It's really fascinating when you consider the number of parasites that rely on the weak-minded types that run our government for their living. I'll give them credit though, on the Bridgehead at least the gravy is going to someone new (Melvin Mark) instead of the short list.

I think if we disbanded PDC ($500M) and METRO ($800M) and just put the money DIRECTLY into the school classroom. That way we'd have some skilled workers to fill all of that govt-subsidized office space in our "vital" downtown.

Hayek said planners are the thing that will kill civilization and I think he is being shown right.

I'm curious. How did a single complaint generate the Grand Jury investigation? Or does the term citizen complaint imply plural complainers?

I dream about some sort of legal action against any one of the countless Portland schemes. Half of what the water bureau does would crumble with the slightest push from a plaintiff.

I don't understand why no one (such as business owners) has the money, or interest (as a class action lawyer) to pursue these things in Portland.

All this is is a grand jury acknowledging that the city dummied up a study to justify a huge urban renewal boondoggle. The city of Portland must release about 10 studies per year that are guilty of this.

It would have been interesting to have a Grand Jury, picked from an average citizen pool and not a politician/PPS administrator's pool, deliberate on the recent PPS Bond measure. And the probable PPS Bond to come.

It's also interesting how in the San Diego case, as their Grand Jury pointed out, the pols/developers/architects picked the highest rental space costs and the lowest building costs to come up with the idea that a new complex is cost effective versus doing some maintenance and updates.

Sadly it is getting to the point that honesty in government is falling deep into the cracks that we can't see it.

Please, Lord, let the next Portland DA be as interested in civic corruption as occupation of public sidewalks by poor people.

lw:...Sadly it is getting to the point that honesty in government is falling deep into the cracks that we can't see it.

What we can see however, is how this Council time after time makes horrendous decisions that screw the citizenry and they do so without shame!

What we can see are the myriad of ways that this city operates that should fall into the civic corruption category.

What we need is someone who has the ability to do so to take them on into the courts to stop the insanity.

Hopefully someday some federal prosecutor will recognize and seize the opportunity to make a career for themselves by lifting up the boards around here and shining a bright light on all the shady dealings that prey on people's desire to feel good about themselves for wanting to help the environment.

Well, Mr. Grumpy, the feds are unlikely to ever go after any of the schemes involving a Paulson. And from what I have seen, generally the feds look the other way when the big fish break the law, because the DOJ has become as political as any other governmental agency.

LucsAdvo,
Interesting that I just looked up this story about an hour ago, as it came up in conversation. In case anyone missed this, a most riveting dramatic story, remember viewing James Comey testifying later.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500864.html

Gonzales Hospital Episode Detailed
Ailing Ashcroft Pressured on Spy Program, Former Deputy Says

On the night of March 10, 2004, as Attorney General John D. Ashcroft lay ill in an intensive-care unit, his deputy, James B. Comey, received an urgent call.

White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., were on their way to the hospital to persuade Ashcroft to reauthorize Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice Department had just determined was illegal.

In vivid testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Comey said he alerted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and raced, sirens blaring, to join Ashcroft in his hospital room, arriving minutes before Gonzales and Card. Ashcroft, summoning the strength to lift his head and speak, refused to sign the papers they had brought. Gonzales and Card, who had never acknowledged Comey's presence in the room, turned and left.

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said.......

So, wonder what is taking place within our DOJ today under the Obama Administration?

Hey San Diego City Council: just in case any of you honorable people are listening, this is a no-brainer. Hmm, let's see:

Chuck the old-fashioned building that you already own and build a new, ego-busting monument to yourselves with OPM. That's what all the cool kids in Portland are dong these days. If you want to be popular, you have to keep up!

snards:
The reason those of us who may own small pieces of property or small businesses do not try and fight too hard against this stuff or sign our real names on blogs is that Randy, his gang of thugs, and others told to do so will make our lives miserable at best, or try to put us out of business at worst to shut us up. Building inspections, fire inspections, fees, fines and general harassment (like threatening phone calls in the middle of the night) is the rule not the exception and it can get very nasty; I know from personal experience.

It doesn't feel good to live under the tyranny of insanity!!

Can a group of like minded businesses go to the FBI Public Corruption Office or some other avenue without retaliation?

We have a group of those who think they are the royal five on their perches screwing us over big time! They insist on the public being polite while they do so.