I just keep thinking - is there some reason the city refuses to just make public commitment and real policy changes that contribute to public safety/small business success? Most of the things they do (imbedding low barrier shelters in the middle of high density residential/commercial spaces, expanding metered parking times, refusing to change the bottle bill return rules, refusing to enforce time and place camping, etc. etc.) achieve exactly the opposite of bringing people back to the downtown/NW/Pearl core that used to be so thriving. They seem to think just building expensive new venues without addressing the underlying problems is going to be successful and I personally do not think it will be. It’s lazy, it’s tone deaf, and it’s ultimately very irresponsible.
This mayor and city council had a real chance to come in and make things better - there was a lot of “low hanging fruit” that they could have worked to address and would have been known as the group that came in and turned things around. Instead, they have somehow managed to completely fumble this and double down on every bad decision that has led us here. Wilson and the city council are real disappointment so far - if things continue on this path I hope we all wise up and make their tenures short.
For reasons that have escaped me, Portland voters (as well as voters in our other home city of San Francisco) consistently fail to connect the dots between the longstanding failure of livability, safety, and economic/tax policies set by elected officials, on the one hand, with the choices of candidates they make at the ballot box, on the other hand. Anyone with any degree of common sense and perspective on Portland’s years of inept city and county leadership would have voted against the Charter Commission’s recommendations on city reorganization which are now laying the groundwork for years more of bad policy-making. Until Portland voters wake up and start insisting on political candidates who grasp what is required to foster urban vitality, nothing will change. Nothing at all will change. Which is why my wife and I moved out of Portland two years ago and now live happily in Clackamas County.
I have never believed this new, state legislature-supported Public Market would ever be anything other than another taxpayer boondoggle. It will be too expensive to patronize for anyone but the tourists and will die a lingering death. The governing bodies of Portlandia and Multnomah County are always looking for magic bullets to jump-start our ailing metropolitan area (think professional sports teams, music venues, anything "entertainment"), rather than doing the long hard slog of providing public safety, maintaining functional infrastructure and demonstrating to the citizens that they can be trusted as ethical, responsible adults with their tax resources. Living within our means does not have to look like this, but it does mean some hard choices.
I think that before our hyper-progressive political establishment will be willing to do that, the tax base will have been gutted by many of us moving out.
Last year I was at an open house for the JB Public Market in the Selling Building. I had a conversation with the two architects who designed the market hall in San Francisco's Ferry Building. I advocated for architectural planning for a future expansion of the JB Public Market into the historic American Bank Building which faces Pioneer Courthouse Square and into adjacent ground floor space facing SW Broadway. Successful public markets in Europe often have frontage and entrances on all sides. To be successful and be large enough to draw Portlanders and visitors, the James Beard Public Market should occupy most of the ground floor of that block, with entrances on all four streets. I urged the architects not to locate restrooms or stairways in direct pathways that would logically lead to adjacent older buildings.
I just keep thinking - is there some reason the city refuses to just make public commitment and real policy changes that contribute to public safety/small business success? Most of the things they do (imbedding low barrier shelters in the middle of high density residential/commercial spaces, expanding metered parking times, refusing to change the bottle bill return rules, refusing to enforce time and place camping, etc. etc.) achieve exactly the opposite of bringing people back to the downtown/NW/Pearl core that used to be so thriving. They seem to think just building expensive new venues without addressing the underlying problems is going to be successful and I personally do not think it will be. It’s lazy, it’s tone deaf, and it’s ultimately very irresponsible.
This mayor and city council had a real chance to come in and make things better - there was a lot of “low hanging fruit” that they could have worked to address and would have been known as the group that came in and turned things around. Instead, they have somehow managed to completely fumble this and double down on every bad decision that has led us here. Wilson and the city council are real disappointment so far - if things continue on this path I hope we all wise up and make their tenures short.
For reasons that have escaped me, Portland voters (as well as voters in our other home city of San Francisco) consistently fail to connect the dots between the longstanding failure of livability, safety, and economic/tax policies set by elected officials, on the one hand, with the choices of candidates they make at the ballot box, on the other hand. Anyone with any degree of common sense and perspective on Portland’s years of inept city and county leadership would have voted against the Charter Commission’s recommendations on city reorganization which are now laying the groundwork for years more of bad policy-making. Until Portland voters wake up and start insisting on political candidates who grasp what is required to foster urban vitality, nothing will change. Nothing at all will change. Which is why my wife and I moved out of Portland two years ago and now live happily in Clackamas County.
I have never believed this new, state legislature-supported Public Market would ever be anything other than another taxpayer boondoggle. It will be too expensive to patronize for anyone but the tourists and will die a lingering death. The governing bodies of Portlandia and Multnomah County are always looking for magic bullets to jump-start our ailing metropolitan area (think professional sports teams, music venues, anything "entertainment"), rather than doing the long hard slog of providing public safety, maintaining functional infrastructure and demonstrating to the citizens that they can be trusted as ethical, responsible adults with their tax resources. Living within our means does not have to look like this, but it does mean some hard choices.
I think that before our hyper-progressive political establishment will be willing to do that, the tax base will have been gutted by many of us moving out.
Last year I was at an open house for the JB Public Market in the Selling Building. I had a conversation with the two architects who designed the market hall in San Francisco's Ferry Building. I advocated for architectural planning for a future expansion of the JB Public Market into the historic American Bank Building which faces Pioneer Courthouse Square and into adjacent ground floor space facing SW Broadway. Successful public markets in Europe often have frontage and entrances on all sides. To be successful and be large enough to draw Portlanders and visitors, the James Beard Public Market should occupy most of the ground floor of that block, with entrances on all four streets. I urged the architects not to locate restrooms or stairways in direct pathways that would logically lead to adjacent older buildings.