MAX REDLINE WEIGHS IN ON THE LATEST TRIMET LUNACY

The development agency known as TriMet is hurtling toward insolvency, according to the governor-appointed head of the racket, and this is entirely due to those greedy bus drivers and train operators (and streetcar operators) with their Cadillac benefits packages. So claims "WheelandDeal" McFarlane as the agency spends billions on additional rail lines in the Portland area. As has been mentioned here on any number of occasions, unions in general have long since passed from usefulness into obsolescence, and as a rule tend now to do far more harm than good.
At the same time, Wheel's blame-game is disingenuous at best; it takes two to tango, and as TriMet's line staff are unionized, TriMet's unsupervised, governor-appointed managers really have to assume responsibility for the contracts that they have negotiated and approved over the years. Blaming drivers for accepting TriMet contract offers is absolute lunacy, but it must be remembered that the Portland area is a lunatic oasis - so regular folks will probably buy it: back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, busloads of folks from the state mental hospital down in Salem were carted up each week and released into the wild over at NW Upshur and 21st. Believe it: I saw it week after week when I lived in NW Porkland.