Add this one to the Oregonian bury-the-truth-on-Saturday pile: Remember when the OHSU aerial tram [rim shot] was exposed for running over budget, and Homer Williams and Dike Dame (not a typo) came up with $2.5 million toward making up the difference?
With the developers, the city used its favorable credit rating to get a 5.75 percent loan from Bank of America. The city then lent the money to North Macadam Investors at 6 percent interest....
If the developers failed to repay the loan and the property couldn't cover the debt, the city's general fund would be on the hook.
Keep moving, folks -- nothing to see here!
Comments (19)
When are those worthless feds ever going to indict anyone involved in this scam stuff?
No price was too high to pay for this catalytic lynchpin!
Now bring on the Milwaukie MAX line! I'm sure the city will strictly adhere to their "different pots of money" rule on that deal, right? I'm sure none of that money intended for affordable housing will go into financing the MAX line, right?
The fact that the City of Portland made that loan and then hid it from the citizens indicates just how much of a stranglehold a small group of developers has on the City Council. This may not be illegal, but it's disgusting and it will eventually bankrupt the City. And for what purpose? - to enrich a small group of people at the expense of everyone else.
I sure hope the citizens of Portland wake up before it's too late. Unfortunately, I don't see any signs yet that they will.
This is an age-old politics strategy called "taking out the trash." You release stuff you don't want anyone to see on Friday, mixed in with lots of unrelated non-stories. Very few people watch or read news on Saturday, so there's less eyeballs scanning through the lowered signal-to-noise ratio to find it.
This is just the City of Portland figuratively taking out the trash (but there's still plenty inside City Hall), and the Oregonian loose-leash walking right along with it watching intently for that reward biscuit (that property deal off NW Yeon Ave?)...
If the O would only connect all the shenanigans of Homer and Dike just in SoWhat, it would make a good series of cartoons shows titled-"Homer and Dike".
Homer and Dike's: "The Strand Public Parking Lot". Story line-getting $65TK for each parking space from taxpayers while the average underground parking space cost $30K.
Homer and Dike's: "Buying and Selling Block 49". Story line-buying and selling the block with taxpayers several times with a benefit to Homer and Dike of over $7M, and then getting exclusive rights to build affordable housing.
Homer and Dike's: "Screwing SoWhat's Amendments 1 thru 8". Story line-having requirements to build affordable housing, contributing to Tram, Trolley, Streets, Greenway, Park, you name it, then screwing it.
ESTRAGON:
Good idea.
VLADIMIR:
Let's wait till we know exactly how we stand.
ESTRAGON:
On the other hand it might be better to strike the iron before it freezes.
VLADIMIR:
I'm curious to hear what he has to offer. Then we'll take it or leave it.
ESTRAGON:
What exactly did we ask him for?
VLADIMIR:
Were you not there?
ESTRAGON:
I can't have been listening.
VLADIMIR:
Oh . . . Nothing very definite.
ESTRAGON:
A kind of prayer.
VLADIMIR:
Precisely.
ESTRAGON:
A vague supplication.
VLADIMIR:
Exactly.
It's hard to know what to do to be effective. I would however, encourage people to keep up with the "Portland Plan", better known as the comprehensive plan. It is replacing the one from circa 1980, or approx. 30 years ago, which is the typical length for one of these plans.
The old one's not bad reading. We were coming off the 70's and still kind of hippy dippy/back to nature in this part of the country. It had, and still does have much to offer in terms of what we now call "sustainable" and "green".
Interestingly, the plan from 1980 has protected neighborhood character and view sheds, neighborhood schools and open spaces in ways many citizens appreciate and value and want to protect in the future. Yet, our quality of life in these areas is under assault and apparently will be at greater risk once the new comprehensive plan has been enacted.
As written currently, the new plan will better protect much of the city's questionable acts that citizens have been calling foul on in recent years, by raising the bar for what triggers a public process around many things, including zone changes in neighborhoods and new uses for park properties.
Homer tried to transfer the rights to that block Serving as collateral to the City for a @Peace Institute" a few years ago. The appraised value of the site is absurdly high, but useful if you plan to Donate it.
