NOTE: Paul O. Edgar, a retired Business Systems Analyst, submitted a response to this post. It is reprinted at the conclusion of my post.
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Shades of the U.S.-Mexico border conflict.
Stephen F. Austin, the “father of Texas”, had strong opinions about ” invaders”. In a May 4, 1836 letter, appealing for U.S. assistance during Texas’ war of independence, Austin declared “A war of extermination is raging in Texas — a war of barbarism and of despotic principles waged by the mongrel Spanish-Indian and Negro race, against civilization and the Anglo-American race…. Indians, Mexicans, and renegades, all mixed together, and all the natural enemies of white men and civilization.”
It doesn’t look like Republican Joe Kent, who lost his 2022 race in Washington’s in Washington’s Third Congressional District against Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and is challenging her again in 2024, likes outsiders much either,, especially folks from Oregon.
In mid-January 2024, Kent proclaimed that a replacement for the deteriorating I-5 bridge and a new light rail line “… would be an expressway for Portland’s crime & homeless into Vancouver…”
“…the drug addicts and criminals in their tent colonies that are spreading their crime from Portland into Vancouver…,” are not welcome in his district, he said.
In a Feb. 29, 2024 news release, Kent repeated that allegation. “What we don’t need – and the people of my district agree on this regardless of party – is a toll road that unfairly targets Washingtonians commuting to Portland, or light rail that there is no demand for and would bring Portland’s crime problem further into Clark County.”
Kent has repeated that point of view on Facebook. ““We don’t want the problems of downtown Portland dumped right into our district in Vancouver,” he said. “If you look at the murder rate, the crime rate, that’s the last thing we want in Vancouver.”
The New York Times says the I-5 dispute “… is an example of how Republicans…are seeking to transform even the most basic of local issues into battlegrounds in the nation’s culture wars in elections this year in which control of Congress is at stake. Mr. Kent’s attacks, which rely on buzzwords of the hard right, place the bridge at the center of a national political discussion that vilifies the left and plays on fears of demographic change.”
So I guess we can expect more of this as the Kent-Perez contest heats up.
Response by Paul O. Edgar
The I-5 bridge and light rail issues are about more than crime.
The most important issue is whether there is a need to have this very expensive TriMet Light Rail Transit (LRT) line extended into Clark County, with an additional $2 billion added into the I-5 Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) plan cost.
TriMet also wants to also get reimbursed for all operating costs. Currently they are estimated to be $21.6 Million dollars per year.
TriMet already has a huge under-funded earned health and retirement obligation that the citizens of Clark County Washington would become partners in if the I-5 bridge/Light Rail project goes through. TriMet has been working on trying to deal with those obligations, but the limit on payroll tax revenues and other State of Oregon funds already make TriMet look like a Chapter 11 bankrupt organization.
Reading its performance reports, TriMet ridership has plunged and costs have been understated. The West-side Commuter Rail System (WES), for example, appears to be losing $1 million dollars per month and TriMet’s LRT may well be losing $10 million dollars per month. Some of that is because of the increase in virtual offices and public concerns about drug addicts and other troubled people on the system.
All this, plus burdensome bridge tolls, will mean added costs for Clark County commuters, 99% of whom will also not be able get directly to their place of work or back home on a Fixed Rail System without even more added costs.
The cost of what Clark County residents would be the assuming of the costs associate with extending TriMet Light Rail Transit are to far great.
This is important, and you can read TriMet’s performance reports that less than 1% of the incident of travel generated in the TriMet Service are handled by TriMet. Not enough people will use TriMet Light Rail Transit and it would be very hard for people to justify the ongoing cost, including the toll costs that will go on for ever and ever.
Maybe the answer for many Clark County residents who now travel to Portland will be to find employment and do their shopping elsewhere.
