The merchants and residents of this area will have my undying respect and gratitude if they make it possible for parking and boarding the train on this side of the river. It makes no sense to drive to a Max station in Portland trying to avoid rush hour traffic and lack of parking, gas prices, etc.... In this light, trains and street cars, not autos, are freedom.
I would rather the Max come to MY side of town via 205, but this is a start. Busses smell bad, passengers must climb up into them and they have a low-end stigma that isn't going away. Being provincial is not going to make traffic better.
As a Hough neighborhood resident, I am entirely pleased with the idea of the MAX coming to town. There are still many decisions to be made about the exact alignment. However, I think that the light rail would help local businesses. I prefer to support small business and often shop on Main street and surrounding uptown village businesses. Instead of posting signs about the "crime train," I think that businesses would better buffer themselves against the financial impacts by rallying support from the neighborhood to support their business during construction. Further, the train may also have the added benefit of bringing the young urban professional types who now inhabit North Portland over the river to spend their money. There are already people who make the trek over the bridge for our Farmer's market. I think that we would be fooling ourselves if we didn't think that downtown Vancouver and Uptown Village didn't have something to market to Portland. The train would make it that much easier to get here.
