The Addendum "I tried to write shorter ~Mark Twain
route99west.com/addendum
is an occasional journal of Oregon, from arts and books to public policy & transportation.
All content © 2006- by Alexander B. Craghead, except where otherwise noted.
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Cafe Unknown
Travel, History and Portland Oregon by Dan Haneckow
Jack Bog's Blog
By Jack Bogdanski of Portland, Oregon. (Like he needs any other introduction by now? -- A.B.C.)
For Portlanders Only
"Why buy a mattress anywhere else?"
Good Stuff NW
Featuring stuff that is good in the NW
LOST Magazine
LOST Magazine is an online monthly magazine that combines elements of many other literary, online, and national magazines with a singular mission--to reclaim in writing lost people, places, and things.
Mapes on Politics
Way West of the Beltway
Outside Is America
A journal about photography, roadtrips, trains and life, with occasional detours into movies, baseball, music, family and more.
The Photographers' Railroad Page
Good photos usually have good stories to go with them.... The goal of The Photographers' Railroad Page is to provide an outlet for top quality photographs and their story.
Portland Food & Drink
Throwing Ourselves on the Grenade of Bad Food to Save You
Portland Transport Blog
A Conversation About Access & Mobility in the Portland/Vancouver Region
PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media -- and booksellers
Rambling West
The musings of a farmer with a typewriter and camera
Stumptown Confidential
Documenting Portland, Oregon architecture, history, and culture through photos, postcards, and words.
The Unauthorized Observer
Observations on faith, photography, trains, baseball, the city where I live (Fullerton, Calif.), anything that I find funny (a lot of things) or irritating (some things) and various incidents involving friends and family.
Under the Weather
...the open road, fatherhood, family life, music, railroads, photography, popular and unpopular culture, sex, violence, religion, the oppression of consumerism and capitalism and the general bullshit that makes up modern life.
Urban Planning Overlord
A blog to counter the myths, lies, and demagoguery others use against sound city planning to further their own ends, fair and foul - but also to urge the profession itself to pull back from the occasional wretched PC exces.
VanPortlander
Living in Vancouver; working in Portland. I have some thoughts.
Whiskey, Texas
...life and experiences in Texas and the Southwest. Recurring themes: Photography, railroads, fading ads / ghost signs, fallen-flag railroad logos, boxcars, bicycling, Texas music, pop culture, sports, road trips, literature, kids and family.
World Scott
The Travel Writing and Photography of Scott Lothes
Blegs & Bargains
Amazon Book Wishlist
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My eBay Listings
Powell's Books Wishlist
Saturday, December 22, 2007
2007: Ten Best Images
Blair over at Under the Weather recently posted his ten favorite shots from 2007. As Blair said over on Obscar, "I'd like to see what others consider their favorites of the year, and why they chose 'em." Labels: Photography, Portland, Railroads, Transportation
So, here's mine. The order is chronological, and clicking on the image will yield a larger image. If some of them appear soft, mea cupla, I'm still a filmie, and my scanner leaves much to be desired.
1.
The first shot is from the Portland & Western's Newberg District, also known as the Rex Hill line. Here, a westbound -- by SP parlance -- welded rail train, led by PNWR 1853, rounds a curve near Chehalem Station on its way downgrade from the summit.
Rex is an oddball, mountain grades in the middle of the Willamette Valley, a legacy from a narrow-gauge would-be empire that Southern Pacific swallowed in the 19th century. But what an oddity! Within a short drive of Portland, every day, SP SD9s and SD40T-2s ground up Rex, and then glided back down again with the telltale mechanical whine of their dynamic brakes roaring away.
In 1995, PNWR picked up the line, making it an integral part of their operations, but it was not meant to last. Combining parts of SP's branchlines with branches taken over from Burlington Northern, Rex went silent, victim of a new, better, lower gradient route to the south.
I thought I would never have a chance to see the storied hill that was in my backyard the whole time. But construction on the lower Oregon Electric route resulted in detours over Rex, including this welded rail train, bound for the Seghers District. Could anything be more emblematic of the PNWR? Welded rail, bound for upgrading a branchline, being transported over a branchline that they've shut down.
2.
