This Week in the Mercury

Tour Guide to Shakespeare

Theater

Tour Guide to Shakespeare

Portland Center Stage's Shakespeare's Amazing Cymbeline.


All Shook Up

Food and Drink

All Shook Up

Oven and Shaker's Italian Comfort Food



  |  

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Portland / Politics Will Interstate Urban Renewal $$ Fund Memorial Coliseum?

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 10:31 AM

Matt mentioned this issue in the morning news, but I wanted to give you all the skinny on the urban renewal money negotiations that happened last night at the Interstate Urban Renewal Advisory Group meeting.

Mayor Sam Adams stopped in at the meeting to ask the group to consider a big change: to study expanding the Interstate Urban Renewal Area down to Memorial Coliseum so that some of its $335 million in urban renewal funds can be used to refurbish the midcentury building. Not including Memorial Coliseum in the Interstate urban renewal area would hurt "the chances of repairing and saving Memorial Coliseum" explained Adams. The cost of repairing Memorial Coliseum is currently unknown, but city consultant Don Mazziotti says that repairing the roof alone will cost $1.1 million.

The group was skeptical. "We've heard the story, we only want to study how we might use your money, we don't actually want your money," said committee member Walter Valenta. Interstate Urban Renewal funds have been used in the past to pay for big projects (like light rail and the New Columbia affordable housing project), leaving a slate of smaller projects underfunded. The group wrote up a "gem list" this year of 16 high priority development projects in the area — some members are afraid that funding the Coliseum renovation could yank money from plans to improve Lombard street or build a plaza next to Jefferson High School.

"The last thing I want to do is reprioritize existing projects," promised Adams. "I don't want to collectively miss an opportunity that could bring increment to the district and potentially pay for itself." Adams said strongly that the Interstate funds would NOT be used to build the AAA ballpark in the Rose Quarter, just possibly be be used to refurbish the Coliseum.

North Portland residents are also wary of funding any project they think might lead to gentrification. "How would it going to be different this time?" asked one woman who was 30 years old when construction of Memorial Coliseum displaced a predominantly African American neighborhood and business district.
"Urban renewal funds are supposed to be used in blighted areas. I look at the Rose Quarter and ask, 'How is this blight?'" asked committee member Jennie Portis.
"A sea of parking lots in the Rose Quarter is blight," responded Adams. "Memorial Coliseum is in a holding pattern and it needs a lot of tender loving care."
8f99/1240334385-sam_and_cake.jpg

Sam: Serves cake to Interstate urban renewal group, gets Coliseum funds as tip?

After Adams departed for another meeting, the group vigorously debated whether to study the URA expansion. Committee member Cathy Galbraith worried about the planned 24-hour entertainment district:
"They build these kind of standard generic entertainment venues, the Hard Rock Cafes of the world. The city could spend a lot of money very quickly studying the entertainment district and I resent Interstate paying for that. This is a really open-ended proposal that I heard and I'm not sure we should be looking at this as something we're going to get, but something we're going to give."

In reality, the city can expand the district wherever its wants. Checking in with the advisory group and having the opportunity to vent and give feedback "is really more of a courtesy ask," noted Maxine Fitzpatrick. The neighbors decided to approve the study, but with language acknowledging they do not have the final say in the matter. "We know you are going to study this area, in light of your decision, here are our concerns," Galbraith summed up.

If all this urban renewal politicking and cake eating interests you, come to the Mercury-Bus Project Brewhaha next week! Topic: Get A Clue About Urban Renewal.

 

Comments (12) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
"Blight" is whatever our overbearing, nanny-state, government overlords say it is, silly.
Posted by Suburban Porn King on April 21, 2009 at 11:04 AM · Report
2
We are all socialists now SPK.
Posted by BlackedOut on April 21, 2009 at 11:05 AM · Report
3
The only people who should be allowed to touch MC are avant-garde artists (who are also parents and understand that children, too, are part of the world), and those artists should be under the supervision of the McMenamin brothers. Have a minimalist style celebration and revival with some serious kitsch. QUIRKY CELEBRATION HEAVEN that never stops working and making the city revenue-filled with families with young children and retirees during the day using the pools at 10$/pop, restaurant taking the public's money in exchange for celebrated McMenamin's hospitality,rich businessmen playing racquetball and doing laps in the evening, adults drinking and dancing and using the bar and soaking pools all the night long....have a section dedicatred to teenagers with pooltables, pinball machines, climbing wall, small projection screen for movies. On and on. just make sure that noone except the mcMenamins have creative control, and we'll be good. And don't forget to dedicate one corner to the butterfly garden complete with flamingos and moths the size of dinner plates. I may be wrong, but MC is so HUGE, I think it would all fit...ah, so much imagination, so little money.
Posted by gonetorio on April 21, 2009 at 11:12 AM · Report
4
"In reality, the city can expand the district wherever its wants."

Not true. The City can try. However, as we just saw in the recent attempt to expand the River Dist. URA in order to use funds in the Pearl District, the State Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) said, "no way." This was in response to the lawsuit by Friends of Urban Renewal which was based in part, on a similar issue of using TIF. Another group is fully prepared to launch another similar lawsuit should Interstate URA funding be used for the Rose Quarter. Keep in mind that this lawsuit is still pending on several other items and that many city URA projects are on hold until LUBA makes their ruling, this is costing the City now and in the long term.

