Get thee to a mental health provider. I detect a personality disorder.

Of course, if the electricity is being generated solely from non-polluting windmills, light rail would be the best choice for the environment. But that is not the case.

You are right my comment may seem selfish on its face. However the “common good” varies from person to person. Also there are limits to how much “common good” we, as citizens, must be expected to bear.

As Wikipedia points out: In ethics and political science to promote the common good means to benefit members of society. Thus, in essence, helping the common good equates with helping all people, or at least the vast majority of them. In that sense, the term could be synonymous with the general welfare.

However there is no strict definition of the common good for each situation. The good that is common between person A and person B may not be the same as between person A and person C. Thus the common good can often change, although there are some things such as the basic requirements for staying alive: food, drinking water, shelter that are always good for all people.

I agree that even though my children no longer use the public education system, I should not expect a credit on my property taxes. However, neither should I expect to pay a premium on my property taxes to properly educate our residents due to incompetence within the system.

It is my opinion that light rail will only end up being a “common good” to a small number of people in Vancouver and will be a costly mistake for the rest of us.

The answer is that this is supposed to be a society where the common good counts for a lot. I don’t work in Portland, either. But I think dirtier air and traffic jams degrade our quality of life. I don’t have kids in school, but I think having an educated citizenry is pretty important.

Many of the people who make these arguments are disingenuous because they are too cheap to pay the bill for something that costs money. Good schools are expensive; good public transport is expensive; roads, cops, parks–they all cost money. If you’re too impoverished to pay, that’s one thing; but I think the majority of naysayers are just too damn selfish and cheap.

Nor is it helpful to deride or speculate about other people’s motives regarding an unrelated issue (“Do not delude yourself into thinking that this project is going to be paid for with Federal Money’ , or some sort of new Peace Dividend’ that is going to be created by the United States withdrawl (sic) from Iraq”).
Otherwise, it appears that instead of seeking allies, it’s just a means to an end.

A better tactic would be to simply build on that common bond; that being that the way the city and our local media seem to be in collusion to ram this down our throats - all at our expense.

I see the lightrail project as an immense handout to the downtown business community, especially Scott Campbell’s soon-to-be business park.

I’m sure we can all agree that it’s not good for the people of Vancouver and is a poor investment.

I do think light rail is a mistake for our area. It is outdated technology. I think people are too spread out in this county to make it convenient. People will only use it if it’s significantly faster and much cheaper than driving.

If we can get the casino people to pay for it and make it go all the way to La Center as a condition of turning La Center into Las Vegas, then I’d be all for it.

I’ll probably never work in Portland. Why should I have to pay for this?