A small switcher, waiting to cross Yeon Avenue in Northwest Portland, the Freemont Bridge soaring through the gloomy skies in the background. It seems like something out of the 1970s or 1980s, but it still happens today -- if you're lucky enough to catch it.
And indeed it was luck that, while giving the "grand tour" to my friend Seth the reluctant Californian, we ran into the BNSF switch crew working the old 12th Street yard (that is actually closer to 27th Street). The switchman hanging off the front pilot is getting off to go push a button on the signal case that will activate the warning lights over Yeon, allowing them to cross and enter Lakeyard.
We waited and watched them go all the way in. Seth was wearing a Union Pacific Steam Program hat he'd got from somewhere, and when the engineer saw us, he pointed to his head, then made a thumbs down gesture out the window, smiling all the while. We were, after all, not in Harriman territory.
3.
TriMet is widely known for stylish smart design on its MAX light rail line. Not all ideas, however, work out so well. Station platforms on the original east-side route were not built to accommodate growth and change, and so have had to be torn into to rewire in the past. Trains still use antiquated catenary hangars on the Steel Bridge that date back to the Portland Traction system of the 1940s and '50s.
This image, taken in midsummer, shows another of the not-so-successful designs, a stylish stainless-steel receptacle for recyclable trash. The idea was to keep dumpster-divers from opening up trash cans in order to score aluminum cans and the like. The general public, however, never seemed to see them as anything other than decoration.
4.
In July I finally had a chance to "meet" fellow photographer Scott Lothes. He and I had been conversing via email for years, during which time Scott went from Midwesterner to being a resident of northern Japan. Now, though, he was returning to the states, and on his way home was passing through Portland.
For a few hours, we walked about the vaunted Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. This mostly floating walkway continues the tradition of naming major infrastructure in Oregon after still living (and in some cases still serving!) politicians. Anyway, we had walked out to the end of a floating dock (with no boats, big surprise) in order to get a better side shot of the Union Pacific's Steel Bridge.
At the end of that dock was this gate. I don't think it was part of the officially approved public art program. But I could be wrong.
5.
Later in the month came a trip east to visit the Sumpter Valley Railway. On the way, our party had time to kill, so we took a side-route via Walla Walla. Once again, I was in good graces with luck, and we found a local on the Palouse & Coulee City branch up from Walulla. Here is an eastbound grain empty headed to Stateline for loading, climbing up grade near Touchet.
Something about this photograph captures in shorthand the entire region, from the sweeping vista to the "forest" of windmills on the distant ridge. The dichotomy of "not-in-my-backyard" public policy and natural beauty seems breathtaking.
6.
This view is of McEwen, on the Sumpter Valley, taken from the top of a dredge tailing pile. What struck me when I saw this image was how much it looked like it could be a hundred years ago. Nothing obviously screams 2007. And yet it wasn't taken with that intention. It's not my usual style, and it has a bit of a model railroad feel to it, but I can't help but enjoy the image nonetheless.
7.
Anyone with a passing familiarity with my photographic tastes knows I love signs. It should be no surprise, then that this one -- along the scrappy (but not scrap yet!) City of Prineville Railroad -- caught my eye. I love how they just restenciled a new sign right over the old one.
8.
August saw me make a pilgrimage to the Midwest once more. This time, I took a jaunt into Cleveland with my friends Brian & Duane. Among the shots that emerged was this publicity-style image, taken off the closed Broadway Avenue bridge. Below, an eastbound train passes on the Norfolk Southern's ex-Nickel Plate Cleveland District. To the right is the heavy rail line of the RTA, headed towards Terminal Tower in the background.
9.
The towns of the Midwest are depressing yet fascinating. So many have boarded up storefronts, and an air of defeat. Yet in the gloom, some towns find strange ways of waving the flag of community pride. In Corunna, Indiana, the locals painted the antiquated State Route 327 bridge a patriotic star-spangled blue. Below is the the Norfolk Southern's ex-New York Central Chicago Line, on which a westbound NS train barrels towards us.
Interestingly, this is a bit of a cursed spot. There have been two major derailments here in the past five years, yet both times the bridge has survived. Brian tells a story of having overheard a train calling to another over the radio as they passed, asking about the near collision with the span:Train one: "You guys about took that bridge out last week, I heard!"
