This is a real bummer. But you know what would make us all feel better? Building another street car!

I WAS MEAN ON ANOTHER THREAD SO I'LL BE COMPLIMENTARY HERE. THANK YOU FOR AN INFORMATIVE AND WELL-WRITTEN PIECE, NATHAN. THIS WAS VERY INTERESTED AND I HAVEN'T YET READ ABOUT IT ANYWHERE ELSE.

You can't pay bills with bike lanes.

"...looking at the city's current net value, which sits at around $2.4 billion. [...] Ten years ago, net worth was about $2.7 billion. The billion-dollar drop is being largely obscured by the city’s other improvements..."

I'm still on my first mug of coffee, so forgive me if I'm just full of stupid, but isn't that a 0.3 billion dollar drop, not 1 billion? Are we adjusting for inflation or something?

SokMunki,

Sorry if I didn’t explain that better.

To see the numbers and the trend I am referring to go to page 298 of the audit (http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bfs/60673). It should be the second or third page of the Stats section. Look in the last row under the section marked “Governmental activities.” This is where I got my numbers.

The numbers show in 2003, the net worth of the city’s governmental activities (or equipment and buildings etc. associated with services that are paid for by taxes but provided more or less for free, meaning services that aren’t utilities) was about $ 1.6 billion. In 2012, this same row shows governmental net assets have gone down to about $ 519 million. That’s the $1 billion loss I was referring to. The section marked “Business-type activities” shows growth in the city’s utility assets. As you will see, this section has been growing. Which is why that last line marking the city’s total net assets shows that dollar amount has only dropped from $2.7 billion to $2.4 billion in the last ten years. The point, if I didn’t make it clear in the post, is the loss is kinda hidden. But there is a loss and auditors are concerned about it.