Boo hoo, Mike Powell didn't get his handout
The Burnside-Couch traffic "couplet" on the east side of Portland burned through tons of money with not much benefit to show for it. And so those of us who would like to see City Hall get around to maintaining what we have, rather than building schlock that we don't need, have been relieved that the plan to do the same thing on the west side is languishing for lack of money. The west side version, pushed strenuously by Mike Powell of bookstore fame, even included a streetcar -- the ultimate waste of money.
And so we find quite curious this column by Steve Duin of the O, which asserts that it was just wealthy people in the Henry condos in the Pearl who killed the couplet. Common sense had nothing to do with it, apparently.
If Burnside is dangerous, there's a lot that could be done to make it safer. But nobody in city government is interested in that -- unless it makes some wealthy real estate investors even wealthier at the same time. We doubt that it was just rich people in the Pearl who derailed this particular boondoggle, but whatever it was, Portland needs a lot more of it. We need to stop letting the city we have rot away from below while we build shiny junk on its surface.
| Posted at 1:25 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (11)
The idea was crap all along. Yet I cannot recall seeing any opportunity to share my opinion.
Posted by reader | February 11, 2012 3:33 PM
I think this blog was your only opportunity to share your opinion.
Posted by Garage Wine | February 11, 2012 3:37 PM
Upon further reading, it turns out David Wu WAS good for something!
Posted by reader | February 11, 2012 3:38 PM
Powell's building will make an excellent indoor paint-ball field. Musty old books will add to the scene.
Posted by Abe | February 11, 2012 6:09 PM
Now, perhaps, whoever is responsible for the couplet's termination might turn his attention to the resurfacing of West Burnside?
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | February 11, 2012 6:10 PM
Just put a bird on it and call it art.
Posted by Gil Slater | February 11, 2012 7:04 PM
the couplet's termination....
Come on, you know better. It isn't dead, it's just (to borrow Jack's term) "languishing". The forces behind something like this don't give up that easily, and we'll see it rise again like a phoenix from the ashes in another year or two.
Posted by John Rettig | February 11, 2012 9:40 PM
I'm sure there's some redevelopment plan in the works that involves a couplet, a bike boulevard, bioswales, a major league baseball field, streetcars, a convention center hotel, a green business incubator, a sustainability center, lots o' condos, a token low-income housing project, lots of "live-work" spaces, artists studios and lofts...
It'll all come together, at the right moment. And if you're wondering where the baseball stadium will go, it'll be built on top of I-405 to bring back Vera Katz's idea of capping that freeway. After all, Seattle did it with their Convention Center.
Posted by Erik H. | February 11, 2012 11:17 PM
In the interim, they will be busy with the Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative (another name for URA's, small PDC projects)and it looks like plans for around Broadway and and and....
these people never stop redeveloping, maybe that one near PSU/Lincoln High had to done first?
Posted by clinamen | February 12, 2012 11:19 AM
Re: "these people never stop redeveloping"
clinamen,
Why would they go away after they have been fed so well for so long?
As far as I know, there exist no re-education programs for urban developers, urban renewalists, or urban planners. What else are they going to do with themselves than what they have been doing?
Some may have their heroes, such as Edmund Bacon -- Kevin's aloof father -- who oversaw the demolition of much of West Philadelphia but could not find room for that city's own Louis Kahn. But few of them seem to entertain much in the way of idealism: their interest in the city and its residents doesn't move beyond venality. Profits extracted from the city's residents by the developers do not appear to have been retained in the city.
Despite, perhaps owing to, its alleged and inequitably enforced regulations, Portland has, during the past two decades, emerged as a hodge-podge of undistinguished, often hideous architectural utterances. Many neighborhoods have been stripped of their former charm and rendered visually boring, at best. A tour of "renewed" neighborhoods can prove more painful than edifying. We have gotten what we paid for -- whether we wanted to pay for it or not.
Clearly, it has been much easier for developers and the succession of elected and appointed abetters to reshape this city than it has been for this city's residents to resist their city's misshaping. For the most part, city residents are kept occupied struggling with the city's bureaucracies over the ever-escalating cost of water and sewage, exorbitant trash and recycling fees, and loss of basic services, such as street repair. The isolation of City Hall from this city's residents is an essential distraction exploited by developers.
But I can't go on because...it's easier to head to the coast, down to the vineyards, or even into the treacherous mountains.
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | February 12, 2012 1:19 PM
Gardiner Menefree,
So true what you wrote.
So sad too. There are times I start out with something, and can't go on either.....
What else are they going to do with themselves than what they have been doing?
An idea for what else these urban developers/planners could do if no projects?
Get a job with the lego company, They can develop/plan to their hearts content, tearing up and rebuilding cities and then go along with an exhibit tour.
That could keep them busy/entertained for awhile if some are so addicted to projects.
Posted by clinamen | February 12, 2012 9:02 PM