Golly, I hope this won't adversely impact the Paisley light rail extension from Clackamas Town Center. Weren't they planning to run that through Boring and then on to Sandy?

The "Paisley" extension sounds a bit too hipster-ish for we Clackistanis up here on the mountain. How about the Plaid line?

Steve Clark. Since he left the Portland Tribune and now works for Oregon State University in Corvallis, we thought he'd be long gone off the transit board by now. What's up with that?

TriMet is essentially a subdivision of the State - its Board is appointed by the Governor (not elected or appointed by local governments like cities, counties or even Metro). All that is required of the board is to have seven members to live in the respective created districts, and ONLY ONE MEMBER is required to regularly use the transit system. That means you can stuff the board with SIX members who have never, ever, in their lifetime, ridden TriMet. (Granted, TriMet only makes up 3-4% of total trips taken in our region, but that is just like having Oregon run be Legislators who might technically "live" in Oregon but spend all their time out of state. Like Ron Wyden and Charlie Hales.)

It is a ridiculous method of governance in which those that run TriMet have virtually no concern about the service or system. Thus, we have a bus system in ruins while light rail is built all over the place. It looks good on the Board members' resumes. Running an effective bus system doesn't - it just isn't sexy.

Frankly: the best person to run any government is a wastewater treatment facility manager. Nobody gives a damn if they do their job right, EVERYONE notices if they don't. Frankly, that's the way any government should be. Stay in the background, just do the job you were asked to do, and do what is really needed to be done - no more, no less. We need more of those folks running TriMet, and not ex-Metro/City of Portland/TriMet capital projects managers (here's looking at you, Neil McFarlane) who has zero experience operating anything, but lots of experience building big new projects and then walking away from the project on day one.

How long until cities can secede from Metro?

One radio story said it would take up to a year to cease service.
How hard is it to NOT drive the bus up the road ?

next stop Lake Oswego since Tri-Met seems determined to undermine our bus service out here.

Some of us are starting to like that Steve Clark guy.

I see laws that prescribe how a community can secede from a larger government, but no laws that prohibit it. Since America is formed on the concept of "government by consent" can't a simple up-or-down popular vote be more than sufficient to kick TriMet to the curb?

Lake Oswego, unfortunately, won't bail out of TriMet because TriMet is bribing the city (with the Streetcar). But West Linn IS getting the shaft and could justify leaving the agency.

Sherwood and Tualatin could easily bail. Tigard has had its promise of more bus service denied by TriMet (WES Works????) Forest Grove, Troutdale...

Hillsboro has a long history of going their own way whereas Beaverton barely exists as a city (they don't even have their own parks department, fire department or water department). Gresham is similar to Hillsboro and right now not too happy with TriMet.

Milwaukie is a wild card, because they're being bribed like L.O. is. But Oregon City isn't.

So what is to stop the good voters of all of the region's cities minus Portland and possibly Beaverton from just kicking out TriMet?

Boring left because they were paying trimet taxes and not getting much service.

Boring secedes and now they get to stop paying trimet taxes and trimet gets to stop sending buses and ADA vans over to Boring.

Boring businesses save cash and Trimet loses tax money but saves the cost of taking care of Boring, right? Wrong.

Trimet gets to skip out on serving Boring and save money and they get to charge every business that stays in the trimet area higher taxes because they need to make up for the lost money from Boring leaving.

Makes no sense but it is all right here in Section 3 of the Trimet ordinance from Trimet's website:

http://trimet.org/pdfs/meetings/board/2011-11-23/Ord-320.pdf

Jack- Got this passed along to us at work today (probably needs a separate story):

As you probably know, TriMet faces a $12m-$17m budget shortfall. Today Trimet launched a new interactive website www.trimet.org/choices that helps educate people about how the TriMet budget works and gives them a “what would you do” worksheet. It spells out options for raising revenue and cutting cost in three areas: fares, service, and internal efficiencies.
We want to get this message out to as many folks as possible, so I would appreciate you sending it to all interested parties. Thank you!

Best regards,

Jan Martin
TriMet Marketing Representative
4012 SE 17th Avenue - Mail Stop MK2
503.962.5635 P
503.962.6469 F
Portland, OR 97202
Visit us at www.trimet.org

It is a ridiculous method of governance in which those that run TriMet have virtually no concern about the service or system.

Then why don't you go to your state senator and representative and try to do something about that?

How hard is it to NOT drive the bus up the road ?

For better or worse, the state statue says the withdrawal doesn't take effect until the January 1st that's 30 days after the decision is made. If you believe the process should be tightened up so it can be ready to go the very next January, advocate for that.

Eric H, you usually have it right on transportation issues, but your assertion that LO won't abandon TriMet because they are bribing LO with the streetcar is wrong. It is just the opposite.

TriMet, being a major party trying to ram the streetcar down LO's throat against the majority that oppose it, would likely support any measure to throw out TriMet.

What readers may not realize is that when Tri-Met allows cities to withdraw, the agency doesn't lose revenue. It is allowed by law to up the payroll tax rate on all employers left in the Tri-Met service area.

Before Tri-Met's financial train runs completely off the tracks, perhaps the city of Portland should ask to secede before it gets stuck with the bailout bill. Tri-Met will never allow that to happen, but it would unleash an important discussion.