Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt’s email to The Columbian, discussed in an April 24 story, “Mayor shows no sympathy for senator,” characterized various Clark County public officials opposing the Columbia River Crossing project as being without any substantive, credible basis for their position, relying instead upon rhetoric seeking political advantage by pandering to CRC critics’ (supposed) ignorance.
But Leavitt’s arguments are themselves manipulative of fact and emotion, and guilty of the charges he flings at CRC opponents. The mayor seeks to entice support by asserting the CRC project will create jobs and economic growth through both its construction and use. Yet he avoids all mention of the tolls upon cross-river car traffic required to finance the CRC’s current design.
These tariffs take money out of the pockets of Clark County bridge users (predictions in excess of $1,000 per year for regular commuters), and are intended to constrict our growth (dismissively labeled as “sprawl”) by making us a less attractive destination for Oregonians eager to escape that state’s burdensome tax and land use regimes. Nor does Leavitt address the enormous costs (projected at nearly $1 billion), and meager benefits (10,000 new transit commuters served vs. at least 200,000 car commuters) of extending Portland’s light rail into Vancouver.
John Burke
Vancouver
