Trimet trains/busses/shelters are theoretically supposed to be for transit use only, by paying customers, who don’t eat, drink, smoke, do drugs, litter, harass, commit crimes etc while on Trimet property (including shelters except for the eating part). It also even still has increasingly lax rules about bringing giant wagons and carts onboard that often delay transit, and often occupy space needed by transit riders with disabilities. In practice this is all unenforced to the point that the rules are essentially voided, rules are only rules if they’re enforced. I have trouble blaming the Vancouver nimbys for not wanting it. This exert from an OPB article illustrates it fairly colorfully
"Nancy Miranda of Yacolt, Washington, described her safety concerns when riding TriMet light rail in Portland.
“People urinating, pan handling, even physical abuse. Many times, I’ve felt threatened,” Miranda said.
“Light rail is perceived by many, because police aren’t always on there, as a high-speed way to import mentally ill drug addicts and criminals from Portland to Vancouver,” warned Gary Gaskill. “Whether that’s true or not, it is a perception many people have.” "
Yeah, this panic over the imagination of trains exporting cars full of unwashed masses into your social flight suburb is a tension in literally every regional rail rollout in the west, or at least in North America. The facts of the matter is that TriMet does already police Max ridership (I’d know, they’ve ticketed me), and commuting either by car on a traffic jammed highway over a century-old earthquake-vulnerable bridge or by rail while sitting across a passenger car from a potentially homeless person is a decision that remains securely in the hands of Washingtonian suburbanites, they need not fear that decision being taken from them and they will ultimately get whichever choice they deserve.
But for the time being, Washington is importing thousands of gas belching lifted pickup trucks into my Portland neighborhood every weekday morning, and I don’t personally get much of a say in that matter.
Yes. Some alternate questions for you. Do you think people who live and work in the Portland metro area have a right to have access to safe and reliable public transit. Do you think a bus or train is a cost effective way to provide shelter for someone too dysfunctional to use existing shelters? Do you recognize that road congestion is worse than ever yet transit use is down in Portland and people do die on our roads. Two things can be true, doing nothing and shoving the problem onto TriMet is not working.
Yes, no, yes. I also realize that increasing police presence is not going to address any of these things, but rather will cut off transit access for the people who most rely on it, lead to more of those people being incarcerated, and deepen the terror the most at-risk communities are facing in this time of violent state-sanctioned oppression.
We live in a city that cares about community, self-expression, and anti-authoritarianism. I want us to live up to those ideals, and that means letting go of police mentality.
You can believe in police reform while also believing that offering people the “freedom” to live in flammable and filthy encampments and do fent, meth and alcohol in urban centers with no effective mechanism for forcing people to get help against their will is neither “compassion” nor effective police reform. And again the reality is Vancouver enjoys a river and only busses they have jurisdiction over of buffer room from that and I cannot bring myself to blame them for wanting to keep it. That said, god I want a congestion tax on the bridges for Washington drivers. (I also, to be clear, want the Max system expanded, I just get their perspective)
Also side note, ticketing is pretty ineffective on the TriMet system. It’s essentially a tax on people who can sort of afford to pay fare but don’t. It does not deter addicts etc because they aren’t getting kicked off, just getting a ticket they won’t pay and there’s no real mechanism for enforcing beyond that point.
The whole problem is your use of words like “offering” and “forcing”. Public transportation is a public good. It belongs to everyone. No entity is “offering” anything because it isn’t anyone’s to offer. We need to get away from the idea that public spaces are things that can be provided or withdrawn.
“the state of TriMet use enforcement” can you elaborate?
Trimet trains/busses/shelters are theoretically supposed to be for transit use only, by paying customers, who don’t eat, drink, smoke, do drugs, litter, harass, commit crimes etc while on Trimet property (including shelters except for the eating part). It also even still has increasingly lax rules about bringing giant wagons and carts onboard that often delay transit, and often occupy space needed by transit riders with disabilities. In practice this is all unenforced to the point that the rules are essentially voided, rules are only rules if they’re enforced. I have trouble blaming the Vancouver nimbys for not wanting it. This exert from an OPB article illustrates it fairly colorfully
"Nancy Miranda of Yacolt, Washington, described her safety concerns when riding TriMet light rail in Portland.
“People urinating, pan handling, even physical abuse. Many times, I’ve felt threatened,” Miranda said.
“Light rail is perceived by many, because police aren’t always on there, as a high-speed way to import mentally ill drug addicts and criminals from Portland to Vancouver,” warned Gary Gaskill. “Whether that’s true or not, it is a perception many people have.” "
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/12/clark-county-transit-punts-decision-i-5-bridge-light-rail-funding/
Yeah, this panic over the imagination of trains exporting cars full of unwashed masses into your social flight suburb is a tension in literally every regional rail rollout in the west, or at least in North America. The facts of the matter is that TriMet does already police Max ridership (I’d know, they’ve ticketed me), and commuting either by car on a traffic jammed highway over a century-old earthquake-vulnerable bridge or by rail while sitting across a passenger car from a potentially homeless person is a decision that remains securely in the hands of Washingtonian suburbanites, they need not fear that decision being taken from them and they will ultimately get whichever choice they deserve.
But for the time being, Washington is importing thousands of gas belching lifted pickup trucks into my Portland neighborhood every weekday morning, and I don’t personally get much of a say in that matter.
Do you think someone who’s acting weird on a MAX train deserves to get to where they need to go? Do you think they deserve shelter and dignity?
Yes. Some alternate questions for you. Do you think people who live and work in the Portland metro area have a right to have access to safe and reliable public transit. Do you think a bus or train is a cost effective way to provide shelter for someone too dysfunctional to use existing shelters? Do you recognize that road congestion is worse than ever yet transit use is down in Portland and people do die on our roads. Two things can be true, doing nothing and shoving the problem onto TriMet is not working.
Yes, no, yes. I also realize that increasing police presence is not going to address any of these things, but rather will cut off transit access for the people who most rely on it, lead to more of those people being incarcerated, and deepen the terror the most at-risk communities are facing in this time of violent state-sanctioned oppression.
We live in a city that cares about community, self-expression, and anti-authoritarianism. I want us to live up to those ideals, and that means letting go of police mentality.
You can believe in police reform while also believing that offering people the “freedom” to live in flammable and filthy encampments and do fent, meth and alcohol in urban centers with no effective mechanism for forcing people to get help against their will is neither “compassion” nor effective police reform. And again the reality is Vancouver enjoys a river and only busses they have jurisdiction over of buffer room from that and I cannot bring myself to blame them for wanting to keep it. That said, god I want a congestion tax on the bridges for Washington drivers. (I also, to be clear, want the Max system expanded, I just get their perspective)
Also side note, ticketing is pretty ineffective on the TriMet system. It’s essentially a tax on people who can sort of afford to pay fare but don’t. It does not deter addicts etc because they aren’t getting kicked off, just getting a ticket they won’t pay and there’s no real mechanism for enforcing beyond that point.
The whole problem is your use of words like “offering” and “forcing”. Public transportation is a public good. It belongs to everyone. No entity is “offering” anything because it isn’t anyone’s to offer. We need to get away from the idea that public spaces are things that can be provided or withdrawn.