"Urban renewal," without the urb, cont'd
In Canby, Oregon -- a place so rural that Google doesn't have hardly any of it on Street View -- they're using the old "urban renewal" pork barrel to build a new public library and bureaucrat office building. We thought that the whole idea of "urban renewal" was to enhance the tax base so that increased property tax collections will pay off the borrowed money that's being used to alleviate the supposed "blight." How new government buildings are going to increase property taxes is anybody's guess.
And of course, since there's never really been anything in downtown Canby to start with, it's silly to talk about "renewing" it. Oh, well. Borrow on, boomers -- let the kids pay for it.
| Posted at 9:43 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
Downtown Canby is remarkably blight-free. What a boondoggle!
Posted by pacnwjay | August 29, 2012 12:07 PM
Perhaps the "urban renewal" area should include the Clackamas County fair grounds. Those have been "blighted" for the last 50 years!
Posted by Portland Native | August 29, 2012 12:25 PM
Check out the graph the city uses on page 2 here:
http://www.ci.canby.or.us/URD/documents/UR_AnnualReport2010-11.pdf
along with this lie
"Throughout the life of the District, all taxing districts continue to receive all tax revenues on this existing
assessed value. This base ensures that important community services continue to receive the same level of
revenue to support services important to citizens."
What's missing is any mention of routine increases in property taxes that will be taken to pay the debt or any mention of the rising cost of services that will not get that funding.
Which is why this graph was created.
https://bojack.org/images/urbanrenewalgraph.pdf
Posted by another dishonest city | August 29, 2012 1:51 PM
The shifting of urban renewal projects to Canby and other rural communities makes total sense. The Portland waters are almost fished out, and commercial developers need to find new waters; locations where they can present the lure to brand new fish.
Posted by gibby | August 29, 2012 2:10 PM
This is all over the world. I am convinced it is just another slick way for the criminals and Banksters for the world to launder their money.
Posted by Portland Native | August 29, 2012 2:22 PM
How new government buildings are going to increase property taxes is anybody's guess.
That one's easy. They'll securitize the anticipated revenue stream from library fines.
Posted by Allan L. | August 29, 2012 5:43 PM
Why bother. In 50 years when Oregon has "high speed rail" the Union Pacific mainline will be relegated to a slow-speed freight bypass, since the 250 mile an hour commuter rail trains will be using the Oregon Electric line that will serve Lake Oswego, Tualatin, Wilsonville, a grain elevator near the Woodburn Dragstrip (but not downtown Woodburn), Keizer, and Salem's waterfront...
...but will not serve Canby, or Oregon City. So these towns will by planner edict become abandoned "exurban" ghost towns as the young hip population will center themselves around the high speed rail stations, forming new utopian communities in the farmland of West Woodburn, Wilsonville, and the fruit packing plants of Salem.
Posted by Erik H. | August 29, 2012 8:09 PM
It's a lot easier to use urban renewal than to ask voters to actually approve a bond for capital projects, as the school districts and counties must. . .
Interesting that the Canby chart says the district will be paid off in 2019 -- a mere 20 years after it started, and only a few years after it sells bonds for the final projects. Are they using short-term debt and paying it off quickly? Bully for them if so. Marked contrast to the Portland practice, where one Urban Renewal Area won't be paid off until almost a half-century after it started.
Posted by Sarah Carlin Ames | August 30, 2012 9:34 AM