Farewell to Tri-Met

Up untl a few years ago, I was a fan of Portland's transit system. I didn't use it all that much, but the buses came in handy for going downtown and back. I would also hop on Tri-Met to get to and from the mechanic's shop when my car was in for service. I even had the app on my phone, and with the senior citizen discount, it was a pretty amazing deal. The bus stop is a short block and a half away from my house.

But these days, I wouldn't get on Tri-Met if you paid me. From the moment you get to your departure stop to the moment you disembark, there are too many crazy people, and little or no security. There's no other word to describe it but dangerous.

Who can forget the 82-year-old guy who lost his life last summer, beaten to death by some psycho when all he wanted to do was catch a bus at Portland State in broad daylight? Or the young guy who was stabbed to death by a deranged white supremacist on the Max train between Lloyd Center and Hollywood a few years back?

Last week and this, the frightening news has gotten even hairier, with two incidents involving the Max train to Gresham – the city's oldest light rail line. First, a woman named Brianna Lace Workman reportedly pushed a three-year-old child onto the train tracks at Gateway. 

According to the district attorney’s office, Workman was near a mother and her child at the Gateway Transit Center MAX platform when Workman allegedly shoved the child off the platform and onto the MAX train tracks. 

There was nothing the 3-year-old child did to provoke the attack, the district attorney’s office said. 

TriMet surveillance video of the incident shows someone wearing a red hat pushing a child in a pink coat onto the rails, causing the child to land face-first on the metal rail of the track and rocks before she was pulled back onto the platform by bystanders who rushed toward the child.

Fortunately the kid was pulled off the tracks before the train arrived, and the assailant was arrested. But with no real functioning criminal justice system in Portland, she'll be back roaming the streets soon, if she isn't already.

That's Gateway for you. I grew up using the Port Autority Bus Terminal in New York City from time to time. This was before the Giuliani mayoralty. Back then "Port Authority" was a notoriously scary place to be, but I'll tell you, it's got nothing on today's Gateway Transit Center in Portland. Way too many kooks and creeps.

Then yesterday we learn that some nut bit off a 78-year-old Hillsboro man's ear, and chewed off part of his face, on a Max platform east of Gateway a ways, in Gresham. 

The injuries were so severe, authorities said they could see the victim’s skull....

After fingerprinting, officers said the suspect is 25-year-old Koryn Kraemer. Authorities said he had recently moved from Georgia to Portland.

And of course, this being blue, blue Oregon, we don't get to see the suspect's mug shot any more. You wouldn't want to stigmatize a fine kid like that, would you? Better that he should be allowed to slither around in anonymity.

Anyway, my Tri-Met days are over. Except for paying their miserable income tax, of course, and indirectly paying their hideous payroll tax. Those are not optional unless you move away from the region or stop working for a living. The Portland transit dudes need to change their motto from "Safety - Inclusivity - Equity - Community - Teamwork" to "Better You Than Me."

UPDATE, a few minutes later: Here's another Tri-Met crime story, from a month ago, that I just noticed. There are way too many of these stories. I refuse to become one.