Concerning lightrail:

But everyother Metro city in the country, if not internationally, take there planning ques from the city of Portland. The Goldschmidt offspring and cohorts (like Blumenhauer, Adams, Kulongski, etc) can't possibly be wrong about the merits of light rail and street cars. Repeat we are the leaders and are looked up to, world wide! (until, that is, it breaks us financially, tagging property tax payers with tens of thousands of dollars in property tax increases. And even then, blame it on Bush and Measure 5.)

... and after our collapse we get to be the poster child of what not to do. (What's that old adage about not attracting too much attention to yourself?)

Here's an interesting article about a highly controversial, major rail project being shoved down taxpayer throats in Germany...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,717575,00.html

Maybe the DMV is just becoming streamlined and more efficient...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

Dayum... that means that DEQ will probably start closing more testing offices... as it is I have to drive to fricking Hillsboro

Blue money vs. Orange money. Duh!!!

You would know that if you came to the public input charades. I mean charretes. Whatever: the politicians decided to do this, so we have to do it. Screw economic collapse: we're Portland.

Keep Portland indebted.

Much of what the DMV offices offer can be had online or by mail.

Yeah Alan L. from the OR DMV site:

To renew your driver license, you must do so in person at a DMV office, and you must:

*********

It used to be renewable by mail. I had a long wait the last time I went in to deal with it all.

"Maybe the DMV is just becoming streamlined and more efficient..."

I took my son in to the DMV office on Powell last Saturday to take his knowledge test for his learners permit. The line went out in to the parking lot which discouraged us but we got through it because the staff there actually were pretty efficient.

20 years ago, a trip to DMV was akin to the seventh ring of hell. There was a lot of pressure to re-engineer their processes and a lot of culture work. Now DMV is a much better experience, and perhaps a template for other agencies.
The practice of a concierge at many offices to help make sure you have the documents you need BEFORE you wait to see the agent, and the help of the concierge does a lot for goodwill.
As for light rail,good arguements for and against. When you use the system and itsworks for you,its golden. If you don't, it seems a huge boondoggle. As the cost of transportation rises and consumes a larger part of a familys budget, having some options is crucial to keeping the whole pot a boiling... remove transit and the economy would grind to a halt. Even with a network of bike facilities.

Don't forget $618,000 to buy up a right-of-way to build a bike path in Sellwood:

http://bikeportland.org/2010/09/22/metro-land-purchase-agreement-will-close-part-of-sellwood-gap-39942

(Note, the $618,000 does not cover the cost of actually building the bike path.)

To renew your driver license, you must do so in person

Could this be the result of some inane, unfunded federal requirement that exists so that people who don't think too deeply about these things won't realize that the US uses identity cards?