Earlier this week, Mayor Tom and County Exec Walker were guests of Mike Cudahy, visiting Denver and Portland to eyeball the choo-choos.
Mike likes choo-choos. So does Mayor Tom. Walker is less enthused.
And for good reason, as Random 10 points out:
Problems with Portland’s Plans: The previous discussion has already hinted at some of the major drawbacks of Portland’s integrated land-use and transportation planning. These include the following: 1. increasingly unaffordable housing prices. 2. Increased traffic congestion. 3. Higher taxes or reduced urban services as tax revenues are diverted to rail transit and transit-oriented development. 4. A reputation for having an unfriendly business environment, leading to higher unemployment.
Noteworthy, by the way, that Random did the homework because two OTHER notorious State Lefties (Cieslewicz and Falk) want choo-choos for Madistan.
Buy Mike and the Mayor a Lionel set for their homes.
Leave the driving to Scott.
I, too, am a train fan but Portland isn't Milwaukee and Milwaukee isn't Portland. It would be a costly boondoggle in Milwaukee and not likely to be widely utilized.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that some boners were pulled in the 60's and 70's when the North Western went down to one track and Amtrak routed its service over the Milwaukee Road tracks. But Portland's experience is disingenuous.