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Fear rides the MAX

Gresham attack sparks widespread outrage and plans for a safety forum

By jim redden

The Portland Tribune, Nov 9, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (86 Reader comments)

Bryce Jacobson used to be a light-rail booster.

Jacobson is a solid waste and recycling planner at Metro, the regional government charged with managing growth in most of the tricounty area. Until recently, he saw TriMet’s MAX light-rail system as a valuable tool to reducing traffic congestion and moving people around the metropolitan region.

But now Jacobson says MAX has become a transportation system for criminals.

“Except during the peak rush hours, MAX is little more than a way for the criminal element to move from one crime scene to another,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson said he began losing faith in MAX long before last Saturday’s baseball bat attack by a 15-year-old suspected gang member on an elderly man at the Gresham Central MAX station. The beating left Laurie Lee Chilcote, 71, hospitalized with extensive head injuries at Oregon Health & Science University.

His accused attacker, Abel Antonio Chavez-Garcia, was arrested by Gresham police on charges of first-degree assault, attempted murder and first-degree criminal mischief. The case is scheduled to be considered by a Multnomah County grand jury today.

“I used to say MAX was one of the best things for maintaining the environment, but it has been circling the drain for years,” said Jacobson, who bases his opinion on the crimes and rude behavior he sees riding the line between his home in the Hollywood neighborhood and the station at the Oregon Convention Center near his job almost every day.

“Fights, drug dealing, loud arguments, you name it,” he said.

Jacobson is far from alone in his feelings. The day before the attack, Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis announced that local police will begin patrolling the MAX light-rail line through the city.

In a Nov. 2 letter to TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen, Bemis wrote, “Accounts of public intoxication, gang activity, assault, harassment, and drug activity — not to mention fare avoidance — are prevalent.”

The announcement was met with enthusiastic support from Gresham residents. Calls, letters and e-mails backing the decision poured into Bemis’ office, including many from people who said they were afraid to ride MAX — or had stopped using it altogether.

Saturday’s beating provoked an even greater outcry on local media and civic-oriented Web sites. Many of the postings accused TriMet of ignoring the problem and not even enforcing its fare policies. The comments came regarding the entire light-rail system, including Washington County.

Hansen responded by promising to increase enforcement and calling for a safety summit involving all the governments in all the cities and counties served by MAX. It could happen as early as the last week in November.

“I’m all for it,” Bemis said. “MAX is a tremendous community asset that is not living up to its full potential because people are afraid to ride it.”

More lines are on the way

The controversy is erupting as MAX is being tapped to play a larger role in the future of the Portland metropolitan area.

A light-rail line from Gateway south to Clackamas County is under construction. When completed, it will connect the Clackamas Town Center to downtown and the rest of the light-rail system.

After that, a new line from downtown Portland to Milwaukie is being planned. And yet another line connection to Vancouver, Wash., over a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River, is being studied.

The Gresham developments already are raising safety questions among people involved in the coming lines.

For example, crime along the MAX line was a major topic of discussion at a regularly scheduled Wednesday afternoon meeting of the Milwaukie Light Rail Safety and Security Task Force.

“If I had an old-fashioned telephone switchboard, it would have been lit up like a Christmas tree today” with calls on TriMet crime and the implications for Milwaukie,” said committee Vice Chairman Ed Zumwalt. “Someone is going to have to step up and protect the city.”

Milwaukie Mayor James Bernard said he shared Zumwalt’s concerns.

“I told TriMet if our police chief isn’t satisfied I’m not endorsing the plan,” Bernard said. “If the chief is satisfied, I’m going to be satisfied, and until he’s satisfied, I’m not going to be satisfied.”

TriMet officials long have conceded that crimes occur along their lines but have insisted they affect a relatively small number of riders — far fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent of all boardings over the past eight years.

Sam Adams, Portland’s transportation commissioner, said TriMet officials have been working to address the crime problem. He notes that in recent years, the agency has added lighting and cameras to several stations that feel isolated because of the way they are designed.

The stations include the one at Northeast 82nd Avenue, which lies below street level and has only one way in and out. Not counting minor offenses such as fare evasion and smoking, 62 crimes were reported there in 2005 and 2006, including 10 aggravated assaults.

“They’ve been working to make things better,” Adams said.

Studies show MAX is factor

Gresham officials often have questioned whether TriMet’s statistics were telling the whole story, however. Bemis said he has repeatedly heard from people who are afraid to ride MAX — far more people than such low crime rates would seem to justify.

“The bottom line is that this is more of an issue than simply perception,” Bemis said.

When Bemis became mayor in January, he convened a safety summit to look at crime problems in Gresham, including those along the MAX line.

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