I, as a longtime citizen of Clark County, do not find the “Loss of funding a crushing failure” for the Columbia River Crossing project as Ed Lynch editorialized in his Feb. 15 letter. I like all the hundreds of hours of crushing work that some citizens put in for the “my way or the highway” compromise that was made to obtain light rail into the project. I am thankful for our elected county leaders for their shortsighted and stupid position they took.
Why was it so darn important to the promoters to keep all the citizens from voting on bringing light rail over here? Vancouver needs that little extension like a MAX rail to Troutdale, Ore.
When it is all said and done, a tunnel for the rail line extension would probably be less expensive than putting it onto the bridge. Oh right, that doesn’t pencil out either, just like putting it on the bridge does not. Just one big black sinkhole.
Vancouver’s economy certainly does not succeed or fail because of light rail, but it would be helped with a new bridge. Let Oregon do all the building of their “pie in the sky” part of the project first and then we in Clark County can vote for a stand-alone bridge. I bet it would pass.
