Forcing it
I see that Governor Kohoutek's new "task force" that's going to save downtown Portland has been seated and held one of its three meetings. They finally showed who's on the "force." I got this far before I stopped reading:
- Governor Tina Kotek, State of Oregon, Co-Chair
- Dan McMillan, CEO, The Standard, Co-Chair
- Senator Ron Wyden, US Senate
- Congressman Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Congressional District 3
- Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, U.S. Congressional District 1
- Representative Janelle Bynum, Oregon House District 39
- Representative Rob Nosse, Oregon House District 42
- Representative Tawna Sanchez, Oregon House District 43
- President Lynn Peterson, Metro
- Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Multnomah County
- District Attorney Mike Schmidt, Multnomah County
- Mayor Ted Wheeler, City of Portland
- Oscar Arana, Native American Youth and Family Services
- Candace Avalos, Verde
- Kimberly Branam, Prosper Portland...
There are 43 names on the list in all. No, they are not going to save downtown. Most of them have been responsible for wrecking it.
But hey, at least Dud Wheeler is asking the state to start treating Portland as if it were actually part of Oregon – and the part that pays most of the taxes:
Mayor Ted Wheeler is requesting that nearly 100 Oregon state troopers — a full fifth of the statewide total — be deployed in Portland to address crimes city police have said they are too overwhelmed to handle.The suggestion is one of dozens Wheeler floated Tuesday at the first meeting of a task force convened by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, which has a focus on reviving Portland’s central city....Amid bullet points shared by the mayor’s office are requests for major new state investments for cleaning up trash and graffiti, more money for the city’s large-scale outdoor shelters, clearing the way for downtown’s increasingly vacant office buildings to be converted to housing, and investing in an ad campaign “to improve Portland’s reputation.”
This should have been Wheeler's pitch for many years now. Not that it's going to get any traction.
Ah, the 43-person "task force." Magical thinking at its Portland best. Too bad. It could do some good if it had the right people.
The largest city in the state is in a death spiral, and after seven months in office Kotek held a meeting to talk about it. She’s a real go-getter.
ReplyDeleteGee, how could they leave out JoAnn Hardesty?
ReplyDeleteWell, they included Candace Avalos -- a Hardesty clone.
DeleteAnd NAYA is cut from the same public embezzlement cloth as NAACP. It's truly baffling that NAYA would think they would have an interest in downtown, like what are they going to offer - support to the large indigenous owned businesses? It's a youth and family organization (neither of which it actually support), not a business organization (though, their business is government graft).
DeleteAn ad campaign to "to impove Portland's repuation"? That is laugh-out-loud funny. Like if Tylenol had run their 1980s post-poisoning ad campaign before adding tamper-proof seals.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I see coming out of this task force line up is a new Save Downtown Portland tax, paid for, of course, only by those with incomes over $125K.
This “Task Force” seems to include the very people that called the riots as protests.
ReplyDeleteThe epitome of “herding cats”…
ReplyDeleteI'd sooner trust the first 43 names out of the Portland phonebook to make better governing decisions for our city than this crowd. Well, Oregon City phonebook, maybe.
ReplyDeleteThe ONLY WAY they are going to make significant progress is if they set up their own "campground" downtown and stay there until they get a taste of "homelessness". If I may offer a suggestion> find out who is really from Portland and who came here to get high. Refuse to treat, house or rescue the drug hobos and try to help the few that can be helped. Sad to say we've come to this point- triage on the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteMany of the “homeless campgrounds” seem to be a long way from the nonprofit food services. They don’t have transportation. I wonder how the homeless get food?
ReplyDeleteRichard Cheverton chimes on this and the new charter mess: https://portlanddissent.substack.com/p/clean-up-time
ReplyDeleteJack...Who would you nominate as the "best people" on the commission. Love to publish it in PortlandDissent.com.
ReplyDeleteMost of these fools SUPPORTED the "Black Lives Matter" & Antifa rioters who assaulted, burned & wrecked downtown Portland in 2016-2021. Downtown has never recovered from those crimes, and few of the horribly destructive criminals were prosecuted. And now these "progressive" twats are asked to help in recovering from the civic destruction they supported and promoted?! What a sad and sickening joke.
ReplyDelete