Seeing red
I came across a good blog on the OregonLive site the other night -- the one devoted to Old Town and Chinatown, and written by Larry Norton, a transplanted retiree lawyer from California. In a way, Norton seems like a poster child for the sad Katz-Sten vision of the New Portland -- an empty nester who burned out on the Golden State and whose arrival marks the end of the-Rose-City-as-we-know-it. But at least he's interested in his new neighborhood, willing to go to the meetings, perceptive, and a good writer.
One of Norton's current pastimes is sitting on a public committee of some sort that's studying the area where the Saturday Market currently sits. Apparently, the market is too real for the 200 development lackies in the Planning Bureau and the 200 minions in the Portland Development Commission, and so it's going to be moved out of its current home -- to where, nobody knows. I'm sure some Graggalicious Californication will take its place, and newbie neighbors like Norton will play the dupes for the Usual Suspects in the developer coterie, who will make out like bandits.
But what really struck me about a recent Norton post on the subject was a map that he produced, showing how much tax-exempt and tax-abated property there is down that way. The totally tax-exempt property is in red, and the somewhat tax-forgiven parcels are in pink. Check it out.
No wonder property taxes are so high. There are so few suckers left to pay them.
| Posted at 8:43 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (14)
Move Saturday Market? Is it just me, or does that sound stupider than the aerial tram?
Posted by Alan DeWitt | October 2, 2005 8:58 PM
This type of mapping is needed for the entire county. Maybe it would wake up some people.
M
Posted by Michael | October 2, 2005 9:05 PM
burned out on the Golden State
Interesting choice of terms... Did you make it way down the blog to the post where he talks about losing his home and all his possessions in a forest fire in 1991? (September 3rd post... I think that permalink is broken)
Posted by no one in particular | October 2, 2005 10:14 PM
I did not. But it looks like he stayed in California quite a while after the fire, which was 14 years ago.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 2, 2005 10:23 PM
The permalink is fine. It's OL/Advance's compatability with Firefox that's broken.
Did I say that outloud?
Posted by Chris Snethen | October 2, 2005 10:54 PM
Velveeta.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 2, 2005 11:44 PM
Jack:
showing how much tax-exempt and tax-abated property there is down that way
JK:
That's the good news. The bad news is that the whole area is urban renewal, so any taxes actually paid are partly skimmed into the district. Most of us know the idea is that the taxes on the property value increase stays in the district while the taxes on the value of the property when the district was formed are actually shared with us peons. This keeps all of the tax on inflation and new construction in the district.
I noticed that some of those buildings are government owned and never pay tax (like the OSHU stuff in the SoWhat): 23 appears to be ODOT, 15 is, maybe, the port (I've been to government meetings there), 7 is a parking garage-probably city owned. Chinese garden is just to the left of 15. That tall building next to 35 is probably a core are high density exemption.
See SavePortland.com for a list of tax exemptions in Multnomah county.
Thanks
JK
Posted by jim karlock | October 3, 2005 3:30 AM
As the husband of a vendor at Saturday Mkt, I can tell you that the market must move. It is not doing well at its long time location. There are two markets, the authentic "Saturday Market" which requires products to be hand and locally made and the "other" market (on the west side of the Max tracks) which sells cheap imported crap by vendors who simply rent a space rather than be accepted as members of the nonprofit Sat. Mkt group. It has been the slow downfall of the Sat. Mkt to have that awful crap so close. The tourists are not aware of the pronounced difference in the two markets.
Posted by Richard | October 3, 2005 7:05 AM
It has been the slow downfall of the Sat. Mkt to have that awful crap so close. The tourists are not aware of the pronounced difference in the two markets.
Not just the tourists, Richard. I've been a Portland resident for six years, and this is the first I've heard of that. (Although, now that I think about it, it makes sense, as there's tons of cheap sunglasses, jewelry, and the like over there.)
Posted by Dave J. | October 3, 2005 10:24 AM
"It has been the slow downfall of the Sat. Mkt to have that awful crap so close."
Huh. Well, like DJ I was not aware of that, but it fits my observations.
Still, how will a new location help? What other location is there that has such good access for pedestrians and transit and is not subject to the same effect down the road? Worse, if people don't know the difference between the two markets now, how wil they know to follow the true Saturday Market to a new location?
Besides, isn't all that foot and MAX traffic valuable to other businesses in the area and to downtown civic vibrancy as well? Seems like a good way to suck what life there is out of old town.
I'll freely admit I'm not up on all the issues, but to me it seems daft.
Posted by Alan DeWitt | October 3, 2005 12:36 PM
California burnouts is about right; among the newcomers are refugees from Gray Davis' administration buying lofts in the Pearl so they can write their novels. Not-so-young "creatives". Speaking of such, I thought creativity often was a response to pain-like in the title story to ZZ Packer's really excellent book of short stories,"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere". And I remember Art Buchwald saying he wrote to escape depression brought on by a difficult childhood. But in Portland these days, creativity comes from schmoozing with the mayor and PDC.
Posted by Cynthia | October 3, 2005 1:23 PM
Saturday Market just needs to be put out of its misery.
Posted by RAH | October 3, 2005 4:54 PM
There has been talks of building a new public market ala Pike's Place Market in Seattle (and to replace the original one torn down in the 50' where Tom McCall Waterfront Park is now.)
This was partially contingent on the removal of the Fire Station a couple blocks north to it's new location where the old Import/Export store use to be.
Posted by Rick Hamell | October 4, 2005 4:43 PM
THE IRISH FAIR TAX MODEL. How to boost the economy to 5% growth.
Irish wealth grew with over 167% between 1984 and 2002. Average European wealth grew at less than a quarter of that pace. Irish industrial jobs increased with 35% in this period, while in the rest of Europe industrial employment caved in. While the rest of the world was booming, the European economy gradually slided into stagnation or even recession.
Why is Ireland so different? Why could Ireland devellop into the second most prosperous country of Europe in barely a half generation of time? The Irish socio-economic model is a perfect synthesis of the social welfare state and Anglosaxisch liberalism. Its model differs from the rest of Europe by its "fair tax system": an optimal combination of MODERATE AND EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT SPENDING (35% of GDP) and A BALANCED REPARTITION of the TAX BURDEN between direct and consumption taxes.
The irish model provides the incentives for productive contribution, for dynamic entrepreneurship and a high participation rate. The Irish model is successful. Today Ireland meets the challenges of globalisation and the demographic time bomb. Ever more European countries adopt Irish policies, particularly in the East.
Also in England, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany could boost growth, job creation, and wealth by implementing the strategy of decreasing their demotivating taxation, and shifting the tax burden from income to consumption. Ireland showed that it can be done and that the strategy works. Where does one wait for?
More over the Irish success story, how and why can be found at following adresses:
(Dutch and Frensh versions now available at the same web site)
http://workforall.net/
http://workforall.net/EN_Tax_policy_for_growth_and_jobs.html
http://workforall.net/EN_Europe_direct_and_indirect_tax_burden.html
http://workforall.net/EN_Europe_social_security_sustainability.html
Posted by workforall | October 5, 2005 8:54 AM