Train two: "We'll aim better next year!"
10.
Lastly, a classic image of life at Portland's venerable Union Station. The Italianate, castle-like structure is the oldest continually operating union station west of St. Louis, having opened in 1896. Although she doesn't see nearly the hundred or so trains a day she once did, the structure routinely serves lines of passengers on Amtrak's popular Cascades service to Seattle and Eugene. Typical Portland: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Well, that's it for this year. And 2008? Probably a lot fewer rail subjects, and a few more highway ones. But who knows?
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Thursday, December 20, 2007
Week in Review, Vol. III
The Willie Week has an article on the future of garbage hauling in the Portland region, specifically in how to get it to Arlington dump. Overall it's not bad, but writer Nigel Jaquiss does make one mistaken statement: Labels: Photography, Portland, Public Policy, Railroads, Technology, Transportation, Week in Review
"Barges and trucks cost about the same."
No, no they don't. Look earlier in the piece for the answer:
"The trash currently travels by truck. Every week, according to Metro, more than 350 tractor-trailer loads, each carrying about 31 tons of trash, roll up I-84 to the Arlington dump... (By comparison, four barges linked together carry 280 truckloads of trash in one voyage.)"
That's 70 trucks per barge. So each week, we'd have 350 fewer trucks on I-84, thanks to the use of just seven barges. I think that's a net gain for commerce and transportation, not a "cost"
Has anyone seen the new diner-lounge cars destined for Amtrak's City of New Orleans? Very nice, and very... familiar? They look like the inside of the Cascades Bistro Car, just a little.
In related news, it appears that Paul Weyrich has converted another politician to support passenger rail:"Commissioner Tom Skancke of Las Vegas, Nevada, also spoke: 'At the Commission's first meeting, I was sitting next to [Commissioner] Paul Weyrich. One of my opening comments on transit and inter city passenger rail was that 'transit and passenger trains don't work in the west. We don't zone for it and people won't use it...' ...Over the past 18 months, Paul and Frank [Busalacchi] have done a marvelous job of educating me and the rest of the commissioners about passenger rail and transit. I'm now an advocate and believe rail is the future of transportation in the U.S. It has to be."
Between the rapid growth of commuter rail options in the west, the continuing success of light rail in Western cities, and tremendous ridership growth on Amtrak corridors in the region, it's getting harder and harder to make the case that rail only works in the Northeast.
The drama in Southern Oregon isn't getting any better. The Central Oregon & Pacific railroad announced on Monday that the Siskiyou rail line between Medford, OR, and Weed, CA would likely close in April of 2008. This is the second major line closure from CORP this year, following their abrupt shutdown of the Coos Bay branch earlier in the fall.
Interestingly, this week also saw the announcement by the Oregon Department of Transportation of the qualifying participants in Connect Oregon II. Notably, the International Port of Coos Bay has a project on the list to repair the branch, and also has an expenditure request for money to purchase the line. For ODOT to overtly court a proposal for the Port to purchase the line is a slap in the face to CORP, whose short notices and poor communication have earned it the enmity of political and business leaders in the region, including the operator of Oregon's largest lumber mill.
And so the rusty wheel turns.
In the "really cool news" department are the plans for a joint Jaguar-Land Rover high-tech design studio. The facility will make use of advanced 3D rendering and virtual reality techniques to create an automotive design studio that is truly worthy of the 21st century.
Explain to me how this works, someone.
Crime hits MAX on the east side of Portland. Gresham, East County, etc....
Big summit on transit security is convened.
West side gets more police.
Huh?
While we're on the subject, how about the transit project that will not die?
The Trib reports that it's complicated by the Sellwood Bridge project too.
I have a lot of thoughts on this one, but I'll spare them for an in-depth post at some future date. For now, though, I'll just say this: is there any transit project in the metro area with a longer record of failure to move forward?
This week, the Boston Review posted a story about historians' renewed interest in Alexander Hamilton with a rather amusing statement:"This year, Hamilton crossed all the way over to pop. The once 'forgotten founder' is now the subject of a PBS American Experience feature, which aired in the spring and is likely to live on in classrooms on DVD."
