PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Portland has earned a national reputation for encouraging people to get out of their cars and onto bicycles and mass transit.
But the tourists and travel writers who gush about bicycle lanes and streetcars tend to overlook that most people who live here rely on cars and trucks, and they travel on streets marred by cracks, bumps and potholes.
A January 2013 city audit said “aspirational” projects, like the streetcar, had displaced core services such as street maintenance. The result: Nearly half of Portland’s most traveled roads are in poor or very poor condition, according to the city, and the cost to fix them skyrockets when the damage worsens and they must be rebuilt instead of sealed.
“Roads are kind of like teeth,” City Commissioner Steve Novick said. “If you don’t do regular brushing and flossing and cleaning, then you start needing more expensive and more painful things.”
But the prescription recommended by Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales is about as pleasant as a root canal for many Portlanders - a fee to finance repairs that would cost households more than $100 per year.
Scores of opponents attended a public hearing that started at 2 p.m. Thursday and stretched into the evening. The council is expected to be vote on the issue next week.
When he ran for mayor in 2012, Hales promised a back-to-basics approach that would end the days of deferred street maintenance. He told the disgruntled audience Thursday that the fee is needed because Congress has not increased the federal gas tax since 1993 and that won’t change anytime soon. Moreover, gas-tax collections have been hurt because people are driving less and buying more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Opponents complained that the council should put the matter to a public vote. They also said the street fee charged to businesses - the amount of which has yet to be determined - should not be separated from the household fee that’s nearing a council vote.
Novick said polling showed the fee might not pass muster in an election, and the problem is too important to risk defeat. He said if voters don’t like it, they can get rid of him in two years.
“The problem has to be solved. But there is no popular way of solving the problem,” he said. “So the elected officials have to bite the bullet and make the tough choice.”
Some who testified against the fee predicted that opponents will gather enough signatures to force a referendum, just as they did when overturning a council decision to add fluoride to the drinking water.
A city poll showed about 50 percent of voters supporting the street fee.
“If it seems like something only has 50 percent of the support, it needs to be changed before it’s rolled out,” said Robert Parker, who testified at the hearing. “The idea that we should not put it to a vote because people don’t want it seems anti-democratic to me.”
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