Any of my Portland peeps out there? I hope you're reading this. I'm in a really bad dream and I really want to wake up...
Maybe you see it too. I'm talking about all the pretty shit down by the Spaghetti Factory, and I don't mean pasta sauce, baby, I mean giant fucking condo skyscrapers and a big tram tower that looks like a cement ice axe. Sound familiar? I had no idea where this shit was coming from and who it was being built for until about two weeks ago when the press finally caught the scent. Most recently, the city council very narrowly passed a controversial development plan for the South Waterfront. Portland will be spending an uncapped sum of city money on an OHSU owned residential zone ala the Pearl. I hope you're wondering the same thing I am, because I have no idea how OHSU gets away with turning itself into a luxury real estate magnate. Where's the "health sciences" in that? But I digress...
The majority of the criticism being leveled at this development has to do with the definition of "affordable housing" which in this case is 100 units for people who make 80% above the median household income. The chief complaint is that the city and PDC should be leveraging a deal wherein housing is subsidized for lower income folks. Whoa there. Stop squabbling over free money and take a time out for our sponsor.
Today's program is prought to you by the word SUBSIDY: A SUBSIDY is money the government takes out of your paycheck to spend on someone else. "America SUBSIDIZES unprofitable Amercan mega-farmers to keep poor African farmers out of business." SUB-SIDY.
In this case, like the Sheriff of Nottingham, the Portland Development Comission is taking your income, both through the city and through federal grants, and subsidizing waterfront condo skyscrapers, presumably for the tax-exempt doctors who work nearby. Never mind the fact that they're rich; I happen to like making money. Shit, I'd love to live in one of those towers. These assholes can afford to send their kids to Catlin Gabel and drive Porsches because they're doctors at a public university, funded yet again by the government. Now they're going to take that nifty tram boondoggle to get up the hill to work at a scenic hospital complex that experts are saying should have been moved to a more practical location years ago.
The icing on the cake is that Tri-Met is announcing plans to connect the South Waterfront area by a special street car, just like the Pearl. What a sweet deal! You can take public transportation from work to home to Babette without ever having to interact Tri-Met's working class patrons.
Yeah. I'm not sure, but I think that's a dick in my ass.
Some good places to read up on this are in the 9/9 issue of Willamette Week and the 9/8 issue of the Portland Tribune. There are also some back issues of the Portland Mercury and Tribune worth mentioning. If you're curious, I'd be happy to dig them up. If I'm wrong, please tell me, because I'd really like to know what the fuck's going on here.
Maybe you see it too. I'm talking about all the pretty shit down by the Spaghetti Factory, and I don't mean pasta sauce, baby, I mean giant fucking condo skyscrapers and a big tram tower that looks like a cement ice axe. Sound familiar? I had no idea where this shit was coming from and who it was being built for until about two weeks ago when the press finally caught the scent. Most recently, the city council very narrowly passed a controversial development plan for the South Waterfront. Portland will be spending an uncapped sum of city money on an OHSU owned residential zone ala the Pearl. I hope you're wondering the same thing I am, because I have no idea how OHSU gets away with turning itself into a luxury real estate magnate. Where's the "health sciences" in that? But I digress...
The majority of the criticism being leveled at this development has to do with the definition of "affordable housing" which in this case is 100 units for people who make 80% above the median household income. The chief complaint is that the city and PDC should be leveraging a deal wherein housing is subsidized for lower income folks. Whoa there. Stop squabbling over free money and take a time out for our sponsor.
Today's program is prought to you by the word SUBSIDY: A SUBSIDY is money the government takes out of your paycheck to spend on someone else. "America SUBSIDIZES unprofitable Amercan mega-farmers to keep poor African farmers out of business." SUB-SIDY.
In this case, like the Sheriff of Nottingham, the Portland Development Comission is taking your income, both through the city and through federal grants, and subsidizing waterfront condo skyscrapers, presumably for the tax-exempt doctors who work nearby. Never mind the fact that they're rich; I happen to like making money. Shit, I'd love to live in one of those towers. These assholes can afford to send their kids to Catlin Gabel and drive Porsches because they're doctors at a public university, funded yet again by the government. Now they're going to take that nifty tram boondoggle to get up the hill to work at a scenic hospital complex that experts are saying should have been moved to a more practical location years ago.
The icing on the cake is that Tri-Met is announcing plans to connect the South Waterfront area by a special street car, just like the Pearl. What a sweet deal! You can take public transportation from work to home to Babette without ever having to interact Tri-Met's working class patrons.
Yeah. I'm not sure, but I think that's a dick in my ass.
Some good places to read up on this are in the 9/9 issue of Willamette Week and the 9/8 issue of the Portland Tribune. There are also some back issues of the Portland Mercury and Tribune worth mentioning. If you're curious, I'd be happy to dig them up. If I'm wrong, please tell me, because I'd really like to know what the fuck's going on here.
york:
Since leaving Portland a few years ago, I missed out on a lot of bad and good. The bad of course is all the Pearl/SoWhat district bullshit. The good is a blog like bojack's, which doesn't exactly allay my fears.