Ditto to Shannon's comment. If you're pi**ed off about all the surreptitious land deals and condo bunkers and lack of meaningful public process that have been happening in recent years, you'll want to tune into the Portland Plan. Sam Adams is writing the Plan -- need I say more?
I admit trying to follow the process can lead to much eye-glazing. It's breezy and abstract in places and mind-numbingly technical in others -- perhaps deliberately so. But the volunteers on the land use committees of the neighborhood associations have been valiantly trying to stay on top of developments and can get you up to speed on what the Plan could mean for your neighborhood. You can find them here.
And it will have real impact, from raising height limits on buildings along key transportation corridors to upzoning land to allow for mixed housing and residential and other infill. Not that Pearl-izing other parts of the city would be all bad; some areas could use it, frankly. But without any meaningful input from the public the planners are going to do their own thing and, like Sam Adams and his budget, assume that lack of dissent proves there is widespread public support for what they're doing.
With BPS now decimated by layoffs and the survivors in a protective crouch, many of their efforts to engage the public are being scaled back. All the more reason to keep as many watchful eyes as possible on them.
Recall that under the previous administration, the DOJ's white-collar crime staff was severely reduced while anti-terrorism was greatly expanded. Recovery -- perhaps even recognition that friends and allies are thieves -- has been slow.
Of course, OR's AG should not feel inhibited from pursuing more locally oriented systemic scams. MA's AG, Martha Coakley -- infamous for her appalling senatorial campaign -- for example, realized some success going after Goldman Sachs for the benefit of the citizens of that commonwealth: http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/05/state_reaches_6.html
Meanwhile, isn't there a City Auditor (the Gang of Five's "+ One" who imagines she could run the PPB better than it has been run) and doesn't her job entail the identification of municipal fraud: http://bojack.org/2010/02/shes_asking_for_it.html
Lange, Pinot Gris 2015
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Kirkland, Côtes de Provence Rosé 2016
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Helix, Pomatia Red Blend 2013
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Conn Creek, Cabernet, Napa 2013
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Chateau Smith, Cabernet, Washington State 2014
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #16
Willamette Valley, Rose of Pinot Noir, Whole Clusters 2015
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The Occasional Book
Phil Stanford - Rose City Vice
Kenneth R. Feinberg - What is Life Worth?
Kent Haruf - Our Souls at Night
Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang
Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games
Amy Stewart - Girl Waits With Gun
Philip Roth - The Plot Against America
Norm Macdonald - Based on a True Story
Christopher Buckley - Boomsday
Ryan Holiday - The Obstacle is the Way
Ruth Sepetys - Between Shades of Gray
Richard Adams - Watership Down
Claire Vaye Watkins - Gold Fame Citrus
Markus Zusak - I am the Messenger
Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See
James Joyce - Dubliners
Cheryl Strayed - Torch
William Golding - Lord of the Flies
Saul Bellow - Mister Sammler's Planet
Phil Stanford - White House Call Girl
John Kaplan & Jon R. Waltz - The Trial of Jack Ruby
Kent Haruf - Eventide
David Halberstam - Summer of '49
Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead
Maria Dermoȗt - The Ten Thousand Things
William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying
Markus Zusak - The Book Thief
Christopher Buckley - Thank You for Smoking
William Shakespeare - Othello
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
Cheryl Strayed - Tiny Beautiful Things
Sara Varon - Bake Sale
Stephen King - 11/22/63
Paul Goldstein - Errors and Omissions
Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Steve Martin - Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
Beverly Cleary - A Girl from Yamhill, a Memoir
Kent Haruf - Plainsong
Hope Larson - A Wrinkle in Time, the Graphic Novel
Rudyard Kipling - Kim
Peter Ames Carlin - Bruce
Fran Cannon Slayton - When the Whistle Blows
Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Timothy Egan - The Big Burn
Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five
Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
F. Sionil Jose - Dusk
Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting
Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 113
At this date last year: 155
Total run in 2016: 155
In 2015: 271
In 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Comments (19)
When are those worthless feds ever going to indict anyone involved in this scam stuff?
