Mike Powell's couplet posse (Jack Bog's Blog)

Yesterday's post on the proposed local improvement district for the insane proposed Burnside-Couch "couplet" on the west side of Portland contained some familiar names. We had Mike "Streetcar" Powell as the head of the group pushing the idea, and with him Philip Kalberer, Christopher Kopca, Richard Parker, Greg Wentworth, and Vic Rhode.

A reader familiar with the planned street chop-up and the players behind it, filled our ear with some background on two of the above-named crew:

These guys are local transportation/urban renewal mafia fixers from Vera [Katz]'s time and before. Rhodes was the City (transportation) Engineer who fixed the first streetcar/mall project, Airport Way and more. He's not a by-the-book guy....
Kopca was a PDC honcho in the same era. His specialty was moving blue money and pink money and yellow money around so that it appeared to be the right color and coming out of the right pocket, and arm-twisting to get six and seven figure contributions into the pot from bystanders in order to make it all go. The whole SoWhat parking lot shell game that looked on the surface like usual and customary guvmint real estate transactions, but was actually a fancy way of putting money in a private developer's pocket had their smell on it.

A bottle of wine says that if you shook the Main Post Office project hard enough, those two would fall out. On the surface that one is just moving tax dollars around from one public pocket to another, but I'd bet there are "project management" contracts out there that get paid a percentage of real estate dollar transactions.

Go by giant SUV with blackout windows.

The reader asked not to be identified: "It is still a small town, and fear of retaliation is completely justified." Yikes.

Comments (7)

Go by giant SUV with blackout windows.
Hey, it's the Amerikan dream!

Posted by al m | April 9, 2010 8:47 AM

The list of corruptistas keeps growing ..and yet no surprise these characters keep coming in from central casting.

Posted by Kenney | April 9, 2010 8:58 AM

Retaliation is real and we have been the recipients of it.
These "corruptistas" are very scary and they will hurt you if you oppose them.

Posted by afraid to sign my name | April 9, 2010 9:33 AM

The community has seen this all happen at the Water Bureau since Leonard came on board. Systematic silence from any organization that opposes their agenda. Started with the business alliance, water users coalition, environmental groups, auto dealers, microbrewers, etc. All given "the message", Richard J. Daley wannabe is calling the shots. Thing is, the doubling of water rates is now here unless these groups grow a pair and speak up soon. Once these unnecessary rate increases take effect, will someone please turn out the lights, 'cause this is gonna be a ghost town?

Go by Corruptista SUV!!!

Posted by Greg P. | April 9, 2010 11:35 AM

I won't be buying a car from Wentworth....ever and I have stopped giving Powells my hard earned money.

Posted by EternalHope | April 9, 2010 12:53 PM

BTW - You missed another erstwhile project in today's O:

"The Portland Development Commission will vote Wednesday on a proposal to issue as much as $70 million in bonds to pay for public works projects, most of them in the South Waterfront district."

This has got to push us over the $10K/citizen number.

Posted by Steve | April 9, 2010 3:42 PM

Amazon.com! Guess Powell's doesn't need my money.

Posted by Joe | April 10, 2010 10:44 AM

Search this site

About

Clippings

Archives

Links

E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Friday, April 9, 2010

Mike Powell's couplet posse

Comments (7)

Sponsors

In Vino Veritas

The Occasional Book

Road Work