Local Impact

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• Massive disruption to downtown Vancouver-for years

• Loss of jobs in Clark County based on regional debt and destroyed businesses

• Middle income families most negatively affected – many will move to Oregon

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Seven years of construction of a new bridge, with light rail, will be devastating to local businesses and citizens. When one pictures in their mind the year after year congestion and construction mess—then the choice of the word devastating starts to become real. All of this is especially difficult when we consider the wonderful progress downtown Vancouver has made in the last 15 years. Specific examples of this CRC disruption include:

Local transportation routes to businesses and citizens significantly disrupted—for example the CRC plan calls for SR 14 to be cut off from I-5 for at least 2 years.
High tolling costs to use the new proposed bridge—and planned to rise over time! Initially estimated at $2000 per year for commuters.
Oregon’s plan to toll “its share” of the costs will equate to SW Washington commuters paying for Oregon’s interchanges.
Many C-Tran bus routes between Vancouver and Portland will be eliminated and C-Tran’s neediest riders will be significantly impacted. When light rail increasingly fails these bus routes do not tend to be easily reinstated as resources are consumed by propping up the light rail.
A persistently poor economy has many businesses already weakened—and many will simply not survive this proposed CRC project.
The overall degradation to quality of life and safety is very serious to any business or citizen that exists within a few miles of the project center.
Local jobs not created. It appears a vast majority of jobs will be tied to unions—with existing or preferred sources for labor. And the job-killing nature of isolating downtown business would arguably turn this project into a net loss of jobs.