Portland Urban Renewal Scam
posted in City planning, Urban areas |
The Antiplanner’s former hometown of Portland, Oregon, is proposing to create a new urban renewal district that is so gerrymandered that blogger Jack Bogdanski suspects it must cover at least 50 scams.
Most of Portland’s previous urban renewal districts are pretty regular, following roughly rectangular boundaries. The proposed new district has fingers going in all directions, often connected to other parts of the district by an area no wider than a street. Some of the fingers overlap existing or lapsed districts.
Take my word for it, nothing in this district is blighted or needs public funds for renewal. Most of it is heralded as a part of Portland’s successful planning in the past. In particular, the parts that overlap existing or previous district should already have been renewed; why do they need to be renewed again?
Instead, this is simply a scam to grab tax dollars that would otherwise be “wasted” by going to school districts, libraries, fire, and other services. Planners estimate they will be able to milk the properties in this district for enough annual revenue to make payments on $345 million worth of bonds. They can then use those hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize all sorts of projects.
Urban renewal was created to help cities kick-start redevelopment of slums, abandoned industrial areas, and other blighted areas. Now it is used primarily for crony capitalism, social engineering, and to allow cities to pad their budgets by stealing funds from other taxing districts. Only time will tell which of these three uses is the primary goal of this new district.
The Wrap by Ron Judd
Seattle Times staff columnist
This is in no way meant to suggest that Sen. Patty Murray, D-Booster Seat, is in any trouble in her bid for re-election.
But did you see President Obama's stop at Top Pot Doughnuts the other day, while in town on her behalf? Just before he downed that old-fashioned glazed, he appeared to slide one of those frequent-muncher's punch cards into his suit pocket.
More hole foods:
State Of The Union: It wasn't really that hard for local Democrats to choose the blue-collar Seattle family that hosted the prez for a backyard chat. The other one was out of town.
This Just In: Ginni Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is asking Seattle Sonics fans to apologize for defaming legendary baldfaced liar Clay Bennett of Oklahoma City.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat: Due to surprising problems assembling high-tech airliners from parts fabricated on opposite sides of the planet, Boeing is mulling a plan to build the horizontal tails of future 787s in the Seattle area. If the company's ingenious march toward insourcing continues at this rate, it'll be right back to where it was 100 years ago in no time.
Speaking Of Which: Among those not at all surprised by Boeing's trouble with shoddy work on tail sections by Italian mechanics: Anyone who's ever driven or looked at a Fiat.
And Then This: Anyone else start reading about Boeing's "fabrication sites" and wonder whether they'd gone into the anonymous campaign-ad business?
Speaking Of Those: Washington state is considered a front-runner to gain an additional seat in Congress. Great. But thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, the seat better come with an additional TV station to help handle the load of unattributed corporate bile.
Software Hard Money: Former Microsoft exec Suzan DelBene has donated more than $2 million of her own money in a bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Bench Press. She's taking over the mantle from Darcy Burner, another former Microsoftie. Which makes us wonder: If the state income-tax measure is adopted, will anyone in Redmond be able to afford to run against Reichert next time?
HDMI In, Garbage Out: Samsung is touting its new "Smart TV," which comes pre-clogged with a bunch of "apps" and other software junk. The real question is: Can a smart TV really, in good conscience, show you "America's Got Talent?"
Big Sports News: The new Pac-12 conference will be split in two. Of local interest: The northern division will include all the competitive teams from Northern California, Oregon and Washington, plus Washington State.
Anonymous Commenter Quote Of The Week: "Anybody who puts any creditability (sic) in a newspaper endorsement is a fool." — "Dog Patch," responding to a politics blog post about newspaper endorsements in the U.S. Senate race.
And Finally: The Nevada Supreme Court has refused to overturn unconvicted murderer O.J. Simpson's 33-year sentence for kidnapping, armed robbery, conspiracy and other crimes. The search for the real killers of his former wife is just going to have to be picked up by someone else.
Ron Judd also writes Restless Native columns. Reach him at rjudd@seattletimes.com
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