Columbia River Bridge

[Martin Hash]

The “new” Columbia River bridge has been causing angst for 15 years. The fundamental problem keeping it from being built is that Portland doesn’t want it for the right reasons. The main purpose of a new bridge should be to ease congestion: it’s not for aesthetics; it’s not for safety; it’s not for the airport; it’s not for shipping; it’s not for light rail; it’s not for prestige; it’s not for trucking; it’s not for bicycles, or pedestrians, or pet walking, or any of the dozens of other reasons that have been considered… It is to RELIEVE CONGESTION! Vancouver can’t hope to compete with what Portland wants so let the Feds do it – we only ask that there be no tolls, and if there are tolls then we want something for them. (No one can justify paying for the priviledge to wait in traffic.) If we can’t build what we want then let’s build what we can afford, and if we can’t build that then don’t build anything at all.