Submitted by Ron Swaren on Sat, 07/02/2005 - 8:57am.
I have always been favorable to halting freeway construction and providing transit alternatives.. But I am starting to wonder if the LRT group is becoming the new entrenched bureaucracy. Even though the MAX trains are 'maxxed out" this seems to only be at rush hour; at other times I see largely empty cars. Still, so far we have done well with them and even the lightly used Interstae line would do far better if Clark County would go for the lop to PDX. It's the Milwaukie LRT that bothers me. $515 million and another bridge for what?
Maybe the Milwaukie LRT will eventually link to Clackamas and Oregon City? I hope the cost by then isn't aprroaching an additional one billion, especially if federal funds wither. For the kind of money being discussed an extensive atreetcar system could provide more routes and they could run frequently during rush hours. They could link not only the eastside but also cross the Willamette River at Sellwood and via the UP bridge to Lake Oswego. A stop at Willamette manor complex would also give car-less seniors a ride into two nearby town and a way out of the retirement home atmosphere.
One other note: I am very much in favor of high rise condos. These do more to preserve open green spaces than anything else--it was a shame that CTLH fought them since they are going to be astride the premier development in Oregon. But these condos should be affordable to people who are not wealthy. The only expensive item in them, typically, is the concete floor, despite what developers say. We still have many sites around the Metro area that are suitable and not, yet, expensive. There are many inexpensive high rise condo units in Canadian cities. Why not here? Not everyone can live in the Pearl. Small high rises were built in the sixties and seventies for retirement complexes so it is obvious that this type of construction can be affordable.
Oh-I forgot. Give South Waterfront it's own bridge--between Holgate and Hwy. 43 so they won't have to use the Sellwood Bridge.
re: How would you improve Portland?
I have always been favorable to halting freeway construction and providing transit alternatives.. But I am starting to wonder if the LRT group is becoming the new entrenched bureaucracy. Even though the MAX trains are 'maxxed out" this seems to only be at rush hour; at other times I see largely empty cars. Still, so far we have done well with them and even the lightly used Interstae line would do far better if Clark County would go for the lop to PDX. It's the Milwaukie LRT that bothers me. $515 million and another bridge for what?
Maybe the Milwaukie LRT will eventually link to Clackamas and Oregon City? I hope the cost by then isn't aprroaching an additional one billion, especially if federal funds wither. For the kind of money being discussed an extensive atreetcar system could provide more routes and they could run frequently during rush hours. They could link not only the eastside but also cross the Willamette River at Sellwood and via the UP bridge to Lake Oswego. A stop at Willamette manor complex would also give car-less seniors a ride into two nearby town and a way out of the retirement home atmosphere.
One other note: I am very much in favor of high rise condos. These do more to preserve open green spaces than anything else--it was a shame that CTLH fought them since they are going to be astride the premier development in Oregon. But these condos should be affordable to people who are not wealthy. The only expensive item in them, typically, is the concete floor, despite what developers say. We still have many sites around the Metro area that are suitable and not, yet, expensive. There are many inexpensive high rise condo units in Canadian cities. Why not here? Not everyone can live in the Pearl. Small high rises were built in the sixties and seventies for retirement complexes so it is obvious that this type of construction can be affordable.
Oh-I forgot. Give South Waterfront it's own bridge--between Holgate and Hwy. 43 so they won't have to use the Sellwood Bridge.