This week for an article called “East of Eden”, I toured East Portland with Representative Jefferson Smith and discussed how the lands east of 82nd have been shafted time and again by the city. Since the mid-county was annexed (in a process later rules unconstitutional) in the late eighties, East Portland has grown to 28 percent of Portland population, swelled by people and families living inner Portland for the cheaper rent out east.
One of the big victories for East Portland advocates this year was getting Mayor Sam Adams office to make the city break down its budgets geographically. For the first time in the city’s history, citizens will now be able to track exactly what percent of city spending is going to which neighborhood.
So what does the breakdown reveal? Well, though the mayor’s office has promised that the city will play catchup in East Portland, the draft transportation budget shows only 3.3 percent of transportation funds are slated for East Portland. Check out a pdf of the budget (which will still be reworked by Adams’ office) for yourself.
When East Portland residents who sat on the budget committee found out about the unequal split, they penned this letter to the mayor’s office, asking for a fair share of the city budget:
- East Glisan: Where the sidewalk ends.
The City has standards, and to not prioritize the redress of substandard areas is to declare such areas as insignificant, irrelevant, or undeserving.
We realize that these conditions are recognized, as was reflected in comments made at the recent hearing for the Portland Bicycle Plan. However, it is time for the City to seriously address infrastructure needs in East Portland — both for the existing residents’ quality of life, and the future position of the area in the regional agenda, especially now, as over 11,000 new housing units have been added in East Portland since annexation and approximately 40% of Portland’s school age children live in East Portland.
I had better sidewalks living in Beaverton than I saw when I visited friends east of 82nd.
BEAVERTONNNNNNNNNNNNNN-UH.
Hey Sarah, only posting 1 page of the budget isn’t telling me anything other than that it’s 3%, which you’ve already stated. How about posting the rest of it so we can see what that 3% is in contrast to?
Uh, 3% is in contrast to 97%.
Oh snap!
I *heart* Arlene Kimura. She’s one of my favorite people in the whole world.
Crazy. Sarah if you keep up being the one woman News Force what exactly does Davis do other than snotty Op. Ed. pieces?
I would be interested to know how much the different parts of the city contribute in terms of tax dollars and then compare that to the amount they receive. Is that info available?
Sorry Paul Cone, I should clarify that the budget I linked is just the section of the transpo budget that will be used for projects in East Portland. That wasn’t clear.
@Abusive: Matt’s getting his wisdom teeth out right now, if you’re wondering why I’m being the one person news team. He’s on druuuugggzzz.
@jwpdx: That’s an excellent but complicated question. If we’re looking at how much they contribute in terms of taxes that get used for transportation vs. how much transportation investment they get in return, you’d need to factor in gas taxes they pay to the state, too. The money we pay in taxes goes all over the place (city, county, state), but it’s a relevant question and I’ll try to work out some sort of taxes vs. investment comparison that makes sense.
Please tell me there will be a “Matt goes to the dentist video ???
I would “like” that video all over teh facebooks. Please post to Blogtown.
Wait, he knows what a dentist is?
Sarah – don’t forget to include System Development Charges from East Portland projects vs. the amount of actual system development that gets funded.
JWPDX, east portland pays more in taxes than the rest of the city.
As compared to SW PDX where there are no sidewalks more than half a mile long? As compared to those parts of Portland that don’t have brand new light rail and busses that run past 10 pm?
Don’t get me wrong, outer SE gets a short stick as often as not, and Portland could solve a lot of problems by tearing up 82nd and replacing the whole thing, but maybe our state rep should be saying “thanks for the big fancy train” and not “feed me semore!”.