“Comments I made at the May 25 MPAC meeting created a stir in the bicycling community.”
— Jerry Willey, Mayor of Hillsboro
At a meeting of Metro’s Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC) late last month Hillsboro Mayor Jerry Willey raised eyebrows when he said “bicyclists” need to “participate” in paying for the costs of transportation infrastructure mandated by our region’s climate change goals.
“We all aspire to have more bike lanes and certainly more bike and pedestrian streets; but who pays the cost of that?” he wondered; and then continued to say, “… nothing, from actually, quite frankly, the bicycle group.”
Willey has now responded to his comments in a follow-up news story by Metro and in a memo distributed at this week’s MPAC meeting.
When asked about the comments by Metro’s in-house news reporter Nick Christensen, Willey said,
“My concern was, the cost of these (various proposals) [to battle climate change] being shifted to the cities – the cities that have a relatively fixed revenue source in property taxes and a declining base in gas taxes… Overall, it wasn’t just the bicycle community I was focused on. It was, I think, the cost of many of the proposals.”
And in a memo to MPAC dated June 8th, Willey acknowledged that his comments had “created a stir in the bicycling community.”
“Lest people wrongly think those comments mean Hillsboro isn’t committed to addressing climate change and sustainability and increased bike/pedestrian travel,” he wrote, “here are a few highlights of some important work we’re doing in that area.”
Willey than listed several policies and initiatives “dedicated to sustainability.”
Download Wlley’s memo here (PDF).
Do you think the Mayor’s response shows that he understands why people were so concerned with his comments?