Portland — a city known for its environmentalism, urban planning, public transportation, public involvement, and progressive politicians — is about to go backward by widening a noxious freeway, Interstate 5, through the city’s Rose Quarter.
“Climate” Governor Kate Brown, Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Metro President Lynn Peterson are claiming concern but standing down as the Oregon Department of Transportation jams through billions of dollars of freeway-widening projects — with specious claims that it’s good for the climate and has no effect on transportation equity. These projects will result — as all highway expansions do — in more vehicle miles traveled, more greenhouse-gas emissions, more deaths, and less walking, biking, and transit use, while worsening social equity — exactly the opposite of what Oregon needs in this time of climate crisis.
