It's like a monster with a bottomless stomach.

thankfully Jack does some watchdogging for us but yeah, no other group tackles these things or takes the clown show we call City Hall to court as well someone or some group should. Oh yeah what about 1000 Friends of Ore...oh, sorry. Temporary insanity:)))

Geeze Louise!!! That stuff they are smoking downtown must be laced with all sorts of bad stuff!

"breathtaking in its gerrymandering"

Not bad - Some existing indsutrial on Swan Island, NE ALberta, N Williams, businesses along Lombard. Which means zero investment while he skims off from schools with TIF.

Of course, it could also end up looking like MLK re-dev - Empty offices and plenty of coffeeshop/pizza joints.

Out of curiousity, has an URD ever been killed? Or do they just keep taking money from schools ad infinitem?

Speaking of schools - where are the parents on this? Have spoken to some that they need to put their attention on this entire urban renewal business!! Would think that they of all groups would be proactive on this.
In my opinion, just too much fragmentation around here, but it works very well for the agenda, doesn't it?

Thank heavens! The gangs are all shaking in their sneakers at the thought of all those artisan bike racks moving in on their turf.

That's some crazy looking corridor.

"Smelly Garbage" is a polite way of describing this FUBAR policy.

Sam Adams lives up there...is his address in or out of the URA, and why (either way)?

Speaking of schools - where are the parents on this?

I believe (but am no expert on this) that Measure 5's equal per-student funding statewide blunts the impact of urban renewal on PPS. PPS is going to get $X,XXX per student from the state, regardless of local property taxes. Urban renewal absolutely siphons off the property taxes that could otherwise pay for schools, but the impact is felt in the state GF budget, not specifically on PPS. So PPS parents don't really have an incentive to lobby against URAs, because per-student funding will remain the same even if they go away.

Can anyone confirm if I'm right about this?

Miles,
Technically you are correct. PPS is protected from lost revenues due to urban renewal. What that actually means, however, is that school districts statewide actually have to do with less because of Portlands UR schemes. There's only so much water in the bucket.

"Urban renewal absolutely siphons off the property taxes that could otherwise pay for schools"

TIF funding gets any increase in taxes from the district. That's nice that the state can make up the difference, but we're kinda short for money on other stuff. Then they have to throw another $1.1B to pay for PERS contributions, you think we'd hit a wall on essential services.

Don't forget, Mult County loses the money that CoP takes for URDs this way also.

I think its a bigger question as Mr Bog stated - Is skimming this TIF money better used to let Sam play SIM city or be spent on schools and medical services by Mult County?

I suspect most Portland Public School Board members are connected and may stand to gain from the urban renewal tax/subsidization scheme. This town is full of cozy relations between boards and elected officials and crony business leaders. You don't get to be a school board member unless you get teacher union support, and same goes for many of the city and county's elected officials.

I wish the federal government would shut down its massive subsidies for choo choo trains, which most folks try to avoid having to take and acutally are obstacles. Without the federal government monies much of city hall governance falls by the way side. I just hope the federal government can be reined in hard.

Dave Lister:...What that actually means, however, is that school districts statewide actually have to do with less because of Portlands UR schemes...

Thanks for the info. I now remember thinking when I read that, what the people in school districts throughout our state think about our "many" URD's? How is it that PPS schools are not impacted, but the other schools are?

Since the mayor keeps making noises that he wants Multnomah County administration to disband itself and cede its authority to Portland Development Inc, dba City of Portland™, perhaps it's another way of fiscally starving county government. If I can think of it, I don't put it past any of the snakes and sycophants running this flim flam sideshow.

Makes you wonder if any of these clowns managed to pass biology 101: the most successful parasites don't kill the host.

"That's nice that the state can make up the difference,"

"make up" suggests they have added money to do so. They don't. They simply reduce the common school fund leaving less to distribute including to PPS.

Some of you may remember last summer when a PDC rpoort to PPS was posted here.

It was 5 year projection of impact requested by the school district.

That projection was that PPS would lose $193 million over the next 5 years due to UR.

Despite the public deceit by officials UR is very simple.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/TIF_graph.pdf

It takes the revenue from existing payrolls and jobs and uses it to retire UR debt.

Max,
True, parasites don't generally kill their host, but it doesn't matter to vampires since they can find another victim.

Okay, Jack, I admit you fooled me for a second with that body bag post - it was dark humor that made a brilliant point about our priorities.

But this one here? I knew this map couldn't be real from the moment I saw it.

It's real and it's spectacular.

A Teri Hatcher reference from Seinfeld. Thanks. I needed that.
Of course these commissioners are in her new show called, "Desperate Scammers" where they all live in a quaint little urban renewal district called Portlandia Lane.

Upon closer examination it looks like the fix is in.
There have been meetings, and citizen input and stake holder conferences etc etc... and all the bureaucratic b/s.
But why do the high density, $350 to $400k Bridgeton Road condos need to be urban renewed?

Bill,

I was certain you would get the reference.

Folks you might like to know another whopper of a problem.

That PDC 5 year projection last summer of the $193 million impact on PPS was handed off to all of the press and NOT ONE reported it.

Not one and they still haven't.

There was that $1/2 billion school levy
campaign underway.

