[pdxstreetcar]

theres also 5 pdf images available about the tram project at oregonlive and a few smaller paragraphs about the tram

To dream the immoderate dream
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Steve Duin - Oregonian

Back in the winter of 1998, when he was just another Portland Democrat in the Legislature, Randy Leonard received a call from Peter Kohler, the president of Oregon Health & Science University, inviting him on a tour of his hilltop realm.

Leonard and Kohler were on the OHSU skybridge when Kohler pointed down toward the wastelands along the Willamette, 3,000 feet below, and said, "We're going to build a tram here." When Leonard posed the obvious question -- "To where?" -- Kohler described a riverside medical and research center and the ski lift that would connect it to Pill Hill.

"It's a dream of ours," Leonard recalls Kohler saying. "It's something we believe in."

Eight years later, Leonard is a Portland city commissioner, staring slack-jawed at the runaway running tab for the tram. The initial $15.5 million estimate has almost tripled, and Leonard says the final cost may be "closer to $60 million."

Leonard is insistent that the city's obligation doesn't increase by a single dollar: "I've told OHSU they need to pay for it. This was their vision. I can't justify paying a cent beyond what the city committed to. It's basically a transportation system to serve OHSU, and we're on the hook for the cost.

"Maybe it's time to go to OHSU and the developers and say, 'Let's pull the plug. Cut our losses.' This is destroying our credibility with the public."

Credibility? In the aftermath of reporter Ryan Frank's inPortland story this morning on the tram -- non-Portland-area readers can find the piece under local news at www. oregonlive.com -- the demolition may be complete.

Frank reports the original $15.5 million estimate for the tram was the earnest fantasy of an OHSU consultant, Gordon Davis, and the city's Matt Brown, two guys who'd never previously worked on a similar project.

That figure was seized upon by OHSU executive Steve Stadum and developer Dike Dame, two gentlemen with the most at stake in the South Waterfront and the two Portland Aerial Transportation Inc. board members who were most vocal about the moral imperative of staying on budget.

Tram supporters then hired a spinmeister to keep the ballooning cost hidden behind smoke and mirrors. And months after Brown knew the $15.5 million figure was wishful thinking, he continued to promote that pricetag to Portland's City Council.

"There's a huge difference between an honest mistake and deliberately misleading," Brown said. "At the time we brought that to council, we hadn't done a lick of design. On what basis could I modify the number?"

Gut instinct? Fair warning? As Commissioner Erik Sten said, "I don't run from developing that area -- it's a good move for the city -- but why can't we do it straight up?"

South Waterfront fans argue the city will, in the long run, capture significant tax revenue on the $1.9 billion project. That may be true, but OHSU does not pay property taxes, and the Schnitzer family's donation of 19.5 riverfront acres to the university flipped a huge chunk of the property from taxable to nontaxable status.

What's increasingly clear is that astute, hardball negotiating by OHSU and the typically mushy acquiescence of the Portland Development Commission resulted in OHSU committing to spending $30.7 million on the tram -- though only $4 million in cash -- while the city invested $72 million on the skyway and public improvements along the river.

Leonard is now determined to negotiate in kind. "We made a commitment early on, and we're stuck with that commitment," he says, "but anything beyond that, we won't do.

"There isn't a minute possibility that OHSU will let us yank the footings out from under them. This has been their dream for 10 years. They'll come up with the money. They'll have the tram come hell or high water."