I wanted to briefly acknowledge last week's 20th anniversary of the MAX light rail line. With gas and oil as expensive as they are today, rail-oriented mass transit looks more enticing than ever to a lot of American cities, and we started down that road in 1986 - the damn Reagan administration, for crying out loud!
Not only does light rail help reduce congestion and the need for neighborhood-destroying freeways, but as a recent Oregonian editorial put it, "the permanence of light-rail lines makes developers' eyes light up. Tri-Met recently estimated that the eastside and westside Blue Line alone, linking Gresham to Hillsboro, has triggered $6 billion in redevelopment." Of course rail lines like MAX are also very, very expensive. But just as with many green building technologies, the investment pays for itself.
This is also a good time to reach out to Clark County voters reading this. Sooner or later there will be a vote about whether to extend MAX across the Columbia. An article on freeway traffic in Tuesday's Portland Tribune rated Vanvouver-to-Portland morning traffic as the city's worst. How about them apples, 'Couv? And there's never a better time to approve MAX for Clark County than when we re-do the Interstate Bridge. (Has anyone called Norman Foster or Santiago Calatrava yet?)
I'm still not completely sold on the new MAX line along the bus mall. It's great that Tri-Met wants to improve things there, and they've gone through a reasonable process to get to the design they've got. But MAX's intersection with Pioneer Courthouse Square and the nearby streets is a real challenge in light of all the pedestrians, cars and buses already moving in and out of there. I want to make sure we get this right, even if it takes longer than expected.
At the same time, however, even after 20 years and new lines to Hillsboro, the airport, the Expo Center (perhaps continuing north to Vancouver), when you compare MAX to the rail systems in European or larger American cities like New York or Chicago, it seems like we're not even halfway to developing a comprehensive system.
And when it comes to Portland proper (or, as MC Hammer would say, "PROP-uh!"), it's really the streetcar and not MAX that is what transforms the city. Unless you've got a suitcase in your hand, I think MAX is largely for commuters. I get excited not about a Clark County MAX line, but a streetcar down Martin Luther King Boulevard and/or Grand Avenue, with additional east-west lines on strets like Powell, Burnside, and Fremont.
Still, I see no harm in retroactively patting city and neighborhood leaders of two decades ago on the back for stopping the Mt. Hood Freeway and using the funds for (along with expanding I-84) a light rail line.
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