Posted by LucsAdvo | June 21, 2010 6:11 AM
No price was too high to pay for this catalytic lynchpin!
Now bring on the Milwaukie MAX line! I'm sure the city will strictly adhere to their "different pots of money" rule on that deal, right? I'm sure none of that money intended for affordable housing will go into financing the MAX line, right?
Posted by Snards | June 21, 2010 6:58 AM
Bill Tweed would have felt very comfortable in today's Portland.
Posted by David E Gilmore | June 21, 2010 7:00 AM
I want a cheap loan too!!!
Posted by portland native | June 21, 2010 7:34 AM
The fact that the City of Portland made that loan and then hid it from the citizens indicates just how much of a stranglehold a small group of developers has on the City Council. This may not be illegal, but it's disgusting and it will eventually bankrupt the City. And for what purpose? - to enrich a small group of people at the expense of everyone else.
I sure hope the citizens of Portland wake up before it's too late. Unfortunately, I don't see any signs yet that they will.
Posted by Pat | June 21, 2010 8:56 AM
This is an age-old politics strategy called "taking out the trash." You release stuff you don't want anyone to see on Friday, mixed in with lots of unrelated non-stories. Very few people watch or read news on Saturday, so there's less eyeballs scanning through the lowered signal-to-noise ratio to find it.
This is just the City of Portland figuratively taking out the trash (but there's still plenty inside City Hall), and the Oregonian loose-leash walking right along with it watching intently for that reward biscuit (that property deal off NW Yeon Ave?)...
Posted by MachineShedFred | June 21, 2010 9:27 AM
Pat:I sure hope the citizens of Portland wake up before it's too late. Unfortunately, I don't see any signs yet that they will.
Some of us are awake!
Anyone else having trouble sleeping?
Posted by clinamen | June 21, 2010 10:08 AM
How is this not a bribe? I give you money, and you -- pretending it's yours -- give it to the cause of my choosing.
The fact it was structured as a loan seems immaterial.
Maybe Kroger could issue a press release on this one?
Posted by Mister Tee | June 21, 2010 10:32 AM
Anyone want to try and resurrect Dorothy McCullough Lee?
Posted by portland native | June 21, 2010 11:09 AM
If the O would only connect all the shenanigans of Homer and Dike just in SoWhat, it would make a good series of cartoons shows titled-"Homer and Dike".
Homer and Dike's: "The Strand Public Parking Lot". Story line-getting $65TK for each parking space from taxpayers while the average underground parking space cost $30K.
Homer and Dike's: "Buying and Selling Block 49". Story line-buying and selling the block with taxpayers several times with a benefit to Homer and Dike of over $7M, and then getting exclusive rights to build affordable housing.
Homer and Dike's: "Screwing SoWhat's Amendments 1 thru 8". Story line-having requirements to build affordable housing, contributing to Tram, Trolley, Streets, Greenway, Park, you name it, then screwing it.
How long is this series going to last?
Posted by lw | June 21, 2010 11:39 AM
lw:How long is this series going to last?
As long as it is OK with the insiders.
Posted by clinamen | June 21, 2010 11:45 AM
Unless we act.
Posted by Lawrence | June 21, 2010 11:46 AM
ESTRAGON:
Good idea.
VLADIMIR:
Let's wait till we know exactly how we stand.
ESTRAGON:
On the other hand it might be better to strike the iron before it freezes.
VLADIMIR:
I'm curious to hear what he has to offer. Then we'll take it or leave it.
ESTRAGON:
What exactly did we ask him for?
VLADIMIR:
Were you not there?
ESTRAGON:
I can't have been listening.
VLADIMIR:
Oh . . . Nothing very definite.
ESTRAGON:
A kind of prayer.
VLADIMIR:
Precisely.
ESTRAGON:
A vague supplication.
VLADIMIR:
Exactly.
From "Waiting for Godot," Act 1.
Posted by Mojo | June 21, 2010 2:48 PM
It's hard to know what to do to be effective. I would however, encourage people to keep up with the "Portland Plan", better known as the comprehensive plan. It is replacing the one from circa 1980, or approx. 30 years ago, which is the typical length for one of these plans.
