Cheers: The latest advancement on Vancouver’s Waterfront project is noteworthy, and particular kudos are warranted for the flair with which the development was announced. As newly built Columbia Way was dedicated this week near downtown, a fleet of Model A Fords were the first vehicles to traverse the street around which the $1.3 billion development will rise.
The significance of the project, which is being built on the site of an old Boise Cascade plant, can be found in one simple fact: That area has been shut off to the public for more than a century. Developer Barry Cain announced that the project has signed it first tenant — M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust — and that agreements for a hotel and two restaurants are being finalized. But regardless of how The Waterfront evolves, opening public access to that area of the Columbia River will be a spectacular benefit for the people of Clark County.
Jeers: Neil McFarlane, general manager of TriMet, was quoted this week as saying that it is time for leaders in Washington and Oregon to rekindle discussions about replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River. “The bridge is the No. 1 economic corridor on the West Coast. We have to get back to it,” said McFarlane, whose organization runs the Portland area’s mass-transit system.
We agree, but in calling for compromise, McFarlane failed to acknowledge TriMet’s role in creating tension surrounding the now-dead Columbia River Crossing project. As part of the CRC, TriMet and C-Tran signed an agreement governing the operation of light rail in Clark County. The agreement has no sunset date, but TriMet officials have rejected requests from C-Tran officials to end it. In the spirit of cooperation that will be required for any new bridge proposal, TriMet should be more accommodating.
Cheers: This could go as a cheer for the Washington State Patrol or as a jeer for scofflaws in Clark County. We choose to focus on the positive, congratulating troopers who recently conducted a sting to catch drivers who live in Washington but keep their cars registered in Oregon.
In avoiding Washington’s sales tax and higher registration fees, motorists have incentive to falsely claim they reside in the state to the south. But in so doing, they are evading taxes that benefit the state in which they live. “I pay my taxes; so should everybody else,” WSP Trooper Steve Robley said. During the recent sting, troopers issued eight citations, providing an expensive reminder to scofflaws that it pays to follow the rules.
Jeers: A dysfunctional Congress in Washington, D.C., can have a negative impact that reaches all corners of the country. Locally, one of those is lawmakers’ inability to extend the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The fund, which is supported not by taxpayers but by fees charged to companies that drill for oil and gas on the continent’s outer shelf, serves to enhance national parks, forests and wildlife habitats. It has been essential to conservation efforts in Washington, but is scheduled to expire Wednesday — the end of September. Congress appears headed toward a budget impasse, and a failure to renew the Land and Water Conservation Fund would serve as another example of lawmakers poorly serving the public.
Cheers: Today is National Public Lands Day, which should be a particular point of pride for people in Washington. Admission will be free at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site as well as Washington state parks — Battle Ground Lake, Paradise Point, and Reed Island parks in Clark County.
The Northwest long has understood the value of having publicly owned land, keeping a portion of the area’s wondrous beauty available for all the people. That is something worth celebrating.
