Suburban renewal.

"Old Town" Sherwood was naturally quaint already when I started going there in the mid-80s to frequent the Oriental Theater. Now it seems the planners want to give it an artificially quaint look, as if it's no more than a fake town for tourists.

Bob T
NE Portland

Bob T,
I wouldn't want to trade an historical original quaint town for a new fake one. Too many places end up looking the same.

Bringing up Oriental Theater, remember the dramatic, exotic Oriental Theater on Grand Avenue?

http://pdxhistory.com/html/walter_tebbetts.html

Be careful what we tear down, apparently this treasure was lost for a parking lot. Too bad it isn't still there in its glory!

I think the developers are calling their new smallball strategy 'suburban accrual'.

The way cities and counties are going after UR funds reminds me of the run on tech stocks or everyone running to the band for HELOCs and ARM mortgages. Access to money to spend on visions of grandeur is intoxicating - they just can't keep their hands off.

See you in 2018 when they extend it for another 5+ years.

Have any urban renewal districts in Oregon ever ended? Need state level legislation on maximum life and no extentions.

Portland is close to maximum area permitted within urban renewal plan areas...
I don't know about extensions, others commenting here might have that information.

http://pdx.edu/sites/www.pdx.edu.realestate/files/3Q9-5-Stapleton-TIF-7-28-09.pdf

1. Determine the available assessed value and land area within the city that can be placed in an urban renewal plan area;

ORS 457.420 limits TIF districts in municipalities with a population greater than 50,000 to a maximum 15% of the total assessed value (AV) and 15% of the total land area of that
municipality. Municipalities with a population of less than 50,000 may not adopt urban
renewal plan areas that exceed 25% of the total AV and 25% of the land area of that
municipality. These limitations are significant for cities such as Portland.
As noted in Table 1,

1 Tashman Johnson LLC, Urban Renewal in Oregon, History, Case Studies, Policy Issues, and Latest Developments,
2002
2 Craig Wollner, John Provo, Julie Schablisky, Brief History of Urban Renewal in Portland, Oregon, p. 1
Stapleton • Tax Increment Financing
PSU Center for Real Estate • Quarterly & Urban Development Journal • 3rd Quarter 2009 • Page 37

the City of Portland is close to the maximum area permitted within urban renewal plan areas with current plan areas that occupy 14.07% of the total land area in the city.

Percentage of acres in Urban Renewal Areas (Maximum allowed = 15%) 14.07%

I wouldn't want to trade an historical original quaint town for a new fake one. Too many places end up looking the same.

Yup. Downtown Sherwood in 85-86 looked like it hadn't changed since WWI days. My folks still refer to it as Mayberry because it seemed like a small town from the past that was going along at its own pace.

Bringing up Oriental Theater, remember the dramatic, exotic Oriental Theater on Grand Avenue?

It was gone before I arrived in '85 but I think the owners of the Sherwood Oriental had lobby items from the original one in their own lobby. The original, by the way, was where a teenage Jane Powell was spotted by a talent agent and signed by MGM. It's now the parking lot next to the Weatherly Building. The Sherwood O's owners, several old guys who had worked in movie theaters going back to the late 20s , used to show lots of silents to live organ music (played by a Paul Quorino [sp?] who had been an organist at the Organ Grinder Pizza place on SE 82nd) on weekends.

Bob T
NE Portland