If you are following the PBS Newshour series on Greece it all sounds too familar

As far as that goes, its always been stores and govt employees downtown. We always get told we need a vibrant downtown, but never why since things always remain the same. Meanwhile we pour 90% of public development $ downtown so Sammy can have a neat place to eat lunch in.

Hey, it could be worse:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bell_salaries;_ylt=AkUMCYTFEvRpjKjaZzdgltWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNrMzA3Zjg3BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNzIzL3VzX2JlbGxfc2FsYXJpZXMEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM3BHBvcwM0BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDY2FjaXR5c2Vla3Ny

This is about the LAX city where the chief admin officer gets $787K a year and tehn CALPERS will be > $650K.

When are people going to realize that abdicating control of govt only leads to more corruption?

So curious I went and looked at last years list. The four big employers who moved out of downtown (or at least moved people out) were in order:

1. Regence Group (BlueCross BlueShield)
2. The Standard
3. Portland Trail Blazers/Global Spectrum
4. Multnomah County

Interesting.

Except the Greeks are rioting in the streets.
Where is the outrage in Portland???

Rent is highest downtown. Its no surprise, really. The big privat employers are in the burbs. This stat doesn't say anything about the city as a whole. Plus more people are choosing not to do the corporate thing. Maybe more small businesses is better than a few huge ones..

I have a win-win solution.

Since most of downtown is vacated when the Government shuts down at 5:00 PM, and Portland's mission is to make downtown "vibrant" and "lively" - I propose that all city/county/state/federal government functions in the downtown core be 24/7/365 operations.

This will allow residents to conduct necessary government business on THEIR schedule, not the schedule of Bureaucrats. Government Employees shall submit to this schedule and make themselves available, so as to encourage residents to come downtown in order to do necessary business. Doing this will encourage more foot traffic to nearby small businesses at all hours of the day, thus increasing the "vibrancy" of the downtown core thanks to Government taking the lead in encouraging people to visit downtown.

Imagine - Central Library being open at all hours.

Being able to get a building permit on a Sunday morning.

Requesting a birth certificate copy on Saturday afternoon. Attending Night Court. Mailing that package at 9:30 PM at night. And all of the other necessary government services.

And while you're downtown, why not stay awhile?

We are becoming a two capital state, like the Netherlands. Salem is the seat of government. But no one wants to live there, so Portland is home to the business of government: where the bureaucrats sit when they're not having a birthday/retirement/whatever party in the break room or going out to lunch.

Don't be surprised if Macy's leaves downtown Portland after the New Year's holiday. Their sales receipts are way below expectations and I'm willing to bet they have smarter lawyers than the PDC and City of Portland.

Time for some Urban Renewal!

Portland is weird.

portland native:Except the Greeks are rioting in the streets.
Where is the outrage in Portland???

Is there any available data on how much Prozac is prescribed in our city?

clinamen - the better question is how much prozac the Fireman has added to the city's water system

We are becoming a two capital state, like the Netherlands.

Or Alaska. Capitol might be in Juneau, but nobody else is. Washington isn't too far off with the Capitol in Olympia but many state offices elsewhere, same with California with many departments headquartered in San Francisco or Los Angeles - not Sacramento.

Don't be surprised if Macy's leaves downtown Portland after the New Year's holiday. Their sales receipts are way below expectations...

Possibly because they've messed with the format of the store enough that a portion of the customer base that shopped at M&F doesn't go there any more. My wife works a block from the store and was a frequent shopper at M&F. She was just saying last week as we drove past that she never goes into Macy's because they no longer carry the types of things that she used to buy there. Multiply that by hundreds of downtown office workers shopping at lunchtime and it's bound to have had an effect.

Now, it's possible that the M&F store itself was financially untenable, but unless revenue from people like my wife was replaced by an equivalent revenue from new shoppers or an increase in gross receipts from the remaining base, then revenue was going to go down. And presumably their debt service costs increased with the acquisition and the remodeling, so they probably need to be making more money than they were.