RECENTLY ON TOL:
TOL Our Town
- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
TAGS:
jacklean's comments:
on High Speed Momentum
Having lived in Vancouver BC for 3 years..I can tell you the folks in BC are far from getting a fast train..indeed already it takes from Peace Arch to Vancouver station over 11/2 hour to get there...and then of course was/is the ongoing toss-up with immigration.
The line follows the old industrial corridor..from Peace Arch, over to New Westminster...over a very decrepiet rail bridge and then along the north shore of the fraser...
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context
on High Speed Momentum
I passionately support the project. I have ridden the train to Vancouver over the past years although it takes many more hours to get there and the timing is something akin to the night trains of europe.
I have participated in many surveys..and I must comment that the administration of AMTRAK from the Eastern Seaboard, design surveys meant for them, not us here in the PNW..for instance one question was whether we would use this train for our commute..PDX-Vancouver?! 10 hours..maybe if not longer each way? I find that the matrix used to understand rail use in our part of the country are always justified and denied on an eastern seaboard decision platform. This goes too for the train line to Boise..our west to east connection. While in Joseph this summer, many there said that although they had to board the train in the dead of night is was the only way they got to visit relatives in western oregon. Clearly there is a desire, and a true need, but our region should not be beholden to the Eastern Seaboards mentality concerning numbers.
We must go our own way here, as was the case with the early moves on light rail, streetcars and bike lanes..if we wait always for the east to catch up to our wilingness to work towards the public good..our life here as Oregonians, the spirit with which we work together, will be held hostage by those living on the otherside of the country, whose politics are more divisive.
Connect our region with intelligent transportation options and widen our own economies...
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context
on Obama's Popularity
Feeling hostage to eastern seaboard politics, indeed we in Oregon are "leaders"..from mail in elections, to early "green" issues. After spending 3 years in Vancouver BC, what has become most apparent is the gap between the wealthy and working class is not so extreme as in the USA. And while when returning many have said Portland is the best for liberal politics, the truth is how we are hostage to federal politics. Our identity needs to be regional.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
view in context
on High Speed Possibilities
We have troubled the poor rail service since I can remember, mid-seventies..I-5 should not be built larger, indeed, with a new rail bed a more frequent interurban service could ensue. What I want addressed is the fact that the many through ways for the rails were/are public lands. The rail companies do have some responsibility to the "public"..
Rail is essential for the urban corridor, for development along the alignment and the urban centers.
posted 4 years ago
view in context
on Society's History
I used the image library to create the public art poster project during the opening of the first streetcar line. I agree with all the speakers that the staff were most helpful. I was able to connect archivists in Prague/Pilzen and Portland. It was a very successful project.
However I think this articulates a larger issue which is the destruction of public access and our (Oregon's) communitas. Since the 70's there has been a continuing decrease in an actual "public" access to a tiered system of access. As viewsheds were privatized through aggressive build outs, waterfront esplanades reduced for reality reasons, "public/private partnerships" which often are negotiated in favor of the private. Portland and the state of Oregon has been rolled over during these past decades to where the newcomers know little of the heritage, it has become a superficial gloss on what has become a less than equitable distribution of capital, both fiscal and cultural.
The loss of this library would mean yet one more loss in the community knowledge in favor of an engineered collective based on a national model, not what has made us, Oregonian's unique. Those who have come from other states take no pride in our past, but only trouble the present, uninformed, and paradoxically repressing our identity as people of Oregon country.
Jacqueline Stoeckler,PhD
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
view in context
