Does Portland's Transit System Only Serve Those In Power?

This column from The Portland Tribune chews out the city's "light-rail mafia" and claims that the only people benefiting from Portland's elaborate transit plans are the power players making the decisions and their developer friends.

1 minute read

September 12, 2007, 9:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg

"When you get right down to it, just who do all these expensive light-rail lines, aerial trams, high-rise condo developments and proposed convention-center hotels really benefit?"

"If you want to know the answer to that, as good of a place as any to start is a new book by local antiplanning guru Randal O'Toole called 'The Best-Laid Plans.'"

"As O'Toole sees it, the whole planning process has been taken over by a 'light-rail mafia' – which has managed 'to direct rail construction contracts and urban-renewal subsidies to themselves.'"

FULL STORY: The city works – for those in power

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 in The Portland Tribune

Transportation Oregon

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