Well, that was quick

I wrote the other day about some off-season election porn I had received from the Portland public schools – motto: "Fewer Students, Higher Taxes" – and I wondered aloud what they were softening us up for. I didn't have to wait long for an answer: a rebuild of Cleveland High School, from scratch, on the current site of the Fred Meyer headquarters on industrial Southeast 22nd Avenue.

These folks never stop burning through money, and they know that with Portland voters, no gouge is too extreme. And so rather than fix up the old Cleveland, as has been done at most of the other high schools, on this one they'll just tear down the old facility entirely and build a shiny new one. It's "for the children"!

I wouldn't be so opposed to the idea if I didn't know:

1. They'll overpay for the Fred Meyer property.

2. They'll build way more than is really needed.

3. The construction costs will be extravagant.

4. The old high school will be torn down and given away at a bargain price, along with the football field up the street, to some weasels who will build the most ghastly apartment complexes you can imagine.

5. The nonprofit industrial complex will get its pound of flesh somehow.

6. Within a decade, they'll close another high school for lack of enrollment.

Oh well. Taxpayers, assume the position. Just another day in the City That Works (You Over).