American Experience. Pop. Wow. I'm not sure what world the writers at the Boston Review live in, but is there any world where a PBS documentary show is "pop"?
Not to get up the nose of VanPortlander, but here's another Portland MeMe. Drexel University's The Smart Set published an article on a new-age do known as the Body, Mind, and Spirit Expo. Guess where the 2007 digs were?
Mmhmm.
I've always been a lover of signs. Street signs, advertising signs, railroad signs, you name it. Sure, you can go overboard, but even then, there's an intensely human vitality to such overkill.
Occupying the opposite end of the spectrum are the small towns of Texas, as posted on Wiskey, Texas' blog. Nice work, Wes. Its funny how many of those signs make me think distinctly of Texas, and how many of them also make me realize how little difference there amongst the Western states at times.
Congratulations to the Center for Railroad Photography & Art at Chicago's Lake Forest College marks its tenth year this December.
Earlier this fall, the CRP&A started up a web-based version of it's magazine, Railroad Heritage. Photographers and artists alike, check it out.
Christmas is coming soon, and New Year's too. Smack dab between the two, and overlapping a bit, I'll be taking a bit of time away from my usual routines. It's quite possible this will be the last Week in Review for the year. Who knows, though; when you write your posts offline you can get a lot done even when you don't have Internet access. Or want to admit to the world you were awake to post. Heh.
Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and as they say in Vienna, ein Prosit Neujahr!
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Thursday, December 13, 2007
Week in Review, Vol. II
Does the weather never stop getting "interesting" this time of year? Last weekend brought the northwest more rain than it could handle, and this week it brought us snow. Labels: Photography, Portland, Portland History, Public Policy, Railroads, Transportation, Week in Review
Bet when the flakes first fell, Vernonia was just thrilled.
While looking for some odd facts about 19th century railroad baron, stagecoach king, and political boss Ben Holladay, I ran into a strange fact I had not heard before. Among his many business ventures was the founding of still-extant McCormick Distilling Company.
So the next time you buy off a state legislature, remember to toast it with a nice spirit from McCormick.
More can be read in this PDF over at the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors.
Newsweek had an interesting article on photography this week:"Yet wandering the galleries of these two shows, you can't help but wonder if the entire medium hasn't fractured itself beyond all recognition. Sculpture did the same thing a while back, so that now "sculpture" can indicate a hole in the ground as readily as a bronze statue. Digitalization has made much of art photography's vast variety possible. But it's also a major reason that, 25 years after the technology exploded what photography could do and be, the medium seems to have lost its soul."
The creation of digital photography was a controversial issue in photographic circles. It's caused all sorts of soul searching and argument. Certainly a lot of great photography is being created on digital, and many of my fellow photographers are digital. I can't say, with a straight face, that photography done on a pixelated medium isn't photography.
What Newsweek's Peter Plagen's said, however, is true. The borders are wiped away. The ability to manipulate is available on an unprecedented scale.It's caused some major problems with some journalistic publications that rely on amateur photographers. The most common occurrence is the photographer editing out objects -- wires, poles, graffiti, what have you, which is fine as far as it goes, but when you don't tell the publication they start wondering what else you edited out.
Perhaps it's not that film photography is "real" and digital photography is "fake". Perhaps it's that film photography is a specific medium within photography that has its own rules, and the lack of any other medium until recently lead us all to falsely believe that all photography would be like film photography.
Metro Magazine arrived in my mailbox this week. Usually I only skim the publication -- it's nice enough but it's far too heavy on bus subjects and that holds little interest for me. This time, though, before I tossed it into my recycling box, I ran across an article by Cliff Henke about the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts funding program. The program is responsible for disbursements to fixed-guideway transit system projects across the nation.
Over the last decade, applications for FTA funding has been increasing, outpacing funds, and the FTA has been lengthening its application process, possibly as a way to cut down on applicants. Naturally such a strategy isn't too popular outside of the Beltway. "Perhaps most troubling to the industry, in [the FTA's] final version of the [New Starts] regulation implementing these provisions the FTA included considerations that were not in the law or its legislative history: a category for "very small starts" for corridors with 3,000 riders per day and capital costs of less than $3 million per mile, excluding vehicles, and evaluation bonuses for inclusion of congestion pricing."
