…or Bullwinkle eats lead!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

The views expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Lynn and Scottie are off on their international adventure!  I for one will miss seeing Lynn around at all of the Bus functions with her infectious enthusiasm and energy.  Since I joined the Lane Bus board, Lynn has been the driving force behind so many of our projects and a shining representative of our group within local politics. 

We owe her many thanks for all of the time spent facilitating our communication, setting agendas and tracking progress, when there are lazy board members like me who lack many of those skills!  I wish them the best on their journey and hope to see them rolling back into town before too long.  Have fun Lynn and Scottie!  Watch out for bot flies!

I know that the Bus doesn’t usually comment on National Politics, but I after all of the coverage I have been getting for my candidacy for President, I have to let LaneBus.org followers in on this amazing effort of grass roots campaigning! If you are still undecided on election day, Vote McNeeley!

After seeing all of the fun GW was having in Beijing, the Olympic spirit has hit Vice President Cheney. To honor the Redeem Team’s efforts in Men’s Basketball, DC went down the the courts in NY to show that there was nothing Conservative about his game.

I try so hard to post relevant and serious content to lanebus.org, but obviously I have failed. Forgive me.

Measures 57 and 61 are competing measures designed to reform sentencing for property crimes. The measure with the most votes will become law. If neither receives more yes votes than no votes, neither will become law. The measures both increase sentences for property crime offenders, but differ in their approaches in that Measure 57 supports increased sentencing primarily for repeat offenders and provides funding for rehabilitation programs, while Measure 61 takes a purely punitive approach.
(more…)

At last some controversy! Measure 56, another legislative referral, attempts to repeal the double majority requirement for property tax measures. The “double majority” requires that in elections other than even year general elections, property tax measures that fund government services must be passed by more than 50% of the voters in an election where 50% or more of the qualified voters actually vote. Oregon voters passed the double majority requirement in 1996 as part of the Oregon tax revolt facilitated by racketeer/activist Bill Sizemore and Oregon Taxpayers United.
(more…)

Measure 55, another legislative referral, fixes that pesky problem I’m sure all of us have had - when you’re elected to the Oregon Legislature from a district and redistricting causes you to live in the same district as another legislator from the same chamber. The State then reassigns you to another (presumably empty) district somewhere else in the State, where you do not live. You have now gone from representing tweedies and Reedies to cowboys and farmers. Your ACLU membership becomes a political liability and your constituents start asking awkward questions about why you aren’t an NRA member.
(more…)

Usually we don’t talk about National politics on the Lane Bus Blog, but when a candidate with these credentials enters the ring, you have to stand up and take notice.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about transportation.  Not just for Arcimoto (which aims to make a difference on the individual level), but also for mass transit.  Buses are nice and all, but all the cool cities have good light rail too.

So I thought I’d put out a proposal for how Eugene could solve many of its people transit issues (initially in west Eugene), fuel infill in the center of the city, remove the need for additional parking at the new UO arena, and collaborate with other local municipalities to remove the need for extra vehicle miles.

I call this proposal “Southern Willamette Intercity Fast Transit” or SWIFT.  Last night I put together a google map of the proposal… check it!

The first key to the proposal would be to utilize existing ununsed or underused rail- initially the line from Coos Bay to Eugene (and particularly the stretch from Veneta to Eugene) that is currently in the process of being abandoned by its owner, Rail America.

Right before this line hits the main rail line through Eugene, it could be diverted to run down Blair Blvd, and from there through downtown and to the university.  It’s possible (though not likely) that the rail lines currently buried under Blair could be reused.  See, Eugene used to have a street rail system back in the day:

Eugene on rails!

The next phase of the project would extend the rail service line to Springfield along either the EMX line, existing rail or otherwise.

Phase 2 of the SWIFT plan would call for a second line running from Oregon State University in Corvallis, down the existing rail along Hwy 99, adding a new stretch of rail between Junction City and Monroe, and linking up with the first SWIFT line.  An extension to this line would run from Glenwood to Cottage Grove.

This idea also calls for the creation of the Oregon Transit Research Center, a collaboration between UO, OSU and federal, state and local governments.  Sited at the rail junction in west Eugene, this would be a hub for engineers from OSU and designers and planners from the UO to craft forward-looking solutions to Oregon’s transportation needs.

Anyone who has an interest in getting involved in seeing what’s involved in developing an idea like this can drop me a line.

Here is some funny political news. I can’t wait to see the new show “In Da Office Zone!”