Thursday, December 2, 2010

Our City At Work


Portland OR, led by Sam Adams (aka Mayor Creepy) and his happy band of sustainable bicycling, mass transit enthusiasts has opted for redistributing our property taxes via a mass printing campaign.

Yesterday I came home from work and found this colorful reusable shopping bag waiting for me on my front porch.




Inside the bag there was a veritable cornucopia of brochures, maps, guides, guide books, and more. There were materials from the local bicycle consortium, the department of transportation, Tri-Met, the Water Bureau, Office of Sustainability ad nausium. I am guessing there was at least $75.00 worth of printed materials. Of course this doesn't include the cost of the production, not to mention the massive employment rolls of the City required to produce this.
At first I was outraged at this absurd waste of money by our City. Then the Lady Wife pointed out that all this largesse was FREE!. When I reminded her that our taxes paid for all this, she pointed out that she had actually requested this material, and was delighted that the City could provide all this great information for FREE!
I guess it is FREE but I would prefer that we could fund our schools, patch the holes in our streets, replace the Sellwood bridge, and provide police and fire protection. At least now I have plenty of fuel for lighting the barbeque...