Their havoc & spin is so intense, it should be called the "PSU Centrifuge for Real Estate."

Or, "PSU Subterfuge for Real Estate."

If you look closely at some of the slides that have been part of the dog-and-pony shows, you'll see this picture pop up. It is from a 2008 plan and it is a picture of "Concept C."

So, Portland Public Schools has a maintenance backlog of half a billion dollars on every building around town, but the one thing that WILL get done is the rich kids' highschool will be totally rebuilt by the City of Portland.

Very illustrative of what this city is really about.

I have big questions about this urban renewal district. For one thing, publically-owned lands such as the high school, the entire PSU campus, and the government buildings in the area, pay no property tax, and thus produce no revenue for an Urban Renewal district.

So does this district really contain enough private land to generate the money to make all of these improvements to PSU and Lincoln High?

Also, as we all know, a lot of urban renewal money goes back to the private developers because they are all apparently inept business people who can't build a building without a giant public subsidy. (How did they ever make it as developers in the first place, one wonders?) So how much is really going to be left for projects at PSU?

That old high-school is horrible urban blight. How can they expect Multnomah Club crowd to send their kids to that rotting mess?

Where are our priorities? If we can't build new and shiny for the well off, what the heck can we do?

Hey Jack,

I am pretty certain this was produced by a student workshop, which in the interest of journalistic integrity I think you should mention. I am also pretty certain that it doesn't have any sort of official stamp of approval.

FWIW I think the new UR is clearly an abuse of the law, illegal under the spirit of the Urban Renewal law, if not the letter. The high school is not "blight"

I've got the image for what's going on here:

Sam and Randy are like 2 shoppers who win a contest at a supermarket and get to run around loading their carts with anything they can grab in 90 seconds.

I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop . . . the one that says, "We'll make a little room for PPS administrative offices here and that will free up their property on the east side near the Coliseum for the fabulous Convention Center Hotel!"

It's not "official" but it's more than just a student project. Look at the biographies of the "students" who put it together. It's kind of amazing to me that these urban design/planning and real estate development "professionals" could even come up with a concept so hideous. It's like they forgot there was supposed to be a school there and had to cram it around the margins as an afterthought. Football field and track are still there w/ synthetic turf and covered grandstands so at least they remembered what's really important about a school.

The new plan looks like public housing in Soviet-era Moscow. 'Concept C' at least looks somewhat to scale with the rest of the neighborhood.

BTW, every high school in the city should be considered 'blight.' Crumbling. Unkept. And in some cases, unsafe.

Just asking the question why Lincoln HS needs to be expanded while Washington HS remains empty about 2 miles away. Washington HS was sold recently due to this vacancy.

Those buildings look green to me. What's the fuss?

Just asking the question why Lincoln HS needs to be expanded while Washington HS remains empty about 2 miles away. Washington HS was sold recently due to this vacancy.

Probably because the real estate developers and speculators that run our City Hall weren't interested in that property.

"Just asking the question why Lincoln HS needs to be expanded while Washington HS remains empty about 2 miles away. Washington HS was sold recently due to this vacancy."

You don't actually think that the west side people would allow their kids to cross the river and attend a school "over there" ?

How about "Hebephilia Heights" for the towers perched above the athletic facilities?

So, condo folks descend down to the outdoor part of the Lincoln High campus in massive numbers, maybe bringing their dogs to do their business on school grounds. I can see why New York city being on an island is necessarily dense, but it's beyond me why we need to densify downtown Portland similarly.

Must escape Portlandia. Must escape.

New York's density has vast open space by virtue of being a narrow island has a few blocks to walk and see water and open space and then a few blocks another direction the open space of a huge Central Park.

The major reason we need to densify here is for some to make huge sums of money. Of course we have been told it was to save farmland and forests. All those who think that has worked out need to take a little trip out to Happy Valley. Look at the latest dense housing complex, that sits on what was once farmland.

What I resent is the loss of quality of life here, yes we were told it was necessary to make room for the millions coming. Irony is that the plan may have backfired and doubt any will want to come into a debt ridden city and others are planning to escape.

I don't see the loss of quality of life. Our suburban commuter traffic jams are right up there with the big leagues.