In 2004, developer Dike Dame of North Macadam Investors was asked how they'd find enough money for the greenway.

He said: "Money follows good ideas. It will get figured out."
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Portland has lots of good ideas, so money is sure to follow. $32M growing to $56M (which will go up again, to $75? ... $95M?).

Good to know that money follows, instead of following the money.

"The purchase agreements state explicitly that buyers who fail to close their purchases forfeit the deposit, generally equal to 3 percent to 5 percent of the price."

Well, not quite, the earnest money is also contingent on qualifying for "suitable" financing by the buyer.

Sam must be working overtime to bail out these guys now, look for a "special" prop tax abatement?

It didn't include cost inflation because the city wasn't sure when the construction would start, said Patty Freeman, who is managing the greenway for the city Parks Bureau.

Unbelievable! Patty Freeman needs to get fired. When is anyone going to actually pay a price for such mindless incompetence?

*****Patty Freeman needs to get fired. When is anyone going to actually pay a price for such mindless incompetence?*******

What makes you think Patty wasn't doing exactly what her bosses wanted her to do. Namely under underestimate the final cost of construction. Doing what your bosses want you to do isn't incompetence.

Greg C

Swept under the rug, or misleading.

Oregonians' Ryan Frank: (the tram costs quadrupled because of) "zooming steel prices". If the O would do some investigative reporting, they would discover that steel price increases were less that 8% of the budget, only a small part of the cost increase. If we are to use the Oregonians' analogy, then all the steel constructed condos in the same time period should have quadrupled in construction costs too-they didn't.

If the Oregonian reported the news in the past year per budget handouts from the SoWhat URAC, the public would be aware that over $319 MILLION of required projects (conservative) per Agreements for SoWhat are under, or not funded, throughout the years to 2020. In the six divisions of projects; Mixed Use Development, Economic Development(Jobs), Park/Open Space & Greenway, Affordable Housing, Public Parking, and Transportation (24 projects), there are few that are near funded. Almost all of the Transportation projects have no funding. Don't forget that the maximum allowable indebtedness for SoWhat is only $287 MILLION with approximately $79M already spent. SoWhat is bankrupt, but the O apparently has no accountant and allows PDC Bruce Warner to declare, "we are on target".

Ryan Frank's article also fails to note that his SoWhat Greenway cost overruns only applies to the Central portion of the Greenway-1/3 of the total greenway to be completed. According to the recent budget projections for all greeway segments, the total cost is over $101 MILLION, and that doesn't even reflect the recent cost overruns in the Central portion, nor inflation.

I think our media is missing something.

" Doing what your bosses want you to do isn't incompetence."
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It is if your boss is the pointy haired idiot in the Dilbert comic strip.

It also might be breaking the law, especially if your bosses want you to lie about the truth.

Can you say Enron?

Can you say the Mayor's Chief of Staff or the Governor's driver?

Can you say VP Cheney's Cheif of Staff?