As a child in the 50's in Milwaukie I got haircuts just 50 yards from the trolley line that went through Milwaukie.

Then the deep thinkers, and thieves got together for busses. A plot to enrich the people that supplied the busses and support started. Those that deny, look at many articles and even a biggie law suit that folllowed years latter. Greed, removed the trolley line, now 50 years later we revisit the scene.

Having lived through the tear up of the trolley line I am not surprised the stupidity is back in full glory.

Not surprised at all.

Kinda reminds me of a few parents I know. "Schnookums, if you don't stop chainsawing the neighbors and you force me to get off the couch, I may have to raise my voice."

"The $250 million in lottery money"

So, too, the $1.1B they took out of the budget for employee benefits last biennium.

Face it, we're a screwed-up state. It helps if we keep the graduation rate low so no one is smart enough to actually understand what's going on here.

Then the deep thinkers, and thieves got together for busses. A plot to enrich the people that supplied the busses and support started. Those that deny, look at many articles and even a biggie law suit that folllowed years latter. Greed, removed the trolley line, now 50 years later we revisit the scene.

Would you like to elaborate on the scheme you are describing? If it's what I'm thinking of...your facts are a bit off.

Here's a hint: National City Lines didn't own or operate the transit system in Portland. Here's another hint: They didn't own/operate the Red Cars in Los Angeles, either. And the streetcars in L.A. lasted a decade after Portland's did.

And that lawsuit...so many people get the facts wrong with that.

Handing out money to friends and family is the highest priority for our local elected officials. Plus, the projects are "green" and "sustainable" and "iconic" so it must be right.

And Jack, you forget that money comes in different colors! Money for toy trains is a special color that cannot be used to pay for police enforcement on toy trains built in the past. The color has to match.

Someone posted a comment the other day about a partnership between the naive and the greedy. I think that sums up Portland politics. City council is naive and easily duped. And there are always sharks in the pool looking for easy money.

“The $250 million that these fellows are about to blow on the mystery train to Milwaukie…”

Correction: It’s being blown by the day. The Milwaukie LR project has cost $59.7 million since June 30 and the original stash of $250 million in Lottery funds is down to $164 million. At the current drawdown rate of $2.3 million per week, it will all be gone by mid-July.

Since they use the word "unacceptable" maybe it is a mirror of sorts
knowing that what they are doing or not doing is "unacceptable."

Eric, do not mix up your fiction with more fiction. Even 60 Minutes tv show proved the cruption. Denial, is not a river in South America.

Stroyd: Do you want the proof?

The case of United States v. National City Lines had three questions.

NCL was found not-guilty on two of the charges.

NCL was found guilty on ONE charge - to conspire to monopolize the sale of buses from General Motors to the NCL subsidiary companies. It was fined $5,000. Not $5 million, or $50 million, or $500 million, but a paltry, almost "slap on the wrist" fine of $5,000.

The "scandal" was that NCL shut out competing bus companies from selling buses to the NCL company lines. As a result, GM had to provide various forms of assistance to Flxible and other manufacturers of buses. Ultimately, GM exited the bus business in the 1980s.

The rest of the scandal is built upon half-truths and flat out lies - for example, "Who killed the Red Cars" was a popular saying. National City Lines had no involvement with the "Red Cars", the Pacific Electric Railway - which was largely a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad, but then sold to a succession of owners until it became owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority - a government agency. It was the MTA - a government agency - that pulled the plug on the "Red Cars". I am in possession of multiple books and a video that documented the last years of the PE system and this is absolutely verifiable data.

NCL did own the "Yellow Cars", or the Los Angeles Railway. NCL did shut down the streetcar system. In the court case United States v. National City Lines, the Supreme Court correctly stated that NCL did not conspire to shut down the streetcar lines, because systems not owned by NCL - in particular Portland - had eliminated their streetcar systems too. The reason for the precarious state of the streetcar systems goes back to the Public Company Holding Act, which essentially forbade utility companies from subsidizing streetcar systems with electric utility systems and vice-versa (a common tactic was to charge exorbinate electric charges to the streetcar system).

When the utilites were forced to divest of the streetcar systems, they didn't stand a chance to operate in a self-sufficient manner.

I choose to follow documented history, not the conspiracy theory based upon lies, misstatements, and theories that just don't make sense.

The whole "GM conspiracy" myth has been debunked many times. Read "Kennedy, 60 Minutes, and Roger Rabbit: Understanding Conspiracy-Theory Explanations of the Decline of Urban Mass Transit" by Martha Bianco of PSU, published 11/17/98; or "General Motors and the Demise of Streetcars", Cliff Slater, Transportation Quarterly, Vol 51 (Summer 1997).

"Unacceptable is as unacceptable does."

Just put a bird on your pickle.