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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Tri-Met repeats Portland's population growth lie

Yesterday we called the City of Portland planning mafia out on its spurious claim that the city's population is expected to nearly double in the next 25 years. Based on population growth within the city limits over the last 10 years and the last 20 years, the growth over the next 25 can be projected at less than 30%. Somebody at City Hall noticed that we had noticed, and they took the false claim down.

Today we were watching a horrifying science fiction video by Tri-Met about the bankrupting Mystery Train to Milwaukie, and they repeat the same premise on a regional basis: that the Portland metropolitan region's population will double in 25 years. Again, the real numbers don't support that premise. According to the Census Bureau, the Portland metro population increased from 1,927,883 in 2000 to 2,226,009 in 2010. That's 1.45% a year. At that rate, in 25 years, the population will increase by 43.26% -- not even half.
Like the City of Portland, Tri-Met is simply lying to sell something that shouldn't be bought. They're bald-faced lying about it with nearly every sentence.

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