Budget cuts? What budget cuts?
The Portland Development Commission is hiring. Hey, somebody's got to shovel the money to Homer and the boys. The new guy will no doubt be good at it:
Wood owed and then repaid the agency $688,500 last year as part of a private-side redevelopment project that went bankrupt.... Wood launched his own company, Foundation Real Estate Development, in 2005. But a project in Beaverton didn't move forward and a redevelopment effort in downtown Portland went into bankruptcy. The Portland project involved a loan from the PDC, which Wood eventually repaid last year, plus interest.... Quinton said Wood will begin by looking at specific PDC-owned properties and assess agency plans and recommend options, including holding land, selling properties or striking deals with private developers.
They ought to shut the whole operation down and sell all the property. For what the taxpayers are paying to keep the PDC open, they aren't getting much of anything worth hanging onto.
| Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (7)
It seems to me someone versed in managing bankruptcies is the perfect candidate for the PDC.
Posted by Dave Lister | February 22, 2013 12:13 PM
Think of the PDC as creating projects that have "trickle down" benefits!
The best illustration of how various Portland bureaus "work" with each other in the second half of this cartoon here...
Portland Bureaucracy
Posted by Mr. Grumpy | February 22, 2013 12:55 PM
What Dave Lister said.
Posted by TheD Man | February 22, 2013 12:58 PM
When you study the history of the PDC and "urban renewal" in Portland it is pretty interesting.
Their early endeavors were to raze an Italian/Irish immigrant neighborhood to create the auditorium district and an African-American neighborhood to create the Coliseum. The victims had little money and no political clout so they were unable to push back against "progress".
That was the start of the piggies feeding from the PDC trough and it has never stopped.
Posted by Dave Lister | February 22, 2013 1:29 PM
Hey, somebody's got to shovel the money to Homer and the boys.
And speaking of Homer Williams, I was looking through my collection of clippings the other day and found an interesting Willamette Week item in the "Quotable" section from the April 4, 2001 issue..
Willy Week provided readers with a quote by "Portland developer Homer Williams, in support of a bill to allow real-estate transfer taxes to fund low-income housing." And the Homer quote is:
"A major part of successfully doing business is basic societal stability. Providing affordable housing is not just a good thing to do from a moral perspective,
it helps clear the air of divisive political fights in a way that does not disrupt business."
Posted by Bob Tiernan | February 22, 2013 3:14 PM
Bruce Wood..."whose own business didn't get off the ground, has accepted a job with Portland's urban renewal agency. He starts Monday."
There's no greater qualification for work in City government than failure in the private sector...extra points if you stiffed your creditors along the way. This is what keeps Portland ahead in the race to the bottom.
Posted by PD | February 22, 2013 5:20 PM
"A major part of successfully doing business is basic societal stability. Providing affordable housing is not just a good thing to do from a moral perspective,
it helps clear the air of divisive political fights in a way that does not disrupt business."
That's so 2001. Today, it's all about sustainability and LEED-whatever and streetcars, no matter what the cost.
The poor people? They're not sustainable. They use old cars, old appliances, aren't on the Internet, and don't recycle. They can disappear.
Posted by Erik H. | February 23, 2013 6:14 PM