Scuttlebutt has been that FTA is creating the very small starts program to try and sell communities that want light-rail on the cheaper to build streetcar concept, allowing them to stretch the same amount of funding across more metro areas.
Jack Bogdanski notes a new addition to Portland's corner of the web: Alameda Old House History, chronicling the history of the Alameda neighborhood of Portland. History buffs rejoice; we can never have too much Portland history online.
Stupid criminal stories are always great. The latest? The Coos Bay World reports that a man broke into a tire dealer by digging a tunnel under a wall. The burglar got in fine, but save for $63 or so in cash, he left empty handed.
The problem?
The hole wasn't big enough to fit a tire back through.
Seattle's new South Lake Union Streetcar has had an interesting time in the media this year. For a time, people referred to it as a trolley -- at least until someone realized that spelled SLUT. T-Shirts soon appeared, despite the fact that this was not, in actuality, the official name of the system.
And now? Now a song.
It's been an interesting month for infrastructure issues in western Oregon and Washington.
First, Connect Oregon dough has begun to land in Washington County. The Portland & Western's new rail yard in Tigard should improve the efficiency of freight mobility in the region, and represents a model for how Connect Oregon money is meant to be used. Unfortunately, Southern Oregon didn't make out quite as well; when the Central Oregon & Pacific abruptly ended service to Coos Bay, the state withdrew Connect Oregon funds for a similar facility in the Roseburg area.
On a related note, the flooding and heavy rains of early December have taken their toll on the Port of Tillamook Bay railroad. Numerous track washouts have closed service on the 100 mile line. Damage reports indicate that things are worse than they were in the 1996 flood, and repair estimates are hovering around $20 million. To put that in perspective, that's 1/5th of the entire 2006/2007 Connect Oregon budget. While the line is vital to Tillamook County, it does bring up the question of how much return on investment the state should expect on expenditures for transportation infrastructure. Is it wise to spend such a large sum just to subsidize the transportation of (primarily) lumber from Tillamook? In this instance, it's likely that ODOT will find a way to pay the bill. With increasing funding demands from regionally significant infrastructure, however, you have to wonder: will this be the last time the POTB gets bailed out? And if so, what happens next time heavy weather hits the coast?
Meanwhile, up in Washington, an operation dear to my heart has suffered damage of its own. It looks like things are repairable, but it may take some time. Considering how bad the flooding was on the Chehalis River, really it's a miracle things weren't worse.
That's all for now, folks.
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Friday, December 7, 2007
Pearl Harbor
I shouldn't let this date slip by without noting that today is the 66th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. On a Sunday morning in 1941, aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an attack on U.S. forces in Pearl Harbor, on Oahu. The attack brought the United States into World War Two. Labels: History
I'm sure a lot of blogs will be noting this anniversary, and in greater depth than I. I do, however, have a personal connection to the event. My grandfather, Ed Johann, was a firsthand participant, having been aboard the hospital ship U.S.S. Solace during the attack. He helped to remove survivors off the stricken U.S.S. Arizona.
After 66 years, we have fewer and fewer survivors of the attack. We are about as distant from Pearl Harbor today as the sailors of 1941 were from the Battle of Little Bighorn.
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Feed Addition
Aaron over at VanPortlander wrote in this morning to ask if there are any RSS feeds. Labels: Blogging, Internet, Journalism, Media, Site News
I confess that The Addendum is a bit of a passive-aggressive blog. I have blogged before, sometimes quite intensely. Overall, though, I got tired of it. Aaron put up a post yesterday that outlined one of many reasons the blogging thing gets old. At some point it feels like a rat-race to be the first to post your opinion about whatever is going on, out there, out in the non-cyber world.
The entire route99west site, however, began its rebirth as an outlet for various artistic pursuits. I viewed (and continue to view) this site as an extended, web-based portfolio of my work. The Addendum grew into the project when I needed a place to put an occasional article or item that just didn't seem to merit the energy investment that a photo essay might. It's also a convenient place to plop some links to interesting stuff that is going on with others on the web.
