Smart Cities

I like to read and watch news around technology.  If you have time watch this video and listen to what they say about light rail.   I personally want to see Vancouver building smart buildings and complexes, with move in ready environments for large businesses.  These building and complexes would not only be green, have secure data center space, room for call centers, programable lighting,  HVAC, Video, and so much more.  Lets find out what large businesses want and promote the great tax laws of Washington State.  No income tax goes a long way.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/20/keen-on-peter-hirshberg-why-smart-entrepreneurs-should-care-about-smart-cities/

CRC Project, is it the right plan?

I have some questions I want to try and answer based on my understanding of the CRC project.

CRC spent 170M and the only example of the projects vision is a document or online video?  Where is the scale size model with a coast guard approved height that people can see and understand better?   Visuals always help.  It should be stored in the Library.

Why is the focus on Light rail?  Why not focus on getting traffic away from I-5 corridor and the heart of Portland.  What about building west, direct routes to Hwy 30, NW Portland industrial, and Beaverton.  Gas and power Utilities go form Vancouver directly to Beaverton, why not People?

From the 3-5 Billion dollar estimated budget for the project, how much of that is towards deconstruction?  Building a bridge to the West will not have that adverse effect.

Was the NTSA or Vancouver office of neighborhoods polled to bring out ideas for the project?

Portland’s light rail does not travel up I5, why does it need to enter Vancouver over I5?  Let Portland bring light rail to Washington's third busiest train station when it can pay for itself.

Even if there were 20 lanes across I5, what happens at Delta Park, there are still only two lanes and congestion will not change.

Is light rail profitable? Does it get people to where they want to be?

Everyone wants a new bridge everyone wants jobs, and the major hold up was light rail and where mass transit systems should be.  The biggest factor I see with the CRC proposal is the finances don’t work, especially considering one third is funded by tolls. The mayor suggests studies show light rail is lower cost to support over time for tax paying citizens. However he did not factor the toll fee burden to local residents, including citizens going to Oregon for work.