Mayor elect and current transpo commish, Sam Adams, has just released a statement on the I-5 bridge that calls for much of what I called for several weeks ago here by insisting that the bridge;

"Inspire a green, 'postcard-worthy' design. This should be the world's most environmentally friendly bridge in design, construction, and operations. Any bridge is an icon, and this one must aesthetically enhance the world-class grandeur of the Columbia River and Mount Hood. And it must be sensitive to its neighbors by helping knit together the two halves of Hayden Island and downtown Vancouver."

Right on! As I wrote a few weeks ago there is only one way to achieve those goals, hire a world class architect to design the I-5 bridge. Design competition anyone? A competition and successful design would go a long way in convincing more world class design, technology and green industries that Portland isn't all talk... resulting in more jobs and a healthier planet strategy we can export.

Sam's office also states, "The approval today only moves the bridge project proposal from one phase of evaluation to the next. It establishes the assumption for the next phase of study that the existing bridge will be replaced with no more travel lanes than exist today and that it must include an expansion of lightrail." Read more on Sam's blog.

It's time for bridge city to show the world a new kind of bridge. Isolationists who would do nothing (aka turn Oregon into a fortress) miss the fact that this is a golden opportunity to do the right thing for once (with major federal $$ prioritized as one of 6 corridors of the future, meaning it doesn't keep us from getting other funding for other projects). Time to be progressive about the challenges ahead folks, not provincially anachronistic. Cars and more people will be around in 100 years (hopefully running on cold fusion, hydrogen or the hot air generated by art critics)... so underbuilding something that will outlive us isn't an intelligent option.