What To Do?

If baseball can't move to Beaverton, then Portland may not get "major league soccer".  This is seen by some as a terrible situation, although as Mike Ditka once noted, "if God had meant for people to play soccer, he wouldn't have given them arms".

If Paulson wants a stadium built for his Beavers to play in, no problem:  let him build it .  The Beavers have been doing okay in a park that was expensively renovated only a decade ago.  Paulson wants to move them out to make way for "major league soccer", which is fine.  He can pay to re-renovate PGE Park, and he can pay for a new Beavers stadium.  The idea of using taxpayer money to build venues so that incredibly wealthy people have a place to put their teams is old and busted.  We've better things to do with our limited cash than to build play-fields for playboys.

Comments

[Bobkat]

I have been reading economist Henry Hazlitt about the adverse effects of using public money to finance any project including the celebrated monumental ones such as the TVA or railroads. Very enlightening I must say. He presents sound reasoning as to why the "general public" often falls for the immediate short term promise of jobs or local economic stimulation.

[Allen]

Say Max,

Have you ever investigated options TriMet has such as using light rail cars on WES that are powered by tow-able Nat Gas generators?

Same 4' 8 1/2" track, no?

[Max]

BK, I haven't read the guy, but from your description, I'm not sure that it fits with the Portland model. Here, the "general public" doesn't have to fall for anything - the politicians do it all by themselves.

Allen,

Oddly, I was just reading where trimet has purchased a couple of locos built in 1953 as "new" engines for their WES line. WES is heavy rail, not light rail.

[Allen]

The tracks are the same between light and heavy rail with the only difference being the load capacity.

Light Rail was originally called City Rail.

Its a mind-set.