ThinkingOregon 
The comments of Mr. Kent are not a Republican or Democratic political issue, and the New York Times, lives in another world. This issues should not be framed as “Crime-Rail”, it is one of a lot of issues that will effect Clark County Washington citizens. The most important issue is there a need to have this very expensive TriMet Light Rail Transit (LRT) line extended into Clark County, at a additional $2 Billion in cost to the I-5 Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) plan. TriMet wants to also get reimbursed for all operating costs and currently that was estimated to be $21.6 Million dollars per year. The next issue in doing business with TriMet is that they have a huge under-funded earned health and retirement obligation, that the citizens of Clark County will become partners in. TriMet has been working on righting those earned obligations, but the limit on Payroll Tax revenues, and other State of Oregon funds, make TriMet look like a Chapter 11 Bankrupt organization. TriMet Ridership has plunged in reading their performance reports. The costs are completely understated with how they keep all of the earned health and retirement obligations out of these reports. However one can see that West-side Commuter Rail System (WES) appears to be losing $1 Million Dollars per month. TriMet’s LRT may well be losing $10 Million Dollars per month. People just are not commuting on LRT, and with Virtual Office and the exposure to elements of the population that do drugs and have health issues, with very high levels of the riders appearing to be homeless or houseless and without baths, this has equally driven potential riders away from using TriMet’s LRT. This has the potential to add to the cost of all Clark County Commuters into Oregon in Tolls that will be charged to fund the additional $2 Billion for TriMet LRT, added to the cost of the IBR and expect this to have close to $10 per day in additional Toll Charges, just to cover those additional expenses, for a TriMet Light Rail Line that so few will use. Realistically 99% of the Clark County Washingtonians cannot get to their place of work on a Fixed Rail System, without very costly in time and exposure. It will no reduce costs in future transportation investments, that come with the first and last mile to get to in first and last mile needs. What could be in time driving or ride-sharing of 35 to 45 minutes could be a minimum of one and half hours just trying to use LRT in Commuting. I drove from Hazel Dell to NW Portland and my office and there is no practical way LRT would helped me and maybe 95% of the commuters to jobs into Greater Portland are in the same circumstances. Putting TriMet LRT into Clark County Washington on the IBR that so few will use will add to first of just live in County in an estimated range of $200 Dollars per month, and that figure will go up annually at least 3% but close to 5%. This should be looked at as the fixed cost of having TriMet LRT coming across this new bridge. Those who expose themselves to the LRT will have to pay the fare and those who commute in a Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) will pay a higher Toll for the added cost of the TriMet LRT over a longer period of time. But in reality ODOT wants to fund all types of improvements off the backs of Washingtonians as you are to them like illegals, no that you don’t have to pay Oregon Income Tax, while living in Washington. They don’t think you are paying your fare share of the use/damage of using Oregon’s roads,, highways, bridges, and tunnels. If you buy gasoline or diesel fuels in Portland/Multnomah County Oregon you pay an additional 10 cents per gallon, that is no charge in Clackamas or Washington Counties. Look, very little has been written about the “Crime Element” that is enabled with having Light Rail coming into Clark County, but you can extrapolate from the increase in crime in and around Clackamas Town Center Terminus Station. The crime, must of it with illegal drug sales, and the need to gain the money to feed this lifestyle, causes crime rate to effectively double, in that immediate area. Cars are broken into, security costs on businesses and with added police and deputy sheriffs come with that territory. So facts are facts, the question is what will people do with added lanes and will people just pay the Toll and the added cost to live in Clark County and work in Oregon or will they try to find employment where they don’t go into Oregon, unless they need to.
Paul,
Interesting thoughts. I posted your comments as a reader’s reply, but I’m wondering if you’d be interested in submitting it to me as a “guest contributor” and allowing me to post it on my blog. If yes, you might want to review and re-write it a bit so it’s more readable.
Yes, I have already re-written it, and sent a copy to my friend John Ley. I will send to you what I wrote to John. I am a dyslectic, and struggle with my writing skills and if you want to put it into good English, and let proofread it, that is also OK.