Saturday, October 29, 2005
Portland moratorium on subsidies?
Okay, so Portland offers huge tax breaks and other subsidies to developers who put in high-density housing provided that developments have a certain amount of "public benefits" such as mixed use or low-income housing. International developer Trammell Crow proposes a high-rise condo on the South Waterfront (aka "so-what") district with the minimum number of low-income housing units to get the subsidies.
But Portland has already given out $920 million worth of subsidies to get just 5,000 housing units, so the city freaks out and says, "Just the minimum number? No!" In other words, it is not enough to do enough, you have to do more than enough. At least sometimes.
So the city says, "Maybe we'd better rethink this subsidy policy" and decides to have a six-month moratorium on accepting applications for tax abatements beginning on October 27. So, the day before the moratorium goes into effect, Trammell Crow makes another application for the same building in a slightly different configuration.
This sends self-described lefty, Jack Bog into hysterics. "I wouldn't mind so much these guys' ruining Portland," says Jack, "if they weren't making us all pay for it." Apparently Jack didn't get the memo saying that lefties are supposed to support high-density developments.
Jack Bog's blog, by the way, is an excellent source of information about Portland's wacko planning programs. Jack may think the root of the problem is evil developers while I think it is evil planners, but we both see the same symptoms.
But Portland has already given out $920 million worth of subsidies to get just 5,000 housing units, so the city freaks out and says, "Just the minimum number? No!" In other words, it is not enough to do enough, you have to do more than enough. At least sometimes.
So the city says, "Maybe we'd better rethink this subsidy policy" and decides to have a six-month moratorium on accepting applications for tax abatements beginning on October 27. So, the day before the moratorium goes into effect, Trammell Crow makes another application for the same building in a slightly different configuration.
This sends self-described lefty, Jack Bog into hysterics. "I wouldn't mind so much these guys' ruining Portland," says Jack, "if they weren't making us all pay for it." Apparently Jack didn't get the memo saying that lefties are supposed to support high-density developments.
Jack Bog's blog, by the way, is an excellent source of information about Portland's wacko planning programs. Jack may think the root of the problem is evil developers while I think it is evil planners, but we both see the same symptoms.
Comments:
What about all those parking requirements Randy O'foole? Talk about subsidies for transit while being noticeably silent about pro-car subsidies that are in magnitude far larger than all the transit subsidies combined.
It's amazing how these country folks don't want to see the city subsidized and would rather have them looking like slums. It's too bad your tax dollars are going to refurbish but this is far better than subsidizing highways and road construction. The cities are coming back and there's nothing going to stop progress. Here's a good article on Portland's lightrail resulted in 3 billion in private investment along the line.
>>>>>>>>We now could see if streetcar patronage would exceed that of bus patronage. We also could see if the streetcar would spur economic development, such as has occurred in Portland where the return of a streetcar line to a rundown neighborhood has resulted in $3 billion dollars in new investment all along the line. That would not have happened but for the streetcar. The streetcar was just too good to keep down. Ding Ding and away we go.<<<<<<
>>>>>>>>We now could see if streetcar patronage would exceed that of bus patronage. We also could see if the streetcar would spur economic development, such as has occurred in Portland where the return of a streetcar line to a rundown neighborhood has resulted in $3 billion dollars in new investment all along the line. That would not have happened but for the streetcar. The streetcar was just too good to keep down. Ding Ding and away we go.<<<<<<
If you really think the cities would be slums without subsidies, you have to ask yourself whether it makes sense for cities to exist. Or go to Las Vegas, a city that has very few subsidies and very few slums.
Take a close look at the billions of dollars in investments that are supposedly attributed to the streetcar. Were they really made because of the streetcar? Tri-Met once claimed Portland's first light-rail line attracted a billion dollars of investments. Included on the list were a downtown parking garage and the remodeling of a Fred Meyer store that later closed because of lack of business. If light rail is so good how did it attract another downtown parking garage?
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Take a close look at the billions of dollars in investments that are supposedly attributed to the streetcar. Were they really made because of the streetcar? Tri-Met once claimed Portland's first light-rail line attracted a billion dollars of investments. Included on the list were a downtown parking garage and the remodeling of a Fred Meyer store that later closed because of lack of business. If light rail is so good how did it attract another downtown parking garage?
