Tuesday, December 6, 2016

The SRC: Just Throwing Money into the River

Last night at Council, Councilor Andersen explained his vote in some detail.


The package for a UGB expansion and TSP amendments passed 5-2. (More commentary at Hinessight.)

Postscript

The lede in the paper's story about the Council meeting:
The financial damage of former Salem councilor Daniel Benjamin's resignation could cost the city as much as $17,000.
It seems like a better one might be something more like:
The yearly cost to service the proposed Salem River Crossing, which accomplished a major milestone Monday night, is estimated to take $45 million a year out of the local economy.
Even if you disagree with the deleterious nature of the SRC, isn't it obvious that the proposed $430 million project is much vaster and more costly than a $17,000 special election to right a set of wrongs? (Especially if the SRC is also a mistake, as so many of us believe.)

Instead that story, with fewer details, was buried at the bottom.

The proportionality in coverage is all screwed up!

1 comment:

Jim Scheppke said...

And that "major milestone" was achieved without any real "deliberation" (to quote what was supposed to happen from the Council agenda). Councilor Nanke made one mundane comment in making his motion about having received approvals from the other regional partners, but that was it. Not a peep from Councilors Bennett, McCoid, Bednarz, and Lewis. Don't they owe it to the citizens after 10 years of debate on this issue to give us a detailed explanation of their vote, the way Councilor Andersen did? Part of the reason the SJ downplayed the story, is because the Council downplayed it. The fix was in and they saw no need for explanation. Shame.