Rep Blumenauer Challenges George Will to a Debate on Portland
Hot in my inbox, a statement from Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who represents Portland in Congress and is one of the main leaders on transportation policy in the House, responding to George Will’s cranky anti-Portland column:
“In his article, Mr. Will proves that he is mired in a one-dimensional past, one that the city of Portland has successfully overcome. He opposes policies that will provide Americans with more choices while saving them money, creating jobs and protecting the environment. In Portland we have been able to increase productivity, boost our economy, and invest in our city’s resources by taking a well-rounded approach to transportation. Secretary LaHood shares this comprehensive view on transportation options for our nation—its not about behavior modification its about giving Americans the freedom to choose more than just the highway or byway.
Rather than pontificate about practicality from a far, I challenge Mr. Will to come experience Portland, and then debate the facts, the future and the visions we offer. I am proud to defend the Portland model so painstakingly developed and implemented over the last 1/3 of a century. Maybe he will understand why young well educated people move here without jobs and older, well established business and professional people won’t leave for jobs that pay more. We will be happy to buy his plane ticket and give him a bottle of Oregon pinot to die for.
I’m mostly wondering what Newsweek intends to do about the large, material factual error in Will’s column. When Will penned an error-ridden Washington Post column on climate change, the Post steadfastly refused to issue a correction and key Post personnel defended Will’s right to lie in the Post’s pages. Strangely, during the weeks of ensuing controversy the Post ran several opinion pieces that, accurately, pointed out that Will was misleading people and some of the Post’s news personnel offered similar comments. Still, Will’s editors and the Post opinion section continued to stand solidly behind the principle that accuracy isn’t important to them—at least as long as George Will is the author.
Newsweek is an editorially separate entity, but also owned by The Washington Post Company. Perhaps the Post’s decision to greenlight lying led Will to believe he could get away with similar misrepresentations in Newsweek. I’ll be interested to see if that proves to be the case.
27 Responses to “Rep Blumenauer Challenges George Will to a Debate on Portland”
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May 20th, 2009 at 10:16 am
This may shock you, but this is not the first time George Will lied in print.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:25 am
You are a lying fuctard Matty.
Will’s climate change column contained ONE minor error and even that was debatable. And you call him a liar because he uses January data and not February!
You and the scumbags who called him a liar have not yet I notice corrected your bullshit LIES about sea level rise. Why no banner headline that the “models” you so proudly trumpeted have now been proven wrong by a factor of 300%?
Three fucking hundred fucking per cent!
Well?
Are you proud of being a lying fucktard?
Most recently you actually had the gall to blame the flooding of the Carterets on US pollution WHILE IGNORING THE FACT THAT THE STUPID FUCKING ISLANDERS DYN-O-MITED THEIR REEFS you ignorant ninny.
So why isn’t accuracy important to you?
Or to Think Progress?
Oh I know!
Because you are Progressive and we know that Progs are incapable of telling the truth.
What a fucking twit you are.
You who have the blood of thousands on you hands for your poodle skirted cheerleading of Bushit’s illegal wars.
Why are you not drummed out of the business?
Well?
May 20th, 2009 at 10:29 am
JT: Back to the Senate with you…isn’t there a vote coming up on something today?
Anyway, about Portland, what is Blumenauer so defensive about? All sensible people, and at least half of all crazy people, know that Portland is far nicer than most American cities. He shouldn’t waste his breath defending it…it’s not like Michael Moore defending the honor of Flint.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:37 am
A couple friends moved to Portland and loved it, except when it came to finding a good job. Although I’m sure it has nothing to do with blue jeans or bike lanes, it does look like many are having a tough time there. The colors are horrible on this chart, but I believe the top line is Portland:
http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/market-intelligence/labor-statistics-trends/Portland-Oregon-unemployment.aspx“
May 20th, 2009 at 10:43 am
From Quality Info
Oregon certainly enjoys its leisure time!
Apr 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2008
Oregon 12.0% 11.9% 5.6%
United States 8.9% 8.5% 5.0%
Should the federal government subsidize Mr. Blumenauer’s plan for increased leisure?
May 20th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I am a conservative. I have always felt that this meant that i should have a live, and let live attitude.If a state or city besides Baltimore passes a law that i do not like i do not complain too much because i do not live in that city, and they have a right to self government.
This should not be taken to extremes of course. But once upon a time, conservatives believed in local and state rights. If MR Will does not like the Portland model .He should simply not live there.I do not like LA’S car culture. That is one reason that i do not live there.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:19 am
JT may be surprised to discover that lying involves an intent to deceive. False suggestion. Making false suggestions, not including all the appropriate facts. That kind of thing. Maybe JT’s lightning-quick intelligence was confused by Will.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Duh: Will is a star. He’s an instantly recognizable TV figure adding to the luster of the Post in the media establishment firmament. The fact that he has taken steroids for years (and his home-run records based on lies) is not something that his team management is going to go out of their way to trumpet.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Does’t Rep. Blumenauer wear a bow-tie? Can we put the debate on PPV? We’ll title it “The Battle of the Bow-ties”.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
REGARDING COMMENT # 9
If you are going to have a ” BATTLE OF THE BOW-TIES”. Then you are going to have to include ex Senator Paul Simon.If he can not make it ,then Al Franken can impersonate him. He did a pretty good job impersonating him on Saturday Night Live.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
In response to JT’s eloquence, here is a bit of reality that George Will is either ignorant of or conveniently ignores. We just completed a traffic study in the inner southeast neighborhood in Portland. The traffic engineers recorded more bikes than cars at peak commuter hours at multiple evaluated intersections. So, back here in the real world, .01 percent that Will suggests would be the optimistic goal of bike commuters seems a tad, let’s be generous, understated.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I don’t think that Will was leaving his readers with a better understanding of the issue, but I actually think he has a case here that his column didn’t include factual errors. After all his column asked rhetorically whether Lahood really believed that more than .01 percent of people would regularly ride their bike to work. Since we know that .4 percent of people regularly ride there bikes to work I would say yes. Alternatively George Will could run a correction saying that in his last column he wrote .01% of people biking regularly to work when he meant the fraction .01 of people biking to work. It wouldn’t make him look bad in the way that a full retraction of his Washingtonpost column would have.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Pete @10,
Better give Al Franken a call, because plagiarizing Cole Porter, former Illinois Senator Paul Simon regrets that he will be unable to attend the debate since he died in 2003.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
REGARDING VADRANOR ‘S COMMENT # 13
Thanks for the info. What a shame.I am a free market conservative. But i always liked and admired Paul Simon.
