I think I mentioned this in a different thread the other day, but a successful bike share system is one that is used by people who don't live in the area where it's operating (because those people will just use their own bikes). The target shouldn't be close-in residents. The target should be people who work in the area but live out in the suburbs; and tourists. There's far more of those people in places like New York or London than in Portland, but we still have our fair share and enough to make a modest system like this work.

With that in mind, having most of the bikes downtown makes perfect sense; equality of access outside of the central core is pretty much irrelevant. The map there is actually a pretty decent attempt at covering the most important areas. I'd question the North Portland block (which seems to have been thrown in there as a sop to a low-income area rather than any logical reason); and omitting Washington and Laurelhurst Parks seems like a mistake.

As for the budget, it's important to ask how much marketing there is going to be for incoming tourists (adverts at the airport and on the MAX?). That's absolutely essential to make this thing more than just a boondoggle.