Portland Mayor Tom Potter is calling the idea to reuse the retired Sauvie Island bridge as a pedestrian and bicyclke bridge in Northwest Portland "too expensive.’

But his city council colleagues disagree and are accusing Potter of playing election year politics.

Heeding the advice of neighbors, City Commissioner Sam Adams wants the old Sauvie Island Bridge transplanted across Interstate-405 at NW Flanders Street.

It would be Portland’s biggest recycling project.

“It wins on a number of different levels,” said Adams.

He’s pushing the $5.5 million dollar idea, something Pearl District neighbors say they desperately want. But Mayor Potter says ‘wait a minute.’

“When you have a pot of money how do you spend it? You spend it on what the community needs and then you spend it on what they want,” said Potter.

Though only a fraction of the project would be financed by general fund tax dollars, that's still money that could be used instead for road maintenance, says Potter.

“I mean here we have a city, Portland that has over 600 miles of a backlog of streets that need maintenance. We have neighborhoods clamoring for safety,” added Potter.

“Those are very unsafe crossings,” countered Adams, describing the streets that currently cross I-405 in the neighborhood.

Adams says safety actually a big part of the reason for transplanting the bridge. He suspects election-year politics is behind the criticism, not penny-pinching.

“Others maliciously trying to confuse the issue,” he said. “But I’m going to do what I think is best for Portlanders and not necessarily what is best for my own political standing.”

City Commissioner Randy Leonard, a strong Adams supporter, said retiring Potter is just trying to make Adams look bad in his run for mayor while boosting Adam’s opponent Sho Dozono.

“Tom is working real hard to help get his friend Sho elected,” said Leonard.

Potter says the accusations are just a distraction from the true issue, one he thinks is about spending too much money on a bold idea.

“I'm not Sho's campaign manager. He's got one,” said Potter.

The neighborhood was already slated for a pedestrian bridge at some point. Previous plans would've called for something narrower, costing $1.5 milllion less.