Picture this: You are a citizen of Portland, Oregon, middle of the tax bracket, medium-sized house, you’ve worked for what you’ve got, you’re proud of your life. You’re driving home from work when suddenly, you’re cut off by a Range Rover on the 1-5. You think, “Who is this jerk in the $50,000 car with very poor driving skills?” Then you see the red bird pasted on the back of the car, and it dawns on you.

A West Hills brat.

For many years, Lincoln students have placed on Portland’s various worst lists, a collective of all of the very worst things about living in Portland. We as a student body are seen as so snooty and entitled that we are ranked among Voodoo donuts and PGE Park in the minds of the average Portlander.

Albeit with overprivileged, Range-Rover driving students, Lincoln is monumentally overcrowded. The portables were installed about 14 years ago, and only supposed to last a short stint while the school raised money for a renovation. A whole decade later, our population size has grown, class size has grown and yet the building size has stayed the same, barring the destruction of one portable.

Our necessity for more space far outweighs our need for more parking. Classroom size is an issue which affects the whole student body, not just a small percentage of junior and senior class. Also, it just so happens we are smack right in the heart of Downtown, a hub of both pay-for-parking lots and this thing called public transit. And our public transit just so happens to be some of the best in the country! So if you can’t pay for parking Downtown, chances are there’s a bus that can fill your needs.

We are a school that doesn’t instinctively garner sympathy, and the support of the Goose Hollow community and the taxpayers of Oregon isn’t going to be easy to get.

It’s true that for Lincoln students who want to drive to lunch and don’t want to spend upwards of $50 million dollars on an already controversial parking lot. Any reluctance to vote for the bond to rebuild Lincoln will be exaggerated by the fact that we already got a whole new parking lot for our shiny new cars a few months prior.