Wasn't part of the selling point of Yellow MAX the promise of all this new fabulous livability in the Interstate area? I guess it didn't happen.

I thought the interstate MAX was going to make the area more livable and "spur" development, you know, like it did for the Rockwood area.

Do you think I could get a grant to come up with a better name than NoPo?

Houses within six-eight blocks of the Yellow Line have tripled in value since 1999. I know, we tried to buy one and lost it.

From $90,000 (when we should have bought it) to $269,000 in the spring. They did add new carpet. Re-Max sold it in a week just four blocks from MAX. For $2,000 over asking price.

I do not like the PDC's semi-wicked ways, but wait til you see Williams and Vancouver Streets in 5-10 years. You'll think it was another city.

"Houses within six-eight blocks of the Yellow Line have tripled in value since 1999."

That's not the Yellow Line. That's the Housing Bubble.

That's the Housing Bubble.

Repeat after me.

There is no housing bubble.

The market fundamentals are solid.

There is no end in sight.

Anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight.

...a better name than NoPo?

"DreamerPo"?
or, RimshotPo?
or, NoPoLice?
or, SoCouv?

SoCouv

*Snort*

With the recent addition of the Hooters and the coming Wal-Mart, I propose we rename Hayden Island SoCouv.

I thought you might like SoCouv. I live near Killingsworth and Vancouver, and I can't wait for that PDC money to finish rolling through here. I hope they don't just blow it on fancy bus stops and fountains. I think the storefront rehab program they have is actually one of their (PDC's) best programs. Perhaps PDCMole can fill us in on how bad that is. Or how we can better utilize it....

The storefront rehab deals are great. I haven't seen a single one that I didn't like. For all the money they've spent on condo farms, they could have rehabbed every storefront in town. Imagine how cool that would have been -- "Portland -- The City Where Every Mom-and-Pop Storefront is Beautiful." As opposed to "Portland -- Condo Ghetto for Single Kids Who Have Money But Haven't Figured It Out Yet and Old People from California." The strange world of Vera and Opie.

The Portland people sitting out there waiting for the housing bubble to burst so they can scoop up houses at 1987 prices remind me of The Honyemooners when Ralph Kramden's wife begged him for a TV.

Ralph said no, he was waiting for "3-D TV".

And 3-D TV will be here BEFORE the bubble bursts in PDX because it's called a trend, not a bubble.

"""it's called a trend, not a bubble"""

With several hundred planners at our local jurisdictions busily planning on planning more plans we can be assured that we'll see their plans will continue the trend of more planing.

Just imagine the horrible trends if we didn't have so many planers planning.

Hi. In response to the Storefront Improvement program. I actually think its a great program, and has proven to one be one of PDC's success stories. Why? Well, for very little public money spent (those are matching grants by the way), PDC is able to assist small business development and attract new businesses, address physical blight (if you consider ugly storefronts blight), and it's probably the best marketing PDC could pay for.

The irony though? the Storefront Program is always on the chopping block as it is considered a non-essential economic development tool, and the staff that run it are paid way less than their cohorts in the same department that do "real" economic development retention and recruitment. Also funny. All the ec-deve reruitment and retention people are men and all the storefront people are women and minorities. Just an observation.