Editorial

State should lead effort to reduce MAX crime

The Times, Nov 8, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The bludgeoning of a 71-year-old man Sunday night at a Gresham light rail stop by thugs wielding a baseball bat finally has forced TriMet to pay more serious attention to the reality of crime along the MAX light-rail line.

It should not have come to this.

Anger and frustration about the atmosphere that TriMet tolerates on its trains and around its light rail stations has escalated in recent years. We hear too many reports of people saying they are being subjected to unruly and unlawful behavior and have witnessed crimes ranging from drug dealing to acts of violence.

Last year, a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death at the same Gresham light rail stop where the baseball bat beating occurred. Gresham police have studied the connection between crime and the light rail line – statistics that other cities may not yet have gathered. In Gresham’s case, 84 percent of gang-related police calls in 2006 involved incidents within a quarter mile of a MAX station. Forty percent of police calls for robbery and 42 percent of calls for narcotics were for incidents within that same quarter-mile range.

But TriMet has been glacially slow to admit that crime around MAX service is a problem. We think that if not dealt with, this problem will undermine public safety, the quality of life in the metropolitan area and may diminish the public’s use of light rail as a safe and effective way to get around.

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