Erik Sten: Willing To Spend More On Tram

The Portland Mercury has an article on Erik Sten’s campaign that is mostly self-serving election year stuff. Did you know, for example, how close he came to deciding not to run again? Oh the drama! But luckily for Portland, there are still some projects that he really wants to see completed, so he’s put the interests of the city ahead of his own. What a guy! Of course, he must realize that if he loses his seat in the council he’ll have to come up with another job. All this was standard political stuff, and it didn’t phase me one bit.
The part of the article that did get me was about the tram and the wide open door he left to spend more money: “As for the tram, Sten says he's unlikely to greenlight any more city money for the project (but if OHSU came up with a sweet offer that played to Sten's passions—like offering land for affordable housing—he says he'd be willing to take a look).”
In other words, he’ll continue to spend more money on this crazy project if OHSU gets us involved in even more projects – especially involving the sanctimonious subject of affordable housing. Never mind that the affordable housing in the South Warterfront district is now endangered by the lack of funds from the project that gave us the tram.
The only decision he made that makes any sense is to run again. Now that he has free money to do it, why give up a chance to play wheeler-dealer where he screws up the deals and we pick up the tab?


Portland Mercury - News - City - Sten Again