“It’s going to be a model for multimodal transportation,” Ray LaHood said, “It’s bistate, bipartisan … anyway you can describe it, it’s a great project.” (Aug. 19 Columbian story, “Obama: Nation ‘can’t wait’ for new I-5 bridge”)
I believe this will be a model of partisan fecklessness, waste, poor judgment and setting aside legal process to compel a community to tax itself for a service it neither wants nor sees a need for. The Columbia River Crossing plan is faulty, the case for replacing the existing structures has not been made convincingly, and alternatives have not been explored on their merit. It is all a knee-jerk against freeways, which I understand, using inappropriate and costly technology, which I do not.
“Caesarism” is what a good newspaper would call it. Too bad this is The Columbian.
–Dennis Henry, Vancouver
