Quit fiddling, Nero

Representative Jules Kopel-Bailey of Oregon's 42nd district,

I am appalled that you are supporting HB 2690. I, too, am a bicycle commuter, but I am vehemently opposed to allowing bicycles ignore traffic signs in this manner. There are too many ill-behaved cyclists in this city as it is, and this bill rewards their ill behavior. We should be cracking down on cyclists that ignore stop signs, not give them a free pass.

More importantly, I am greatly disappointed that the only two issues we've heard the most about involving you since you went to Salem to represent us are HB 3122 and HB 2690. You're playing around with petty things like measuring pints of beer, letting cyclists run stop signs, and meaningless gestures while our education system is on the verge of a financial collapse! I am disgusted that you choose to serve our district and our state in such a trivial and worthless manner. Forget pints of beer and bicycles, do something abut health care, unemployment, and adequately funding schools and universities.

Stop emulating Nero. Quit fiddling and start putting out the metaphorical fires threatening our state.

Portland slides away

Last month, while the national news was apoplectic over the ice storm that swept through the southern plains of the US, we had a reminder of what can happen here in Portland:



... and that was just a plain old snowstorm. Y'all remember Portland silver thaws? Or those lovely ice storms we get every 5 years or so? I wonder why we never make the news like that?