I did not always agree with his beliefs.But i would prefer him to the Newt Gingriches of the world. Paul Simon always struck me as a decent man who honestly cared about the working people of this country.
Thank you once again VADANOR and best regards to you
May 20th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
S.P. Gass and Mattyoung both make the excellent point that Portland’s bike, rail, and general environmental policies have caused rampant unemployment in Oregon. If you took Portland (and possibly Eugene, also kinda leftist) out of the mix, Oregon would be doing splendidly on the employment front.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
One of the problems, of course, is that pundits like Will have so little public accountability for what they write. It’s not clear that Will ever leaves his house to do anything other than appeal of Sunday morning shows and go to baseball games. He’s fine writing his columns from home, but he refuses to ever engage with the public or allow himself to be confronted by those who see his columns for the studidity that they are.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
REGARDING MDS’ S COMMENT # 15
MDS
I can understand your point about enviromental policies.But I fail to see how bike lanes CAUSE unemployment in Portland.As a bike commuter, i think that too much emphasis is put on bike lanes. But i do not actually see them as evil.
It is not like the people of Portland are being forced to ride bikes , or to use bike lanes or mass transit, against their will .
And while i have never been to Portland , i do know that unemployment is almost always higher in urban areas.Baltimore has almost no bike lanes. But believe me we sure do have unemployment.
If you are claiming that the bike lanes lead to higher taxes, I can see your point. Except that many cities without bike lanes have high taxes as well.
Once again , I am a conservative who believes in local government rights.If you do not want to live in Portland MDS. Than no one is forcing you too. That is what is so great about America being such a large and diverse country.
Best regards to you MDS
May 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. You do realize that the Oregon legislature was dominated by Republicans until very recently, don’t you?
May 20th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Oregon certainly enjoys its leisure time!
Not as much as the Carolinas.
Point?
May 20th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
pete from baltimore: MDS is being entirely sarcastic.
Re Oregon’s unemployment.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
REGARDING BRANDON’S COMMENT # 20 AND MDS’S COMMENT # 15
If that is the case then i apoligise to MDS.Although i would point out that i was polite in my origanal response.
I have found that it is hard to tell what is sarcasm ,and what is not, on the internet.Watching politics today it is also hard to tell what is satire , and what isn’t.
I still don’t know if George Will’s column about bluejeans was supposed to be serious or not.Sadly ,i have to say the same about MR YGLESIAS’S recent post on Oprah being a supreme court justice.
BEST REGARDS, AND MY APOLIGIES TO MDS AND BRANDON>
May 20th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I live in Portland, and like it very much, and George Will is a motard. BUT, his main point is actually true: the fact is that the types of planning Portland undertakes IS social engineering.
Despite the fact that almost everyone here owns and uses cars regularly, there is a systematic dis-investment in the street grid, and endless talk about bikes and trains. Making driving miserable for the 90% of the population who drives, in order to boost transit numbers, because it is the “right thing to do” is social engineering. Now, you might agree with this type of social engineering, but that’s still what it is.
The other big thing around here is that we need “density” next to our transit line. If anyone can find me a study that shows that people prefer to live in small units with neighbors on all sides, rather than detached homes, or attached homes, but less dense, I’d love to see that study. People don’t prefer to live in these things, and trying to force people into this type of housing through planning (and sizable public subsidies) is also social engineering.
I know lots of city planners around here through my profession, and almost to a person, they live in detached single-family homes with yards and garages and what not. In other words: “Density is great. It’s great for YOU.”
May 20th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
If I were white I’d move to Portland, but as it is I worry about the racism.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
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May 21st, 2009 at 1:41 am
George Will can now use the Glen Beck “I’m a commentator, I don’t report facts” defense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEgOtsLCip8
May 21st, 2009 at 10:54 am
RE Deeds’ comment: “I know lots of city planners around here through my profession, and almost to a person, they live in detached single-family homes with yards and garages and what not. In other words: “Density is great. It’s great for YOU.””
Please take a look at prices (reflecting demand) in some high density urban neighborhoods like Georgetown and Beacon Hill, you will discover that they have remained economic engines thru the downturn, prices up double digit percents.
Don’t know about Portland planners, maybe they are underpaid, but density (small houses, tiny lots, street parking, and postage-stamp or non-existent yards) is in very high demand when it is accompanied by high quality housing, urban parks, bikepaths and transit. If there were more of it, it would become more affordable so even planners could live that way.
George Will needs to get out for a walk sometimes.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Lou: The problem is comparing places like Georgetown and Brooklyn to Portland. Portland has ample land for new suburbs within a 20 to 25 minute drive. Georgetown does not. The economics are all wrong here. As a rule, newly constructed dense housing is higher cost for less house.
MNPundit: “If I were white I’d move to Portland, but as it is I worry about the racism.”
I really don’t encounter overt racism, just a lack of diversity.