Well, I, uhh, guess that's one way to fix that intersection...

Hmmm...contrary to the Tribune article, this ordinance:

http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?&a=235181&c=26997

says "Tax increment funds, along with the System Development Charges and Federal funds are enough to fully fund the improvements."

Well, I think Sam and Randy are visionaries. They now know that CoP is bankrupt and are merely utilizing our streets as buildable areas to get a pittance for our public owned streets and foster development. When you hate vehicles anything is possible.

I wonder how the balance sheet will look for the money that should go to the taxpayers for vacating minimum two blocks. If its like the east terminal of the tram that ate up three blocks, us taxpayers won't get a dime.

This is really a petty complaint given what a huge waste of money this would be, but I don't like this idea because I love the view of downtown you get when you drive West on Sandy. With this you'd just get to stare at another gawdawful "recycled" condo. So ugly.

Blighty! Next, we can sell Forest Park.

More smokescreens - You wouldn't recall a Mayor that is this busy, would you?

Meanwhile, potholes grow, police precincts closes and Sellwood Bridge is falling down, falling down.

That's not a condo tower, Jack. It's the new, improved, city-financed employment center for illegal aliens.

So a new minor league baseball stadium wouldn't fit on that site, right?

CLEARLY , that is the future
BoJack 9000 Weather Center....

Totally bogus rendering - there's no rain in it.

Now this REALLY pisses me off. I commute down Sandy, and then cut over on 11th to Morrison to hit the bridge. This is going to royally eff up my drive.

And for what purpose? Is there any benefit to this project?

More spin from PDC.
What a truly terrible idea and who the heck is going to buy a condo there? Those will be about a marketable as the proposed ones the PDC was selling at the Bridgehead project 5 years ago.
Of course the original plan was for more big box stores at that location to "match" the Home Despot that was supposed to be built at MLK and Burnside.
The Portland Planning Department, now there is an oxymoron. Please place emphasis on the latter!

"don't like this idea because I love the view of downtown you get when you drive West on Sandy."

Good thing you don't live above SoWa and want to see the river. That's the other urban blight I am not getting - How we let 250ft tall towers within a 100 ft of the river bank.

What you see in the picture is an artists rendering of a concept drawing used in the preliminary proposal books built by PDOT as a sales tool. These drawings appeared during many, many public meetings about the "Couplet" for over five (5) years. The actual developments that may take place are "fluid". Anything may appear on Burnside or Couch in the future depending on its merit, public or private. If you want to know more about the area, go to ceic.cc (Central Eastside Industrial Council) website and boggle your mind at the thousands of volunteer hours being poured into future development and planning of the Lower Eastside by businesspersons and others concerned with the preservation of Small Business, Capitalism and the potential socialistic ramifications of the collusion between Government and Big Corporate Business. You will also become better informed so that you may make coherent and pointed statements about our community lives. I encourage all to "GET INVOLVED"...MZ

Is there any benefit to this project?

Well, of course...developers get rich.

It will be just like Barcelona.

Isn't that whole area going to be flooded due to the promised global whining apocalypse anyway ?

It doesn't matter how stipid this is or that it is a continuation of a lengthy track record of lousy planning and misuse of public funds.

All of that is neutered with "we need to do this to prevent sprawl".

Michael wrote,

Anything may appear on Burnside or Couch in the future
depending on its merit, public or private.

Should read,

Anything may appear on Burnside or Couch in the future
depending on how much they donate to friends-of...-Sam Adams,
-Randy Leonard, and -Dan Saltzman.

Isn't Sandy a state highway? Doesn't ODOT have to weight in on these intersection concepts and their disruption to traffic? Who actually owns the streets at this intersection? Does Mult. Co. have jurisdiction of Burnside at this intersection? It's beginning to seem like RandySam determines everything around here, and many times for the state.

These drawings appeared during many, many public meetings about the "Couplet" for over five (5) years.

That says it all right there. If you want to fight a foolish waste of money by the city government in Portland, you must be prepared to go to meetings for five years. You'll probably get worn out and stop showing up, and that's when the "citizen vote" will be taken among the developer employees paid to attend.

Even if you make it to the end of the process, people like Mayor Creepy and the Fireman will do what they want anyway -- and say they consulted you.

And I would bet those meetings will de "facilitated" by a consulting firm who is an active member of the little known group/architectural cult called Congress for the New Urbanism. The "findings" of these meetings will all point to the adoption of the savior of all neighborhoods: SMARTCODE. Roundabouts will follow.

Which building is Old Wive's Tale in that rendering? Where is Hippo Hardware?

Roundabouts will follow.
I'm sure they will at some point, though I've been surprised how the CoP has actually avoided building them, aside from the Terwilliger/Palater one near L&C. They're more interested in creating dangerous situations with toy trains and the "bus-busting" new transit mall.

lw, Burnside and Sandy were actually under ODOT Control as US-30 BUS (internal ODOT Highway No. 59) until 2003, when it was handed over to CoP, and it was officially deleted in July 2007.

Many of the "state highways" in the Portland Metro area are at least partially under county or city control, including OR-8 and OR-210, and because of the sort of co-mingling of jurisdictions, it's actually really hard to tell who controls what.

Still, though, I just love how CoP thinks they have absolute control over everything and everyone will yield to their whims. Case in point: the CRC.

This couplet project is just another bad idea, all in the name of Creepy and Pele's twisted idea of "livability".

The new opiates of the masses: public meetings and vision groups.

Any chance of Jack Bogdanski running for mayor?

Roundabouts will follow.

I've actually got nothing against roundabouts -- I rather like the one at NE 39th & Glisan -- but one of the causes for the delays in the plans for the Sellwood Bridge was insistence of some members of the involved parties on somehow placing a roundabout on the west end of the bridge, where there's really not space for any such thing.

http://www.sellwoodbridge.org/MeetingMaterials/CTF_RoundaboutEvaluationMemo_09.06.07.pdf

Any chance of Jack Bogdanski running for mayor?

None.

"I rather like the one at NE 39th & Glisan"

This isn't a roundabout, but more of a half-assing of a roundabout.

A real roundabout has yield signs on entry, rather than stops. The stop signs on this particular roundabout cause traffic to back up in the left lane of all approaching roads.

The right lane is completely unusable because it forces a right turn, unless you are a TriMet Bus, which makes for an awesome safety issue.

Also, for what it's worth, that used to be the center of a subdivision when it was all built. That's why it's there - not as some experiment in "traffic calming" or "greening" or "boulevarding" or whatever the term of the week is - it was meant to be a central park of the neighborhood.

I still have no explanation for the random statue of Joan of Arc in the middle of it though...

Machine is right -- 39th & G is not a real roundabout, and is a traffic nightmare. It could easily be converted, though.

Any chance of Jack Bogdanski running for mayor?None.

Why?

There's nobody else!

Jack, don't even think about running. There is a virus that infects anyone who gets elected. It causes deafness to the will of he voters, an inflated ego, a sense of entitlement and a desire to play reverse Robin Hood, by taking from the common folk and giving to the wealthy developers and sons of failed treasury secretaries. Its scientific name counicileria portlandia pinheadus more commonly known Leonard-Saltzman Syndrome.

Like UFO crop circles the roundabouts are a indicator of the presence of that infamous planning cult. Even if you do not mind roundabouts watch them. Like a laid egg.....later they may sprout nearby public-private boondoggles like the "Round".