Raymond's big deal officially pronounced dead
When Portland city administrator Raymond Lee rolled into town from Greeley, Colorado, late last year, a prominent part of his sales pitch for the
Raymond C. Lee III brings nearly two decades of experience to his new role as Portland's first long-term city administrator.
Lee's key achievements include:
- Leading the revitalization of Greeley's urban core through a partnership between the city, county, and school district to develop a public service hub, mixed-use housing, commercial space, a hotel, and office development.
- Leading a 300-acre entertainment and housing district featuring a proposed 10,000-seat arena, resort hotel, water park, and multimodal transit hub representing $1.1 billion in investment.
Yeah, well, fat chance. The local taxpayers wised up to how bad a deal it was for them, and now, through an exhausting grassroots effort, they've officially killed it.
The city of Greeley will no longer pursue the Catalyst project in west Greeley after voters rejected a sales tax increase meant to help fund the project.
Following an executive session at Tuesday’s city council meeting, Greeley will move on from the project after just under 25,000 residents voted against the tax measure to help fund Catalyst and other city projects. Catalyst was set to include a luxury hotel, Mattel-branded water park and a new arena for the minor league Colorado Eagles hockey team and youth hockey.
“Because the necessary financing has not come together, the City is not moving forward with a Development Agreement. As a result, the Catalyst project as originally envisioned is coming to a close,” Greeley Communications and Engagement Director Jaqueline Villegas said in a text message. “The City remains committed to responsible growth on Greeley’s west side and will continue to share updates with residents as next steps are determined.”
It's heartening to see people fight City Hall and win. You wish that somehow that could happen in Portland. In meantime, everybody, remember, Raymond's dealing with the Blazers on behalf of the city. It's gonna be great.
If sports complexes are such a great deal, why do they need the public to foot the bill?
ReplyDelete$1.1 Billion dollar investment and they couldn't even spring for the ceremonial gold plated shovels.
ReplyDeleteMayor Doofus McClueless has put Lee in charge of wide-ranging development plans (the Central Eastside, for one), everyone needs to be paying attention to the planning & the players he's bringing into it.
ReplyDeletePeople in Greeley admitted later that they weren't paying enough attention to what was being planned until it was difficult to stop it. Let us not wait until our-own public buildings are put at risk (or worse), as happened there.
Sorry dude, going off-topic for a second here -
ReplyDeleteThat "Diva" commenter on WW is going-after you again. Maybe you should see if WW will block them from commenting.
---> "The blogger behind this nonsense is an elderly white man, perhaps suffering the mental health effects of aging. Jack Bog's Blog is filled with attacks on, almost exclusively, black people in high level positions. He says he wants to see City Manager Raymond Lee in handcuffs and perp walked. That anyone considers such a person a credible source is ridiculous."
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2026/11/12/union-requests-prosper-board-place-agencys-executive-director-on-leave-while-investigating-grievances/
So funny. “Diva” is apparently an elderly white Portland lawyer named Mark Cogan. I live in his head rent-free. He’s entitled to express his opinions. If he misstates facts, however, there will be consequences.
DeletePerhaps the reason this blog goes after black people in high positions is because they are over represented in said high positions in performative DEI crazy Portland? Just a thought.
DeleteAh yes, white people who seem to think they can & should speak-up for the Black community...There can be racism in that - and there's research behind this - that it can come from some white peoples' thinking that, because of disparities in education & income, they understand & can explain racism better than a Black person.
DeleteStand-behind me & be quiet while I explain your plight, I've seen this many times here in Whitelandia.
In this case - It helps no one to excuse glaring problems with someone's work performance just because they are Black, and it actually does have a detrimental impact on all future Black applicants. That's what these wanna-be-cool fools should be considering.
And honestly, can we just get away from the distractions of this stoopid-shit, have all the media digging into the problems with our City govt, and get-going on the independent audits & other measures that are urgently needed to cleanup Prosper, Home Forward, etc.-?!
Seriously.
Race is not the issue. It's impropriety.
DeleteYou've gotta wonder why the editors of the city's legacy media won't tough Raymond with a barge-pole. White guilt? Inability to admit that someone else out-reports them? Lack of staff?
ReplyDeleteThe Wall St Journal reported today that the Veep, JD Vance, has a new charge, now that he won't be negotiation with Iran. Instead he will be investigating federal crimes like wasting federal money in Democratic Party run cities. I wonder if Portland will qualify for his attention. Given the references Jack bakes to teh "Homeless Industrial Complex" here, and the amount of money spent on God knows what by the City, County and Metro, we can only hope!
ReplyDelete