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In a speech at Portland City Club yesterday, Tri-Moot general manager Neil McFarlane blamed the transit union for "strangling" the former transit agency, which has re-invented itself and is now a development agency that is not constrained by taxpayer oversight. Neil (there's always a slimy guy named "Neil" shotgunning things in Portland, it seems) blames the transit union for Tri-Moot's $17 million current budgetary shortfall. Certainly, it isn't related to the fact that Tri-Moot insists on building expensive rail lines to suit condo developers, despite the fact that (a) most people don't want them and (b) of those who ride their "trains", many don't pay.
No, it's all the fault of the union. Certainly, it can't be related to anything that agency managers have done.
However, as one astute commenter noted:
If you spend three decades pandering to the condo developers, contractors, trade unions, light rail lobbyists, and other friends of Neil Goldschmidt, NOBODY TAKES YOU SERIOUSLY WHEN YOU PUT ALL THE BLAME ON THE TRANSIT WORKERS' UNION. The union didn't build WES, or pick a bankrupt vendor. The union didn't choose to kill busy bus lines to subsidize MAX. The union isn't the reason why Milwauikie Light Rail will likely push Tri-Met into insolvency. That's all on Tri-Met's Board of Directors and executive team.
Somebody knows what they're talking about - and it ain't Neil.
