Comments

1
Some might call it Hood Robbin.
2
Yet another misrepresentation of tax INCREMENT financing coupled with an appeal to bleeding hearts, used to kill a worthwhile project.
3
Matt Davis doesn't have enough teeth in his head to make a threatening gummy worm.
4
Kahl's proposal to make 300K communities vote on URDs is laughable. Nothing would ever get done.

Rep. Kahl's community problems stem more from gang violence than blight.

$25 million in URDs is less than .5% of the city's annual budget. It becomes even less if you throw Portland Public Schools budget on top of that. It's laughable to even assert that money could fix what Kahl, Fritz or whomever thinks it could fix.

Matt Davis' refusal to answer who will rent PGE Park and pay off it's bonds if the city runs Merritt Paulson out of town is still ringing in my ears.
5
And yet, Matt, I wonder why you keep repeating the same inaccuracies you've been corrected on since you first started reporting on this story. That "renovation" in 2001 was exactly that. A dilapidated public structure was brought up to seismic and ADA code. Ooh! The luxury. O! The indulgence.

So you have some East County politicians who are upset about the idea of URDs in Portland. This stadium issue is just a convenient dodge to bring it up. A URD for the PGE Park already exists. The money dedicated to that URD already exists. Even if this stadium deal goes down, there will still be URD dollars available to another project in that neighborhood. They didn't seem to mind when tens of millions of dollars were used for Cascade Station or the Riverside Parkway Corporate Center. Which "blighted" areas were those projects saving, exactly?

Lazy reporting as always.

I'm glad that you're so impressed by form letter spam though.

6
Have you asked Commissioner Saltzman what his overall level of contact has been from for vs. against citizens? Even you must realize that the size & timing of your email "sample" proves nothing.

Add to this the fact that Onward Oregon apologized for the content of their mass email:
" A new volunteer completely rewrote the text and then didn't submit it for the groups approval. Hopefully that will never happen in the future." - Leeny Dee, Onward Oregon

...suddenly a spike in response based on a misleading & incendiary email from the team at Onward Oregon doesn't hold so much water.
7
Oh and Davis...you are aware the TA got ahold of that Onward Oregon auto mail generator right? If Saltzman's staff opens up those responses they may find there are quite a few "pro" stadium folks in there.
8
Wow is the photo of the inbox borderline propaganda! Fuck you for this kind of yellow journalism.

You're showing what 40 emails from a city of half a million, all sent within a minute of eachother!

We are not stupid asshole, so don't try these kind of tricks - you are trying to tell a story with that picture which is a literal 'snapshot' of the seconds after an EMAIL CAMPAIGN was launched. Yes you acknowledge that in your text, but you hope the picture tells a much different story to those who don't read - like many of the poor you claim to protect.

Ironically YOU ARE STEPPING ON THE POOR, bending their unfortunate fate to support an argument you are trying to peddle using MALICIOUSLY MISLEADING IMAGES.

Your use of the poor is heartless and your lies are disgusting!

FUCK YOUR YELLOW JOURNALISM!!!
9
Just an FYI: Onward Oregon has since apologized for being on the wrong side of this issue when they sent those uninformed spam messages. Facts are your friends.

And for once, the Big O editorial board is talking good sense today. Unlike the mindless shit-stirring here.
10
Re: Onward Oregon. Here is a reply to an e-mail sent off to them earlier in the week -

have to agree with you as the tone and substance of the message isn't at all what we aspire to. A new volunteer completely rewrote the text and then didn't submit it for the groups approval. Hopefully that will never happen in the future.
Todays Oregonian does indicate their is some question on what Merritt Paulson is willing to guarantee.

Kind Regards
Lenny Dee
Onward Oregon
Building an Online Community to Champion the Public Interest"

Ooops -Organization Fail
11
I think the screenshot thing must have been a joke, right Matt? you didn't just use a phonecam image of auto generated spam email subject lines as part of your article to try and make a point did you?

...really?
12
Oh, and down with the lazy usage of "Big" anything.

Hey Matt, if we get RJR Reynolds to sponsor the Timbers, could we expect a 180 from you?
13
Waaaaah, waaaaaaah, sports r cool n we should hav sum moar
14
Not everyone in and around Lents, let alone the city, considers this a "worthwhile project". Really.
15
Davis: since you seem so geeked about trying to get a first-grade grasp of the financials of this deal, why don't you do a cursory look into the financials for the city if this deal fails, and get back to us. Here's a hint: it'll be a lot more damaging than if the deal is approved.
16
@crayfish...
You're right that not everyone in Lents considers this a worthwhile project...but they do think it's a worthwhile project by a 2 to 1 margin.
17
Why should Portland jump on to a sinking ship? Financially, soccer has always been a loser in the US. Every attempt to make it pick up here, in Australia, Canada, and various places in Asia have been financial catastrophes. Just because it's a winner in Europe and South America doesn't mean it should be picked up six thousand miles away. In fact, there's every reason that it shouldn't.