My reaction against blogging continues. I know from previous experience I won't always have time for updating this page, so I'm trying not to get into the habit of posting to it on a crack-hyper squirrel pace. You'll probably see more Week in Review type posts.
So now, dear readers, you know my excuse for not having made site feeds available in the past. You can thank Aaron for prompting me to change that, however. You can find an atom-based feed here, and an RSS 2.0 feed here. I've also plunked links to both over at the left side of the page, under the heading "Feeds & Etc..."
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Thursday, December 6, 2007
Week in Review, Vol. I
It seems one of the stock investigative journalism stories in the post-9/11 world is the "TSA Security Breach." You know the drill. Reporters get together some kind of security violating package, like dummy weapons or fake explosives, then smuggle it past security at a major airport. Thanks to a few hidden cameras, the whole shebang gets broadcast on television about a week later, with alarmists "are we safe?" comments slung back and forth throughout the accompanying monologue. It's over-the-top, and it's also borderline instruction video for wannabe terrorists, but it's not surprising that the average journalist doesn't even comprehend such a thing. It's all about shock, sensationalism, and a degraded notion of what a "scoop" means. Labels: Journalism, Media, Portland, Portland History, Public Policy, Railroads, Transportation, Week in Review
For those of us a bit sick of such fabricated news, check out this video from The Onion. As usual for this parody news outlet, they've done a great job capturing everything that is absurd about such reports. It's no small wonder that Reason Magazine's Greg Beato called The Onion "our most intelligent newspaper".
And now, add to that, our most intelligent television news.
We're still taking stock of the damage up here after the high winds and flooding that began late last week and lasted through Monday. The predictions made by TV weather reporters for the Willamette Valley became largely untrue. Although some creek drainages did overflow their banks, nothing on the scale of the 1996 floods occurred.
The coast, however, is another matter. Everywhere from Lincoln County north to the central Washington Coast got hammered, and every major highway to the coast north of Newport shut down. Lewis County -- an inland county up in Washington -- got hit bad, with jet-boats and helicopters handling evacuations of folks stranded by the rising Chehalis River. Interstate 5 shut down due to high water, with travelers in the Portland-Seattle corridor being routed over the Cascade Range twice via Yakima.
Further south, Astoria got hit with wind-speeds in excess of 85 mph. Thousands lost power, and the Coast Guard even closed the Columbia Bar to all passage.
It wasn't a hurricane, and there were relatively few casualties on the human side. Still, it'll take a while to pick up the pieces from this one.
While the rain fell and the Coast receded into the pre-industrial age, the news media finally found something else to put in its headlines beside alarmism over MAX light rail security. Lost, too, is the absurdity of the pile-on; for a while it seemed as if TriMet was going to get blamed for inventing everything from petty larceny to manslaughter.
TriMet critics, naturally, used the opportunity to pull out every tired grievance they have with the transit agency and shout it at the top of their cyber-lungs. Comments in articles at the Portland Tribune as well as at many local blogs became borderline hysterical. The objections themselves are nothing new. TriMet is subsidized, and therefore an evil. TriMet brings in transit-oriented-development, and is therefore evil. Sam Adams sleeps with a stuffed TriMet plushie at night, and is therefore evil.
As the agency itself began to openly discuss how best to provide security on its light rail system, the issue seemed to get muddier, rather than clearer. Crime near MAX was somehow linked to eliminating fare evasion, which in turn was then linked to eliminating Fairless Square.
Has all use of logic been lost in this city? First, how many of the offenders who commit violent crimes live in downtown Portland? I'll bet on average the the criminals who commit crimes in Gresham are from -- surprise! -- Gresham. And I highly doubt they somehow go all the way downtown in order to get on at Fairless Square and then ride all the way back to Gresham to go mug some unsuspecting soul. And for those who want to install turnstiles, another question. How many of these crimes occurred on board MAX? Most of them occurred on the platform. Does anyone think that just because a criminal can't access the platform he'll go away? No, he'll just move twenty feet away, outside the turnstile. Or he'll jump it. Even Jack Bogdanski -- normally a critic of TriMet -- has noted the absurdity of the shotgun-blast of claims out there now.