Furthermore, what people fail to realize is that the City is reaching maximum indebtedness for TIF (tax increment financing - the financing used in urban renewal) and we are reaching the maximum geography for URAs as per the State's URA criteria. Restated, there is only so much the City can use for URA funding and we are reaching that limit for a few different reasons: 1) The City keeps extending the life of URAs which are only meant to be for 30 years - the money is not getting paid back it just keeps getting diverted, 2) Several URA districts do not have much funding available since the money has already been spent on expensive capital and other projects such as the Tram, Lightrail, Streets, and Affordable Housing that take a couple of decades to be recapped, if ever. 3) Due to the economy and other factors several URA districts are under performing because all those condos, hotels, etc the city invested in aren't panning out (i.e. the Nines and South Waterfront.). 4) Finally, the City is only allowed to have 15% of total geography within URAs. We are already at something like 13.5%.

Extending Interstate to be used for the Rose Quarter is idiotic and in essence will divert funding from the Interstate URA. I think Sam Adams has lost his mind.
More...
Posted by ExCityEmployee on April 21, 2009 at 11:16 AM · Report
5
I would have been at that meeting, but instead I was at a meeting about the [lack of] business district along Lombard, which is already in the Interstate URA. Our discussion was that we could and should use that money to clean up actual blighted areas, like stores that can't afford to repaint their signs, or boarded up gas stations. But expanding the URA so we could pay for some rich kid to have a place to put his latest toy seemed like a bad deal. So we're (North Portland Land Use Group) is writing a letter, and probably tonight my neighborhood association will write a letter as well...
Posted by Matthew D on April 21, 2009 at 11:30 AM · Report
6
"We are all socialists now SPK."

Just now? I've known nothing else in my ferty years.
Posted by Suburban Porn King on April 21, 2009 at 11:34 AM · Report
7
Yes...ever since we elected the communist fascist libtard super hero Barack Obama to head the politburo.

We weren't communist/socialist/islamo fascists when the great people's hero George W. was battling the dark forces of Satan's liberal army with his giant lightsaber like cock.

The mighty Ron Paul was supposed to save us but he couldn't raise enough money because they're taxing the rich too much.
Posted by BlackedOut on April 21, 2009 at 11:40 AM · Report
8
I'm just trying to get my head around these new fangled socialist programs that happened since Obama was elected:

Social Security
Medicare and the prescription drug benefit
Interstate freeways
Welfare
Publis housing
Unemployment insurance
Food stamps
Public schools
FERS
Income tax

Posted by Suburban Porn King on April 21, 2009 at 1:29 PM · Report
9
You know, the PDC is an actual Commission of people. Upon it's creation, the idea was you'd have this seperate group somewhat insulated from electoral politics making these decisions on which neighborhoods to mow down, and how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.

Just in the last couple of years, the Council, led by Sam, decided to significantly erode this seperation so that the Council could start more directly throwing this money around. The pretext was that the PDC wasn't handling affordable housing well, and the Council needed to step in to make sure the public was being taken care of.

Fast forward to now, and the PDC is still in disarray, being chopped into different peices and being rearranged by the politicians. Many many people at the PDC with an ounce of competence or hire-ability have gotten the hell out.

I said at the time, and I still believe, that the Council's recent choice to become more directly involved in these gargantuan projects would bring one or more of them down. If you're the mayor and you push for some wildly over-budget failure like the tram, you don't want it to be "your project" - you want plausible deniability. In other words, you want to blame it on the PDC.

Randy and Sam have now tied their names to an effort to completely redo the Rose Quarter without knowing the true cost or scale. The current budget is around a quarter of a $billion. They think this will bring them glory, but instead they'll find themselves standing with their pants around their ankles.

Then, too late, they'll understand why the PDC was set up the way it was: to protect idiot politicians from themselves.

(There is an excellent recent example of this dynamic. The Council circumvented it's own street-naming procedures and tried to rename Interstate after Chavez with a simple vote, only to have the whole issue explode rather violently in their laps. Too late, they realized "Hey, these street-renaming procedures aren't just here to provide mindless red tape. The process is actually here to cover our stupid asses." It's a lesson they'll have to learn a few times over I guess.)
More...
Posted by Blabby on April 21, 2009 at 2:14 PM · Report
10
Hugs to Blabby. You are right on the money. Council's desire to grab the reins of PDC is coming back to bite them on the butt.
Posted by ExCityEmployee on April 21, 2009 at 5:52 PM · Report
11
Funny, I'd have thought you'd be arguing the complete opposite - that unelected groups such as the PDC shouldn't have so much say over our money, it should be disbanded completely and give the control to the elected members of the council... After all, that's what we elect them for... At least that way, when we don't agree with one of their decisions (in my case, the convention center hotel), we can hold them accountable for it...
Posted by Stu on April 21, 2009 at 6:28 PM · Report
12
The people have no bread to eat, no jobs, and their property taxes are killing them.

Let them eat cake, Sam replied.
Posted by bruce123456 on April 21, 2009 at 9:21 PM · Report

Add a comment

Our Friends

Our Enemies

/images/adoftheweek.gif

ad of the day

The Handyman Pro - Your Honey-Do Specialist
Don’t let our name fool you. The Handyman Pro, LLC is a repair and remodel service provider with over 25-years experience. We cover all aspects of construction and repairs for residential and commercial clients.go


post an ad

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use