All aboard for the ride of your lives

I n the city where, a decade ago, politicians with the audacity to support light rail were gleefully booted from office, residents are likely to take the latest news with a comparative shrug.

Sure, it took years of political scuffling and the occasional shouting match just to decide which end of Milwaukie offered the least obtrusive site for a park-and-ride transit center that would also serve light rail -- if and when it ever slipped across the Willamette.

Then TriMet had to condemn the park-and-ride property in order to have the honor of eventually paying about $2 million for it in 2003.

Then, of course, the city's decision to grant building permits was appealed to the state land-use board by several nearby businesses.

Then, after surviving the appeal and dropping another million on the project, TriMet pulled the plug on it.

And that decade-long skirmish could be dwarfed by the war brewing just across the Willamette, where Lake Oswego is working to lure streetcars down the quiet little trolley line that cuts right through the leafy, riverfront enclaves of Dunthorpe.

For years, Lake Oswego Mayor Judie Hammerstad has been leading the call to extend Portland's streetcar line south from Portland along the 7-mile stretch of track that runs along the Willamette.

This morning, the project could leap an important hurdle. The powerful Metro Council committee that funnels federal dollars to projects across the region will consider allocating $4 million for the project's environmental impact study.

But the environmental challenges could wilt in comparison to the pressure the project is likely to feel from the rich and powerful families whose private drives disappear through the lush landscape above the river along the existing trolley line.

Dunthorpe, which proudly refused to annex to Portland and funds its own school district, has always gone its own way. And you don't have to drive far among the palatial homes hidden behind iron gates and hedges clipped into boxy submission to understand the stakes.

As Southwest Military Road drops through the spring foliage toward the river, a real estate flier stamps a dollar sign on the debate....