20060815 Newsnight - Public Services: Public Transport 2

Portland's efforts to expand its transportation system have been initiated to improve the livlihoods of those in blue collar jobs and services. The expansion of MAX to the suburbs have not only allowed "yuppies" and "hippies" to get to their jobs into the city center, but also the lower income workers to their jobs as well.

Public transportation is cheaper than driving a car, and Portland's leaders take this to heart.

Portland and Portland's government are very yuppie and hippie friendly. Notice few (none?) blue collar workers and minorities appear in this video, praising Portland's decisions. Yuppies can afford to live in the new developments described, and hippies don't care, as long as the bike lanes are wide enough.

On this half of the video, we go to Greshem (a portland suburb) and see a new apartment/store development close to the metro. Notice the "for lease" sign in one of the windows. Also, the ap. manager neglects to tell you the pricing of this complex, placed in a working class neighborhood. I doubt most people who live in this neighborhood could afford to live in this complex. They didn't show you what most of the neighborhood of Greshem looks like, not even the parts that hug the metro line.

Great intent, but the implementation is not as sunny as the reporter makes it seem. Some results have been achieved, but this is not an optimal system by a long shot. (Also, do you know how big portland is? 550k in the city proper, and about 2 million in the metro area. Just for perspective.) Only a fraction of the metro area is being served by the most efficient parts of the transportation system. Most people still need cars, if they don't want to spend hours just to get somewhere.

Let's add some realism to this tale, shall we?

its all good, y cant it be like that ere in britain?

i love my city!

YAY PORTLAND.
:D thank you.