“Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but I don’t agree with you.”

Maddeningly, that’s where we left it.

I’m usually the one who’s trying to help people talk to each other. I’m likely to say “So what you’re saying is…”  And I think I’m pretty tolerant of people’s opinions most of the time. But I’ve got my hot buttons too, and this lady just hit too many of them.

It was at the Portland Plan meeting; a visioning and opinion-gathering meeting held by officials from the city of Portland and led by the mayor.  Part of the meeting involved small-group discussions, and one of the topics was transportation.

This lady led off with “Now, I own three bikes, but…” and proceeded to say that she doesn’t think the city should put a lot of time and money into bicycle improvements, that public transportation is unsafe, so she doesn’t use it, that cyclists should have to buy insurance like motorists do, that she’s simply going to drive her car wherever and whenever she wants because that’s what works for her and that’s what she wants to do, and that she doesn’t think the city should waste time and money making over the existing city into 20-minute neighborhoods (PDF). Because she thinks that’s not what people need.

Yeah. I started arguing with her when she got into the bike insurance, and the table facilitator had to make us stop. But I got to say my piece, and the facilitator wrote it all down.

I was still mad when I got home, and wrote a lot of very judgmental stuff refuting what the lady said at the meeting.  My husband had the sense to suggest I not post it immediately, and this morning I thought better of it, so I won’t subject you to my arguments.

If you’re in Portland, I do recommend attend a Portland Plan meeting if you can, though. I’ll be posting a recap of the meeting this weekend over on ParkroseGateway.com.

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