Comment 57251

By A Smith (anonymous) | Posted January 20, 2011 at 20:20:41

I will admit, downtown Portland looks really nice. Trolley cars, nice sidewalks, lots of one way streets (which apparently don't seem to hurt pedestrian traffic), but there is one other thing that Portland has...

$4.1849 Billion in city debt. In contrast, Hamilton has $998 Million. Portland has a population of 550k, Hamilton 525k.

From 2005-09, Portland had city (non grant) revenues increase by around 16%. Hamilton's (non grant) revenue jump was 24% in the same time frame.

LRT may make the city of Hamilton more livable, but if Hamilton's experience is similar to that of Portland, it may also lead to much higher debt levels and slower revenue for City Hall to spend on other things. Something to consider when selling the benefits of LRT to taxpayers.

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