The old one's not bad reading. We were coming off the 70's and still kind of hippy dippy/back to nature in this part of the country. It had, and still does have much to offer in terms of what we now call "sustainable" and "green".
Interestingly, the plan from 1980 has protected neighborhood character and view sheds, neighborhood schools and open spaces in ways many citizens appreciate and value and want to protect in the future. Yet, our quality of life in these areas is under assault and apparently will be at greater risk once the new comprehensive plan has been enacted.
As written currently, the new plan will better protect much of the city's questionable acts that citizens have been calling foul on in recent years, by raising the bar for what triggers a public process around many things, including zone changes in neighborhoods and new uses for park properties.
Posted by Shannon | June 21, 2010 2:50 PM
Homer tried to transfer the rights to that block Serving as collateral to the City for a @Peace Institute" a few years ago. The appraised value of the site is absurdly high, but useful if you plan to Donate it.
Posted by BigSwede | June 21, 2010 3:43 PM
Ditto to Shannon's comment. If you're pi**ed off about all the surreptitious land deals and condo bunkers and lack of meaningful public process that have been happening in recent years, you'll want to tune into the Portland Plan. Sam Adams is writing the Plan -- need I say more?
I admit trying to follow the process can lead to much eye-glazing. It's breezy and abstract in places and mind-numbingly technical in others -- perhaps deliberately so. But the volunteers on the land use committees of the neighborhood associations have been valiantly trying to stay on top of developments and can get you up to speed on what the Plan could mean for your neighborhood. You can find them here.
And it will have real impact, from raising height limits on buildings along key transportation corridors to upzoning land to allow for mixed housing and residential and other infill. Not that Pearl-izing other parts of the city would be all bad; some areas could use it, frankly. But without any meaningful input from the public the planners are going to do their own thing and, like Sam Adams and his budget, assume that lack of dissent proves there is widespread public support for what they're doing.
With BPS now decimated by layoffs and the survivors in a protective crouch, many of their efforts to engage the public are being scaled back. All the more reason to keep as many watchful eyes as possible on them.
Posted by Eric | June 21, 2010 4:11 PM
If it means having to look at Sam Adams for more than a total of five minutes over the rest of my life, I'll have to take a pass.
Posted by Jack Bog | June 21, 2010 6:34 PM
It's all madness.
Quite an optimistic collection here.
and Lovely pics too
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=75204
But TriMet is listed as a developer for this.
The Allegra
Proposed/Possible Dispute?
21 stories (250 ft) - 228 condominiums
Goose Hollow/Stadium
and there's this
Convention Center Hotel
Proposed
23 floors - 600 hotel rooms
Lloyd District - NE Holladay St. & NE Grand Ave.
Completion: 2008+
http://www.pdc.us/ura/convention_center/hqhotel.asp
Plus this is interesting
http://www.portlandspaces.net/blog/the-burnside-blog/2008/12/7/sowa-on-the-street-in-the-air
Posted by Ben | June 21, 2010 6:51 PM
LucsAdvo, re: "When are those worthless feds ever going to indict anyone involved in this scam stuff?"
The feds have been busy elsewhere:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=anl9vTKXKYyk
(And lo! JPM's name led all the rest.)
Recall that under the previous administration, the DOJ's white-collar crime staff was severely reduced while anti-terrorism was greatly expanded. Recovery -- perhaps even recognition that friends and allies are thieves -- has been slow.
Of course, OR's AG should not feel inhibited from pursuing more locally oriented systemic scams. MA's AG, Martha Coakley -- infamous for her appalling senatorial campaign -- for example, realized some success going after Goldman Sachs for the benefit of the citizens of that commonwealth:
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/05/state_reaches_6.html
Meanwhile, isn't there a City Auditor (the Gang of Five's "+ One" who imagines she could run the PPB better than it has been run) and doesn't her job entail the identification of municipal fraud:
http://bojack.org/2010/02/shes_asking_for_it.html
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | June 22, 2010 10:22 AM