It’s unattainable to have a good and productive dialogue about an vital situation when advocates and elected leaders can’t agree on the info. But that is the scenario Portland finds itself in with regards to the $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter megaproject.
So it’s time to attempt to set the report straight.
When advocates with the nonprofit No Extra Freeways introduced their views on the venture at a gathering of the Portland Metropolis Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on April twenty first, they confronted very skeptical responses from Councilor (and Committee Chair) Olivia Clark and Councilor Loretta Smith.
But Clark and Smith haven’t offered any proof to again up their skepticism and they look like counting on blind religion within the Oregon Division of Transportation (ODOT).
Even earlier than No Extra Freeways co-founders Chris Smith and Joe Cortright approached the dais, Councilor Smith referred to the group’s rivalry that ODOT would possibly broaden the freeway way more than they’re letting on publicly as, “misinformation” and “completely ridiculous.”
Clark raised eyebrows when she instructed Chris Smith {that a} key a part of NMF’s presentation concerning the potential width of the freeway was “outdated” and that she needed ODOT to return to the committee to “rectify a number of the misunderstandings.”
For Councilor Clark to so flatly dismiss info introduced by Smith was stunning. Smith isn’t just any advocate. He’s been intently monitoring the I-5 Rose Quarter since no less than 2012 when he was a member of the Portland Planning Fee. Again then he was the only real “no” vote towards including the venture to the Metropolis’s Transportation System Plan for most of the identical causes he stays against the venture right now.
And as I reported earlier this month, Councilor Loretta Smith was much more immediately dismissive of Smith and Cortright’s presentation. Emboldened by the remarks of Clark, Councilor Smith accused Cortright of being “actually unfair” and “disingenuous” as a result of he shared a doc in his presentation that confirmed an annotated cross-section of the freeway width that might accommodate extra lanes than ODOT says they’ll construct.
When Councilor Smith requested Chris Smith a query concerning the venture, she dismissed his reply as a “political, environmental plan” after which continued to disrespect him by saying, “I might recognize, whenever you come to this this committee, that you simply give us actual data and never what you’ll hope.”
So who’s sharing “actual data” and who’s sharing “hope”?
In a cellphone interview after that council assembly, I requested Councilor Smith what proof she needed to show her rivalry that Cortright’s doc was “outdated.”
“How have you learnt it’s outdated?” I requested.
“ODOT mentioned it’s outdated,” Smith replied.
After I requested Smith why she implied NMF’s views on the freeway width had been “ridiculous” and “disingenuous,” she denied saying it after which made one other declare.
“I didn’t say their concepts had been ridiculous,” Smith mentioned, “I mentioned the data they put up on the display screen… they mentioned it was ODOT and it wasn’t from ODOT. They created that entire presentation. That was not from ODOT.”
After I identified that NMF’s paperwork did certainly come immediately from ODOT and that the crimson annotations had been added to make clear the measurements, Councilor Smith mentioned, “It doesn’t matter.”
“Even the chair, Olivia Clark mentioned [ODOT] shouldn’t be utilizing these paperwork and they’re outdated, okay?” Smith replied. “And so when the chair tells you that, why received’t they settle for it?”
I’ve made a number of makes an attempt to contact Councilor Clark’s workplace for remark, however haven’t but heard again. I’ve additionally reached out to ODOT, however haven’t heard again.
For his or her half, No Extra Freeways has offered an in depth rationalization of their use of the doc. In a three-page letter despatched to all 5 members of the T & I Committee on Monday, Smith and Cortright addressed the provenance of the cross-section doc, its currentness, and their considerations about what ODOT may do with the extra width.
NMF says they obtained the doc through public information request that was spurred after they heard about an allegedly personal assembly between ODOT and their Historic Albina Advisory Board in March 2023. When NMF requested all supplies shared at that assembly, this cross-section drawing — exhibiting the general width of the freeway at 162-feet — was amongst them.
NMF acknowledges the doc proven at Metropolis Council is 2 years outdated, however says they nonetheless use it as a result of it, “clearly reveals the venture overlaid on the prevailing cross-section of the freeway.” Additionally they level out {that a} newer drawing at the moment obtainable on ODOT’s official venture web site reveals a proposed width of 189 ft. “The venture solely will get wider because it goes ahead,” NMF writes.
NMF is dissatisfied that councilors Clark and Smith selected to give attention to the authenticity of the doc and never the nonprofit’s most important concern: That the width of the brand new freeway would permit ODOT to stripe a number of greater than the 2 lanes they’re at the moment telling the general public and elected officers about — new lanes they concern would induce demand of extra drivers, and create extra visitors on native metropolis streets.
“ODOT will in fact deny that they’ve any intention to do that,” NMF writes. “However our level is that the extreme width is inflicting unneeded expense to taxpayers and the potential further lane shouldn’t be accounted for within the environmental overview.”
In the long run, it is a matter of trusting ODOT, or not. As constant critics of the company for nearly a decade, NMF clearly doesn’t. The way in which councilors Clark and Smith reacted to NMF’s presentation on April twenty first makes it clear ODOT enjoys their full and abiding belief (a far cry from their predecessor on council in 2020 who was so involved she withdrew the Metropolis of Portland’s help).
I anticipate elected officers to be extra trusting and sympathetic to different authorities businesses than to citizen volunteers; however with a lot at stake with this venture, and with ODOT’s well-documented accounting blunders, historical past of value overruns, and lack of public belief, Portlanders deserve leaders who provide no less than wholesome skepticism and never simply rubber stamps.
I’ll replace this submit if/once I hear again from Councilor Clark and/or ODOT.
