Neighborhood Notes

The Sunday Oregonian speaks out against Commissioner Sten's idea of creating a satellite URA district. I agree with them. The need he is trying to address is real but a satellite URA is not the mechanism to address it. If the City Council approves this proposal they open a huge can of worms where people will want to create all kinds of satellite districts.

URA is meant to take an area that is "blighted" by attracting investment, providing infrastructure, spurring growth and generating new tax revenues. How does a satellite district do this? Sten's proposal is for a single project, not the redevelopment of an entire area. Urban renewal works because it creates something from nothing, where there is a dramatic change. A single project is not a dramatic change.

Many people say the River District is a success and that it is complete. Not true. It has been successful so far, but since it is not complete we can't yet call it a success. The River District still has needs. Before we can call the River District a success we need to complete the project by providing the support services families need, develop the 30 acres North of Overton, and bring more business to the district to create jobs and create the mixed use community originally envisioned.

Sten's proposal will change Urban Renewal from a useful tool for major change to a political battle ground for individual projects. It's a bad idea and should not be approved.

From The Oregonian:

No strategic tool has contributed more to Portland's success as a community than urban renewal. Thanks to it, our region revolves around a successful downtown.

But urban renewal also provokes misunderstanding, resentment and envy. Watching downtown rise and shine, some Portland neighborhoods, in effect, echo the famous line from the movie "When Harry Met Sally": "I'll have what she's having."

Only, it just doesn't work that way. Yes, you can draw lines on a map and spray urban renewal dollars around for different purposes. But they won't attract private investment, stimulate development, increase the tax base and boost the city's prosperity as urban renewal dollars are supposed to do.

Yet the city's lower-income neighborhoods need, and deserve, more attention and investment from the city, too. Enter Commissioner Erik Sten. On the verge of departing from City Hall, he's come up with a clever attempt to bridge the divide -- political, psychological and geographical -- in Portland over urban renewal. He's asking the city to funnel about $19 million from the successful Pearl urban renewal area downtown to the David Douglas School District in east Portland.

Read the full editorial here...