News Jul 29, 2015 at 4:20 pm

Incoming Housing Bureau Director Kurt Creager Says Portland's on the Verge of Something Big

Comments

1
I have a hard time believing in affordable in Portland housing when A) real estate speculation allows for property valuation based not on utility, say like if it were valued to market like a commodity, but on speculation, B) there aren't livable wages to pay to live in affordable housing, except for out-of-state refugees from places where rents have bloated to almost Weimar Republic extravagance, and C) affordable housing's journey from drafting board to ribbon-snipping is so egregiously expensive it's effectively placed unfairly on the backs of others (e.g. that $140 million-dollar shooting gallery, the Bud Clark Commons), when their money should be going to things like our crumbling infrastructure and bolstering our flagging academics.
2
Status quo is not an acceptable option...be transparent and monitor progress...under-promise and over-deliver...serving a full spectrum of needs...it's a value-added kind of effort. Could this guy sound any more like a corporate hack?
3
(Sorry, my last comment was rushed! Here's what I meant:)

Affordable housing isn't going to happen here, or be of any use if it does until:

A) property is valued on the basis of utility and speculation is discouraged, say for example by requiring purchasers to retain ownership of the property for a period of seven years before turning it over; B) the process of getting affordable housing off the drafting board and on the ground made cost-effective (see “High Cost of ‘Affordable’ Housing”, Portland Tribune, 06 February 2014); and C) the local job market becomes amenable not only to Bay Area tech-sector refugees but to the legions of Portlanders who work as janitors or in warehouses.

Until then, we're just going to slide inexorably into Thunderdome, with nary a Mad Max to save us.
4
Supply and Demand.
Surely there will be a point where people just can't afford the rents, and till then, I wouldn't expect any sort of change.
The 'Market' will correct itself on its' own, in time.
I just can't see how you can legislate this sort of thing effectively, in any real way.
5
Mad Max? Move to the outback of the Kimberley.

Please wait...

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