http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/07/02/big-transit-big-building-big Comments On: Big Transit, Big Building, Big $$$ by Sarah Mirk en-us Copyright 2009 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss it takes just as long to ride my bike 4 miles as it would to drive
i am not 20 either, and i see plenty of older folks bike commuting as well
as much as i dislike the design, i would submit that this building is on one of the busiest bike commuting corridors in portland
i would also submit that us younger, non home owning, bike commuting folks do pay taxes and support our communities.
and some day we will buy homes/condos without parking spaces
so there

Posted by iheartmies]]> Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:03:34 -0700 Portland Mercury
What is special or filling an unmet public need that warrants the TOD tax exemption - which means paying property taxes only on the underlying dirt/land, and nothing on the buidlding for ten years? This question should be asked for any TOD application.

How much new development should be publicly subsidized and why? It is public money so the "public" has the right & responsibilty to participate in making the decisions. That's the way the lofy goal & intent of "citizen participation" - the foundation of Oregon's 1970s land use planning system - was supposed to work.
Cathy Galbraith
Posted by Cathy Galbraith]]> Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:44:11 -0700 Portland Mercury I was going off of that 'density done right' link article - it's much like the 'co-housing' movement (see the eyesores at Killingsworth and N. Burrage)
I have no doubt these peoples' greatest frustration in life is keeping the seething hatred of their neighbors bottled up.

Posted by D]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:02:45 -0700 Portland Mercury
In addition, it's wonderful to try to encourage transit oriented development in a city, but seems problematic when that very same city is facing transit service cuts, including completely cutting the number 4 line which serves that immediate area.
Posted by ExCityEmployee]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:00:36 -0700 Portland Mercury
They don't prefer it. As rickshaws pointed out, they prefer it for other people. Density is great... in your neighborhood. Riding transit is great... for you.

What planners don't realize is that the eventual backlash to what they're doing right now, may well be the end of the UGB altogether. At the very least, it's going to be a movement of people out of the city into the countryside, where they will have to drive their cars back into the city.

People like their little homes in old Pdx neighborhoods, but if you surround them with a bunch of brand new, light blocking skinny homes and triplexes with no parking, they WILL leave eventually.

They'll take their money and political clout and carve a place for themselves in the suburbs. If the UGB system is a hindrance, they'll end it. This state isn't run by bike messengers and moony-eyed recent college grads. Like everywhere else, the real power is in the older richer family demographic. And if you insist on ruining their community with crappy infill housing, they'll change the rules to what they want.

There's a reason that this type of crap is happening in traditionally black and poor neighborhoods. Instead of cheering a new apartment complex with no parking, liberals SHOULD be asking why these projects are successfully killed in Irvington, but gets huge subsidies on N. Williams.
Posted by Blabby]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:53:17 -0700 Portland Mercury Surely, they are not so dense as to know that as Sartre says,"hell is other people."
Have they never been to Montana or North Dakota?
Posted by D]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:26:35 -0700 Portland Mercury
I would also be willing to bet that Ms. Olson has her own parking space in the driveway or the garage and that she would not try to sell her house without it.
Posted by rickshaws are the future]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:25:08 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by mr. voluptuous]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:15:46 -0700 Portland Mercury
also, i guarantee you that if there were no parking spaces for this project some other, equally vocal and angry, portion of the neighborhood would be up in arms because everyone would be parking in front of their houses.
Posted by eric cantona]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:59:09 -0700 Portland Mercury
Then the residents (who WILL own cars anyway) will take up the street parking for three blocks in every direction.

(This town is run by children, I f**king swear.)
Posted by Blabby]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:57:44 -0700 Portland Mercury
Then all the people who move there (who WILL own cars anyway) will park in front of YOUR house Sherlock.

Tracy, be glad that you're even getting 49 spaces. That leaves the residents of over twenty units who will be leaving their cars in front of your house for days on end.

Giant carfree apartment projects are not "density done right" - they're a disaster for existing property owners.

Note to dipshits: This city isn't all 20 years old. Many people in this city can't take the time to bike commute everywhere. The people who do fit the above description are not the ones creating the economy here and keep the city chugging. There is a very high probability that people who do fit the above description owe their livelihoods to people who would NEVER rent or own a place with no parking.
Posted by Blabby]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:55:43 -0700 Portland Mercury what if Portland forced developers to build carfree housing

Then Portland would not have developers any more, or, for that matter, real estate purchasers. What a fucking stupid idea. If developers want to build that kind of housing, they are free to do so. Meddling in the economic decisions of builders and buyers is idiotic.
Posted by mr. voluptuous]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:46:10 -0700 Portland Mercury
Then we'd be a whole lot closer to the totalitarian state fans of such a mindset seem to crave.
Let's take a poll - how many of you have ever used the eeeevil personal mode of transport to get your stuff into a new apartment? Or go to the beach?
I have a simple answer for the un-realists as to when people will stop driving cars=never.
Posted by D]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:32:10 -0700 Portland Mercury