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If light rail works

ment.42 And after Portland's aerial tram was

cent to the airport, it was not suitable for res-

idential use, but planners zoned it for small-

built, planners claimed it generated $1 bil-

so well, why was a

lion worth of development.43

box retail--shops no larger than 60,000

new garage

square feet--because big-box retail (stores of

The first problem with these claims is

needed and in

100,000 to 300,000 square feet) would be too

planners' assumption that correlation proves

"auto dependent." Although the city spent

causation. In counting developments sup-

what sense did

$28 million on parks, utilities, streets, and

posedly "stimulated" by transit, planners

rail stimulate its

sidewalks, no one wanted to lease a small

simply added up all the value of develop-

shop or office on a site that was miles from

ments within a few blocks of transit lines or

construction?

any residential areas, so the area remained

stations. They made no attempt to insure

vacant for five years after the light-rail line

that the developments really had anything to

opened in 2001.37

do with transit.

Measured by value, the vast majority of

Rail skeptics were amused that every light-

the $1 billion of investments supposedly

rail car going to and from the airport duti-

stimulated by the light rail consists of gov-

fully stopped at both of Cascade Station's rail

ernment buildings, some built in response to

stations, even though no one wanted to get

executive orders by President Clinton and

on or off. Apparently, not stopping would

Oregon's Governor Barbara Roberts that all

have disrupted the schedules. Critics were

federal and state agencies should relocate to

even more amused when a passenger did

downtown areas.44 One government-funded

board the rail car one day: a coyote looking

for solitude aboard one of TriMet's empty

building supposedly stimulated by the light-

trolley cars.38

rail line was a $5 million downtown parking

garage. If light-rail works so well, why is a new

Finally, planners caved in to developers

garage needed and in what sense did light rail

who insisted that small-box retail made no

stimulate the construction of that garage?

sense at the site. Instead, the city has persuad-

The second problem with claims that tran-

ed Ikea to build a 280,000-square-foot store on

sit stimulated new development is that they are

the site and hopes to attract at least one other

based on double counting. For example, the

big-box store (though not one headquartered

streetcar and aerial tram both serve the same

in Bentonville). Apparently, cheap Asian-made

area, so all of the $1 billion in development

goods sold by a Scandanavian retailer are

supposedly stimulated by the aerial tram is

more politically correct than cheap Asian-

included in the $2.3 billion in development

made goods sold by an Arkansas retailer.

supposedly stimulated by the streetcar.45

Though Ikea will deliver purchases to any cus-

tomers who arrive by light rail or stow their

The biggest problem with the claim that

bikes in one of the mandated 75 bike racks,

transit stimulates development is that most of

the store expects most of its customers to use

the private developments themselves received

one of its 1,200 parking spaces.39

huge subsidies. The Portland Development

Commission (the city's urban-renewal agency)

uses tax-increment financing and federal

Myth #3: Development-

grants to subsidize developments in urban-

Oriented Transit

renewal areas. In recent years, those areas have

focused on transit zones and corridors. (For a

description of how tax-increment financing

Portland planners believe in the "field of

dreams": "Build it, and they will come."40

works, see "Problem #3" below.)

The Portland streetcar, for example, trav-

TriMet claimed that Portland's first light-rail

els almost entirely within the River, South

line stimulated more than $1 billion worth of

development.41 After Portland built a down-

Park Blocks, and North Macadam urban-

renewal districts. New developments in these

town streetcar line, planners claimed that it

districts received more than $665 million of

stimulated $2.3 billion worth of develop-

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