Saying that the sky is falling because Portland won't have a team in a sport that virtually nobody cares about for more than a thousand miles in every direction is absurd.

If we want to experiment with the most boring, jingositic, imperialist sport in the world, then we should do it when we have extra cash to throw in to a black hole.
18
Here's why I don't support a new soccer stadium. Look at the comments above. The soccer fans in this town are hateful. Instead of helping us understand your viewpoint, you represent yourselves as a bunch of spoiled screaming babies.
19
Fuck soccer. Who watches soccer, anyway? We should have an NHL hockey team instead. Seriously. Hockey franchises and players contribute far and away more money to local charities than any other professional sport (look it up). Hockey players are also considerably more humble, honest, and respectful than other professional athletes, and far more active in their communities.

Hockey is the only professional sport wherein star players will regularly take pay cuts to stay on teams they're loyal to. That's virtually unheard of in other professional sports.

Plus, hockey is simply a far more exciting sport to watch than soccer.
20
Daaave said:

"A URD for the PGE Park already exists."

No it does not. Tell us, Daaaaave, which URA is PGE Park within? What's it called? River District? Nope. Downtown Waterfront? Nope. South Park Blocks? Nope. One of the eastside URAs?

You are lying and you know it.
21
I won't pretend to know all the details but it sure seems like a lot of pro-stadium trolls are on the case today. My bottom line is in agreement with Matt AND MY COUNTY COMMISSIONER, or maybe you trolls missed that part, that we can't afford sports luxuries right now when people are unemployed/homeless/hungry.
22
Don't forget that we are also closing the County Courthouse on Fridays now, and shortening the school year by a week or so. Regardless of the destination, this is a terrible time to divert more money away from the County and the school district.
23
@ Carissa K.

You should attend a Portland Timbers match this season - find your way into the crowd of supporters and I promise you will not find them hateful. They are the most welcoming and friendly group of people amassed in one place that I've ever encountered!
24
Sure they're friendly... To members of their cult.
25
I really really hope the county, school district, and others start calling B.S. on Urban Renewal abuse. This soccer crap is just a symptom of a much bigger problem.
26
It seems odd that Saltzman would send a screen shot of his inbox without removing the names of the people who sent in email. He could have easily made the column of names not display at least for this picture.
27
Actually Matt, that definition of "blighted" is pretty broad and vague. "Poor planning" is an especially wide door to walk through, IMO.

Three other points:

*If one accepts the principle that URD money should be used for the URD area itself, then this deal takes money away from...Lincoln High, Chapman and Ainsworth Elementaries. Not exactly the vision of working class, over there.

*the way tax increment funding works is to use the marginal revenue above the base income, as I understand it. So without either a URD or additional development that spurs more tax revenue from that area, the schools wouldn't otherwise get any new money from it anyway. And if tax revenue increases as a result of the development beyond the current amount + $15mil over time, then the schools would see a net benefit, not a net loss.

*$15mil over 30 years doesn't sound like a whole lot. And to stimulate 600 well-paying construction jobs over the next two years sounds like an excellent use of the money. Would PPS generate 600 jobs during the recession with their cut? Doubtful.
28
Yet another misrepresentation of tax INCREMENT financing coupled with an appeal to bleeding hearts, used to kill a worthwhile project.

Psymonetta Isnoful

THANK GOD! Finally - SOMEone to part the fog of TIF and explain to us all EXACTLY what it means and justify its use for this project which, until all of my fears were explained away, I thought was one of the worst ideas I'd ever heard. Psymonetta, please, I beg you, explain this to us. All of my hope depends on it. Nobody has been smart enough to do it yet, and I'm sure you'll be the first.

I wait with bated breath.
29
Smiley's question reminds me:

How did a screen shot of Saltman's inbox end up in Matt Davis' blog?
30
Let's see, 85 million dollars and counting, MLS soccer losing an average 1.6 million a year, schools under funded , basic services getting cut, sounds like a good Republicant deal to me. Give me some a that pork. Oh and don't forget the 39 dollar ticket price, a good bargain for the under employed here. If ya really want it, put up your house to guarantee the financing, not some pie in the sky tram, boon and doggle ride again. yippe kie yay

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