Max whacks on MAX

Max over at MaxRedline has a nifty post up regarding the Rockwood MAX station and the Gresham Urban Renewal Agency ponying up another 4.3 million dollars to pay for some improvements.

From MR:

Tracks now running through Gresham are surrounded by gravel and look more like freight rails, said Rebecca Ocken, urban renewal manager.

OK Ms. Ocken, you may be right. Those tracks do look ugly. But why is the URA paying more money for the fix up?

Max says this:

A few issues, here: why are urban renewal funds paying for new ticket machines for TriMet? In fact, why are such funds being used to pay for any of this? It's TriMet's light rail line; let them pay for maintenance and upgrades. Chances are, if they collected a fare from one in ever 15 "passengers", they'd be able to cough up the change on their own.
And why should urban renewal funding be used to pay for "track treatments" and other aesthetic junk? It's a train track. Is there some compelling reason why it shouldn't look like a train track?
And just how much are you paying Rebecca to be an "urban renewal manager"?

Good questions Max. However something that you could have also pointed out is that if Light Rail lines are so gall darned effective at drawing development and causing economic stimulus then why in the world is the urban renewal agency in need of stepping in to spend more taxpayer dollars to develop it?

Could it be that private industry would not touch light rail line development with a ten foot pole unless government was not taking money from schools in order to prop up the black hole that is light rail?

Oh...something else. If light rail was the magic bullet for economic development how come Oregon is in such a dire economic position? Shouldn't business and development and jobs be flocking to just such a utopia?

Fish in a barrel.

yip yip