Congress Street was busy last night. Streets were busy. Lots of people eating out – sidewalk dining seems to be very big this year, which is great! After dinner at the Green Elephant we went upstairs to Yellahoose’s offices and at about that time drumming from the African dance class across the street started up. The iPhone’s overwhelmed by low light conditions, but I like this simple picture of people stopped on the sidewalk watching the drummers and dancers through the storefront windows. Here’s another.

Taken on the University of New England Portland campus.

Another nice picture from our friend Malachi, who was here visiting us with his brother Michael and his parents Dianna and Mike.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about what to do with the swing bridge and about Portland’s transit infrastructure, past, present and future.

Portland Trail’s proposal, as I understand it, is to retrofit this railroad bridge, which does need to be repaired no matter how it’s used, for pedestrian and bike use only. According to the Portland Press-Herald article (link’s above) there’s no time to modify the proposal to incorporate a proposal to share the bridge with alternatives to alternative transportation, like (light) rail. This is dumb.

Looking at light rail throughout the country (look at the other Portland), and you’ll see that light rail implementations alleviate highway traffic congestion, and it can revitalize urban areas and increase property values in neighborhoods with rail lines service. And light rail’s environmentally friendly.

Short view: Building a walking/bicycling trail is cheap. It can be done faster than preparing for eventual light rail use. If you take the medium to long view you need to consider how you manage traffic and regional transportation after oil goes away.

I use Portland’s excellent trails 3 times a week, sometimes more! But the proposal should be rewritten, shelved or if submitted rejected if it doesn’t accommodate mixed use.

Look closely at the sign on the garage.