Maybe someone should shoot WES and put it out of its misery.

and the smiling reporter

Most of the comments in the O call for beefed up "Transit Police". Tri-Met isn't going to do that...it would take money away from the administrators and the trolleys.
I will continue to drive my gas guzzling cars, at least they all have automatic door locks! And I do not have to put up with the riff-raff threatening me.

When criminals drive to the places where they commit crimes, why is there no outcry against automobiles and freeways?

This had absolutely nothing to do with Max other than a train was passing through the intersection. Why all the hysteria?

none-

Likely because light rail is so much more often used as a crime venue. This map is 3 years out of date, but it gives a good idea of where we're headed with light rail:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianextra/2007/11/max.html

Even 3 years ago, you didn't see such concentrations of crime along freeways or other roads.

As law enforcement personnel have repeatedly noted, light rail is a "crime magnet".

Clackamas County has noted a huge spike in crime since the Green Line went live, even as crime in the rest of the county dropped by 17% over the same period of time.

Loot rail is a huge waste of resources.

When criminals drive to the places where they commit crimes, why is there no outcry against automobiles and freeways?

Because thanks to the magic of GIS, we can now map crime locations and track them over time.

MAX isn't the only "attractive nuisance" by any means, but it sure is one. Look at any crime mapping program. Beaverton Police has said that the Beaverton Transit Center is by far the single most responded to location by its officer. But unlike a private business that can be pressured to clean up its act or be fined - local cities have no authority to tell TriMet to clean up its act. Further, cities are obligated to provide police services to TriMet even though TriMet doesn't pay the local cities.

And now the Clackamas County Sheriff has come out and said that crime reports are up along the MAX line. What is your suggested rationale besides MAX? That a bunch of people with criminal intents just happened to move by the MAX line? Because of lowered property values along the MAX line? Why hasn't crime increased in Milwaukie, or Oregon City, or Canby, or Sandy, or on Mt. Hood, or Wilsonville?

Maybe someone should shoot WES and put it out of its misery.

Because WES cars are built to FRA requirements, the glass on a WES train is bullet-resistant.

TriMet saves the cheap glass for bus shelters and buses.

Clackamas County Comissioner Lynn Peterson is intent on bringing MAX to the McLoughlin corridor south of Milwaukie, using the old urban renewal scheme. If it's such a great thing, why isn't she pushing for it in her home town of Lake Oswego?

Too funny Erik H.

The old Columbia Villa did perfectly well in terms of gang violence in the '80s without a train line. And the area out around 148th & SE Division was nicknamed as "Felony Flats" before the Gresham MAX went in a mile north.

That map is pretty laughable. A map of violent incidents on light rail is going to show exactly that. It doesn't compare it to anything else. You could map incidents from the '80s and '90s on bus lines and get pretty similar results. Or last year:

About 9:30 p.m. Sunday, a man was shot in the area of North Fessenden Street and Haven Avenue after he and two other men stepped off a bus. The man struck was shot in the leg.

Or last month:

Less than a week later Billy Moore, a 17-year-old recent graduate of Rosemary Anderson High School and resident of New Columbia, was shot in the back after a confrontation at a bus stop on his way home.

"This had absolutely nothing to do with Max other than a train was passing through the intersection. Why all the hysteria?"

The CLack County sherriff stated that with the opening of the MAX terminals that crime in the immediate are has taken a noticeable uptick. Dismissing this as coincidence isn't accurate.

LO doesn't do any crime mapping -- gives the illusion that crime doesn't happen here. So don't look for any spikes in the crime data in LO - at least none that you will be able to associate with any place in town. The First Addition and Foothills neighborhood may not like what is being hailed as the better way to go.

As for the comparison to roads and cars - automobiles isolate (and protect?) the riders from other people -- the bad and the good -- so it is less egalitarian and ultimately, safer as far as person-to-person crime goes. I'll be driving anyway, since light rail in LO doesn't come anywhere near me. I might as well live in.... West Linn?

I got news for ya - plenty of crime in this neighborhood before the MAX came to town.