Humorous headline

It’s 3:30 a.m., and my subconscious has woken me up. Apparently it’s not enough to spend all the daylight hours pondering the question of whether to run for City Council, gotta put a few graveyard shifts into the task, too. So I consumed a nice bowl of cereal, emailed my brother, and thought, “Hey, I can get a jump start on the day by seeing if there’s anything in the Oregonian to blog about”. And what do I see?

Well, how ’bout that. Turns out that ol’ “We can’t get federal money for bus improvements” line may not be true, after all. Dylan Rivera provides an insightful article, noting:

“Think tanks, Democrats in Congress and the White House are fighting over whether the federal government should help cities use streetcars to promote urban revitalization, or simply fund buses that move the most people over the greatest distances for the least amount of upfront money. “

Isn’t that the policy question we tried to have and should be having here on the local level?

It’s a little unfortunate the Oregonian‘s reporter chose to quote in opposition to the Eastside streetcar expenditure “Randal O’Toole a fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., who lives in Bandon.” There are plenty of Portlanders who question the prioritization of streetcars over buses, including those of us who would like to see support for good development and services along bus lines outside of the Central City. If the City and TriMet made a commitment to keeping bus lines along set routes supported by investment in infrastructure and parks, the way development anchored by the Streetcar is nurtured and subsidized, we could provide much more UGB-saving infill for the transportation dollars.

And apparently, maybe then we’d have a better chance of winning the federal dollars, too.