MaxRedline

Crime In Light Rail Corridors?

Oh, who'd ever have thought?  Reported crimes at Clackamas Town Center rose from 503 from January to June 2009 (when there was no MAX line) to 745 from January to June 2010 — a change of 48.1 percent.  Skeptics pooh-pooh the statistic, arguing that correlation does not imply causality - but that's a weak and wimpy claim.

Fact: light rail came in, crime went up by 48%.

Plans to run a streetcar line from Portland to Lake Oswego (formerly called "sucker lake") are being scrutinized in light of crime statistics along current light rail lines.  Proponents claim that fears of increased crime are silly, because Lake Oswego residents simply won't tolerate it.

Imagine that you're a car thief.  You can take a free light rail ride out to the Fred Meyer parking lot in Oak Grove, or a free streetcar ride into Lake Oswego.  The odds of finding a Lexus are a lot higher in LO.  Where are you going to go?

Portland Gets It Right!

Oh.  Sorry.  It isn't Portland after all.  Cyclists are free to continue their idiocy.

A 32-year-old cyclist who suffered minor injuries when hit by a car last autumn has been fined for cycling on the road.

• Rear-ended cyclist charged for veering off path (12 Jun 10)

Andreas Grass, a competitive cyclist, faced charges of “travelling on a prohibited carriageway” after refusing to stick to a bicycle path in Lund in southern Sweden.

Grass has now been fined 500 kronor for his indiscretion, reported the local Sydsvenskan daily, while the court has meanwhile cleared a motorist who faced charges for having driving into him from behind. 

Still waiting to see something like this happen in Portland.

Remember The Lottery

Oregon's lottery thing was supposed to be strictly for economic development.  That's worked out well, hasn't it?

Since the okey-dokey was given to the lottery, we haven't seen much in the way of economic development.  What we have seen is the state becoming ever more dependent upon gamblers, and the money that they pay in that was supposed to go for economic development has instead been diverted.  

There's a new state park in the coast range - L.L. Stubb Stewart state park.  That's some fine economic development there, Lou - no wonder Oregon's still among the tops in unemployment.

This measure continues dedicated funding from the state Lottery to some of the very resources and places that give Oregon its identity: state parks, beaches, historic sites, recreation areas, fish and wildlife habitats and watersheds. Measure 76 asks voters to extend the current lottery allocation of 15 percent to the protection of these causes.

That's some fine economic development there - and none of this stuff was what you were told the lottery would provide.  The lottery was sold to you as a means for ensuring economic development, not "fish and wildlife habitats and watersheds".

Translation: more land-use "planning", and further erosion of your property rights, paid for by gamblers.

Result: less economic development - the exact opposite of what the lottery funds are supposed to be used to promote.

They're Baack.

What a surprise!

Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been driven to extinction, scientists have said.

A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in the past few centuries have turned up alive and well.

Actually, well over one-third - and that involves only mammals.

The Coelacanth is a primitive fish that was declared extinct by scientists.  Apparently, it never got the memo.  Undeterred by the scientific consensus, it persists in paddling its lobed fins around in our seas.  

But The Science Was In:  it was extinct.  Golly.  Where else have we heard about the scientific consensus? 

We Should Be More Like Europe

Your nutty Leftist politicians, unions, and others tell us this all the time.  And if you buy into their baloney, you're an idiot.

This is what you get: angry Frenchies dumping milk or cheese into roadways every three years, "protesting" against private enterprise.

Today, you have Anti-austerity protests erupted across Europe on Wednesday — Greek doctors and railway employees walked out, Spanish workers shut down trains and buses.  Why, that hasn't happened in maybe eight years.  Yep, let's abandon our cars, and everybody go by streetcar.  And when the transit union gets its panties in a wad, you go nowhere.  Great idea.

Patty Murray

Ann Coulter shot her down, then gutted and roasted the little "mom in tennis shoes".

Sustainability!

Mayor McFeely should take note: if you want to build "sustainable" bridges, here's how it's done.

 

Tax Dollars At Work - Execution

Okay, a guy on Death Row tries to commit suicide, slashing his wrists and throat with a razor blade.  The authorities, in their infinite wisdom, send him to a hospital and save his life - so that he can be executed by lethal injection a week later.

Is there any reason why he shouldn't have been allowed to die? Is there any justification for spending tax dollars to stitch him up and keep him alive - so that we can spend more to execute him?

It just seems stupid.

Downside To High-Rise

High-rise condo bunkers are pushed all over Portland, with huge taxpayer subsidies (and taxpayers don't get to vote).  Most of them are sitting empty, right now.  That may be a bad thing for developers, taxpayers, and Portland politicians, but there is sort of an upside:  folks not buying into the higher floors may actually live a bit longer.

Just a tiny bit, though.

But...What About The Polar Bears?

Glacier ice loss less than once thought, study suggests

Man, this isn't good news for AlGore nor our local "science writer".

Remember when folks who disagreed with their religion of man-made global warming were "deniers"?  Just a bunch of stupid people who didn't understand the finer points of the manipulation of data?

Those were the days.  Always good for a laugh.