Saturday, March 18, 2006
Portlanders Discover the Market
Bill McDonald is a typical Portlander, which means he is a Democrat (or so I infer), he opposes the war in Iraq, and otherwise holds opinions that would be considered left of center. But the city's recent scandal regarding the aerial tram (cost up from $15 million to $55 million and rising) has opened his eyes to what is wrong with Portland's government.
"You have a bunch of politicians making decisions about private businesses but they don’t face any business consequences," he says. "The marketplace does not apply to them, so they are free to inflict their visions, no matter how awful they turn out to be."
McDonald recognizes that this problem is not limited to the tram. "The tram budget gap is chump change compared to the rest of the budget shortfalls" involved in Portland's South Waterfront Project, says McDonald, "and guess who they’re lining up to be the chumps?"
Portlanders have learned that their government does not work. But will they learn that the problem is not with the particular people who run Portland's government but with the idea of letting politicians make important land-use and transportation decisions at all?
Back in the 1960s, highways were designed by engineers and politicians had very little say about them. The roads got safer while speeds increased. Then planners started saying, "OMG! Faster roads mean sprawl!" And they convinced the politicians to take control of transportation planning from the engineers. The result is lots of money spent on transportation, but speeds are slower, congestion is worse, and many transportation facilities are more dangerous.
I am not saying that every road built before 1970 was perfect or that every private land-use decision is perfect. But those roads and private land uses produce far more benefits than we can ever get by letting politicians and planners decide how to manage private land and where to invest transportation dollars.
Back in the 1970s Portlanders elected a "reform" mayor who turned out to be a child molester and, more important, turned out to be just as venal as the people he replaced. The problem isn't the people in charge. The problem is the idea of putting government in charge of decisions that ought to be left to the private sector.
"You have a bunch of politicians making decisions about private businesses but they don’t face any business consequences," he says. "The marketplace does not apply to them, so they are free to inflict their visions, no matter how awful they turn out to be."
McDonald recognizes that this problem is not limited to the tram. "The tram budget gap is chump change compared to the rest of the budget shortfalls" involved in Portland's South Waterfront Project, says McDonald, "and guess who they’re lining up to be the chumps?"
Portlanders have learned that their government does not work. But will they learn that the problem is not with the particular people who run Portland's government but with the idea of letting politicians make important land-use and transportation decisions at all?
Back in the 1960s, highways were designed by engineers and politicians had very little say about them. The roads got safer while speeds increased. Then planners started saying, "OMG! Faster roads mean sprawl!" And they convinced the politicians to take control of transportation planning from the engineers. The result is lots of money spent on transportation, but speeds are slower, congestion is worse, and many transportation facilities are more dangerous.
I am not saying that every road built before 1970 was perfect or that every private land-use decision is perfect. But those roads and private land uses produce far more benefits than we can ever get by letting politicians and planners decide how to manage private land and where to invest transportation dollars.
Back in the 1970s Portlanders elected a "reform" mayor who turned out to be a child molester and, more important, turned out to be just as venal as the people he replaced. The problem isn't the people in charge. The problem is the idea of putting government in charge of decisions that ought to be left to the private sector.
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