes their city bigger, thereby making them more important and giving them more accomplishments to point to at election time. And, if I was to be more charitable, I’d say that our city council is charged with the job of helping the local economy to flourish, and this project will almost certainly involve big piles of circulating money … which will, I’m sure, promote “growth.”

read the rest of the article



The question of who benefits from all this has been particularly troubling. And no single answer has satisfied, mostly because it is clear that so many of the people who are supposed to benefit from this project will actually be pissed when it is done (the CRC projects estimates that Vancouver suburb commuters, for example, will have longer commute times... so why are they for it?).

Perhaps the best analogy is that this project is trying to please everyone all at once, so that everyone is supposed to have gotten what they want. Of course we will have sacrificed everything we didn't realize was important to get it.

This is not just a left/right Republican/Democrat issue. Don't be fooled into believing an over simplified view, and please don't be a sideline lamo afraid to talk about it. Engage in heated debate about the pros and cons with your neighbors today!