1. Yes, I would support a bond measure to pay for equipment, training and operations. Every time a small winter event shuts down Portland, our leaders say, well, this never happens. But it keeps happening, and it hurts regular people who miss work and small businesses who lose revenue.

2. I would not put salt down.

3. Yep.

4. Yep.

Sure, many people did fine. We had no problems in my household. But many, many people missed work, lost business, or were unnecessarily house-bound, placing their health and well-being at risk.

And again, even if we did nothing different as a city (though my sources working for the city confirm that there was a significant leadership vacuum), our civic leaders should have kept us informed of tactical and strategic decisions that affected our city’s ability to function.

But really what we are talking about, in any case, is priorities for scarce public funds. So let me ask:

1. Would you vote for a bond issue, paid for by a tax increase, to fund snow removal? If not, where would you cut the budget to pay for snow removal?

2. Would putting salt on streets and highways be acceptable to the environmentalists?

3. Do you have a two-week stockpile of food, medicines, water, batteries and other necessities?

4. Are you willing to volunteer to help out in an emergency, or are you going to sit around until it’s over and then complain about a lack of leadership, communication and planning?

In short, like most people in most circumstances, we did the best we could with what we had. Yes, I think we will be tested again, given that we are in a seismically active area and people seem to ignore flood plains when they build. So … what’s *your* plan?

My biggest complaint was the almost total lack of communication from civic leaders. Portlanders get a real siege mentality, which is understandable once you’ve lived through a few mismanaged (or unmanaged) winter storm events here, and we could have used some reassuring words.

As for economic losses, many, many people were unable to get to work, or had their workplaces shut down for lack of safe transportation. We’ll never really know what that amounts to in terms of lost wages, but I’m sure we’ll be hearing from merchants about their lack of sales in the critical week and a half before Christmas.

the snow stopped “this town in its tracks”

Was it really that bad? I worked every day (except Christmas and weekends) throughout the storm. Most everyone I know worked most of the days they were scheduled to. I shopped at local groceries, one of which was packed on the 21st and 23rd, another of which was jammed on the 26th. On Monday the 22nd I had to get my 9-year-old son across town to his mother’s. We walked most of the way there. I walked all the way home. Were we heroic? No. But we were resourceful. And it really wasn’t that bad. (In fact, the walk on the 22nd was delightful: What great fun watching the sledders on NE 39th Avenue at Wistaria!)

As poorly as governmental agencies might have performed during the storms, I’d say some Portlanders performed even worse.

Like we say in hockey, you have to spend money to win (but spending money will never guarantee a win).

Adams is correct to point out that we’ve slashed our budget for street maintenance, and our snow plow fleet is small and aging. This is the major factor in our inability to keep the city working in a snow event.

Even though I think we could do better with what we’ve got, we really do need to spend more money for winter storm preparation if we want to keep people moving when it snows in Portland.

Now when “Tax ‘em Sam” Adams becomes mayor, he won’t be any better.

I think Adams is a snooty elitist who has no regard for the poor or the middle class.