Not-so-bold prediction - In 10 years Wash county will be bigger than Mult county and Hills/Bvtn will be bigger than Portland proper (unless they start annexing a bunch.)

Is expensive to do business everywhere in this area, but Portland seems to be the front-runner in fees/taxes. The biggest thing seems to be the process in doing anything new like building a new plant in Portland.

YOu can laugh at Hillsboro, but tell me one employer in Portland expanding like NIke or Intel that offers the jobs they do (please don't include those 200 people working for CoP making > $100K/yr.)

Jim Pasero of Third Century Solutions has made this point on my program about a million times and has been roundly ignored--nay excoriated-- for bringing it up.
Thank you Jim Redden of the Trib for the piece!

Portland is becoming its own bedroom community. That is weird, but their ace in the hole: who wants to live in Vancouver or Hillsboro if they don't have to?

"who wants to live in Vancouver or Hillsboro if they don't have to?"

Plenty of Intel and Nike employees that pay property taxes and income taxes.

Next words we will hear from the mouth of someone is all this urban sprawl in Washington County is bad. But these same people seem to ignore the simple fact that government policies cause that sprawl. Tax policy, zoning laws and the restrictions on the private ownership of urban transit have all come together to cause us more problems than we have money to deal with.

who wants to live in Vancouver or Hillsboro if they don't have to?

kind of closes the circular argument about attitude, doesn't it?

The lack of new employers is easy to fix. All we need are more vintage clothing stores and other "groovy retail" venues to attract more hipsters to Portland. Go by streetcar!

Wait, did they count the food carts, "put a bird on it" craft businesses, and the people selling "handmade" crap at Last Thursday?

And what about all those Portland people making it big on reality TV shows?

And all the "too young to remember the dotcom boom firsthand" social networking "we want to be the next Facebook" software startups!

Those people are raking it in. Relax, the economy is doing fine. Put a bird on it.

Or, as I like to tell some folks--I got your bird right here.

Hipsters don't need no stinking jobs..

There is another doomsday analysis that should be made on the job counts. Since Mult. Co. lost 31,915 jobs, and Wa. Co. and Clack. Co. gained 14,383 jobs, that means the tri-county Metro area lost 17,532 jobs. Not good.

And where are the jobs going in the past 10 years that experienced one the most robust economic gain times ever besides the present recession. Why didn't the Trib point that out? And why do people like Sam, Randy and the Pols brush critiques like this off?

I like and agree with observer's comment about Portland becoming a bedroom community; the business elite into whose midst I occasionally infiltrate live in Dunthorpe and Portland Heights, but the corporations they own are in Beaverton, Tigard, and Tualatin.

I pointed this out last year and I heard all kinds of kill the messenger remarks. It is a serious problem we have to face. But the situation for the City of Portland is much worse than for the County. And it is not just employers, but simply the resident labor force.

If you keep your head in the sand long enough .......

Finally, I've found a tool for Portland leaders to create meaningful planning documents. All it takes is a few mouse clicks.

The problem as I see it and I've been saying this one way or another all along is that we've somehow managed to attract and entrench into positions of authority or decision making a large number of frighteningly arrogant people.

And if you've ever dealt with a very arrogant person you know that when things go right they're first in line to claim the glory and when things go wrong it's ALWAYS someone else's fault.

I want to live in Vancouver and I don't have to...

I remember a series of radio or television commercials for one of the SoWhat developments where they interviewed new residents who bought into the condos.

Most of them were folks who work throughout the country but chose to buy a condo.

An airline pilot was one example...

Someone who doesn't really contribute much to the local economy. Doesn't buy and shop locally. Doesn't use local services. Probably doesn't even have a bank account in town.

Unlike us slackers here in Tigard, Oregon. I have a credit union which is headquartered in Beaverton. My car was purchased in Gladstone. When I need an electrician or a landscaper they're acquired locally. Most of my shopping business is done at Freddy's or other local stores.

