This just in from the New York Times:
City That Loves Mass Transit Looks to the Sky for More
by William Yardley

More tangibly, the tram is supposed to help develop former industrial land along the Willamette long hemmed in by highways. It is meant to be a critical link between the university and the South Waterfront, now home to condominium projects and the university's Center for Health and Healing.

The tram makes the trip from the main university campus in less than 5 minutes, while driving can take 15 minutes or longer. Though the tram opened to the public this weekend, doctors and hospital staff members have been using it since late last year to travel between the main campus on the hill and clinics and a gym at the waterfront, where the university hopes one day to move its medical schools.
...
But few riders seemed jaded this weekend.

Kaitlyn Ni Donovan, 37, and Jonathan Drews, 38, rode a scooter to the tram on Saturday. The couple, both musicians, stood at the front of one cabin as it descended, with snow-clad Mount Hood at sunset.

"It's so futuristic for a city that's so green," Ms. Ni Donovan said. "I'd like it even more if it was 20 times slower and they served cocktails."