Blumenauer is the biggest piece of crap hypocrite there is. When he goes to his Lloyd Center area office he drives a government owned big SUV. I watched him get out of the truck wearing bicycle pin and all. This election cycle he still will be a shoe in, but wait until the next one, when Oregonians wake up. Funny after I moved to Clackamas County I wondered who my representative will be. I looked it up and guess what, still Earl the Pearl. I know he will never show his butt out here in Sandy or Boring Oregon because he knows he will get booed.

The streetcar did not cause that development. If did not cause the Pearl. Journalists shouldn't be so credulous about this stuff.

Thsy say ones of the biggest early beneficiaries will be families avoiding the " parking chaos" of OMSI. I have never had trouble parking at OMSI ever.

Gustafson quote in linked article, regarding having no spare cars available in the event of a breakdown: We're working on apologizing to the public when needed.

Perhaps this could be a new slogan for Tri-Met?

Wait till the Eastside "Improvement" District owners and renters get their bills for this boondoggle. The first liars budget was a joke, the real assessment will cause heart failure!
Gee whiz, even "Eric the Fruits" at PSU's planning school doesn't even approve.

Watch those renting space in that "improvement" district to move to a new location...... Soon

Another quote from Gustafson in linked article:
"Let's just get the trains on the tracks and see what happens," he said.

Oh good for them! Who wouldn't mind running a concern knowing that public subsidies are paying the infrastructure costs and more to just see what happens! It would be interesting to get figures on any pipes and sewer costs on some of these projects causing our rates to increase.

Read more about connections here in Portland,
excerpts:
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-7641-gravy_train.html
September 19th, 2007 Corey Pein | News
Gravy Train
Earl Blumenauer and the ”transportation mafia”
The first PSI board was a self-selected group that included many developers.
And for most of the time since then, the guy in day-to-day charge of the streetcar has been Rick Gustafson, PSI’s executive director.
If Blumenauer is the transit godfather, Gustafson is his consigliere.
The two men are best friends, says Gustafson, having known one another since they attended Centennial High School in Gresham.
“I don’t know what difference it makes to Willamette Week who my ‘best’ friend is,” Blumenauer says.
They are also business partners, sharing real-estate investments in several properties around the city, according to Gustafson and the federal financial disclosures Blumenauer files each year.

One of those additional trolleys was stuck broken down out in Clackamas on the company testing loop on Friday....

Clinamen, the water/sewer bureau won't even answer the questions of how much WE (rate payers) spent for the new/relocated sewer/ water pipes in SoWhat. Even though it's in an URA, the dollars came from us. And several times the job has been done twice like in the rebuilding of SW Moody.

The lawsuit concerning the water bureau is scratching around the edges of this illegal use of ratepayer dollars. They should extend it to all the streetcar projects and bill the right agencies.

Seattle's streetcar system are adding cars (not made by Oregon's United Streetcar) to decrease wait time from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Ridership has never met expectations.

There won't be any "ridership" with headways of more than 13 minutes.

King Adam and the Admiral along with Jelly Fish and the others sit up on their royal perches knowing full well what we the public are paying for these "developments!"
They must look upon some of these public hearings as a dreaded necessity and then treat us as though we are their subjects!
How did this ever get so disgusting?

This charade has been going on for years, and years, and years. It is disgusting and shameful, and yet the voters of Portland continue to elect the fools and knaves who carry out the wishes for the Goldschmidt cabal.
For those of us who still own property within the city limits, but choose not to live within the confines of this wacky and weird hipsterville it is especially frustrating.
I just don't get it, but at least I don't have to use the slop bucket!

No we don't. My slop bucket is used as a file folder for city propaganda.
I don't think they have come "yet" with a chip in it to keep track of our use.

As I stated at the O, I miss the good ol' days when we would just give the developers money or sell them land for nothing or waive fees if their last name was WIlliams or Gerding-Edlen.

Now we spend $150M for a transport line that, according to Gustafson, isn't for transport, but to encourage development. Like dropping SDCs wouldn't have a lot more rapid effect. I'll give the editor credit, he was actually able to carry two cans of paint on the train.

Of course, having better schools to attract more employers/people would really be nice, but this group of grifters never thinks that far ahead.

Snards said: "The streetcar did not cause that development. If did not cause the Pearl."
How true! As long the rules were followed as to what the car-hater density advocates wanted, it was all the other tax breaks and taxpayer funded incentives to the big developers that created the snobby Pearl. The same type of development could have taken place without the streetcar just as it is happening in other parts of Portland. Attributing the Pearl to the streetcar is just another Sammyboy, Tom Miller, Blumenauer, Metro untruth the media has picked up on and attempted to make the gospel.

“I don’t know what difference it makes to Willamette Week who my ‘best’ friend is,” Blumenauer says.

Gee Earl, maybe because you some how became the $5 million dollar man despite (really because of) working in the public sector for your entire life. What a corrupt scumbag.

In the old days, the glory days of Streetcars criss-crossing our fine city (and every other major city), the DEVELOPERS built the Streetcar lines and even operated them for many years, until they lost interest and sold them, usually to the local electric utility.

The feds put an end to that, when they found out the financial scandals the utilities were engaging in with the streetcar lines. Thus, the streetcar lines were sold, usually to large transit holding companies that would consolidate many cities' systems into one larger system. When that failed to contain costs, they finally went bankrupt and local governments had to bail them out.

Today - we're effectively bailing out the developers up front - by relieving them the responsibility of paying for their impacts and shifting that cost to the entire population, many of whom are nowhere near the developments. (St. Johns, Rose Park City, Lents, Markham, Far Southwest...) And then the claim is that those outer communities benefit from a stronger city...just ask them how they feel about their school district not having enough money, because URAs and LIDs had to be implemented to attract developers to the Streetcar line - allowing them to pay the property tax on the value of their bare dirt.

And ask those outer communities...how do they benefit, when the city has to shift more police and fire resources downtown to deal with the growth - reducing availability and lengthening response times elsewhere. Or water/sewer repairs take longer, because the city is too busy placating those developers and putting in water/sewer lines at below cost or no cost to the developers.

And then explain - why they are allowed to change city planning and zoning on a whim...but ask a homeowner - a long time Portlander - for thousands of SDC charges and zoning map revision charges, when all they want to do is install a backyard deck or a simple addition or a driveway alteration.

Uhh Steve, don't be they are not thinking ahead. A poorly educated populace is easier to scam.

The funniest thing is that there are actually a whole bunch of shills on the Oregonian stories, insistently promoting streetcars and light rail, bashing buses, and replying to every critical comment about the streetcar, light rail, and high density developments. They must truly be desperate!

"The funniest thing is that there are actually a whole bunch of shills on the Oregonian stories, insistently promoting streetcars and light rail, bashing buses, and replying to every critical comment about the streetcar, light rail, and high density developments. They must truly be desperate!"

>>>> No, they are just typical "railfans" (=rail hobbyists).

Andrew -

Blumenauer is just following, financially, in the path blazed by Saint Mark Hatfield.

Now there was a true example of a pol who did well while "doing good'>

And the Oregon and national media actively aided and abetted the creation of the legend of Saint Mark.

It would all be great and wonderful if
they hadn't dismantled the bus service and stripped away employee benefits to fund it. (Along with its other light rail adventures)

The pro streetcar propaganda is unbelievable right now.

Nonny, Earl definitely isn't the first to make it that way, nor will he be the last.

I can't believe you're blaspheming against St. Mark, Oregon's treasure.. sorry, I can't keep a straight face. Cracks me up with some columnist will say 'we need more politicians today like Sen Hatfield'. Blech.