“The Bulletin is right in their editorial appearing in on Oct. 14th pointing out “this election will create significant turn over on the Bend City Council.” However, in my view, not with the endorsements of Ariel Méndez and Mike Riley specifically. They will bring more previous government involvement than Sean Sipe and I for sure. But herein lies the problem with our country, state, and city. More of the same.
In the effort to conserve space allow me to address one key issue. Both Riley and Méndez were sponsors of the great voter deception: The GO Transportation Bond of 2020. It’s brilliant the way it was presented to voters while arranging for property tax assessments to not begin until this year.
I would direct voters to a guest column written by Mike Walker, an actual civil engineer, appearing in the Bulletin Aug. 18, which pointed out the obvious flaws in plans for the Greenwood Corridor. The council and biking candidates seem to be substituting the community priorities and the Bond campaign message of addressing congestion with their biking advocacy priority. The transportation planning committee refuses to accept the advice of engineers and concerned citizens when their own research shows this will only increase current bike usage about 3% when implemented and about 6% by 2040.
This brings me to the Wilson Corridor project currently under construction and to be the first funded by the GO Bond. Wilson was already one lane each way and was only overly impacted because of the cut through traffic avoiding the Reed Market failure. If anyone thinks the new roundabout (which ignores the railroad crossing) at Wilson and 9th was worth the alleged $3 million dollars spent or the plan to rebuild Wilson from 3rd to 15th is worth a total of $19 million, leaving one lane each way with emphasis on bikes and alternative modes of transportation, vote for Riley and Méndez.
I questioned the proposed allocation of funds in interview with The Source Weekly on Friday. Mr. Riley was quick to try and defend. If it’s published in its entirety watch, it’s funny. It will help with your choice of who makes more sense for Bend. The GO Bond oversite committee, like most all the committees, would seem to only include people chosen by the City Council not for their peer objectivity but for their ideology. The allocation of funds is presently to be split 50/50, vehicles/alternative means, mostly bikes, based on review of the 2019 council minutes to establish projects for the two bond amounts $190 million and $290 million.
Not enough is being done to relieve traffic congestion only spending taxpayer money to make it worse and less safe for everyone. If we do not change direction, Bend is going to quickly lose 10% of their tax base and I will be among them.”
