Just what we don't need
There are days when you look at the news in Portland and can't help but weep. Here is the city that just enacted a new tax for something so basic as fixing potholes. The city that had to pass a special property tax for something so basic as park maintenance.
But we have nine figures lying around to hand to a billionaire loanshark guy for his basketball plaything. And today we have God knows how many tens of millions to... wait for it... drumroll, please...
City officials said the project aims to improve access to the Willamette River, create flexible public spaces and restore riverfront ecology along the park, which runs along the west bank of the river in downtown Portland.
Mayor Keith Wilson said the competition is intended to attract top design teams and generate new ideas for one of the city’s most prominent public spaces.
Interplay, a Portland-based social impact consultancy, will lead community engagement, including public meetings and feedback sessions, to inform the design process.
The parks bureau has also formed a project advisory committee to help guide decisions. Officials said membership will be posted on the city’s website.
What? WHAT???
The local government here has been overtaken by morons and grifters. There is not a lick of common sense to be found anywhere. It's not getting better, it's getting worse. There really is no hope for the civic life of Portland for the foreseeable future.
Weak communities form committees rather than hire strong managers.
ReplyDeleteMy only concern is about possible lack of what I like to call, “Park Equity.” Also, I am concerned about Interplay. How will Interplay team build with diverse community members? Maybe the city should hire a few extra liaisons for underserved community members?
ReplyDeleteHere's Interplay. Your tax dollars at work. Dear Lord: https://interplaycollective.com/about-us
ReplyDeleteGovernments that can’t afford to mow their existing lawns shouldn’t be hiring consultants to tell them where to plant new ones.
ReplyDeleteDoing this while cutting 911 is really something. Meanwhile counselors are all over TikTok talking about how buckets of money are sacrosanct and dollars must not be moved from one to the other.
ReplyDelete"Our hands are tied."
What in the actual hell.
The "colors of money" bulls**t goes all the way back to Vera Katz and even before her. Money is fungible. They know how to move it around when they want to.
DeleteI remember it being a big topic on the old site. Fascinating how they keep it going.
DeleteWhen do you plan to leave “The Shitty”/ Mult county, Jack? Not that it’s much better anyplace else aside from lower property taxes and some other incidentals…the incompetents are everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI used to think maybe Camas, but I see that the stupid has arrived in Washington State and is about to start feasting on the people with real lives. I refuse to go live with the Nazis in the red states, and so I guess I'm stuck. I enjoyed Portugal when I visited there many years ago. But the Russians will probably be invading there before long, thanks to Mudface Caligula. London?
DeleteBoy! Howdy! Whatever it costs in Portland, it costs 5 times more in London!
DeleteThe prices don't bother me. The stupid does. Maybe there's stupid running Lonndon, but by the time I noticed, I'd be too far gone to care.
DeleteGeez Jack! Chill... It took 6 YEARS to put the Elk Fountain back. The statues of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Washington are still in storage. O'Bryant Square was demolished and it's now just a gravel lot. By the time the City gets around to this, they'll need to replace the (new) Sellwood Bridge too.
DeleteOh yeah... it took the better part of a decade to demolish O'Bryant Square, fill in the hole left by the unsafe parking garage underneath and turn it into a gravel lot, too.
DeleteAnd they've already hired the London firm to "manage an international design competition"...Aren't we all sick of the electeds spending their time & The Peoples' money on new shiny objects, rather than maintaining what we already have-?!
ReplyDeleteHey, Raymond needs a work trip to London, baby! Tour some parks, take in a show, a few nice dinners... what is not to like?
DeleteQuestion.
DeleteWhich country in the world arrests the most people for posting their opinions on social media?
The answer is not North Korea.
It's Britain.
Over 12.000 people are arrested every year for online speech.
Unfortunately GB is leaning more right than center these days with people like Nigel Farge spouting off.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Portugal is nice and one can still buy in.
As for the person who told you to go back where you came from, trolls like that should be ignored. I guess they like paying extra to have pot holes taxed and ignored.
Portugal is slowly becoming way less Portuguese and more South Asian. There has been a huge demographic change in the last few years to bring in cheap labor to benefit the wealthy. Most of Europe is facing similar demographic changes. I believe Poland does not permit very many foreign workers, if any.
DeleteLisbon is also being populated with tourists from cruise ships.
DeleteWith a name like "Bogdanski," you could move to Poland. The government is right-of-center but nowhere near MAGA and Viktor Orban. It's a beautiful country. Almost everyone speaks some English. The population is highly educated. Poland's history of democratic rule dates to some 400 years before the American Revolution. You have to be "flexible" when it comes to creature comforts though. Although Poland is part of the EU, they don't use the euro...they use their own currency (the złoty).
ReplyDeleteThe Poles are friendly people who consider themselves Europeans...not Slavs. The downside is that the Roman Catholic Church has outsized influence in the government (hence, right-of-center).
The big cities are the centers of culture (of which there is much) but the villages are the centers of daily life.
I've been helping an old friend transition to Senior Living from his family home that has become totally unsafe due to years of hoarding. Dealing with mentally "challenged" people is much more of a challenge for us then for them as they are living in denial. I liken our present situation in the city in exactly the same way. They are not of sound mind and live in denial. Thus one stupid decision and plan after another that cannot be changed by logics and facts- like hey we're broke so stop raising taxes. Another way to put it is there are no adults left in the room.
ReplyDeleteYou write: "Another way to put it is there are no adults left in the room."
DeleteThere haven't been any adults in the room in Portland since the days of Vera Katz.
More bum habitat, in other words.
ReplyDeleteUntil we make it possible to run for office without having every dumb thing you ever did or didn't do in your life become public fodder, we have no chance of having people with common sense run for office because people with common sense won't put themselves up for such punishment for having survived having been young.
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments/thoughts EXACTLY. Portland doesn’t need this.
ReplyDeleteFront Ave. definately doesn’t need this.
We didn’t need that multimillion dollar skateboard park Dan Ryan championed. We didn’t need turning high barrier SAFE rest villages into low barrier.