Jack Opie's talking about the aerial tram [rim shot] and the overall infrastructure costs of the SoWhat district.

The number he throws around for the infrastructure costs: $70 million.
JK: That was in 2002 was it? Apparently the city council didn’t bother to look at the total UR cost estimate, made by the PDC in 1999, of $264,349,000 contained in

http://www.pdc.us/pdf/dev_serv/pubs/dev_macadam_report.pdf

(Bottom of Page 15 of the PDF)

Thanks
JK

Actually that 1999 approved plan called for $288 million (revised in the text) and another $160 million in debt service.

Today, 7 years later, the city council, agencies and planners are deliberately withholding the current numbers from the public in order to minimize the outrage and avoid the inevitable consequences they would face when the public discovers SoWa has been a con job.
A scheme that will devour enough in cost overruns alone to build the stadium some Portlanders would like to have happen.

The ongoing public speculation and debate over the costs and beneifts is no substitute for a public discussion over the real numbers.

I'll say it again, that it was nothing short of fraud when in 1999, the PDC staff, along with other agencies such as PDOT, reported that they compiled the necessary estimates and projections to determine the SoWa "plan" (then North Macadam) was "feasible" and should be approved, they were providing false information as directed by agency heads and then Mayor Katz.

Just like the early Tram numbers, the SoWa books were cooked to justify approval.

Portlanders only need to demand a full update of that 1999 plan to see, in a full spectrum of public improvement projects, just how concocted the numbers were.

Well beyond incompetence and miscalculation the maleficence and cover up in SoWa has only gotten worse.
This commentary (below) is demonstrative of the blatant misrepresentation.

http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1141332912248470.xml&coll=7
URBAN RENEWAL
Under way, on track in South Waterfront
Friday, March 03, 2006
Bruce Warner
In a story last week on the South Waterfront ("High rise district's price hits 9 figures," Feb. 23), The Oregonian suggested that because all funds to complete the district's urban renewal plan are not already in place, something is amiss. Not so.

As the head of the Portland Development Commission, the agency implementing the Portland City Council's plan for the South Waterfront, let me set the record straight. Despite problems with one highly publicized feature of the district -- the tram -- the city's plan is moving precisely the way urban renewal is supposed to.

A new neighborhood is emerging, just as planned. The City Council adopted a plan to turn underutilized land into a thriving riverfront neighborhood. This required infrastructure -- streets, sewers, transportation, utilities and more -- which must be carefully planned and built in phases. The first phase is well under way. There are new streets, contaminated properties are being cleaned up, housing is under construction and one phase of a streetcar extension is complete. The first residents will arrive in April. The first park will open in July. Land has been identified for affordable housing. Office and research space to create new jobs is under construction. Go down to the riverfront and look for yourself. A neighborhood is taking shape. Urban renewal is a long-term, phased investment. The South Waterfront urban renewal plan is being done with tax-increment financing, a mechanism that uses tax revenues from new development to finance long-term revitalization. As completed projects go on the tax rolls, they generate funds to build the next set of improvements, which in turn finance the next improvements in a rolling process. Never is all the money available up front. The district has to generate funds over time, exactly what has started in the South Waterfront.

More important, when the city builds streets, parks and other infrastructure, the private sector responds with even more investment in housing, offices and retail space. More than $500 million of private investment is already occurring.

Yes, cost increases on the tram are a problem. No one is happy about that. But this problem is solvable. Though the tram is not a PDC-managed project, the City Council has asked the PDC to find a way to finance its completion as well as other South Waterfront priorities such as affordable housing, park improvements, the greenway and the next streetcar extension. We're doing that. Next month, the City Council and the public can expect to see a proposed funding solution. Meanwhile, let's not allow the tram cost increases to overshadow the early success of the South Waterfront plan.

South Waterfront development ultimately will benefit the entire city. Even if you don't choose to live in the district, you can expect to benefit. When the City Council created this urban renewal area, it did so to bring more jobs, tax revenues, mixed-income housing, river access and environmental cleanup to a blighted landscape along Portland's riverfront.

That's the plan. It's on track. Bruce Warner is executive director of the Portland Development Commission.

It is frustrating Jack, when I have visited with City Hall folks they seem like nice people, but it is like they are in a different reality than the rest of us. I have heard various things from people I know who work there, some say that fully entrenched staff with ties to what you refer to as the West Hills Mafia, have thier ear, and because they are not as experienced in the world, particularly the competitiveness of the business world, they are brainwashed by these folks and go to the right parties on the hill and charity circuit, so they only see the donations to their pet causes in the context of fundraisers and not how that money is squeezed out of the wrong places.

People tell me the problem has gotten much worse since the Bureau Directors became appointees and not civil service. At least two of the appointed Bureau Directors are women married to or cohabitating influental men in the power structure, just like the Mary Nolan/Gardner connection that came out in your blog.

These folks never fail, no matter how much they screw things up. The only people that lose are the citizens.

I am spending more and more time on the east side these days and it is refreshing how just about everyone can see through this stuff. Not so on the west side/west burbs where pretension can be pretty thick.