Thursday, August 04, 2005
Lake Oswego has second thoughts about rail transit
The last time light rail was on the ballot in Portland, every single suburb of Portland voted against it except one: Lake Oswego, possibly the wealthiest suburb in the region. Curiously, transit planners had no plans for running a rail line into Lake Oswego. It is almost as if suburbanites were saying, "Rail is okay for someone else, but not for me."
This isn't as strange as it sounds. When planning the downtown rail route, downtown businesses all said they want rail but NOT on their streets. Numerous businesses said, "If you build rail on our street, we will move out of downtown." Why? Because experience had shown that their business dries up during construction and, because they lose parking, it doesn't come back afterwards.
Now planners are looking at extending a streetcar line into Lake Oswego. Traffic on the route between Portland and Lake Oswego is expected to increase by 25 percent in the next twenty years. No one who lives in the real world could possibly imagine that a 15-mile-per-hour trolley line would make a dent in that 25 percent, but Portland rail planners don't live in the real world.
Yet they have hit a snag: Lake Oswego residents are not thrilled about the idea of a rail line in their backyards. The route is right along the Willamette River. While the rails have never been torn up, it has seen no trains for the past thirty years other than a three-times-a-day vintage trolley (powered by Diesel) from May through October. People accustomed to thinking of their homes as "riverfront property" don't like the idea of drug dealers, burglers seeking funds for meth, and other typical rail travelers passing through their yards every fifteen minutes all day and all evening long.
Maybe they should have thought of that before they voted for rail transit.
This isn't as strange as it sounds. When planning the downtown rail route, downtown businesses all said they want rail but NOT on their streets. Numerous businesses said, "If you build rail on our street, we will move out of downtown." Why? Because experience had shown that their business dries up during construction and, because they lose parking, it doesn't come back afterwards.
Now planners are looking at extending a streetcar line into Lake Oswego. Traffic on the route between Portland and Lake Oswego is expected to increase by 25 percent in the next twenty years. No one who lives in the real world could possibly imagine that a 15-mile-per-hour trolley line would make a dent in that 25 percent, but Portland rail planners don't live in the real world.
Yet they have hit a snag: Lake Oswego residents are not thrilled about the idea of a rail line in their backyards. The route is right along the Willamette River. While the rails have never been torn up, it has seen no trains for the past thirty years other than a three-times-a-day vintage trolley (powered by Diesel) from May through October. People accustomed to thinking of their homes as "riverfront property" don't like the idea of drug dealers, burglers seeking funds for meth, and other typical rail travelers passing through their yards every fifteen minutes all day and all evening long.
Maybe they should have thought of that before they voted for rail transit.
Comments:
The article is based on fear and ignorance. Countless studies have shown that lightrail increases property values within 2000 feet of the line. Furthermore, business have boomed along lightrail lines and this town will not be the exception. All this worry about blacks coming into the neighborhood to sell drugs is just racist.
Here's a good article on another light rail success story.
East Side Story - New Rail Line Spurs Early Investment
By HOWARD FINE
Investors and developers are eyeing sites and quietly buying up
properties around the $900 million Eastside rail line now under
construction through Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles.
Developer interest in the rail line is coinciding with a surge of
publicly sponsored projects in the area and could lead to a rebirth
that's similar to what happened in Hollywood after the subway was
completed there.
The 6.5-mile Gold Line Eastside Rail Extension had been on the
drawing boards for 25 years as a mass transit option for the densely
populated and heavily transit-dependent Eastside communities of Boyle
Heights and East Los Angeles. But because of dwindling federal
transportation budgets and lingering doubts about rail construction
after the Red Line fiasco in Hollywood 10 years ago, it wasn't until
last year that final federal funding was secured.
Preliminary construction began last summer. This October, work is set
to begin on the centerpiece of the project: a two-mile tunnel
underneath First Street in Boyle Heights.
Next year, preliminary work is set to begin on the eastern portion of
the rail line, which will go down the middle of Third Street in East
Los Angeles. Construction of the entire line is set to finish in mid-
2009, about six months ahead of schedule.
In past years, developers tended to hang back to see how much
additional traffic the rail lines would generate. But there is now
enough of a positive track record in Hollywood and along the Gold
Line to Pasadena that activity is blossoming early. Construction on
the western end of the line is already getting off to a healthy start.
Much of the development will be controlled by the public entities
that own considerable tracts of land along the route of the Eastside
Extension, including the city and county of Los Angeles and the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is building the rail
line.
Here's a good article on another light rail success story.
East Side Story - New Rail Line Spurs Early Investment
By HOWARD FINE
Investors and developers are eyeing sites and quietly buying up
properties around the $900 million Eastside rail line now under
construction through Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles.
Developer interest in the rail line is coinciding with a surge of
publicly sponsored projects in the area and could lead to a rebirth
that's similar to what happened in Hollywood after the subway was
completed there.
The 6.5-mile Gold Line Eastside Rail Extension had been on the
drawing boards for 25 years as a mass transit option for the densely
populated and heavily transit-dependent Eastside communities of Boyle
Heights and East Los Angeles. But because of dwindling federal
transportation budgets and lingering doubts about rail construction
after the Red Line fiasco in Hollywood 10 years ago, it wasn't until
last year that final federal funding was secured.
Preliminary construction began last summer. This October, work is set
to begin on the centerpiece of the project: a two-mile tunnel
underneath First Street in Boyle Heights.
Next year, preliminary work is set to begin on the eastern portion of
the rail line, which will go down the middle of Third Street in East
Los Angeles. Construction of the entire line is set to finish in mid-
2009, about six months ahead of schedule.
In past years, developers tended to hang back to see how much
additional traffic the rail lines would generate. But there is now
enough of a positive track record in Hollywood and along the Gold
Line to Pasadena that activity is blossoming early. Construction on
the western end of the line is already getting off to a healthy start.
Much of the development will be controlled by the public entities
that own considerable tracts of land along the route of the Eastside
Extension, including the city and county of Los Angeles and the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is building the rail
line.
I walked from downtown Portland to Lake Oswego a few years ago and while walking on the old SP right of way discovered the diesel-driven trolley when it overtook me. The topography along this route just didn't seem suitable for high density housing or commercial development. Some of the rail line seemed to be too far down a hillside to allow convenient access to and from trains.
Returning I rode the street car and was impressed with the low window sill that made for a very pleasant view.
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Returning I rode the street car and was impressed with the low window sill that made for a very pleasant view.
