Anyone really think the 14-Hawthorne will really return to the transit mall (as they show in the illustration); and will the cars in the traffic lanes actually going to wait for pedistrians to cross the street, or are their drivers going to flip the bird and barrel through at 35 MPH like on every other downtown street now?

In any event, I did receive an e-mail from TriMet announcing the new website and announced new e-mail subscription options (editorial note - I couldn't get italics to work, so I used "blockquote"):

Dear Email Updates Subscriber,

We wanted to let you know there are new email subscription categories available at the Portland Mall MAX Light Rail Project website, portlandmall.org. The new categories are:

Construction Updates

Active construction notices and updates.
Frequency: about 1-2 messages per week

Events & Activities

Announcements about project-related events and activities.
Frequency: about 1 message per week

Getting Around Downtown: Commuting Tips

Smart travel tips for people who work, live or shop downtown.
Frequency: about 2-4 messages per month

Project News & Progress Reports

General project news including progress reports, press releases and more.
Frequency: about 1 message per week

Public Meetings

Announcements about upcoming Portland Mall project meetings, including the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC).
Frequency: about 1-2 messages per month

To subscribe, visit http://portlandmall.org/, click on "Email Updates" and follow the instructions to sign up for the topics that interest you. If you prefer, you can access the sign-up page directly at:

http://service.govdelivery.com/service/multi_subscribe.html?code=ORTRIMETPM

If you choose to remain a subscriber to this trimet.org category (Portland Mall Light Rail Project News & Meetings), you will continue to receive general project news and public meeting announcements.

We invite you to visit portlandmall.org today, sign up for email updates and become a part of the next big thing downtown!

http://portlandmall.org/

One consultant that I heard talk said that 1/3 of the businesses along the mall went out of business the last time. Hope Trimet gets it better this time.

Just for the record: anyone want to bet as to whether this will help or hurt downtown in the long term? (There is one school of thought that dense core downtowns were made obsolete, first by the streetcar allowing people to live in the burbs, then by the automobile allowing living even further out. Newer cities (like LA) were built without dense cores and work well (except they quit building lane-miles years ago and got congestion.))

Thanks
JK

anyone want to bet as to whether this will help or hurt downtown in the long term

I'll take that bet, assuming we can agree on tricky definitions.

How about this, we wait for the appropriate "Metro Regional Databook" downtown employment figures to be published. I'll bet you that at some "long term" point after the transit mall reopens (say a minimum of 2 years after reopening, such as 2011 or so), downtown employment will be more than 5% higher than at the last recorded point before breaking ground (sometime in 2004-2006 figures, whichever year is available.)

The loser buys the winner a 1-month TriMet pass.

See you in 5-6 years?

- Bob R.

and will the cars in the traffic lanes actually going to wait for pedistrians to cross the street, or are their drivers going to flip the bird and barrel through at 35 MPH like on every other downtown street now?

Are you referring to red light runners? Every intersection along the mall will be fully signalized. I don't see how someone could "barrel through" at 35MPH unless they were running red lights or the pedestrian was crossing against the light.

- Bob R.

I'm taking a 'wait and see' approach to this one. I am more curious than judgemental on the merits & effect of a new transit mall.

And they could have avoided this mess (and it's already a mess--there's construction on 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, Columbia and Jefferson) and end up with a far more efficient and lasting system by boaring a tunnel, but noooo...

I'm beginning to compare this to the foreign articulated lemons, er, buses and the Self Service Fare Collection which they brought on--one folly leading to another.

On the positive side, they did seem to do a good job on helping Interstate Ave.

anyone want to bet as to whether this will help or hurt downtown in the long term(jk)
How about this, we wait for the appropriate "Metro Regional Databook" downtown employment figures to be published. I'll bet you that at some "long term" point after the transit mall reopens (say a minimum of 2 years after reopening, such as 2011 or so), downtown employment will be more than 5% higher than at the last recorded point before breaking ground (sometime in 2004-2006 figures, whichever year is available.)
The loser buys the winner a 1-month TriMet pass.(Bob)

How about whether or not the downtown’s market share of retail sales and living wage employment increases. IE: does retail/living wage employment downtown increase or decrease compared to the rest of the region.

But I bet only for fun.

Thanks
JK

I>there's construction on 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, Columbia and Jefferson...

It really is a mess already. I work at 2nd and Columbia. I wish someone would wake up and realize that telling you a street is closed is more helpful if the post that before you can't do anything about it (like 2 blocks before, so cars aren't turning down a route that gets them nowhere...).

How about whether or not the downtown’s market share of retail sales and living wage employment increases. IE: does retail/living wage employment downtown increase or decrease compared to the rest of the region.

Sorry, JK, that changes the rules. :-) Seriously, though, that would not be a good bet for me to take, because no matter how well downtown does, because downtown and Multnomah County are already more filled in than neighboring counties which have more room to grow, growth in those counties is going to outpace downtown until they fill out, which means decreasing market share so long as downtown grows even a bit slower than the surrounding counties as a whole.

Your original bet was whether the project would "help or hurt" downtown in the long term. There may be a number of ways to measure this, but market share of an established population center against fast-growing adjacent communities is not one of those ways.

- Bob R.