A few weeks ago, I mentioned a shooting that took place near Portland’s light-rail line and implied that it might not be safe to ride that line, especially after dark. Someone commented that “there’s no evidence that the guy shot in the head had anything to do with MAX or transit.”
Now we have a news item that the police are going “to beef up patrols near 162nd and E. Burnside” just three blocks from where the shooting occurred.
To cheer you up, give a rare commercial plug to my favorite airline, and mainly to save myself the trouble of writing another long post, I am going to refer you to a web site called The Slog, which details with only slight exaggeration the trials and tribulations of trying to drive between Portland and Seattle.
This 175-mile drive (which the Slog web page rounds up to 200 miles) has some of the heaviest traffic in the Northwest, mainly because anti-auto crusaders who dominate the transportation departments in both Oregon and Washington have done their best to delay any increases in road capacities. The Slog makes fun of this, calling it “the longest three-hour drive in history,” with Ken Burns-Civil War-style music, pan-and-scan, and narrative.
