Spend money teaching kids to spell, i.e. “role modle”. Spend money on basic services. Fix potholes, lower water and sewer bills, etc. These idiots have ruined a great little town and are turning it into a travesty like Armageddon. I am going to retire and live on a fixed income. I can’t afford living here any more so I have purchased a place in Clackamas County. If any of the major candidates for mayor and council had a clue they would address these issues, but they are just as stupid as what we got. If things don’t turn around here soon everyone is going to go broke. Sorry I am so pessimistic, but I lived in Portland when it was viable, had jobs, leaders did the necessary things and most things worked well. I have never wished anyone ill, but I hope Sam Adams, Randy Leonard and their cronies have miserable lives.

They must be planning on turning all the parking at Lloyd Center into condominiums.

Delusional psycho-babble.

Eddie is my roll modle.

They intend to bring us Central Planning in the finest traditions of the old Soviet Union...

Do enjoy retiring to Clackamas County, John - they seem somewhat saner there than here. I regret having moved out of CC - though it really cut down on the commute. Since you won't have to worry about that, great move.

@1:22 watch as PDC dude stuffs the ballot box with two votes.

Godfry might be on to something there...
... turn the mall parking lots into condos full of people who'll have all their shopping needs within walking/biking distance.

A classic Portland "win-win".

Apparently these people speak a language that only they understand. I really think it is some form of mental illness......possibly some form of schizophrenia or delusions of grandeur that comes on after one too many "green" urban planning lectures.

These idiots have ruined a great little town and are turning it into a travesty like Armageddon.

So sad.
When my relatives come to visit, they see the changes and and the looks on their faces when they hear what is going on....
Someday books will be written about this.
The Fleecing of Portland!

Generation Y, generally defined as those born between 1980 and 1999, have lost interest in many of the services and products their parents found important. For example, younger Americans are less interested in cars. In 1998, 64.4% of potential drivers 19-years old and younger had drivers licenses. By 2008, that rate had dropped to 46.3%, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

This is what it's about. They don't need to go anywhere and actually hike or swim or whatever. Give 'em a condo and an internet connection; that's all they want.

Gee, there's a chalk board where we can write things (how grade school-ish). Do you think they will allow me to write, 'This is a load of tripe'???? Of course it will take them a day or two to look up the meaning of tripe - just saying.

Yep Sam you really are spreading it.

"The three pillars of sustainability:
-The environment
-Society
-The economy".

What the hell does that mean? The economy and society have never been pillars of sustainability. If that were the case, California and Arizona wouldn't be out of water. The Brazilian rain forest would still be intact. Shanghai wouldn't be full of smog so thick that it burns the mucus membranes. You know, Portland leadership seems increasingly to be wielding a megaphone to amplify sheer meaninglessness.

I think what they are trying to say is that government PLANNING, and attendant initiative statements, can influence society and the economy to DEVELOP more sustainable practices. Gosh. That means City Council can stop talking about Tibet and Arizona immigration law. Instead, they could wrestle with the fact that illegal immigration is a problem, because most illegal immigrants don't understand much English and won't understand or care about their sustainability plans! (And plus they have lots of babies and we all know how bad THAT is for the environment, right?). Or, City Council could address the Saudi Arabia problem and its little human rights record, what with subjugating the female half of its population and all. The Council could do the sustainable thing and put forth a resolution to support the Keystone pipeline, voting no confidence in our shameful alliance with a country that is still moored in a draconian system of seventh century slavery and gender apartheid! But no. We'll beat up on China and Arizona, instead, and mouth platitudes about sustainability, put up chalkboards and paint floors and invite people over.

Write down your thoughts, no matter how ridiculous and amorphous, on a public chalkboard!

Walk on a painted floor that tells you what we're planning for you, after you get done scrawling your sentence fragments!

Dear God, have mercy.

I think Max is right on, except he left out earbuds, iPads, and a multitude of alcohol dispensaries to keep myopic minds and empty lives anaesthetized.

I've sat through two PDC presentation many months ago when they dumped the Eco-District concept (which isn't new).

Beyond all the flowering words, it's a means to get city taxpayers to pay for services of an URA that normally the developers must provide for themselves. Like in SoWhat they want the Eco-District to provide power/cooling to buildings paid by us. To make it green they want to truck in garbage/biomass to burn in an incinerator. They throw in a few landscaping-tree-benches concepts to make it sound green.

Remember the decades when Portland had "eco-districts" where small companies provided power, gas, steam, lights with several independent facilities serving different areas of the city? Then economics, industry developed systems that combined these services and we got PGE, NW Natural Gas, etc.

Now we have the geniuses at PDC and City Hall thinking they discovered something. But worse, they think it is cheaper and more green to have small delivery services (at taxpayer expense). And that is what the 5 proposed eco-districts are about. Forget the profuse words.

It merely is a way for government to take over our basic needs. I thought we turned down this concept when PGE's buyout by CoP was thwarted. Is Eric Stens back in town?

I wonder if the decrease in licensed teenagers has less to do with desire, and more to do with increased licensing requirements that make it harder to obtain a license - and then restricts the ability to drive once licensed (i.e. cannot have other teenagers in the vehicle).

All of the teenagers I know are aching to have a license...but many of them are just waiting to turn 18 so to not deal with the requirements imposed on the 16 and 17 year olds.

And more recently, the increased demand of vehicles and much reduced supply has dramatically increased the cost of a used car; many formerly affordable used cars were scrapped during "cash for clunkers" or cannot possibly pass an emissions test and thus aren't available; the lack of auto shop classes in high school make it more difficult for younger persons to learn how to fix cars (and thus be willing to buy a "fixer-upper", knowing they'll be able to fix it to good condition). Many parents are working full-time, so the kids can't just take the new car out. And many high schools (and communities) have also reduced or restricted student parking so driving to/from school isn't an option. (As an example, the street alongside my old high school where I used to park is now a several block long no-parking zone, and an area about five blocks on any side of the school has become a residential permit parking zone.)

Erik H.
Remember years ago when teens were really into fixing up cars?
The cars were simpler then,
today specialized tools are needed.

Beyond all the flowering words, it's a means to get city taxpayers to pay for services of an URA that normally the developers must provide for themselves. Like in SoWhat they want the Eco-District to provide power/cooling to buildings paid by us. To make it green they want to truck in garbage/biomass to burn in an incinerator. They throw in a few landscaping-tree-benches concepts to make it sound green.

Lee,
Thanks for the explanation.
I have been very concerned about what these Eco-District's really mean. I can envision that they would like to pepper them all over the city eventually, total redo and behavioral
changes as to how we should all live. I was at a conference and noted that GE was prominently involved. Not very comforting to know that Adams and GE negotiated on something. The devil is in the details.
Maybe I am just too jaded, don't trust much of anything coming out of our city hall.

This concept was shot down by the Mayor and the Blazers when I first approached them about it years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7spwJaApB4s&context=C4f13814ADvjVQa1PpcFO-DWH_9GsmjBUzhuGQ5YY4InYDrqkqkow%3D