A 73-year-old St. Johns man brought his guitar to Portland City Hall on Wednesday for a three-minute concert.

Paul Rippey serenaded the Portland City Council with a Bob Dylan or Pete Seeger-esque ditty about a $450 million freeway construction project.

Rippey turned his portion of public testimony into a piece of activism performance art highlighting his opposition to the long-planned Rose Quarter Improvement project, a state funded project that will eventually add auxiliary lines and shoulders through the Rose Quarter on Interstate 5.

The project's proponents have said a lot of things about the project -- that it will address safety issues in the Rose Quarter caused by I-84, I-5 and I-405 merging issues, that it will help unify neighborhoods torn apart by the freeway decades ago, and that it will make for easier travel through the central city. It's not expected to dramatically affect congestion.

Opponents argue a variety of points: That the project's nearly half-billion price tag would be better spent in east Portland or by improving transit or multi-modal transportation options, and that making it easier to drive on I-5 will only encourage people to drive more.

The latter argument is known as "induced demand."

That's what Rippey riffed on in his City Hall set. Commissioner Chloe Eudaly pulled out her cellphone and recorded the performance, and Commissioner Amanda Fritz seemed to get a kick out of it. Here are the lyrics (h/t to RawStory for first noticing the performance) and a link to the performance (starts at about the 8:30 mark)

Lyrics:

"In the '60s we built the interstate.

In the '70s and '80s they were working great.

In the '90s and aughts we said, 'Well, let's add another lane.' And, now by god, they want to do it again.

But it should be clear the system is broken and adding more lanes is just a futile token.

Because the thing we need to understand is induced demand.

Oh we all like to drive around town, but you can't help noticing how much it's slowed down.

And adding more lanes is never done, because if we build them they will come.

And the thing we need to understand is induced demand.

I wish Tom McCall was still alive. He tore down Harbor Drive.

And now Dennis Buchanan has gone away. He blocked the Mt. Hood Expressway.

But don't let us ever forget. That these brave people took a lot of sh**.

People of courage, people of goodwill -- well I know we've got that kind of leader still!

But the thing they need to understand is induced demand.

Oh I know we'll need more buses and MAX, that's just the hard cold facts.

But the way to get the highways off our backs is with a comprehensive congestion tax.

And the thing we need to understand is, induced demand.

In the '60s we built the interstate, let's stop the madness now before it's too late.

And the thing we need to understand is, induced demand."

-- Andrew Theen atheen@oregonian.com 503-294-4026 @andrewtheen