Eagles don't take light rail, bitches!

Suburban whacko alert!

BikePortland reports that an anti-tax group in the little city of Damascus, just 20 miles SE of Portland, introduced a local ballot measure to ban public transit.

To “insure that the City of Damascus is open as much as possible to the free flow of vehicular traffic and citizen travel within the city” Measure 3-350 would ban the city from providing “monopoly status” to public transit providers and also ban any public light rail in the city.

Maybe the backers have been subscribing to Crime Rail news?

The group pushing the measure, Ask Damascus, is a back-to-the-Constitution collection of folks whose logo managed to combine an eagle, an American flag, the Oregon flag, a photo from a public meeting and, yes, a man in a suit protesting property law.

Eagles dont take light rail, bitches!
  • Eagles don’t take light rail, bitches!

So, yeah, they’re whackjobs. But, as BikePortland’s Jonathan Maus points out, they can be effective whackjobs. Two years ago they successfully passed a ballot measure referring all new local tax increases to a citywide vote. Passing the absurd anti-transit measure, according to Maus’s interview with the Damascus city manager, could take just 800 or 900 votes.

Damascus city hall is in a strip mall. Its post office is in a coffee shop, also in a strip mall. When you have that kind of urban planning, I can see how many people would not recognize the value of public transit.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

13 replies on “Portland Suburb Will Vote on Public Transit Ban”

  1. My first reaction was to wonder what kinds of regulations they have in place re: taxi-like services. A ban on mass public transportation mixed with a deregulated “taxi” market could make for an interesting social experiment (the only thing suburbanites are good for)–but really, Damascus is a small town with an estimated population of under 10,000. Is there anyone who lives there that doesn’t already own two cars?

  3. The last thing we’d want is for the citizens of the region’s small towns to hold community-wide votes on the policies that they would like to adopt for themselves.

    Much better for a roomful of 25-year-old planners at Metro, none of whom have ever been east of 82nd Ave, to dictate what these misguided yokels need.

    “Portland: The City That Is Better Than You”

  4. They want to prevent me from taking a bus to… Damascus!? NOOOOO!!!!

    Guess my transit-minded criminal gang and I will just have to take our thuggery to Happy Valley. You won this round, Damascus! That is, unless we carpool. Or become an Equestrian Gang.

  8. I don’t think anyone’s saying that they SHOULDN’T be allowed to vote on dumb things. Just that this particular thing is dumb. Private bus companies don’t work so good, and public transit provides a boon to poor folks (who don’t always vote in regional elections).

  10. I think you guys should go out there and lecture them on how to be right-minded.

    Surely these poor and under-educated rural residents just need a seminar on food carts and transit-oriented development from earnest Portland younsters in order to turn their backward-ass holler around.

    Surely, what’s right for the South Waterfront will work just as well in Damascus right?

  11. “Surely, what’s right for the South Waterfront will work just as well in Damascus right?”

    If the residents of Damascus want to vote on South-Waterfront-style development policies, they should try proposing that as an initiative. But instead they’re voting on whether to ban public transit from public roads.

    It may be within their right to do so, but it’s also within the rights of onlookers to mock the proposal.

    It’s your right, too, of course, to mock the mockers, but could you at least stick to what it is that people are arguing about?

    I’ve followed Portland metro-area politics and development policies for years (informally), and I don’t recall anybody proposing turning Damascus into some kind of South Waterfront clone.

  13. Guess you’re not allowed to be disabled and live in Damascus (if this passes.) Good luck getting a cab to come out to Damascus every time you need groceries and can’t drive…

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