About 50 years ago, visionaries created the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Initially, the plan was to extend the system up into Marin County, but the plan was rejected for several reasons. Taxes being one, and maybe some didn’t want those “crime trains” bringing crooks and ne’er-do-wells into the idyllic, pastoral North Bay.
Now, as you read this, construction is going forward extending light rail from Marin County up into Sonoma County. This is the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit system. (Yep, you got it: S.M.A.R.T.) Oh! More than 60 percent of the work is done by local contractors.
Now if only state Sen. Don Benton, Vancouver, along with fellow Republicans Sen. Ann Rivers, La Center; Rep. Liz Pike, Camas; and Rep. Brandon Vick, Vancouver, would get “SMART” and admit the replacement Columbia River Crossing, with light rail, would be an economic and cultural boon to Clark County and beyond.
Ward Upson
Vancouver
