Roland Chlapowski Wow. Some of the statements are shockers!

First, it's shocking to point out that housing and employment densities are falling and then use it as a testament to the popularity of the car... It is only because of cars, the subsidization of their fuel
JK: Can you explain how that works? I thought that we paid the world commodity price for oil. Also any claim of subsidization of fuel also applies to buses which also use fuel. And at about the same rate as new cars (note I said new cars, not light trucks)

Roland Chlapowski of their infrastructure and their societal/environmental impacts, as well as the subsidization of development (through home mortgage tax deductions)
JK: You get a home mortgage tax deduction for a condo in the Pearl too.

Roland Chlapowski that the density of communities is falling.
JK: Densities started falling when the street cars enabled “streetcar suburbs”, the auto is merely a continuation of that trend away form high density. It is merely people living as they want to live. Do you have a problem with this?

Roland Chlapowski Without these huge subsidies, dense development (and the reduced transporation costs for each individual associated with it) would have been favored in the market;
JK: What reduced costs? Light rail costs about as much as taxi fare. Bus passes are so expensive that you can make monthly car payments with ½ of the real cost of a bus pass. We are on the road to spending a billion dollars in the SoWhat as a model of high density.

Roland Chlapowski look at Europe for an illustration of this (as it developed largely before the invention, and subsequent subsidization, of the automobile).
JK: And that hasn’t been done since the popularization of the auto because it is obsolete! It was replaced by something better: the auto oriented city which gives people more freedom.

Why do you want to emulate Europe? With one or two exceptions, they have a lower standard of living than we do. Are you trying to emulate that too?

Roland Chlapowski And what is especially perverse about all this is that it creates a amplified feedback effect that furthur promotes low density development. The decreasing density caused by policies that promote the automobile make cars even more necessary for people to move around!
JK: Actually it is because autos are less costly, more comfortable, more convenient and safer than rail. They are probably safer than buses if you don’t drink and drive.

We are not a third world country - we can pay extra for comfort and convince. We willing pay extra to NOT wait in the cold rain next to a drug deal for a ride, standing up, to work. Why do Portland’s planners have trouble understanding this.

Roland Chlapowski Without having a true choice of transportation options-or by not accurately reflecting the costs of those choices, as happens with the automobile- you cannot say anything meaningful about people's true preferences.
JK: One little inconvenient truth: Trimet gets under 20% of its revenue from users. If users had to pay their real cost that $1.95 all zone ticket would cost $9.75. That should explain why transit was fading compared to autos before government starting pouring millions into it. Please pause here and reflect on these numbers - they have meaning.

Roland Chlapowski True to form, conservatives HATE government intervention and subsidies, unless they are subsidies and interventions that they like and (usually) personally benefit from - a la auto subsidies, corporate welfare, Halliburton contracts, stopping boys from kissing and Terry Schiavo.
JK: The conservatives that I know dislike subsidies to any one (except the truly needy), including corporate welfare, but Portland’s liberals sure like feeding Millions of dollars into Homer’s money holes and to transit that cannot exist without massive subsidies.

What does Terry Schiavo or boys kissing have to do with transportation? Why should either even be mentioned on a government policy blog? The true conservative position is that these subjects should not be of any concern to government. BTW that is the position of both Cascade Policy and the Libertarian party. I suggest you take a look at both.

Thanks
JK