They operate like the banks, get the money now and run, who cares what happens in the future!

Lots of pockets get filled now leaving the rest of us to deal with the problems later.

"Linking up SE neighborhoods will be a welcome change for people who commute downtown from Milwaukie, Sellwood, and outer SE suburbs, and could help revitalize Milwaukie's cute but tiny downtown."

Is that a fact? Sounds like an opinion to me....

Anyway, this is the perfect example of Portland deciding that something would be nice, then completely igoring the question of cost. Heck, I agree: a line to Milwaukie would be nice. But $1.5 billion nice? No. A zero-energy living building next to PSU would be nice. For $65 million in public money? Not so much. An aerial tram to OHSU would be nice, for a million or two. For $40 million? Not so much.

You get the picture.

This is a misleading graph.

First off, what kind of average?

Second, 1964 to the present day is a weird time span, it starts at the height of American middle-class prosperity in the past century and ends in our current depression.

Third, the last numbered year is 2034 but the trend line continues up past that point, apparently the edge of the graph is 2050? The intent is to trick the eye with a endlessly rising line.

This is why analytical thinking and context are vital parts of reporting.

Is this the same Tri-Met that just had a referendum on the ballot in November to raise money to cover their budget shortfall?

If "average" wages don't increase back up to 1964 levels or higher, there's going to be rioting in the streets. $450 a week is $23,400 a year. Not exactly Richie Rich territory.

It's entirely reasonable for planners to assume that expanding public transit increases economic activity. The merits of that assumption are debatable; let's debate them. Demagoguery doesn't help.

Similarly, without ANY QUOTES AT ALL it's hard to say for sure; it seems like a TriMet policy goal is to shift focus away from a network of bus lines and start building rail-centered corridors. Without assistance for low-income people "stuck" away from the new corridors, this plan will involve much more misery and unhappiness than anyone wants. Perhaps you could attempt to give a reasoned account of TriMet's perspective?

This kind of reporting actively discourages readers. Everyone's villain and a liar (including you) so when you find a real villain no-one cares; when you present a hero no-one believes in them. The end result is apathy.

Sure, it's expensive, but those postcard shots of the new bridge with the tram behind it will be FAAAANTASTIC!

sexmachinealpha: I really appreciate the skepticism and pushback. I'm concerned about getting things right and not deceiving anybody, and my intent is *definitely* not to trick anybody or demagogue the data.

First, to your questions in comment #3:

- The data starts in 1964 because that's as far back as the federal BLS real wage data goes. I would have gone farther back if I could! I even called the BLS public information officer in DC to make sure this was the best data available for the purpose.

- The graph was generated by Google Docs, which automatically assigns years. The data in question extends through 2040.

For the questions in comment #5:

- The wage levels in the chart are for 1982 dollars (as noted on the left axis, though this could have been clearer). That's $51,338 in 2009 dollars, or about 50 percent more than the current median wage of $33,300 per year.

- There's much more background, including what responses I could get from TriMet and Metro, in my Portland Transport post here.

Feel free to email me at michael at portlandafoot period org with any other thoughts. I'd love to hear them.

Sorry, apparently the Merc strips HTML out of our posts. I'll try to do text URLs.

Full Portland Transport post:
http://portlandtransport.com/archives/2010…

The data in question:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/portland…

Calculations related to the data in question:

https://spreadsheets0.google.com/a/portlan…

https://spreadsheets1.google.com/a/portlan…