AERIAL TRAM: PUNDITS FLAME ON – EXCEPT ABOUT SECURITY

Everybody with any kind of writing outlet in Portland has weighed in on the tram this week, from Jonathan Nicholas to Steve Duin to Phil Stanford to Jack Bogdanski. Sam Adams is getting the most heat lately for his thinly veiled attempts to cover his ass by letting some tram officials go. Sam, it’s not working. These artful little statements aren’t working either. You blew this. Steve Duin compared you to a “most inattentive nanny” which was an image that I found deeply disturbing. Not about you, but about Steve.
Meanwhile the Portland Freelancer is the only outlet currently talking about the real story. It’s not the budget, stupid, and it’s not the developers. Oh and by the way, will the Oregonian please stop using the phrase “an article in the Oregonian”, or “the Oregonian article” as if that one tram piece precipitated the Big Bang and brought the universe into existence? Relax, if you folks had really been doing your job, we might not be in this mess. Here's a clue: The constant bragging was too much for me and I view fawning self-promotion as a way of life. Besides, harping on what you’ve done only serves to highlight the truth: The debate on this has been driven by a blogger: One Jack Bogdanski.
But even Jack the Man is missing the point about this tram. It is two bus-shaped objects suspended by cables hundreds of feet off the ground. Do you read the international press about the role busses sometimes play in terrorism? Why in hell would we want to make it this easy for them? Why would we want to spend everyday worrying just a little about our vulnerabilities here? Stop the tram now! This isn’t funny anymore!