Full speed backward
Regular readers of this blog know that I'm no fan of the Portland area's superfluous "Metro" layer of government. I'll spare you the usual three-paragraph rant on the subject, but if it were up to me, Metro would be stripped down to the regional garbage authority, which seems to be the only thing it's really needed for any more. It was an interesting idea 50 years ago, but now it's just another huge unsupervised pot of public money controlled by the Usual Suspects, some of whom go all the way back to the Neil Goldschmidt days. Nobody even knows who their Metro "councillor" is, but he or she is playing with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in tax slush.
So anyway, you can imagine how my temples started throbbing when I read this story, about how the alarming mission creep at Metro is about to accelerate drastically. Much of the tax money that was supposed to be used to get the tent junkies off the streets is going to be funneled through a new bureaucracy to the developer weasels, construction goons, and nonprofit middlemen in the almighty cause of more bad apartments.
The regional planning agency Metro, which administers the supportive housing services tax that’s brought in $577 million since 2021 to help the three Portland-area counties combat homelessness, is greatly expanding its housing division to include 44 employees.
Metro is doing so as it chews on a plan to retrieve hundreds of millions of unspent homeless tax dollars from Washington, Clackamas and Multnomah counties—money the counties have budgeted but been unable to spend as planned on homelessness. Metro wants to claw back those funds and use them instead to produce affordable housing, a move that would require voter approval.
Can you imagine the graft involved? And I don't know where Sophie, Flower Child of the Weed, got her $577 million number. My understanding is that by the end of the year, the collections should total over a billion.
A bigger Metro bureaucracy, with more money to play with and nobody really watching, is a sad sight. But it's emblematic of what's happening in Portland. The city continues to move in the wrong direction on just about every front. I've stopped thinking about how long it will take to turn things around. I'm pretty sure it's never going to happen.
Your last sentence is sad but true. I don’t see any hope for Portland
ReplyDeletePeople have been saying this about Portland for years. It's lost meaning.
DeleteNow it's more like, "I would never move here again" or "I would leave if it weren't for..."
DeleteDowntown Portland will continue to be a central location for lawyers, accountants and some service industries. But, the retail activities the once thrived within blocks of Pioneer Square have moved to Tanasbourne, Bridgeport Village, CedarHills and Washington Square. I think it’s naive to believe that they will be coming back. Without them downtown will be hollow.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm very new to local politics, in fact I considered myself apolitical until the 2016 general election which gave me a whole new level of trauma as in PTSD. But whenever I hear there are millions of dollars of taxpayer money (from me, for example because I live in Multnomah County) that are sitting there not being spent on what I voted for, and are being considered for something else I want to start drinking and pitching a tent on one of these lawmaker's front yard. Am I alone on this? I'm all for affordable housing as I strongly believe the homeless crisis is because of the outrageous rental increases in our area, but this isn't the first time I've heard there is money sitting there that is not being spent for what it was originally intended for. I'm a liberal arts major but I at least have nominal skills at money management. Can I apply for this job? I would do it in a hearbeat and my beady eyes would be aimed at any grafters who dared to come near me. Shame on them. People need an affordable place to live and they shouldn't have to wait until the Rapture for relief. The money is there, right? Some of it's mine. And yours. Help these folks already and quit convening like y'all are the HOA from hell!
ReplyDeleteYou actually have diagnosed post traumatic stress disorder caused by an election? It's a good thing you never fought in a war or lived in a high-crime neighborhood. You probably would have died on the spot.
DeleteLet us know how your crusade against hyperbole turns out, brave warrior.
DeleteMethinks we've reached a point where Metro has exceeded its use by date. And they don't play well with others. Delete Metro....apply tax dollars where they are needed with Portland City Gov. And while we're at it, speaking of playing well with others, let the City out of Multnomah County. The County seems to thwart sensible solutions the City needs and has in mind. 2 layers of extra government that are unnecessary and redundant.
DeleteThe bobbleheads that defend Metro should be forced to live among each other.
ReplyDeleteOh wait. They already do
Galaxy Brain: Get rid of all the city and county governments in the metro area and have Metro run the whole shebang.
ReplyDeleteLet's put up billboards around town and try to see if we can change the narrative> IT'S NOT A HOMELESS PROBLEM, IT'S A DRUG ADDICTION PROBLEM. Building out more cheap places to OD and trash is insane, but hey Portland's gone from weird to absurd.
ReplyDeleteThe bump out of various urban growth boundaries by the OR legislature while most of downtown is vacant & there are empty lots / underinvestment in services & incentive for existing smaller home & duplex owners to fix up what they have is really glaring, meanwhile another layer of higher taxes and slush for more shoddy new buildings that can’t be recycled, repurposed, remodeled or moved that create dark uninviting canyons with no green space or storage that also invites the corporate storage investment scams, dollar stores & chasing people out to suburban sprawl and farm land.
ReplyDeleteThe garbage authority & parks/green spaces that aren’t just shoved onto Portland proper residents/it hits the affluent suburbanites too are the good things about metro.
Either make it more transparent, punish the wealthier suburbanites as much as possible & eliminate some layers (city, county + metro?…the heck?)…way bigger and transparent/easier to see or garbage & green space only!
Sadly, those smaller homes continue to be purchased by development sharks, who tear them down and build two or three skinny, butt-ugly overpriced infill houses. The house next to me sold at the beginning of March, and based on the days-long residency of the survey firm, we are guessing it's tear-down city coming up.
DeleteI provide link as it is clearly a win for my people in the crime sweepstakes. Rural myself, but Otis Abner?
ReplyDeletehttps://katu.com/news/local/portland-man-arrested-for-killing-man-shooting-witness-a-year-later-say-police?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&sfmc_id=6100236&utm_guid=b9ff9dc6-9148-4583-9299-30750dae2f93&utm_campaign=
The people with names at Metro are actually far worse than their activities suggest. They are, with little to no exception, bottom of the barrel Democrats without any talent, skills or record of anything but repeated wrong headed disfunction & malfeasance.
ReplyDeletePlease, someone tell me how it is possible that not a single voice of opposition is in any position of any commission, panel, council or board within the entirety of Portland and Multnomah County?
All of the governance & the immense "supporting cast" is 100% left wing and operates continuously without any of the scrutiny this quasi tyranny demands. Why?