And I even ride a bus and sometimes my bike on the various bike paths and bike lanes here in my suburban outpost...which I didn't have, when I lived in S.W. Portland for two years.

But, somehow, I'm the problem. I'm the one causing all of the ills of the region, because I don't live WITHIN Portland city limits. I own a modest, 1200 square foot ranch home. It has a yard. It has trees that breath in the carbon dixoide and helps spew out oxygen. I don't have elaborate watering systems and my electric usage is minimal. I own just the one car for our entire household. My oldest son walks to school a block away, my daughter goes to a daycare just a couple buildings away (which is a locally owned business, not a national daycare chain.)

Yes, I'm the problem. Because I don't live in a condo and go by Streetcar...

And the Portland/TriMet/Metro cabal wonders why their plans are getting rejected?
It's because they suck, cost too much, cause massive debt with no real way to pay for them and screw up everything.

Now the job numbers underscores it.

A Tribune story about jobs lost in the last 10 years? Ouch. 10 years ago, I was writing for the Tribune.

The whole construction jobs scam is coming home to roost. When the condo building slows down or stops, then everything collapses.

There has never been a serious effort to replace or enhance traditional jobs (like shipping, timber, fishing, transportation) that have sustained the economy but are now diminishing.

The web thing was a flash in the pan, bio-tech is extremely limited, and electronics is subject to too much overseas competition.

We really need leadership that can create a plan for the future- and that has to include restructuring the tax/cost structure to make Portland viable.

Jobs fleeing Portland? How odd. Wasn't the headquarters for Columbia Sportswear located there? White Stag? L/P? Where have all the headquarters gone, and is there a reason?

On the bright side, Victoria, B.C. is gonna pony up for a Leonard Loo!

We have to stop mistaking livability for economic development.

We have to get over our tendency to see private business as the "bad guys." Look at the vilification of the Portland Business Alliance.

If you want jobs, you have to suck it up and listen to business sometimes, and you have to actually accommodate them through policy sometimes.

That doesn't mean you have to give them big handouts. But some breaks on fees might be order. Cleaning up downtown and looking like we give a d**n would be good. Streamlined processes in the planning department would be a big help. Time is money for businesses, and they don't want to hear about our public process and design committees. They want to build a facility and get to work.

Here's a question: what are the top three priorities of the Portland area, as a community of humans?

Now try to imagine you're a City Council member answering that question.

Then, try and imagine all the different answers each City Council member would give.

Lastly, try imagining those members working together given those differing answers.

The Building Permit Dept. Process here in CoP is insane , and no business person would willingly go through it. Absurdly high fees ,obnoxious arrogant staff , and painful time -lines at the mercy of the 'process'.
The new Mayor should close the Dept. and start from scratch , and not let the BDS take Fees for their own uses.

It will not help to be faced with the consequences of the PWB bureau not acting in the best financial interests of our community. The debt is huge and they need to stop spending on unnecessary projects.

The increased water rates and debt will be a large part of driving more people and businesses out! What businesses will come into this arena?

Too many troubling decisions creating long range debt are being made for all of us.
The many pet projects and URA’s already have contributed to the downward spiral of our community.

Less and less will be available for the people while having to pay more and more – no wonder people and jobs are going elsewhere.

If it turns out that our annointed elected have been put public assets into hock to some big bank, will it really matter who gets driven out?

Is lack of vacant land a failure, or a sign Portland has already succeeded?

'who wants to live in Vancouver or Hillsboro if they don't have to?'

I do.

My company closed the office in Tigard. I am now a telecommuter and can work where I want.

By moving to Vancouver I no longer pay $300/month in Oregon income tax and my rent and utilities are lower.

Why would I want to stay in a backwater, hippy infested dump like Portland?

For myself it may come down to wanting to leave if we continue on this charade of citizen involvement and democracy here.

Difficult to live in a community where hypocrisy reigns and hoards of people seem OK with that. Difficult to live in a community where horrendous unwise decisions are made by officials that have such a negative impact on finances and quality of life issues.