On September 6, the Portland City Council will decide whether to give a
green light to an east side expansion of the Portland Streetcar, and in
the process approve the spending of a lot of money by a lot of people.
Officially, the vote will approve an overall financing plan for the $147
million project, and one aspect of it – a $15 million assessment of
property owners within three blocks of the route. As it runs through the
Central East Side, the streets involved are SE Grand and Water avenues
and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the Oregon Museum of Science and
industry. To the north, the route would run through the Lloyd District
before crossing to the west side via the Broadway Bridge. Eventually,
the route would connect with a new rail bridge to be build somewhere to
the south of the OMSI, connect to existing streetcar tracks and form a
loop around the central city. With the rise in congressional influence
this spring of Oregon's delegation and other prominent democrats, a
request for $75 million in federal Small Start funds, which had been
languishing, suddenly seems assured – if streetcar sponsors can put
together matching funds by September 7. Thanks to the Oregon
legislature, they have $20 million in lottery funds (they had requested
$25 million) contingent on vehicles for the expansion being manufactured
in state. They also have another $6.75 million in state transportation ...