One big red flag is that the area excludes most of the PSU campus and other public properties, but includes Lincoln High School.

If downtown is blighted now, doesn't that suggest that Portland's "planning genius" has failed? So we should trust them to "renew" the area now?

This "plan" has been in the works for some time...good luck trying to derail it now!
This is SO depressing to see Mayor Creepy and friends just spending money we do not have, on stuff we taxpayers do not want.

And BTW....who owns that one block in the middle that was excluded from the "study area"? and the other blocks that are now mysteriously now not included?
This looks like some "jerry mandering" to me

Yeah...That was my first thought: Great shades of Eldridge Gerry!

And don't forget that the taxes generated by all this redevelopment will be locked away from the schools, county and others for the next 20 to 40 years.

Most of that Northeast quadrant is the River District urban renewal area. So the districts will just blend right into each other, locking up the new tax revenue from most of the central city to give back to the developers and property owners.

'Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.'

The worst blight in the city in in Council Chambers and we persist in doing nothing about it.

Hmmm. The map is not showing for me; just a page of weird text characters . . .

There are so many parents in our community with children in schools, surely they must realize how the UR takes money from their vital interests. Will they as a block try to stop this?

Or will the solution be to just sell school property - a win-win then for the developers?

There are so many parents in our community with children in schools, surely they must realize how the UR takes money from their vital interests.

It's not quite as bad as it used to be. As the article points out, the Legislature last year passed a law requiring UR districts to start sharing revenues with schools and other taxing districts much earlier than had been the case in the past. 'Course, PPS needs every penny, so even though they will only have to wait 11 years to start collecting revenues instead of 20 or 30, a lot of bad things could happen in those 11 years.

And BTW....who owns that one block in the middle that was excluded from the "study area"?

That one in blue, in the middle? Looks like the parking garage on 10th and Morrison.

Portland Native, there is some "good luck" available to derail this newest, proposed URA. The recent state Legislature bill requiring approval from sub-taxing entities affected by the URA, like schools, fire districts, police, park districts, etc. could put a stop to this. We need to lobby and educate these entities on how urban renewal affects their bottom line.

Recently Tualatin, Medford, Eugene, and soon-to-be Clackamas Co. and Milwaukie has shown how this can be done. There's hope. And there is always the referendum approach.

The City must get concurrance from 75% of the taxing jurisdictions who get Property Tax revenue.

Pressure them to object and it's killed.

I-405 is a blight inducing freeway? Has anyone told the Pearlies that?

I thought I-405 was a traffic moving freeway most of the time. Where IS the blight??? Would the blight be eliminated if there was a bike bridge across the freeway?

I-5 up the East side waterfront has been identified as a blight-inducing freeway at least since the demise of the Mt Hood Freeway. East siders have begged to get it sunk so that we could have a connection to the river all these years. Here again, it is what the Goldshmidt mafia wants, not what actual residents/citizens/voters/inhabitants want that rules. Who cares if we can get to the river on our side? It is all about creating fabulous wealth for a few favored developers. In civilized cities, that is known as graft.

We spend 90% of public developmental money downtown for at least the past 20 years and it is still blighted? When are they going to get a clue that robbing schools and Mult County from future revenue is really not going to pay off very well?

Steve:When are they going to get a clue that robbing schools and Mult County from future revenue is really not going to pay off very well?

What will Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogan's position be on this Urban Renewal?

Lee,
I wish I could be more optimistic about the education of the public about urban renewal and TIF, but I am not. The PDC and their minions are too powerful at present and until they literally implode I fear nothing much will change and the rape of the taxpayers will continue.
The road to ruin continues, with trolleys, trains and trams.

How about a law that says UR boundaries can only have 6 sides?

Portland Native, for once I was trying to be optimistic.

Portland's Central City was the first to have urban renewal beginning in 1954, ever since we have had over 8 urban renewal districts with redrawn, overlapping lines to end our downtown "blight". I'm beginning to think when we are totally broke or many years henceforth, we'll still have "downtown blight" and 4 or 5 urban renewal districts downtown. It's perpetual.

We need a legal challenge to the misuse of "blight".