Many people are angry, and they should be. Let's stop and breathe a moment though and decide who that anger ought to be directed at. While all the pundits decide to point the finger at MAX, let me ask this: What is the responsibility of the local community to police the system? Do police now stop patrolling at the doors of public transit? Does this mean that if MAX comes to my community, that my own police force will say, "sorry, Charlie, we don't vouch for security on that platform. Everywhere outside of it, sure, but that platform? It's like Switzerland, we can't go there, you're on your own."
That idea is absurd. If the force here were refusing to do their duty just because the area a crime is being committed belongs to TriMet, I'd be very angry. There is no question that TriMet should have seen these problems and tried to do something about them earlier. And TriMet needs to do something serious about it before it gives one of the best transit systems in the nation a permanent black-eye. But if Gresham (and Hillsboro) residents want to get angry at anyone for negligence, they should look at their own police forces and their own local political leadership, both of whom apparently decided to play a territorial pissing-contest rather than keep you and I safe.
Meanwhile, Aaron over at VanPortlander notes an interesting side effect of the flooding:"With I-5 shut down in the Chehalis area, truckers heading to and from Seattle aren’t clogging up I-5 or I-205, leaving the two routes into Vancouver clear for passenger vehicles. Even though I left work about half an hour later than normal, I got home only 5 minutes later than when I’ve driven on a typical day. The removal of long-haul trucks from the interstates cut my commute nearly in half."
Welcome to the future? Well, probably not. Not any time soon, anyway.
It does, however, reinforce the argument that there will come a day when we may wish to divert truck traffic between Seattle and Portland to other means, such as rail. Why we continue to move multiple semi-trailers of mail between the two metro areas every night on I-5 when we have regularly scheduled and reliable Amtrak service between both points boggles the mind. In the mid '60s we separated mail, less-than-carload, and other parcel services from our passenger rail network. Maybe it's time to rethink the wisdom of that.
Returning to transit security, the American Public Transportation Association is a bit ticked about the issue right now. It seems the Presidential Administration has proposed cutting back Federal funding for transit security. As APTA President William Millar puts it: “If this is true, this is an outrage. Transit security is a national security issue and national security is the responsibility of the federal government. Why should public transportation riders, who take public transportation 34 million times each weekday, be treated as second class citizens?"
Millar sent a letter this week to Office of Management and Budget Director James Nussle, requesting an immediate meeting, and stressing much the same points.
It seems anytime that media prints an online story about light rail construction, it brings every NIMBY, nay-sayer, and Libertarian critic of government spending out of the woodwork in the comments section. Then I happened onto this article about an impending light rail project in Norfolk, Virginia. The comments section, for once, had some really intelligent backtalk from locals who liked the proposal.
Best of all, though, is the post by one "Bryant E." in Virginia Beach:"People are complaining that it will take 35 years to pay off not counting maintenance. That's funny, do you own a home? How long is your mortgage? 30yrs plus with each refinance & that doesn't count the maintenance but you are willing to pay for that. What benefit are you getting from that mortgage? Is it making you money? No it is serving a need, which is a roof over your head."
Brilliant. One of the best arguments for public infrastructure funding ever. I'm going to steal it. Hope you don't mind, Bryant?
Meanwhile, Portland will be playing host over the next two weekends to the 3rd annual "Holiday Express" train excursions. For an extremely affordable price, anyone can ride behind one of the largest operating steam locomotives in North America, Portland's own SP 4449. The engine has called Portland home since 1957, and in the 1970s was restored to pull the American Freedom Train around the country during the U.S. Bicentennial.
Sadly, the engine -- along with two stablemates -- has no permanent home. Currently it is housed in the former Southern Pacific roundhouse in Brooklyn Yard, near S.E. Holgate Street. The property owner, Union Pacific, has been very patient over the years, but does plan to develop the land into something that makes more money than storing old relics.
Although the engines are all owned by the City of Portland, the city provides no funding for them, and the volunteer groups who maintain and operate them are responsible for raising all needed funds. The Holiday Express runs are one of a number of strategies aimed at fundraising.
So if your kids liked the Polar Express movie, or if you want to support a valiant historical preservation effort, or if you're just a big kid yourself, please go down and ride this weekend or next. Trains board near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and parking is free.
Well that's all for now, folks.
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