-
On “Railfans”, the CRC and Institutional Momentum
One of our readers likes to use the term “railfans” to describe the coalition of interests that keeps our Light Rail and Streetcar system developing. A slightly less malevolent term that is sometimes used is “Light Rail Mafia”. I suppose as a member of the Streetcar Board and someone who while serving on various advisory…
-
Pining for Glenn Jackson
Glenn Jackson was the closest Oregon ever had to a Robert Moses-type character in transportation development. He was also considerably more enlightened than Moses, supporting the original Banfield Light Rail after support for the Mt. Hood Freeway faltered. Jackson was CEO of Pacific Power and Light, and for many years chair of the Oregon Highway…
-
And Then the City Says…
Having just reflected on Metro’s Legislative Priorities, we now look at the City of Portland package (a much longer document). Here is the section on transportation funding: includes a five-year gasoline tax increase to fund a set of specific local government transportation improvements related to system safety, maintenance, preservation, operations, and congestion; includes the indexing…
-
Betting on Lottery Dollars for Milwaukie LRT?
Metro is floating its proposed legislative agenda past MPAC and JPACT. Included in the transportation plank is this phrase: “Providing lottery dollars to support the next leg of the region’s high-capacity transit system…” (this means Milwaukie Light Rail). Could this be the boost to get that corridor off the ground? The accompanying report notes that…
-
Sustainability at the Oregon Business Plan Summit
The Business Journal has a nice summary article on the presentation on sustainability, so I won’t detail it myself, other than an analogy made by Allen Alley, chair of the plan’s steering committee. He likened sustainability to the quality movement in business in the ’80s. People initially thought quality would just be an added expense.…