This is because the bureaus have literally coded us out of any possible existence.

If the building is more than 3 years old and paid for with anything aside from developer-corrupt-city money - it's illegal.

Get used to the giant 'U's everywhere.

Thunderbird.

Wait until Fish and Cogan head down to Salem next year and get permission to expand property tax exemptions (LTEs) for new multi-family construction in affluent neighborhoods. That will really put some gas on this fire.

I used to see these buildings from time to time, and I am sorry to see them go. Nice old houses, but surrounded by commercial buildings and a forgettable apartment block.

I am familiar with the parking setup in this part of the neighborhood. It's a good thing they plan to offer spaces, because it would get even more crazy without it. I wouldn't want to park there every day.

There aren't many homes left on this stretch of Hawthorne. Taking down two of the best remaining examples down seems like a conscious decision to make the hilltop stretch look more like the larger, uglier boulevards to the north.

Nice going, Portland. Make sure you don't accidentally leave a bit of originality and charm behind, that's all reserved for the West Hills.

Once again, our decision to leave the City feels justified, although I take no pleasure in it this time around.

The last comment on the O article, comparing what's happening to SE to Dallas, hit a nerve. The commenter was absolutely right, of course. Congratulations, Portland 2012: you're becoming just like Dallas 1985.

Interesting analogy. Let's not forget what Dallas was like during the oil bust two decades ago, a land of well-stocked pawn shops and reposessed Mercedes.

I knew a guy (just a young dude, not a business magnate) who regularly flew in from 2,000 miles away to prowl the Dallas pawns for pro camera gear. He made a pret-ty penny reselling it back home.

What will Portland look like after the Food Cart Bust, the Twee Little Hemp Handbag bust, or maybe the Graphic Designer Poster Contest Subsidy Bust?

I think a comparison to North Korea is more accurate. Tons of bunker apartments, no jobs, and just shut the Hell up - your der leaders know what is good for you.

Well the kids will have lots of places to live now. Apparently career-track jobs and livable wages are supposed to follow?

In Portland planning, form never follows function. Form is self-justifying.

Ah those West Hills, where the resident's parking concerns are actually taken seriously:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/portlandcityhall/2012/10/council_crest_neighbors_hope_t.html

I can't imagine that they get many commuters parking up there to gamble on the glacial headway of Route 51 (often served by the 30-footers of the cursed Fleet 16).

Must be nice to be one of the Portland homeowners that the city grandees actually care about... or perhaps a voting majority up there are involved with City business.

What will Portland look like after the Food Cart Bust, the Twee Little Hemp Handbag bust, or maybe the Graphic Designer Poster Contest Subsidy Bust?

What will it matter? The perpetrators will be long gone by then, blaming their failures on something else and moving on to another host organism.

Downtown Denizen, I was right in the middle of that crash, so you're right on the money. (Hell, I remember the pawn shops in Houston that offered drivethrough assessments, just so customers didn't have to get out of their limos when selling off their oil boom jewelry.) If you thought it was bad during the dotcom bust when it seemed as if half of Portland was moving back to whereever it was they came from, just wait until the hipster handouts end. As it is, it's a good time to buy up supplies for food carts and cutesy "She's Making Jewelry Now" handicrafts and sell them to late arrivals who figure that the impending crash won't hit them.

"At least we're not the only one writing about it."

Give some credit, the O is also writing about reforming PFDR. Unfortunately, govt is the one that has to do something about it and the apt surge.

I've lost faith in govt being even remotely concerned about what the people they represent want.

To borrow a line from a great movie, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing Portlanders that they needed to hire big banks and developers to destroy their own neighborhoods in order the save the world.

If you listen carefully you can almost hear the distant sound of laughter on the wind.