Portland -- Camelot of Rail Transit -- Struggles to pay the bills!

"Reduced revenue and federal funding, combined with unsustainable employee costs, are making it difficult for the Oregon city to stay on top."

Read the profile in "Governing the States and Localities" here.  It ain't a pretty picture where Mayor Mallory wants to take us:

leaders of a region long known for a commitment to multimodal transportation will have to increase fares and reduce service to balance budgets in 2013...

Transit systems nationwide are facing budget shortfalls similar to those of Portland -- and in some cases vastly larger.

Take note: While this train wreck is happening all around us, the business community is sitting on its hands.

Where hipsters go to retire

Oregon is one of only a dozen states where the majority of its residents aren't from there. Each year thousands of 20-somethings move to Portland.

The city's entire population is growing, but Portland is still about 80 percent white, making it one of the most homogeneous metropolitan cities in the country.

Many of the migrants don't have jobs, kids or a mortgage. So why do they keep coming?

'A Mecca For The Misplaced'

'Fewer Jobs, Lower Pay, High Migration'

"In recessions, Portland tends to see population growth, even as we lose jobs," Kaylor says. "So one of the reasons we have that higher unemployment rate is because people do continue to move here even as jobs disappear."

Read the full article here.

Is this the recipe Mayor Mallory is using to repopulate Cincinnati?

Trouble in Transit Paradise

Residents of Lake Oswego, a wealthy suburb of Portland (genuflect when you say that), have organized a non-profit group to oppose a proposed streetcar extension to their neighborhood. Calling it a "flawed project" that they "don't need" and "can't afford," the group hired high-powered lawyers and lobbyists to fight Portland's (bow when you say that) transit agency. One of the organizers is the wife of disgraced former RINO senator Bob Packwood.

"It just doesn’t make sense to buy a $360 million transit project that puts Lake Oswego taxpayers at risk.  Not when our schools and other priorities are suffering from continuous budget cuts. Because of budget constraints, we are cutting real services that we need right now.  Schools all around us are cutting days because they are running out of funding.

Our town has other priorities:

• Water and sewer projects.
• Paying for the West End Building.
• Library and public safety needs.
• Finding funds for road repair and parks maintenance.

We can’t allow our schools and community to suffer further to buy a $360 million dollar transit project we don’t need."

Sound familiar?

Another Brilliant Ballot Initiative

Per BikePortland.Org, a ballot measure to be voted on in March in the city of Damascus, Oregon — a small town just 20 miles southeast of Portland (bow toward transit Mecca when you say that) — seeks to prohibit public mass transit.

Measure 3-350 (full text below) would amend the Damascus city charter in two important ways: It would direct the City to not “grant monopoly status” to any agency that wants to operate “public mass transit” in the city, and it would directly prohibit public mass transit within the Damascus city limits.

According to the text of the measure, prohibiting transit is necessary, “To insure that the City of Damascus is open as much as possible to the free flow of vehicular traffic and citizen travel within the city…”

According to City Manager Jim Bennett , this and three other measures on the ballot for a March 9th Special Election were brought forward by a group named ASK Damascus

Bennett refers to ASK Damascus as an “anti-government, anti-tax kind of a group” and says this isn’t the first time they’ve put measures onto the ballot. Two years ago, they were successful in passing a measure that requires a vote from the public before the City can increase any fees or new taxes.

Screenshot of banner from ASKDamascus.org

As for Measure 3-350, Bennett says it could gain traction and possibly even pass:

“I definitely think it could get support. In a very small community like Damascus, since we’re so spread out, it’s really hard to gauge public support or opposition, but I’d say it stands a reasonable chance of getting adopted.”

Damascus has just around 10,000 residents, of which there are about 7,000 registered voters. Bennett estimates that, depending on the turnout (which he says would be about 1,500 to 2,000 voters), “it wouldn’t take more than 800 to 900 votes to pass something like this.”

Local transit blogger Chris Smith says that Damascus was one of several cities that opted out of TriMet back in the 1990s because they didn’t feel they were getting adequate value in exchange for paying TriMet’s payroll tax (which is their primary means of operating revenue).

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Full text of Measure 3-350

BALLOT TITLE
AMENDS DAMASCUS CHARTER TO RESTRICT PUBLIC TRANSIT IN THE CITY

QUESTION
Should Charter be amended to prohibit monopoly status for public transit providers and to prohibit mass transit rail within Damascus.

SUMMARY
This measure would amend Chapter IX of the Damascus Charter by adding new language to Chapter IX to read:

Public Travel and Transport
To insure that the City of Damascus is open as much as possible to the free flow of vehicular traffic and citizen travel within the city,
a) the city of Damascus shall not grant monopoly status to any public or private provider of transport or transit.
b) No public mass transit rail will be allowed within the city limits.