Another year, another round of ODOT trying to push the same regressive and wildly unpopular project on Portland that they’ve been trying to push for over a decade… Sometimes it feels like we’re living in Attack On Titan, but the titans are ODOT with the I-5 plan. They just keep on coming.
Makes one think about proposing a ballot initiative to rewrite ODOT’s mission statement.
They are the department of highways and roads. They have been incredibly successful in their adopted use of funneling resources to construction firms, increasing dependency on cars, and making our cities and state louder, dirtier and more dangerous. The people who work there think this is their mission and their funding is evidence of it. As each mile of road laid will only increase their need for funding and maintenance, they have a false sense of prophecy that it’s inevitable.
They don’t care about sidewalks, crosswalks, neighborhoods, bikers, or the people who inhabit or use these things–they are only a thing that gets in the way of them fulfilling their understood mission which is to funnel money to construction and development firms.
Fuck the Department of Roads. The sooner we call it that and/or rip them up and start fresh with mission and budgets the better.
