It's been a while since I last attended a science class, but don't we ALL have ancestors from Africa?

I'm just sayin'....

I'm shocked!
Urban Renewal for Interstate MAX and the Transit Oriented Developments weren't enough?
Of course not. Just like MAX and the same
"planing" wasn't enough for the Eastside either.
Despite the fairly tell TriMet and Metro tell about what was "spawned" from their brilliant plans.
Gresham Station has Metro owned parcels next to the MAX sitting empty and their planners are scrambling right now to turn them over to investor developers.

Rockwood just recently began a new layer of Urban Renewal spending to deal with the perpetual blight still remaining after 20 years of MAX and TOD's.
One official said, the hope is this will deal with the crime and blight along the MAX line.

Interstate MAX is the same story evolving from the same approach by the same people with the public millions while making the same promises and lies.

The former bus lines along Interstate were far preferable and heavily used
while coming from adjacent neighborhoods after picking up people closer to their homes.

3744 acres of North Portland are in the Urban Renewal district and every yearly property tax increase, on every parcel, for decades will be used to retire the UR debt.

As far as Interstate goes, what a cluster of transportation disfunction.
Go drive the whole length and see how insane it is interesection after intersection.

Jack, I know we often disagree but we do agree more than you might think. I was just wondering why you pulled my last post. Yes it was a bit harsh but it is the truth not only with black youth but with the whole Hip-Hop generation. The PDC cannot fix the damage done. How much tax abatements does it take to turn someones mind around. There is a generation coming up that has completely different values than us and I am not talking about hippies and world peace it is ho's and gangsa's. reminds me alot of clockwork orange

C'mon Jack. Any rational observer knows that PDC money (read "our money") has disproportionately been used to develop projects others won't. Of course you and WW only like to talk about their downtown projects, and in those mentions only offer one side of the story. Perhaps you'd prefer that Erik Sten control development for this city.

As far as Interstate goes, what a cluster of transportation disfunction.
Go drive the whole length and see how insane it is intersection after intersection.

Amen. Ne'er has there been a stupider and more pointless transit project on earth as the North Interstate light-rail. Slower, more expensive per mile, and taxpayer-unfriendly, to boot [both generally, and for the locals].

How Portland.

Maybe the PDC could get out of the urban renewal biz, and just start mailing reparations checks directly to people of color?

Their concerns can be addressed with money, correct?

My true personal hero Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke bravely and courageously about the power of sarcasm to addressing the injustices visited upon America's black underclass. So I am intensely proud to contribute a blog comment here today. I mean, seriously, aren't we all from Africa anyway? We're all ganstas and whores and criminals and hiphop "artists"! There are plenty of white rappers these days! PDC should just send reparation checks directly to these complainers or start construction on the Portland Superdome! Ha ha ha. Mad props to MLK. Seriously, yo.

Jack,
My friend and I just roared when this came up on my laptop. Good for those Black folks who stormed PDC. As Carol was fishing for in one of the late posts on the $179 million fiasco for infrastructure for SoWhat, we should follow the lead of African American leaders with guts. They overcame once and only to see thier homes and close knit communities of faith, bastardized by the gentry around here. Speaking of Cully did you see how Parks responded to the Trib article(Not All of the City is Rich in Parks,August 4th) on the Shortage of parks in the Cully neighborhood. According to the minutes of the August parks board meeting a friend pointed out to me, they are going to "temporarily" lease undeveloped parks property to establish a commercial nursery business, which is supposed to readily abandon the site in five years to start the development of the Park as promised. The folks in other parts of the City can tell you about thier park plans, on the shelf for decades waiting for funding.

Homer does look like a wider, hatless Hamid Karzai.

Wait. That's Afghanistan.

But members of the group that showed up Wednesday see too few of those [PDC] dollars making their lives better.

No kidding. Welcome to the freakin' club.

Typical for Gordley, et al. Make the issue race-biased. The PDC is screwing everyone but rich developers...why does every issue still come down to skin color?

Its sickening.

No, I think it's a fair criticism. When "urban renewal" was created, helping integrate the cities racially was a big part of the sales pitch. Now that's being forgotten for guys like Segway Homer.

I'm with the folks in North Portland and Gresham.

The good old boys only make deals with other good old boys in the city's core, aka downtown. The truly blighted areas that urban renewal was meant to address are never touched.

It's the same story all over the U.S, not just Oregon. Look at just about every large city and you'll see a mirror image of "urban renewal" that's anything but.

That's funny, Steve. I have driven, rode my bicycle, motorcycle, walked, and ridden the MAX along Interstate - and from what I can see, all of the intersections are very modern, function quickly and efficiently, and don't let traffic stack up forever like the signals do... in Gresham or Beaverton.

While I agree the max line there doesn't exactly serve the most populated parts of Portland - it does a fairly admirable job, and seems to have quite a few riders - albeit far less than the NYC Subway system or London Tube, for instance.

Justin,

So what if you have used Interstate.

The intersections are assinine making it no longer a vehicle thouroughfare. People avoid driving on it. It's not a street for traffic, period.

The MAX line does no more than the better bus lines it replaced.

You sure shape your comments.

"""doesn't exactly serve the most populated parts of Portland"""

It doesn't serve enough people, period.

"""" it does a fairly admirable job""""

Job of what?
Compared to what?
Measured how?

What MAX relies upon, instead of legitimate measurements and facts is tthe continued volley from folks like you telling everyone what it "seems" to be doing.

The riders it has came off the buses it replaced and now they have to find other ways to get to the MAX rail line and transfer when before their bus came from their neighborhood.

"""" albeit far less than the NYC Subway system or London Tube, for instance.""""

Is that some stunt to limit the critism to mean it doesn't carry as much as those two massive systems amoung million of people?