Is this a big surprise to anyone?

The obvious missing piece of this article is that the cost estimate rose 76 percent over just 3 years on a 16-year project. By the time this thing is done, it will certainly have cost over $100 million, not the original estimated $36 million.

Hey it all about inflation and my 2.3% increase in social security proves it.
Another Vera-Sam, the scam,project.
They must have both failed elementary arithmetic.

"money follows good ideas" is the best quote. So, if there is no money, is this a horrible idea? VeraSam, please get a photo op on this and solve the (our) problem.

I'd happily send Jon Corzine your way. He'll straighten things out.

Like the aerial tram and streetcar, the riverfront greenway is a key piece of the city's 2003 deal...

Wasn't OHSU supposed to supply thousands of biotech jobs down there? Or is the city the only one on the hook for the failure of the dream?

Skullduggery abounds on long holiday weekends as when the Cat is away the Rats do play.

A perfect time for developers to clear polluted sites be the concern an old building laden with asbestos or a forty year old liquid waste dump.

"Money follows good ideas. It will get figured out."

THank you Mr Dike Dame. I am sure Sam/him/Homer have another way figured to screw taxpayers on this one.

My guess is Homer pays for part of it and then CoP pays him 10x the value of one of his pieces of dirt. Or who knows maybe Homer's restaurant will be the mandatory CoP dining spot.

This is my favorite Oregonian tone where they pull out the old "Well, I'll be darn" dumb routine. It's a nice break from the pie in the sky PR stuff. Meanwhile ridiculous excuses like not including the cost of inflation because the city wasn't sure when construction would start, just float by like a turd on the river. My favorite phrase in this particular version of the Mayberry Gazette is the "riverbank salmon stopover." That's so precious. There's no way to tie this greed orgy to helping the children, but don't worry - we're subsidizing condos so the salmon have a place to crash for the night. That's beautiful.
Meanwhile, the only thing this group wishes they could do to the salmon is charge them a hospitality tax.

"Money follows good ideas. It will get figured out."
ahhhhhhhhhh.......politicians.

Just wait until the operating costs enter the discussion. Sure, it's only a parkway, right? How much could it cost on an annual basis to keep it looking nice? Those are union grass-cutters, baby.

We gotta think long term on this people...this is only a temporary setback. Twenty yrs from now, this will all look like a speed bump ;

Here's a radical concept: it's supposed to be a "greenway". It already is a greenway. So they don't need to "plan" or build anything on that little ribbon of land. Mother Nature's already built it, free of charge. So just what on God's Green Earth are these meddlists "planning" that requires spending $56 million of your tax dollars to "build a greenway" that already exists? But wait - there's more! How about not placing impermeables such as concrete and steel into an already existing greenway? If you just leave it alone, then you don't have to spend any money to "treat runoff" or other issues. But that would mean that the "planners" wouldn't be needed.

Anyone can get the "North Macadam Urban Renewal Plan-Final Draft 7/12/99"
from the PDC web site. http://www.pdc.us/pdf/dev_serv/pubs/dev_macadam_report.pdf
I am looking at a printed copy right now.
Near page 10 of that PDC plan, is the Table 6 PDC spread sheet of every PDC cost estimate and PDC revenue projection.
This is the PDC plan prepared by the PDC and used by the PDC to refer to the PDC plan as "feasible" and to recommend approval by the PDC commission and city council.

Why is this approved PDC plan not the starting point in news reports and why is the PDC allowed to further distort and mislead? Why is city staff continuing to withhold information about flawed early cost projections.

In that approved 1999 PDC plan,

Tram $3.27 Million Actual cost $57 Million

Greenway Trail $2.5 Million
Bank Treatment $4.2 Million
River Parkway $3.8 Million

Total $10.5 Million New estimate $56 Million

Ped. Crossing over I-5 $1.64 Million New Estimated Cost $15 Million

The rest of the PDC 1999 plan is more of the same.

All of the Street improvements for all of South Waterfront were listed as costing only $20 Million.

While this goes on and on, there is no list or accounting of all monies spent to date. As well as no updated overall budget for the entire plan. Despite the Citizen Advisory Committee for South Waterfront repeatedly requesting them.

And through all of this obscured fiscal quagmire, emerging information (not in the Oregonian) shows $10s of millions in borrowed Urban Renewal cash being channeled to OHSU and South Waterfront Developers. $51 million and climbing headed to OHSU alone. Many other millions to developers.

It is long past time for an investigation.

While this fiscal mess has been grwoing the PDC has been lying.

Good intentions?

Not hardly.
http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1141332912248470.xml&coll=7
URBAN RENEWAL
Under way, on track in South Waterfront
Friday, March 03, 2006
Bruce Warner [head of the PDC]

"the city's plan is moving precisely the way urban renewal is supposed to."
NO BRUCE IT IS NOT

"A new neighborhood is emerging, just as planned."
NO BRUCE IT IS NOT

"The first park will open in July."
NO IT DIDN'T AND IT'S STILL NOT

"Urban Renewal Tax increment financing is a mechanism that uses tax revenues from new development to finance long-term revitalization."

NO BRUCE IT IS NOT. THE 130 acre SoWa TIF COMES FROM 409 ACRES OF THE SURROUNDING AREA PROPERTY TAXES.

"As projects come on line, they generate funds to build the next set of improvements, which in turn finance the next improvements in a rolling process."

NO BRUCE, AS PROJECTS COME ON LINE ALL OF THE NEW REVENUE MUST GO TO PAY OFF THE DEBT CREATED, NOT TO THE NEXT IMPROVEMENTS.

"Never is all the money available up front. The district has to generate funds over time, exactly what has started in the South Waterfront."

NO BRUCE, NEVER IS ANY OF THE MONEY AVAILABLE. IT ALL MUST GO TO RETIRE DEBT OVER DECADES.

"Yes, cost increases on the tram are a problem. No one is happy about that. But this problem is solvable."

SOLVABLE BRUCE? YEAH, JUST SPEND MORE BORROWED MONEY.

"Next month, the City Council and the public can expect to see a proposed funding solution."

NO BRUCE THAT "SOLUTION NEVER CAME.

"Meanwhile, let's not allow the tram cost increases to overshadow the early success of the South Waterfront plan."

BRUCE THE PLAN IS IN SHAMBLES AND THE TRAM WAS THE TIP OF THE TITANIC.

"That's the plan. It's on track."

BRUCE WARNER AND THE PDC ARE LYING TO THE PUBLIC.
THE CENTRAL DISTRICT, ONLY A PART OF SOUTHT WATERFRONT, WILL DEVOUR ALL OF THE PROJECTED AND AVAIALABLE REVENUE FOR THE ENTIRE URBAN RENEWAL DISTRICT.
EVERY STAKEHOLDER HAS NOW THIS FOR AT LEAST A YEAR AND A HALF.

Money follows good ideas.

Wow...the new city slogan. Slap it on the city vehicles now!

SoWhat is the defining moment for Portland to understand what VeraSam means by CoP and PDC using their favorite word-"PARTNERSHIPS".

I think "PARTNERSHIP" has become to mean "CORRUPTION" for Portland. Money laundering use to to be illegal; and I hope soon to be convened federal investigations prove so.