The City of Portland's tram experiment has involved the City with an entity abbreviated as PATI to operate the tram. On Jack Bog's blog this evening, commenter "Jerry" said that a PATI board member had told him that PATI is a public benefit nonprofit corporation. I checked the secretary of state's website, found that Portland Aerial Tram, Inc. is not a nonprofit corporation but is an ordinary business corporation, and added a comment to that effect.
I should have checked the contract itself (which I did a few minutes later); the City's PATI is not "Portland Aerial Tram, Inc." but is "Portland Aerial Transportation, Inc." and is in fact a public benefit nonprofit corporation, just as Jerry had said, formed in 2002 (registry no. 077976-99). Mike Lindberg is its president and Steve Stadum (from OHSU) is its secretary. "Portland Aerial Tram, Inc." (registry no. 300838-93) is a for-profit corporation whose registered agent shows as J.R. Davis of SW 6th Avenue. The address matches that of the Jim Davis who ran against Ginny Burdick for the state legislature in 1996.
That settled one point, but left me with another question. What business do the owners of Portland Aerial Tram, Inc. intend to operate? Selling tram t-shirts? Selling model trams? Building another tram? Now I'm really curious.