So was the PDC report too countuer productive or did all of them simply declare it too complex and not newsworthy?

That chapter was a prime example of the local media excluding highly germane information.
The examples are many
And it's not accidental.

Ben:...That chapter was a prime example of the local media excluding highly germane information.
The examples are many
And it's not accidental.

There are "other" issues I guess deemed too complex and not newsworthy.

Our Bull Run Water System issue is another example.

No, it is not accidental!

Portland Native:Upon closer examination it looks like the fix is in.
There have been meetings, and citizen input and stake holder conferences etc etc... and all the bureaucratic b/s....

How advertised are these meetings? - Then when there are a few replies 50, a dozen, two or three, does it really matter - that is all apparently that is needed to say there is support for whatever. Plus of course, there are umpteen meetings, could be a full time job just to keep track of them all.

Of course, it would help if our paper published weekly such meetings!!
Can't have too many people at these meetings now, can we? Can't have people finding out about issues now until it is too late??

clinamen; I gave the long form about this project on the PDC web site a glance over and the PDC said that the meetings had taken place!
You are correct finding out about anything is always a challenge. And who has time to go to these things anyway?
From personal experience I can state that to find out about these meetings is a continuous and never ending struggle.
The PDC and the planners do not want the public to actively participate and when we do it is always a surprise to them!
I remember one meeting about the Burnside Bridgehead years ago, where there were literally 5 chairs in an unused office at the Salvation Army in the CES, and nearly 500 people showed up. The meeting was canceled but the looks on the faces of the PDC folks...priceless!

When PDC and Sam/CoP think about expanding or creating a new URA, the people contacted obviously are the businesses/potential developers within the scribbled proposed boundaries. That's the STAKEHOLDERS. Sure, the neighborhood association(s) are contacted, but they sit on the fence because they want to be fair and balanced and get more information before a yea/nea; and that is after the real decisions are made.

For example only two out of the 12 SoWhat URAC members are what one could call "at large". The rest are all direct stakeholders that are directly, monetarily benefited by their advisory positions. URAC's are a stacked deck without the publics, taxpayers interest in mind, but they are the ones really paying the urban renewal bills. This same ratio is very similar in all the other 10 URACs.

But, then again URACs are only advisory. If the advisory vote/position is contrary to what the behind-the-scene dictators want, Sam and the like will just explain that the vote was only advisory. Or like what PDC's last Director Bruce Warner did when the SoWhat URAC unanimously voted to strongly oppose Sam taking $10 Million in TIF dollars for Milwaukie Light Rail, Bruce reported to the City Council that "there was some concern" about the takings. But most of the time URACs are rubber stamps. Some much for public input.

I witnessed three big meetings where the people did come out and wanted a question and answer session and didn't get it. The first one, people were told to sit at tables and cut and paste, like little kids. Put greenery in places and buildings in other spaces, etc. People objected, that time Hales stepped in and prevented a public discussion, said those who had questions could go to the corner and talk to him about it.

By the third meeting, the auditorium was filled with people and they insisted on a question and answer period. Then Mayor Katz said No, there would not be a question and answer session, that there were boards in the lobby and to put red dots on what they didn't like and green dots on what they would like.

Most people would stop going, but then they get characterized as not being involved.

On another issue, remember someone saying to me at a city council meeting they were surprised anyone still came down but thought that only stubborn ones were there again.

I find it thoroughly disgusting that we get this kind of treatment, and that we cannot seem to shake this to something better at least on the local level.

...Sure, the neighborhood association(s) are contacted, but they sit on the fence because they want to be fair and balanced and get more information before a yea/nea; and that is after the real decisions are made...

What do we have in pdx, over 90 neighborhood associations?

Me thinks there is more going on in some of them then they sit on the fence because they want to be fair and balanced....

Granted there are some doing good work, but for that many in our city, I would expect more outrage about what is happening and the kind of treatment citizens get as discussed in posts above.

How about making urban renewal district vary ofrom rectangle to octagon in shape and everything inside be part of the urban renewal??

That blob on the east side of Greeley between Rosa Parks and Lombard is just plain weird. That's a residential block with (as I recall) only one business on the stretch (a hair salon) on the opposite side of Greeley (with exception of the extreme ends on Lombard and Rosa Parks).

???

I do have the PDC flier. There was a public testimony period of Wed. July 20.
The flier also stated that if the Interstate URP impacted tax rates, and it was approved by City Council, it would be subject to referendum. I did not know what that meant, so I called the resource
person listed on the flier (Keith Witcosky, 503-823-3200)several times and could not get thru.

On the flier was a picture of one of the success stories; which was a makeover of the Paul Bunyan in Kenton. I live in SW
and I find it difficult to understand why I am continually funding improvements in areas of the city other than my own.

Public testimony period Wed. July 20th?
Who was notified and how much time was given to arrange a schedule. Was this one of those dates where at the last minute they changed dates to another?

Busy busy, in the summer we all are, am surprised they didn't have this on the day before Thanksgiving. We should be so thankful to have PDC here? Think we have had enough of them for how long?? The Century? At any rate, if they could, we would have a blanket of URA over the city!

Clinamen;

The flier did note that the dates for public testimony were subject to change.
I just assumed everyone in the city of Portland received a flier. Maybe not.