Sam,
I am reminded of a remark that Charlie Hales made to the effect that cities are just big utilities that need to provide safety and services as efficiently as possible. Do that and business/economic growth will take care of themselves. That said,
I'm coming to the conclusion, despite or because of my work in transportation, that it is an insignificant factor in our economic future when compared with education...K thru Post-Doc. That's where all our public resources should go...take the $1 Billion to be spent on a new I-5 bridge and put it into PSU if you want to insure our economic future.
Lenny Anderson, NE Portland