OK, first off, I am not against mass transit. My issue is the relative amount of money and development $ that go into mass transit when other things (schools, jails, parks outside the Pearl/SoWa districts) never seem to get funded.

Mass transit is an easy fix, talk the right people into throwing money at it and we keep busy building tracks all over the place (a la downtown where trolleys and light rail run within a few blocks of each other.) Fun and exciting, so much more interesting than funding schools, parks and jail space.

Sorry, coming up with a new statistic when the current one doesn't reflect the way you think things should be doesn't work.

I really think an honest re-appraisal of our priorities should be undertaken. PDX population is shrinking while families move to areas like Tualatin, LkOs, West Linn, Beaverton south of MAX and Vancouver - all growing faster than PDX proper. Businesses go to these areas and new shopping gets built there.

I don't think mass transit is drawing this growth.