Good news. Thanks for posting.

Great news. Now watch the light rail mafia focus its resources on the Clackastani Uprising.

I do hop this is sincere. The fact that 2 council members decided at the same time to withdraw support may be just coincidence or it may be a ploy to turn the heat down on the planned vote on the LO streetcar vote in May as well as to put streetcar supporters in a good light for the upcoming election.

If the issue is on the shelf so to speak, it will be glossed over and candidates for mayor and council can again pull the wool over our eyes about their true intent. In 2013 we can be right back where we are today but without the momentum against the streetcar or individual politicians with terms ending shortly. We will be left with whatever council we elect by intent or by deceit, and we will live with them for several more years. Not a good prospect if the support for the streetcar that is being withheld for "foreseeable" future turns out to be foreseeable after all.

Call me skeptical, but I need proof that something real just took place. Otherwise, nothing has changed and I still want to see a vote in May and a way to cut the power on all these rail nuts. I am staying focused on the real deal, not just an announcement in a meeting that doesn't legally change anything -yet.

You need some candidates who agree with you. Make a big deal of how much money has been wasted for Homer and Dike already. If you allow the condo pushers to hang around on the council, you'll be sleeping with one eye open for a long time.

Exactly Jack.

No one should give these connivers a pass because they back off.

They wasted millions while trying to dupe and deceive the public and avoid any voting.

This pattern of using tax dollars and public deceit to maneuver around and evade voters in every arena must stop along with participants facing severe consequences.

Lake Oswego must stay the course and replace their Mayor and gain the strong council majority needed to rid their community of the ruinous rail and density agenda.

Same goes for Clackamas County, Clark County and the Southwest communities under attack with Barbur/99 MAX planning that is already devouring millions.

Voters may want to consider who in the congressional race will be complicit in funding another MAX line.
Is there any doubt Bonamici will work with Earl, Wyden and Merckley to get federal matching dollars for the Barbur/99 MAX?

This will plunge all of the SW communities into the same battle their neighbors have been fighting.

Ben - the squeal coming from politicians is always, the devil ... oops, Metro, made us do it. If not that, then the State made us do it. This is a many-headed monster for sure.

Unfortunately, California just ended urban renewal, so their weasels are going to be coming up here, not vice versa.

Homer needs to retire. The froth has been off the market since 2007!

Now the folks in Dunthorpe with the trolley track running through their front yard need to file a adverse abandonment filing with the Surface Transportation Board for the railroad track, and the Streetcar will never see the light of day. No trolley has run in a year and a half...come next spring it'll be two years and the STB does not take too kindly on railroads that aren't being used.

...Is there any doubt Bonamici will work with Earl, Wyden and Merckley to get federal matching dollars for the Barbur/99 MAX?...

Ben,
I am afraid you are right. I think that as soon as the spotlight was on L.O., and opposition, the Barbur/99 Max was "seriously" brought out. If that has too much opposition, I am sure they have the "next track" plan ready to go.
Question is, who in the SW will be opposed?

Ben and Nolo are calling it right, the TriMet Transit snake is not dead.

The Barbur/99 has been slowly creeping through the neighborhood meetings, study groups and charettes with a few attendees and mostly outnumber by staff from five or more agencies.

So eight neighbors congeal, saying we need to have a "no-build option" on the table to be "open-minded", then vote yes to spend $500,000 on a few exploratory studies; then another $5 Million in cost/economic/environmental studies, then SURPRISE. Another mass transit project, while ignoring the whole time a call for a vote.

That is happening all along the Barbur route like it did through Johns Landing to Lake Oswego, and Portland to Milwaukie routes. I'm still skeptical of what can happen in LO.

Lee,
If the same oh-so helpful consultants are putting the technical analyses together, then they will be slanted toward whatever the industrial-transit industry (and their public entity partners) wants. He who pays the piper..... The third party consulting firms do not work on behalf of the public -they work for themselves. Seems like everyone does that these days. The reports, masquerading as scientific studies, create the subterfuge and ammunition they need to keep the schemes going.

Maybe we are going back to the early 20th century in more than transportation options - quackery was big then too.

Yeah! Dreams do come true!

Portland's Pols, Bureaucrats and Planners should take a lesson from the Portland/Lake Oswego Streetcar fiasco.

According to the O, the initial planning costs over $3.5 Million (and that isn't including all of both cities bureau staff time, etc.). And that is for a $250 Million streetcar line. The Barbur Blvd. Lightrail to Tigard could be over $1.75 Billion. Extrapolating, there could be over $52 Million spent for Barbur LR Planning to get to where LO Streetcar ended.

Wouldn't it make sense to have a vote in the near future with a few preliminary options and crude costs before anymore is spent on Barbur Planning? We need Reality.