With her recent $31,500 questionnaire — courtesy of us taxpayers — Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler asks the question, “What kind of bridge do we need?” The implicit answer is, one without light rail, as she asks the largely conservative people of Clark County if they are willing “to pay what it takes to expand light rail into Clark County.” In other words, are we willing to pay higher taxes for a system we may not use?
We need to realize that the bridge will serve not only the present population of the Portland-Vancouver metro area, but will have to serve vastly larger populations over the next 80 years or so. With that in mind, light rail makes sense to me.
On another issue, had Herrera Beutler been in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1930s, she most likely would have fought against the Golden Gate Bridge. Tolls! The horror! The horror!
Ward Upson
Vancouver
